Thursday, August 26, 2004

Most Christian leaders today raise psychological or sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of the ministry. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists, pseudo-sociologists, pseudo-social workers.

- Henry Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

A review in progress I just finished reading the book ‘In the Name of Jesus’ by Henry Nouwen upon recommendation of Ken and Ann. This a small book that contains Nouwen’s reflections on Christian Leadership as he lived in the L’Arche community in Toronto. The book explains quite simply the reason why Nouwen has developed his own purpose in life and how he believes the L’Arche community has helped him articulate his core values – especially in regards to the matter of leadership. Without getting into too much detail, Nouwen suggests that there are 3 temptations for a spiritual leader: to be relevant, to be spectacular, to be powerful. He suggests 3 disciplines that can help us with these temptations: contemplative prayer, confession and forgiveness, theological reflection. The 3 main messages that I perceived by reading this book are as followed - Christian leaders (more than any other leader) MUST have a solid relationship with God. They must not forsake this relationship at the cost of being relevant to people. Secondly, Christian leaders must belong to a community that freely demonstrates confession and forgiveness (amongst the people, and esp. important for the leaders). Lastly, the leader must be able to identify, announce and live out the ways of Jesus. A working confession I must admit that some ideas in this book are either challenging, or they do not sit well with me (or perhaps a mix of both). In terms of personal impact, I have always been struggling with the issue of being a true Christ follower versus being a pseudo-psychologist or sociologist or social worker. I have made my share of relational mistakes in the past, and maybe that is why (more than ever) I want to live a life in serving people regardless of their race, religion, colour, culture, class, sex or age. If I say that this is my life purpose, I once again return to my motivation for choosing this road in life. Do I enjoy being viewed as spectacular and powerful (especially in a spiritual context)? I think so. I don’t care so much about being viewed in the light of monetary success, or even having success in business. But being seen as successful spiritually – that has to be a great temptation of mine. On top of that, am I only doing the works of a psychologist, or a social worker (certainly those are good and needed professions… even more so in a Christian community), or do I really have the heart and mind and soul and strength to seek out a relationship with Jesus and live out a life that manifest His ways. I guess these are questions/promptings that I am struggling with – good struggles in which I hope to discern the answers within the next few years. I put this out because I have a personal emphasis on confession and forgiveness in community. I believe that within the context of open sharing, vulnerability, teachability and humbleness, many great things can happen with the guidance of the HS. So if you observe that I may have ulterior motives in my life – slap me twice, say it to my face… and I might even treat you to b-tea. Note: this is not an open invitation to slap me whenever you see me. Tune in again for scandalous stories straight from Sunday school.


Yu-Ling posted at 8/26/2004 01:24:00 PM

Friday, August 20, 2004

When you know your God-given passion, spiritual gifts, and personal style, then you'll know what you need to be both fruitful and fulfilled in your life and ministry.

- Bruce Bugbee, What you do best

Right now in my sunday school class, we're going through a book called 3 colors of ministry. As part of a follow-up to the 40 days of purpose campaign, our sunday school group asked each other the question: Now what? We've been discussing issues of meaning and life purpose and being the angst filled, passionate youth that we are - we challenged each other to take it to the next level of being christ followers. So uncle simon decided it would beneficially if we all took part in a spiritual gifts inventory and the 3 colors gift test seems to be the most extensive and holistic. Without getting into details about the process (which is quite interesting - ask me, I'll explain it in person): The following are the details to my profile. Starting Point I'm bouncing between starting as a skeptical believer and a burnt-off believer. This suggests that overall I'm weak in spiritual power (ie. faith, healing, prayer, etc.) Although I have an emphasis on commitment, I have a tendency towards wisdom over commitment. Manifest Gifts These are gifts that you have been exercising somewhat regularly and which have already been confirmed to some degree. It is highly probably that your actual gifts lie in these areas. My top 5 Manifest gifts by order of relative strength: 1) Teaching - enables Christians to communicate truth in a manner that enables others to learn and contributes to the health of the church 2) Wisdom - enables Christians to help others apply existing knowledge to specific situations 3) Knowledge - enables Christians to generate, collect, and analyze ideas which are important for the health of the church 4) Music - enables Christians to play a musical instrument or to use their voice in singing for the glory of God and the edification of others 5) Apostle - enables Christians to be recognized as spiritual leaders by a variety of churches Latent gifts They indicate those areas in which you need to experiment more. This is the only way to find out whether you truly have these gifts. My top 5 Latent gifts by order of relative strength: 1) Volunteer Poverty - enables Christians to deny themselves material well-being so that they can maintain a standard of living that parallels the poor 2) Faith - enables Christians to discern, with an unusual degree of confidence, the will of God for the future development of ministry 3) Discernment - enables Christians to know for sure whether a given behavior originates from a divine, human, or satanic source 4) Service - enables Christians to recognize where their participation is needed and to make sure that the most urgent jobs get done 5) TIE: Prophecy - enables Christians to receive a message from God by the Holy Spirit and to communicate it to other people Singleness - enables Christians to live happily as singles while contributing more effectively to the kingdom of God I don't know what this current assessment of my spiritual gifts will lead to in the future. Nor do I know what kind of process is best in interpreting, observing and applying said gifts. In any case, it'll be an interesting time in the near future. Tune in again for some stories on weird wacky wascals in waterloo.


Yu-Ling posted at 8/20/2004 10:47:00 AM

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.

- Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, Pearl Harbor

I'm back from the Willowcreek leadership summit and I must say that I'm inspired and energized. Hopefully, my church can implement some of the strategies that they suggested during the conference. I have a lot of ideas - need to act on specific action items and start sharing the vision to every member of my church. Before the conference, I was over at the megaYuen house for Connie's b-day and us cerebral-party recluse-ministryologist-types got into a discussion about the downtown chinese churches. Basically, we reached the conclusion that our churches need an infusion of - help, passion, sense of right-fit - into the hearts of every single person who attends the church. In essence, we need to create a volunteer revolution. Imagine what would happen if people in our world - by the masses - took up serving towels, draped them over their arms and willingly (even joyfully!) served other people in their everyday lives. Such attitudes and actions would change our world! I believe a volunteer revolution can happen and that the church should set the pace and energetically lead the way. In my view, people are never closer to living out the teachings of Christ than when they are adding value to someone else's life. And people who are far from God are rarely more impacted than when they see 21st-century Christ-followers behaving as Christ behaved.

- Bill Hybels

Okay, I'm gonna strive to heat up this issue. Let the vision casting begin.


Yu-Ling posted at 8/17/2004 01:54:00 AM

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Leaders lie awake nights figuring out how to move their leadership to the next level. Why? Because Christ-following leaders compete in the arena for people's lives and eternal destinies.

- Bill Hybels

I'm going back to the Willowcreek leadership summit (Ajax location). No matter the theological, missional, philosophical differences that people may have against Willow - you have to admit they offer quality resources. This year, the 4 main focuses will be: Self-Management Team Building Managing Change Launching the ministry year I'm very excited. Go check out the leadership website. Also, trying to get my church members to check out the prevailing church conference in October. Check out the link. The brief update about my church situation. English ministry retreat was good. Going through spiritual gifts (I'm becoming more skeptical nowadays - manifest gift of apostle? whoa... latent gift of faith? dang... this is getting more interesting). English ministry prayer meetings at 8:30am on sundays. Plus, I'm trying to go through resources for effective church development. Fulfilling life or Unbalanced life? We will see in the next few months. Oh yeah. According to tickle.com, I am 15% feminine, 85% masculine. Matt is 2% more feminine ;).


Yu-Ling posted at 8/11/2004 05:34:00 PM

Monday, August 09, 2004

Good men prefer to be accountable. I promised my grad group that I would post something on accountability, so here it goes. I personally feel that one of the contributing factors for the lack of moral and biblical standards in the church is the decrease of accountability amongst Christians. Perhaps this problem is even more evident in the Chinese churches – maybe because of our culture, our style of social interaction, our ways of Christianity – which makes things all the more frustrating. The second generation Chinese Christians have to immediately deal with issues such as understanding their dual-identity. We have thoughts (usually very frustrated, finger-pointing thoughts) about how to deal with our traditional, Chinese parents. We have difficulties (again with the frustration) distinguishing which part of church is due to Chinese tradition, and which part is founded in biblical tradition. We often look at other Christians from other cultures (south Americans, black, white, charismatics) and we wonder at the potential for intimacy that we are secretly craving. In my very nature, it IS hard to open up, be vulnerable with other people. It was only recently, after finishing university that I can safely say that I can more easily share with other people about my personal life – all the good and the bad. I only came to this state of openness (and mind you, it’s still a huge, working progress) by experiencing the joys of accountability in my university fellowship. In a Christianity Today article, prominent Christian author/speaker Gordon McDonald offered some candid thoughts about the events that led up to his resignation from the presidency of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He admitted to permitting a ‘friendship to become immoral’ but ‘didn’t feel the liberty to talk to anybody about it.’ In discussing what contributed to his sin, MacDonald concluded: I now realize I was lacking in mutual accountability through personal relationships. We need friendships where one man regularly looks another man in the eye and asks hard questions about our moral life, our lust, our ambitions, our ego. (Christianity Today, July 10, 1987, p. 38) Certainly, accountability even in the strictest business/financial terms are needed for all different practices. Yet as we think about personal accountability, most people tend to shy away. Many do believe that they are ‘Lord of all, accountable to none’. I have a feeling that most of us have never been used to an accountability structure that fosters accountability relationships. We see glimpses into the importance of such accountable relationships. In Proverbs 27:17, it says that as ‘iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.’ If a man desires to remain sharp, to remain on top of his game – he needs another person to whom he can be accountable. If I were to visualize how this sharpening process would take place, I imagine that one piece of iron is slowly being shaped by the other piece of iron. This whole system would require fine grazing of the iron piece, perhaps some pounding of the metals, but ultimately I believe it’s a case where you use any means necessarily to form the piece of iron to it’s sharpest. Similarly, an accountability relationships needs time to develop. It will require times of great discernment/choice of words; other times of aggressively hitting your point home; and I’m certain that with great discernment, you can cover all the spectrums in between. In Proverbs 27:6, it says that ‘faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.’ I know those wounds will hurt – yet I would be more upset if my friend was not faithful if he didn’t pound me into place when he knew I was doing something wrong. I want to paint one last picture in regards to accountability – it’s a part of the greater vision of the church. Most people automatically go to Acts 2 for the description of the ideal church. I’m one of those people, not because it is what I have been taught, but rather I was inspired once by a pastor’s description about how his church is striving to be an ‘Acts 2 church’. Listen to what his church is trying to do. You tell me: what is nobler, what is loftier, what is a higher purpose in life, than devoting yourself to establishing and developing a community of believers that strives to fulfill the Acts 2 description of the bride of Christ? To creating a supportive and encouraging place where Spirit-led preaching brings a new, God-focused direction to people’s lives; where believers gather in small groups to share their hearts on the deepest of levels; where people compassionately walk with each other through life’s problems and pain; where everyone feels empowered to make a difference through their spiritual gifts; where prayer, worship, and the sacraments are lifted up; where the rich share their God-given resources with the poor; and where people ache so much for their irreligious friends that the church gets strategic and takes risks to reach out to them with the Gospel? That’s a vision for the church that gets me fired up. As I see it, accountability fits in all throughout a biblically functioning community. I know it’s not possible right now, but it’s worth working towards day by day. (as an alternative to what I have written, I found this interesting Boundless article about the desires to belong in a community, and the critique surrounding such beliefs.) Tune in again for some updates on the ministry field.


Yu-Ling posted at 8/09/2004 12:38:00 PM