Workshops featuring 18 disciplines, including dance, journalism, audio engineering, graphics, events planning, song-writing and drama, were held between March and June to immerse the Emerge youths in the City Harvest Church ministry landscape.
Ministry leaders sowed into the youths through Passion Pursuit workshops. Alicia Leo (standing, far left) led the Events Planning workshop.
Over 1,100 seats were filled when Emerge launched its series of Passion Pursuit workshops earlier this year. The aim of Passion Pursuit was to impart both functional skills and spiritual inspiration to the youths of CHC.
The Events Planning workshop, for example, was conducted by the head of Events Ministry Alicia Leo, whose team coordinates all the programs held at church, from weekly services to leaders’ meetings and everything in between. Over three sessions, she took the class through the basics of event planning. During the second class, they learned to plan the Order of Service (“OOS” in Events lingo) and in the final class, the youth received hands-on training in conducting sound checks.
“Besides the technical stuff, the most important thing I caught was the essence of the heart behind
all the planning. To have a heart to serve is very beautiful,” says Jordan Poh, who attended the Events Planning workshop.
Likewise, youths who attended the Journalism workshops applied what they learned by taking on solo writing assignments—you are reading the fruit of their learning and labor in this issue of City News Weekly. One of the most well-attended workshops was the Mobile Phone Photography class, which saw well over 50 participants at each of its two sessions learning tips and tricks for composing compelling (read: Insta-worthy) images from long-time ministry leader Gareth Gay.
Head of Graphics Nicholas Goh, (extreme left) and senior graphic designer Amy Tan (bottom right) taught the basics of graphic design.
The Rhythm & Percussion workshops saw participants discovering their sense of fundamental musical concepts including rhythm, beat and tempo through simple body percussion steps, while the Songwriting workshop, led by CityWorship songwriters Mark Kwan and Caroline Tjen, took the youth through techniques of lyric writing, finding inspiration and chord progressions. One key takeaway for the class—you do not need to be formally trained in music to write songs.
Says Janine Yeo, who attended the Fashion & Costume Design workshop, “What really spoke to me during this workshop was when (trainer) Vivien (Yap) said, ‘Fashion should be expressed.’ It is not something for us to keep to ourselves, but it is for us to use. If we truly have a passion for it, we should let it show, and use the talent God has given us to glorify Him. We also had the opportunity to hear from Sabrina Goh of Elohim on how she started her label. Despite the challenges she faced, she did not give up and continued pursuing the vision God had given to her. It inspires me to never lose sight of the vision God has given to me. If God has given us a vision, He will definitely see us through our challenges and our success.”
