Impact 2010 – Looking forward to the long weekend

I’m looking forward to the upcoming  long weekend because Cheryl and I are heading down for this year’s Impact Bible Conference, hosted at Riverbend Bible Church in Hastings, New Zealand. Last year I had the privilege of going with a large contingent from HBC (I blogged about it here), and this will be Cheryl’s first …

Songs to suffer well

  Our home church has been going through a preaching series on suffering and the sovereignty of God. Before the series began, Pastor Peter and the rest of the worship leaders agreed that the congregational songs during this time needed to help the church to worship and praise God amidst trials and sufferings, in a …

On marriage and the name game

One of the questions Cheryl and I worked through soon after our marriage was the issue of changing her name. We talked and prayed it through for a couple of days during our honeymoon, before she eventually decided to adopt my family name and become a “Chong”. Thankfully In New Zealand it’s pretty convenient to …

John Mayer fans are rather frightening

I found this review of last night’s John Mayer concert in Auckland fascinating mainly because of the quote from the reviewer: “John Mayer fans are rather frightening. Silence in the foyer, can’t tell if there is a gig on. Walk in to take our seats early – mostly so I could see if the crowd …

Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs (STAND2010 set list)

This past week I had the privilege of leading worship in song for the STAND for the Gospel conference hosted at HBC. It was a joy to lead the attendees in worshipping our Lord for His unsurpassed work of redemption, and standing firm in the gospel of our glorious God. Folks came from a variety …