Thursday, November 27, 2003

Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

- Frederick Douglass

Recently, I sent out an e-mail to UWCCF people who would be taking the bus down to Urbana. It was the first time (that I can remember), where I gave full disclosure about the problems we were facing. I explained the reasons for the delayed collection of forms and money and the consequences of choosing to travel down this road. In my better moments, I reasoned that I should not inform people about the problems that I am facing. This may lead to mass hysteria or at the very least, a severe backlash of critiques (in my mind, I'm a very harsh self-analysis). This may seem rather stupid, but I think I practice this kind of thinking. I also believe that our CCF committee practices this non-disclosure attitude. I'm reading Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels. Bill Hybels is the senior pastor of Willowcreek (currently the biggest church in North America) and I absolutely love what he represents. Here is a guy who help start a dwindling church with hardly any money... and now they're a mega-church that provides resources to many other churches, practices explosive evangelism, the finding/equipping/training of spiritual gifts, and the overall development of christianity. Around the middle of the book, Hybels starts talking about full-disclosure. In willowcreek's early days, the church was having money issues and he couldn't stand the pressure. One day, after his sermon, he said he would leave the church for an indefinite time to think and pray because he could not deal with the money problem. When he stepped down from the podium, he was overwhelmed with responses such as: 'I didn't know we were struggling', 'Why didn't you tell us, we would've help', 'Just tell me what you need and I'll help you out'. These responses blew him away and from then on, they practice full-disclosure of everthing! Not only is their budget on displayed, but Hybels will personally show you his own personal budget if you ask for it. This also applies to the decisions surrounding small groups or childrens ministry... anything and everything is revealed to the congregation - both the good and the bad. After sharing that story, I must confess: I'm struggling. I'm struggling with maintaining my daily spiritual disciplines; I'm struggling with prideful thoughts about how I can do things better administratively; I'm struggling with how little respect I have for people at times; and basically - I'm struggling with loving God and loving others. As in the case of Hybels, I would hope that some of you can go up to me one time or another and ask me how you would like to help me. On the same token, I hope I can do the same for you (of course, given my own particular struggle of respect, please be patient for it will take quite a bit of effort on my part). I had a conversation with a friend recently about what my ideal job would be. I said that I would love to help disciple people and churches - make them more effective in their ministry and send them out to do the same in the world. It's what makes my heart pump like mad. That's why when I hear about churches like Willowcreek overcome adversity and being able to equip believers and send them out into the world, I'm overcome by chills. Maybe it is because of this dream that I have the sort of struggles that I do. I can understand how a desire to fulfill this dream may lead to struggles of pride, grace, and love. In spite of this psychoanalysis, this is no excuse for myself. Perhaps this is another aspect of costly grace - it's so hard to practice grace for other people. I just have to keep on reminding myself that we're all struggling - but we're all determined to do what's best under God. I like the following phrases and I think it's become my mantra of sorts. I hope that I can do my part to fire up Christ followers to give their absolute best for God. And they will insist with pit bull determination that the gospel be preached, the lost be found, the believers be equipped, the poor be served, the lonely be enfolded into community, and God gets the credit for it all. Tune in again for readings from Robert Munsch books.


Yu-Ling posted at 11/27/2003 04:55:00 PM

Monday, November 17, 2003

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

- Thomas Jefferson

The last two weeks have been peppered with various lifesong activities. Lifesong is a big production that CCF puts on once a term. This time, in order to align our fellowship within the context of Jesus week, we decided to go hardcore. Not since 2nd year did I see so much action for a lifesong. Last time, Toby and I were in charge of all of the tech - sound, light, props. Certainly that was a crazy term... but the scope of lifesong has just increased dramatically. Although I was not officially in charge of anything this year, things seem to be busy as usual. Being unofficially involved implies that I can help out wherever/whenever I can. This translates to attending several drama practices, acting as a temporary father role, offering several guidelines for tech, creating a crash course on counselling workshop, editing the 'dating' video... and did I mention that I'm NOT in a musical act this year? Yes, God let me take a breather this time =). I must admit, it feels nice to not be as involved as before. Certainly I miss the daily grind-to-6am practices (seriously, if you never attended one of these, you'll never see my true side), but it's awesome to see so many more people helping out. Thankfully I was able to focus on a specific purpose this time (video editing and counselling). Truly these are the times when you can sit back, and appreciate the level of hardwork that everyone put into all of lifesong. Lots of hard work + even more luck + endless amount of grace from God = LIFESONG. Thanks to those who helped out. Now, that we all had a breather over the weekend, let's focus on follow-up. Tune in again for more miracles at the Kershaw house.


Yu-Ling posted at 11/17/2003 03:35:00 PM