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Monday, March 05, 2007
Lead by the Shepherd's Voice : Andrew Ong Writer : Dawn FungDawn Fung interviews Andrew Ong, pastor of Vineyard Community Church Singapore. He is an experienced worship pastor, leader, guitarist and hobbyist "with great interest in luthierie". Andrew recently led the worship team in the Worship Gathering III, held at Kumyan Methodist Church.   Andrew OngDawn : How did you come to know Christ? Andrew : I received Jesus Christ when I was ten at a church organised hiking trip, invited by a friend. When I accepted Jesus, I experienced that familiar comforting presence. It was like the part where "his sheep follow him because they know his voice" (John 10:4, NIV). But I believe that I knew God even earlier (about primary 2). Back then my family was into ancestry worship. My father, who used to be a school bus driver, made it a point to drop me off at school before he picked up the rest of the kids. In those wee dark mornings at 5 am, I would roam in school alone and reassure myself by "talking to God". I knew "God" was around because I felt his warm and comforting presence. I remember conversing naturally with "God" even though I have never heard of Jesus. Dawn : You say that you are an avid hobbyist "with great interest in luthierie". Andrew : A luthier builds guitars for a living. Although I don't build guitars, I am good with my hands and I love to work with wood. So in a sense, my hobby expands beyond guitars to include antiques as well. Guitars, in my opinion, are individual breathing instruments. Even though they may be built exactly the same way, no two guitars sound the same. A guitar interacts with both the player and audience across the wide octaves of sounds and rhythms. Dawn : Is any significance between your hobby and your work as pastor? Andrew : Most definitely...Jesus started as a carpenter you know!!! But with conviction I do not fix people and I cannot do that. Only Jesus can and He is the best. I am just a doorkeeper who says "yes" and "no" to people in the business of our Father. I do find many parallels between lutherie and ministry. The luthier builds a guitar with a goal to enable the instrument to deliver what it was made for, although what constitutes a good sounding guitar is so subjective. But as the luthier passes it to a master player, even a poorly built or damaged guitar can express its purpose and beauty. Have you heard of the poem "Touch of the Master's Hand" by Myra Brooks Welch? It tells about an auction of an old violin that no one wanted. Just before it was to be sold for less than a few dollars, an old grey haired man came to the front and played the old violin beautifully. There was a silence afterwards. The old violin was then sold a thousand times above its original value. My goal is to point people to a relationship with God who cares and loves them unconditionally. I hope that that they will experience the Master's hand. It is God who will play a beautiful melody in their lives, and transform their faith with abundance and joy. Dawn : Could you share with us your history as worship leader and musician? Andrew : Here is a long one, so pardon me. The very first Christian music I owned was The Victor in cassette tape when I was in Primary 4. It had the song "He Will Carry You" by Scott Wesley Brown. I begin to cry as I sang along to the lyrics because suddenly, I had understood the message. I hid in this God song for many moments in my life because of my turbulent childhood - my father had been a womaniser who had brought much grief to my mother and I. One day I saw a vision of myself playing a guitar going from village to village in Africa (I did that in May 1999). At 13 I learnt to play the guitar, taught briefly by my elder brother. I start with oldies like "Tell Laura I Love Her" and "Country Road". It was funny because I learnt them practising off an old guitar book. I was then the "oldest" kid on the block. In my heart I loved classical guitar but I had no idea how to go about learning it. One night at 14, something miraculous happened. I heard a voice waking me up at 3 am to play my guitar. The voice spoke to me a few times until I obeyed. I took the guitar and played a classical piece fluently. My fingers had just opened up and seemed to know where to go in a flash. My ears heard every note. I reckon it to the part where the bullets slowed down because Neo had finally overcome the code in the movie "The Matrix". That night was a blast! I devoted my music to the Lord. I learnt "Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring" by J.S. Bach. Every song or music I heard reaped more in terms of skills and meaning. I was also blessed with perfect pitch and hearing. God anointed me to remember music notes used for tuning the guitar. I started to learn from other Christian artists like Michael Card, Steven Curtis Chapman and Twila Paris. One of the most lasting and profound influences I had was Keith Green. The latter's ministry led me to repentance before God. Although I knew Jesus, I was still a rebel who was too angry to be called a sinner and too ashamed to be called a Christian. That repentance brought me to my first church, Hope of God Singapore, when I was 17. I was drawn to God by the worship in church. Just to get near to the worship team, I volunteered to move equipment. Eventually I got to serve in the team. God gave me the opportunity to boldly pioneer and lead its first ever dedicated team of musicians in 1996. Before that the worship team had been serving in different areas of needs. A year later I released myself from the role to someone more skilful and talented. It was through this time I began to seek God deeper. It was the depth of worship that I was thirsting for, more then the function and form. I suppose then, that God sent me to a place where music is the heart and soul of the nation. In May 1999, I went to Johannesburg, South Africa with a team to plant a church where I served as a worship leader cum musician again. The challenges in a different culture led to an incredible experience which taught me more than I can teach about worship as a subject. South Africa was the place that I got acquainted with the local Vineyard church and music through an invitation to a concert. The format was completely different from the Hillsongs and Integrity models that I had been used to. When I returned to Singapore I faced a low point of my life in 2003. My faith in Jesus grew as he challenged me to pray in this trying period. Coincidentally, David Johnson was my colleague at the YMCA where I had been working then - he was planting a Vineyard church in Singapore. I was amazed at God's faithfulness and timing. I moved on from Hope of God Singapore with the sweet blessing of my pastor to plant with the Vineyard team. I served as musician, worship leader, worship pastor at the end of 2004, till I was ordained as the pastor of the church in 2005. Dawn : Have your views on worship changed after you moved on to pastor a church? Andrew : Hardly, because worship is our highest priority in the Vineyard and we seek to practice this as much as possible. There is rarely a tension in the Vineyard pertaining to the allocated time for worship during a service. When worship becomes our first priority over any other administrative or business matters, God will be able to sort everything else out because we allow him in first. There is no need for me to fight for time with the worship leader because he is doing what we love to do and that is giving to the Father in our worship. My message is secondary and beside I can always preach in several parts over several service times. You cannot do that with worship and the Holy Spirit. You can’t tell the Spirit stop short here and continue at the next convenient time at your pleasure. We cannot control or coerce the Holy Spirit to do something for us but rather, as we worship, He shows up to touch and heal our hearts. And it is right that we give time back to God, rather than a time sheet for him to fill our needs and wants. Dawn : What advice would you give to worship leaders who seek to be a voice in the world today? Andrew : Jesus said, "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." (Matthew 19:30. NIV) Do not be discouraged if what you do at the moment reflects little impact and influence. God can use the very least to do His will. Remember, God loves to anoint, fellowship and share deep things with his servant who later become friends. Churches, and their events, constantly measure against the contemporary media that indicates "successes" at commercial levels of wealth, influence and fame. I am not against these kinds of notions but I do believe that we may find ourselves missing something of God if we only believe that commercial success is the measuring stick of our growth. These successes reflect only a narrow band of the spectrum of what God does, or at worst, none at all. God is not God if we allow him to touch us only in certain ways with "no entry" signs, and "private property" signs sticking out in our lawns. Imagine a resource strapped country or church where there the basic set up of instruments is crude. How does one measure God's love in this kind of lack? Another thing is, are we as equally excited and awed even if it is a gathering of 2-3 sinners in our worship setting? I love worship leaders who avail themselves to lead and represent a voice. It is a wonderful willingness of sacrifice. So to all the worship leaders : be the voice for the very least, be the call to the poor, be the gatherer of the broken and present their broken and honest worship. Yet we can be like the recipients of the verse, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn" (Matt 11:17, NIV). I use this verse to reference our stubbornness where we choose to do the opposite of what God is asking us to do. Another reference is Isaiah 58, where God examines the differing views of fasting between men and God. Often we seem to do the socially correct thing on the outside. Our actions look magnanimous and successful. If God were to expose what is on the inside, would it tally with our values of worship? Would it be true worship? Would it be Holy Spirit led? Jesus expresses worship of the Father in spirit and in truth (see John 4: 22-23). Jesus is the ultimate worship leader, who by his life, enables us to worship the Father. For us who are born of the Spirit, it is fitting that we follow the Holy Spirit, even if it means that we are worship leaders for the least and the outnumbered. So be the voice for the least, for this world is filled with them. Find out more about Vineyard Community Church Singapore where Andrew Ong pastors, at vineyardsingapore.org
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