Worship Leader Profile- Gangai Victor - Worship Leader
Worship Leader Profile-Gangai Victor
Name: Gangai Victor
Spouse's Name: Irene
Years Married: Little over a year
Children: First one expected in October :)
Church Name and City and State: Catholic Church, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Denomination: Catholic
Years leading worship: 5
How many active members: 200+ (I mean active in the Charismatic Renewal in my city)
Favorite worship song: Keeps changing all the time, right now its "Night and Day" by Andy Park and "Living Water" by Chris Nesbitt
Instrument/Instruments you play: Acoustic Guitar
Last two books read: 'God Songs' by Paul Baloche and 'To Know You More' by Andy Park
1. How would you describe the makeup of your church?Our Church is largely traditional with contemporary worship styles slowly coming in through the Charismatic Renewal. The prayer group I attend draws about 70+ every week and during city level programs, we get about 200+. We have a fair mix of elders and youth, though lately, the number of youth has been decreasing, which make things challenging and interesting.
2. Please share your journey to becoming a worship leader.I grew up in a traditional Catholic family where Christianity meant an hour in Church on Sun-days. Ever since I was a kid, I was hooked to music...especially all forms of rock. I started play-ing the guitar during my graduation years and just wanted to rock my life away. During this time, my college held a couple of charismatic retreats, which all Christian students had to attend. I didn't like them much and rebelled against everything they taught, especially the worship. Later, circumstances drew me into another retreat and I guess it was third time lucky for me. I experienced a deep encounter with the Holy Spirit and gave my life to Christ. Because I could sing and play the guitar, I kept getting frequent opportunities in worship minis-try. The last 5 years have been a beautiful period of changing my life...of learning to worship...of leading others into worship. When I compare my past with who I am today, all I can say is 'thank you Lord.'
3. What are the unique challenges to leading worship in your country, what are the bless-ings?The Charismatic Renewal has been around in my city for about 30 years now, but the focus on worship ministry hasn't been great, so we have very few genuine worship leaders. We lack quality training resources as this way of worship is still new to us. As for me, soon after my spiritual experience, Dave Bilbrough happened to visit Chennai and I attended his full-day training seminar. A couple of years later, Paul Baloche's ministry gifted me with some of his training DVDs, which are extremely valuable to me. Then I was also blessed to attend another seminar last year featuring Andy Park. But these opportunities are rare. We are also probably 10 years behind in terms of technology and song selection. Many songs, which SD labels as ‘classics', are actually new songs here! On the other hand, it's a privilege and blessing to be used by the Lord to open people's hearts to Him in worship. It's probably because I grew up with not-so-expressive, ritualistic Sunday serv-ices that I am able to appreciate this so much more! The awe and joy to see someone for the first time worship from the heart and encounter our Savior are tremendous blessings by themselves.
4. How do you recruit new members of your worship team?That's another challenge I should mention - we do not have too many good singers and musicians who have the heart and the time to serve the Lord vying for a role in the worship ministry. Some-times I have a team, other times I lead by myself. Usually I lead with a keyboard and a vocalist. A full band is a rarity. I look for people who have a fair degree of musical/singing ability, are willing to put in the re-quired hours of prayer, practice & preparation (personally and as a team), are consistently on time for practice sessions and most of all have a heart to serve the Lord.
5. What is the best way to care for the discipleship needs of your team?I believe in being friends with the team as against just working with them. It's all about building and nurturing relationships - accepting them as they are is the foundation to the relationship. A big mistake I used to make is to have this wish list of qualities of the ideal worship team member and then mentally measuring each person against it. Over time we get to know more about each other - strengths and needs - and try to help each other out. Being prayer partners, attending spiritual/training programs together, getting engaged in other ministries together like mercy works etc. and demonstrating worship through a life of integ-rity help to care for the discipleship needs of the team.
6. You likely see many traveling teams, what are the best practices you have noticed that make traveling teams effective?For me, the simple things are the most important ones:
- Bring own instruments as far as possible (except maybe the drummer)
- Inform the organizers well in advance of stage & equipment needs
- Reach the venue early and test everything
- Take time to set sound
- Bring song sheets/slides
It's also good to find out the kind of songs/musical styles the congregation is used to and prepare accordingly. Have backup sets and be sensitive enough to use them when necessary (if a particu-lar set is not working). Above all, pray.
7. What are some of your favorite worship resources?·
All of Paul Baloche's training DVDs·
www.worshipteleseminar.com ·
www.4praise.com ·
www.worshipleader.com &
www.songdiscovery.com ·
www.worshipsource.com ·
www.hotworship.com ·
www.theworshipcommunity.com ·
www.worshipmusic.com ·
www.pwarchive.com 8.
In the new age of digital technology, what are some of the advantages and disadvan-tages for churches who are looking to use the Internet to further their ministry?Obviously, websites provide great opportunities to reach people beyond geographies, even places where preaching Christ is restricted. On the downside, the personal touch that makes ministry that little bit extra effective may not be found in an online ministry. Where I live, younger people are more internet savvy, so online ministries can't reach a lot of our elders.
9. What is the biggest lesson you have learned in leading worship? Christ alone, Christ alone and Christ alone - He is all that we need and we are unbelievably blessed and privileged to know and worship Him!
A sample worship set would be:1. As long as I have You - Mark Roach
2. Unshakable - Andy Park
3. You are my strength - Reuban Morgan
4. Offering - Paul Baloche
5. Dwell - Casey Corum
6. I will give thanks - Scott Underwood
Gangai's SD Community Page
