Not with eloquent words? then with what?

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

¹When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Dear church,
How are we doing in the living out the Spirit of God in our everyday life? It is such a powerful reminder from Paul that we are not the ones with the authority nor power in which to move mountains. Not with eloquent and persuasive words nor by their own human wisdom are people winning over others to Christ. I wonder if we have fallen short of this and have taken our human sources the crux of the gospel. I wonder if it is because of our own understanding that our churches are driven and moved? I wonder if the programs are that which we are driving with because we think it works? Or I wonder if we are just attracting people but not really allowing God to move into people’s lives?
If it isn’t about eloquent words nor persuasive wisdom then what is it about? It is about the Spirit no? The movement by whom even the first church that has been established relied upon. So how are we doing Church? Are we living and having Church through and by the Spirit today or are we using the beauty of our own culture and lavished it with our own abilities?

May it be so that we are Church because the Spirit of God is working in and through us.

Mah-lah-chee!

Very true words today… especially in light of a lot of ppl’s understanding of worship.  I don’t mean this just in a judgmental way, but our understanding of worship to God is a lot of times like this passage.

I hear more and more that worship is about the “Heart” and that God judges the heart and etc.  This is very true, but most of the times, it is a very reductionist view.  This passage makes me GLAD and affirmed that Christ was my advocate on the cross, is my advocate now presently and will be in the future!

My worship, my ministry, etc is tainted and I know it.  My sin is revealed to me in different ways in my life each day and I’m so glad I rely on Jesus.  As Tim Keller said, “All of Life is Repentance” and I see that as part of my worship.  That Christ is the foundation and intercessor of my worship and life-living to God.  I want to be the man beside Christ at Calvary who declared Him as the Savior, not the sarcastic one on the other side.

It is just like with our salvation, we put our faith in Christ.  There is a conscious need to live life (as worship) in reliance on Him who set me free and still doing that today through His Spirit.

No more reliance on things that will pass away, but on the gospel that brings life!  I think that is BIG part of what is acceptable offering to God.

On Malachi 1

6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ 7 “You place defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the LORD’s table is contemptible. 8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the LORD Almighty. 9 “Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”-says the LORD Almighty. 10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands. 11 My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “But you profane it by saying of the Lord’s table, ‘It is defiled,’ and of its food, ‘It is contemptible.’ 13 And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the LORD Almighty. “When you bring injured, crippled or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the LORD. 14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the LORD Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.

Is this not true prophetic words of today?

Fresh on the outside, dead on inside…

Haven’t posted in a while, but haven’t forgotten

I guess I agree with this sentiment.  I find at times we are so event-driven because that is how we operate in the Chinese church, we need to focus more on making God the object of our affection!

Now, don’t get me wrong.  We need to put in our biggest effort.  I’ve been thinking about this for a long time but we need to go “all out” for God.  Whether it is in creating an event that has some attractional value or whatnot; or even in our knowledge of God, whether that’s apologetics or theology so we can communicate clearly and contextually to others in relationship; or even in just loving people, going above and beyond to show love AND grace to others.  Mind you, not for the sake of our WORKS, but works as the completion (maturity) of our FAITH (i.e. James, Romans)

SO… the tough part… is trying your hardest… and like Francis says, it’s not about the “people who led”, but about GOD HIMSELF.

I’ve always thought that we need more prayer WITH action in our churches but the tough part has been to not boast in what we do, but ONLY IN GOD and what HE did through Jesus.

I hope this ramble sounds a bit like building our church on the GOSPEL

1 Kings 18 – descriptions of churches today?

I was reading The Forgotten God by Francis Chan and came across this short portion that he wrote on his reflection on 1 Kings 18; pg. 143-144

Sometimes I leave Christian events wondering if we resemble the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18 more than Elijah, the prophet of God… The prophets of Baal had a loud, passionate worship gathering that lasted from morning till evening. When they were done, they had a great time of fellowship (I tihnk you can call it that). But “no one answered; no one paid attention” (18:29). After all of that, Elijah prayed. God heard his prayer, and fire came down from heaven.
My favorite part of the story comes when it is all over and the prophets of Baal are saying, “The Lord – he is God! The Lord – he is God!” (18:39 NIV). They didn’t say, “Elijah is a great speaker” or “Elijah sure knows how to connect with God!” They were stunned by God. They were in awe of His power. They knew that what they experienced could not have been manipulated by Elijah. They experience the power of God.
Is that what happens at the Christian gatherings you attend? Or does it feel more like what the prophets of Baal experienced before Elijah prayed? We can have a great time singing and dancing ourselves into a frenzy. But at the end of it, fire doesn’t come from heaven. People leave talking about the people who led rather than the power of God.

Such prophetic commentary on the churches today? I wonder if our churches are like this? Fresh on the outside but dead on the inside? What would it look like if our churches begin to be moved and filled by the Spirit?

Currently reading—

I figure I too shall share a little bit of what I am reading and what I am hoping to read through the next few months…

The Forgotten God – Francis Chan (I have heard a lot about Franic Chan and got his new book on the HS – has been an interesting read; will read Crazy love when it is returned to me)

All for Jesus - Robert L. Niklau, John S. Sawin and Samuel J. Stoesz  (figure I should get a head start on the ordination readings)

Vintage Church – Mark Driscoll (more on my fascination on ecclesiology)

Youth Culture 101 – Walt Mueller (resource book for my process in restructuring youth ministry)

College 101 – Church Bomar (another resource book for restructuring)

Deep Church – Jim Belchers (I am re-reading this book becuase I want to take some notes this time around; last time was such a quick read through didn’t have enough time to process)

I think these are most of my bedside readings…
There are a few more that are laying around but I don’t know if I have time to read through – but I’ll keep posted in how I am doing with these readings.

Currently Reading…

Have some thoughts about some stuff, but for now, here is some books I’m reading (at the same time) or trying to get a hold of to read

Essential Church – Thom Rainer (Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts) – AUDIOBOOK

Vintage Church – Mark Driscoll (To re-learn about biblical concept of “church”) – AUDIOBOOK

Goodbye Generation – David Sawyer (A “Canadian” conversation about why Youth and Young Adults leave the Church)

The Next Evangelicalism – Soong-Chan Rah (Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity)

The Adventure of Worship – Gerrit Gustafson (because it got props from Robert Webber)

Ten Questions To Diagnose Your Spiritual Health – Don Whitney (by an awesome prof at SBTS)

Sacred Space – Dan Kimball (a guide to creating Multi-sensory worship experiences for youth)

A New Kind of Christianity – Brian McLaren (oh so controversial!) – NEED TO BUY!

wonder if I’ll get through some of these soon

Putting dreaming and future together… HUh?

As I was reflecting and thinking about the conversations past (in the last few posts and the conversation that I was probably a part of as we have discussed about the different pockets of church movements), I can’t help but begin to dream about church. I was very encouraged too last nite as I was discussing with a good friend and hearing his passion for the church and his hopes and dreams for the church. It is true we haven’t been really dreaming much in this century.

So putting the future in our dreaming… I wonder what Chinese churches would be like when it begins to break out of its mode of fear?
I wonder what happens when traditions intersects with new ideologies and a really different culture?
I wonder when the balancing act is not a top heavy Chinese mother church but also a thriving English 2nd, 3rd, 4th… generation ministries.
I wonder what it would be like for the children of 1st gen (2nd gen beyond) working along side their parents would look like?
I wonder how mentorship can work between 1st gens and 2nd gens? Reverse mentoring? Traditional mentoring? theres so much we can learn from each other!
I wonder how awesome it is when we break down our swords of disunity and have plowshires of unity between the churches?
I wonder how beautiful the sounds of the united prayers of Chinese churches would be… crying out to God and seeking His will together?
I wonder how crazy it would be when people see the Chinese people of Toronto and they see Christ in their words, in their thoughts, in their actions, in the way we voice unity…?

I agree that there is hope in the chinese churches! When dreaming and future comes together it requires something that requires so much discernment, courage, hope, strength… this something is…

“so what now?”

Future… What Future?

First of all… Just kidding!  haha!

After a good chat with a few pastor friends who are serving in their specific chinese churches, some different views about the future was discussed.

I, myself have seen my home church go through transition of my senior pastor retire and we all assumed the church would hire an english pastor or next gen chinese pastor at least… but Lo and Behold, they just chose a slightly younger version of my senior pastor to take his place who had probably MORE “chinese church” values than his predecessor.

Another possibility that was discussed was the actual situation in the US where some chinese churches are practically in their 5th-6th generation in America, and now the ABC (american born chinese) pastors are learning how to ministering to the immigrant chinese population coming in.  It’s become FULL CIRCLE!

Anyways, I’m not too sure the chinese church is that big on “passing on the torch” to the next gen.  Maybe because it is a RARITY in our area that that situation has even occured!  I don’t want to be pessimistic on this topic, but maybe it’ll look more like how the KOREAN church (in general) has approached this situation…  let the english congregation gain autonomy and support their ministry financially.  I’m not saying this in a condescending way, because I think it takes SO MUCH humility to do that.  I’m also unsure if chinese churches would ever take this approach because of their loyalty to the family/blood unit (all different language speaking congregations in the chinese church).

In terms of a “mutli-cultural future” for the future chinese-church…  my immediate observations simply reveal that those inter-racial couples tend to feel more comfortable moreso in a westernized church setting than a chinese church setting.  I’ve just seen that people flock more towards their own culturally “comfortable” setting, whether monocultural couples or multi-cultural couples… they join the church with people of the same “mindset”.  The exception, of course, is the missional couples who stress their missional lifestyle over simply attendance.

Well, enough of this rambling and ranting.  I guess in conclusion, all I’m saying is that I have hope that God will work through the Chinese church in some fashion… hopefully realizing that it is the beautiful bride of Christ even with its warts and all  I also hope there more and more chinese people of all generation want to bridge their relational and cultural gaps for the sake of the gospel and kingdom of God.

Future of the Chinese Church?

In a good conversation with a friend the other day, we were discussing about the future of the church; particularly the Chinese churches. We were looking at the next 5-10 years and seeing where the churches would be like because chances are some of the lead and senior pastors maybe stepping down; retiring etc. So logics may dictate that the next wave of lead pastors maybe the 2nd Gen Chinese or at least the 2 Gen Chinese pastors would be taking on roles such as senior pastors. The question was how the church would look like and whether or not the intention was to pass on the mega churches onto the 2 Gen’s to tend and lead?
I wonder what the churches would look like in the next 5-10 years particularly in the Toronto context. I forsee the growth of a ever increasing 2nd Generation Chinese with another increasing growth of 3rd Generation Chinese. With the multicultural flavour that is in Toronto and probably a higher increase in cross cultural marriage, how would that affect the Chinese churches? Would the English ministry look completely different? And how would we be ready for the changes that is to come?