{"id":33,"date":"2006-01-08T23:42:33","date_gmt":"2006-01-09T07:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nhpcshotokan.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2017-04-13T17:27:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-14T03:27:26","slug":"from-punching-and-kicking-to-praise-and-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"From punching and kicking to praise and worship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SenseiThis morning, our ministry sempais and senseis took a large step outside of their comfort zone and led praise\/worship at todays’ NHPC church service. What started as a passing thought when members were talking story after a training session some months ago, ultimately became reality, powered by His spirit and our obedience. In that fateful discussion, someone noted how most of our senior members played various musical instruments and enjoyed singing. We laughed about creating a “karate ministry worship band”…but the joke was on us. As I was talking with Pastor Nando at Men’s Ministry early one morning and shared our “joke”…he immediately invited us to do so one Sunday, and asked for a date. And so it evolved that we actually committed to leading P\/W one morning, early in 2006…during the two-week window that Sensei Trish would still be home for winter break (we’d definitely need the first two weeks of her break (late Dec) to do some practice).<\/p>\n

Sempais Doreen and Robert generously opened their home (complete with sound room) to our wannabe band and provided great snacks and hospitality. All band members were timely and tried to make it to practices during this holiday season. Everyone was united in the same task of trying to familiarize ourselves with the songs, timing, and each other in this new worship venue for us. Most of all, we tried to align our hearts with the direction that He wanted us to take. We had so much fun and fellowship during the practices…and amazingly, we seemed to make great progress with each meeting. Knowing that it wasn’t about performance, but about our hearts and trying our best…we all showed up at 7:00 am this morning, quietly excited and ready to give it our all.<\/p>\n

I can only say that P\/W far exceeded our expectations (ask any of your sempais)! We were fed, we felt led by the Holy Spirit, we truly felt at one with the body, and with Pastor’s message this morning…in one word, I would say that the time we spent at church this morning was exceptionally….joyful. I really feel that all of the positive things that happened this morning were a part of His blessings upon everyone for coming together in fellowship to praise Him. The many nice comments from folks saying how much they enjoyed the P\/W makes me so happy that we stayed on course and helped give the Lord just some of the praise He deserves every day. Congratulations to our senior members for a job well-done. Great thanks to Pastor Nando for his invite and having faith in us. All of us had the opportunity to stretch ourselves just a bit, for Him this morning, everyone got to share His joy, and the karate ministry has been invited back to do P\/W again, whenever we’re ready…what a wonderful experience!<\/p>\n

When we do karate-do, it’s not just about kicking and punching. Similarly, when we do Praise and Worship, it’s not just about singing and playing musical instruments. These seemingly disparate activities involve leading with one’s heart and seeking excellence, not for oneself, but for His greater glory. For the sempais and senseis of our karate ministry, so used to being extremely competent in our usual Shotokan activities…we learned and gained so much in fellowship from this novel group activity. What remains unchanged, is that the spotlight is on Him, not us, in everything we do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, our ministry sempais and senseis took a large step outside of their comfort zone and led praise\/worship at todays’ NHPC church service. What started as a passing thought when members were talking story after a training session some months ago, ultimately became reality, powered by His spirit and our obedience. In that fateful discussion, someone noted how most of our senior members played various musical instruments and enjoyed singing. We laughed about creating a “karate ministry worship band”…but the joke was on us. As I was talking with Pastor Nando at Men’s Ministry early one morning and shared our “joke”…he immediately invited us to do so one Sunday, and asked for a date. And so it evolved that we actually committed to leading P\/W one morning, early in 2006…during the two-week window that Sensei Trish would still be home for winter break (we’d definitely need the first two weeks of her break (late Dec) to do some practice). Sempais Doreen and Robert generously opened their home (complete with sound room) to our wannabe band and provided great snacks and hospitality. All band members were timely and tried to make it to practices during this holiday season. Everyone was [...]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}