Spirituality – Page 46

Category: Spirituality

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality(EHS): the wrpf journey

3 August 2015 blogpastor Leave a comment

EHS: what is it all about?

It was three years ago in 2012 that our EHS journey began. Our signed up for the EHS conference held in Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church. Peter and Geri Scazzero were there to teach at the conference. Peter taught clearly about and important need in most churches: the need for emotional health and contemplative spirituality. The church has forgotten that part of maturing spiritually is being fully human and that includes emotional wholeness. And that is what the content of the EHS is essentially about: learning to be emotional healthy and to love well. Part of the ecology that supports loving well is learning to slow down and cultivate a rhythmic contemplative lifestyle.

The EHS tools

They have a package that can be used to introduce the EHS to the church. It comprises sermons on Sundays (available on-line), a devotional to be used to cultivate the contemplative spirit, a workbook and video for cell groups to use. Peter Scazzero’s book, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality is an also must read for those who are leading the cell groups and program. Except for the sermons and the devotional booklet which are available free online, the others can all be purchased from the Cru bookstore. When we did ours we received free about 12 videos and 20 workbooks which were leftover from a gracious Evangelical Free Church that had completed its program earlier.

These are the topics that the sermons and workbook dealt with:

General Purpose and Introduction
Problems of Unhealthy Spirituality
Know Yourself to Know God
Go Backward to Go Forward
Journey Through the Wall
Rhythms of Daily Office and Sabbath
Grow Into an Emotionally Healthy Adult
Develop a Rule of Life

More than a program

One thing we emphasized throughout was that EHS is more than a program. It is a journey. It is a program that has a start and an end. It had systematic steps to get you to where it wanted you in order to fulfil the programs goals. Yet it was more than a program. It was an introduction to a journey – one that would take a lifetime to complete.

How it was introduced to church

The youth and the young adults were the first to launch into this. They did the program with the leaders of the youth and young adults’ ministry. It was a good faith formation as well as introduction to emotional health. This was later followed by the closure of all cell groups for two months so that all the cell leaders and their respective core team members could experience the program with the youth and young adult cell leaders facilitating the groups.

When all these leaders have experienced the EHS we went on to do a church wide in March 2015. There were seven sessions but we added an additional lesson to prepare the ground and give an introduction to the whole program. We also made use of two breaks where people were likely to be away on vacation to have breaks so that the congregation had time to reflect, and to catch up on the new things they have discovered. The cell leaders were trained and briefed before the program started, and at mid-point we conducted an evaluation. The program ended with a final evaluation and exploration of how we can follow up on a journey we had merely begun.

What was the feedback about the program

We gathered interesting program feedback from the leaders at mid-point. The people were struggling with the intensity of the program: the amount of reading, reflection and preparation required, and the depth of sharing required. Some were lost conceptually and were playing catch up most of the time. For young people it was difficult to look back at their short past but they shared freely and were vocal. The adults had a lot of past life and events to process but were not as open in their personal sharing. Most members did not do their workbook preparation. The program exposed many areas that the people needed to process with the Lord. We needed more pauses in the program for reflection and incorporation of new spiritual habits into their life. On the whole, everyone agreed that we could have gone at a slower pace and at greater depth so that the truths could get hold of people and reflection and life change could be deepened. Alternatively this is a survey, an introduction, and in the future we can spiral back to what we have learned: do workshops, retreats and sermon series that will help us revisit some of the practices, truths and things that impacted the people. One thing we did was to conduct a retreat using a movie and giving the people more time to work on the family genogram and to reflect on how their past upbringing affect their current behaviour, values and relationships.

Conclusion: a stirring among churches

There is a stirring among churches to embark on this journey. There have been pastors that have us asked about our journey. Whether from the Presbyterian, Baptist, Anglican or whatever denomination, there is something in this program that will introduce important values and practices to the church. The church today is too performance oriented. The era of church growth ended years ago. Enlightened church pastors are thinking church health and have stopped dancing around the sacrificial altar of the numbers game. We need healthy churches that birth and grow spiritually healthy disciples. The EHS program is certainly a good way to introduce important truths and values that will seed for a promising harvest: churches that will model for us a healthy spiritual rhythm in its church life and that loves well in the community.

To find out more about EHS go to the source: http://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/

Keeping quiet

1 June 2015 blogpastor Leave a comment

A quiet evening at the Jurong Lake promenade

I had been preparing the messages and workshops for a Methodist church retreat in June. It is a preached retreat to introduce fervent evangelicals to a few spiritual disciplines and spiritual formation. The topics include Slowing down, Silence, The six stages of the life of faith, Journey through he wall, The review of the day (examen), Devotional reading (lectio divina). I was preparing the talks, the Powerpoint and collecting material. Then I chanced upon this beautiful poem in Chee Soo Lian’s Facebook entry. As is often the case, the Lord has his way of bringing suitable materials to help me teach. This is a poem by Pablo Neruda, Nobel prize winning poet and writer. In one of the sessions in the preached retreat I will lead the people into a great silence or grand silence – a lengthy period of keeping quiet usually practised in the monastery. Imagine young people doing this! I will use this poem as a summons to launch the grand silence.

KEEPING QUIET
by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Benny Ho’s roundtable discussion about marketplace

20 October 2014 blogpastor Leave a comment

Benny Ho’s marketplace initiative

It was with curiosity that I entered the corporate penthouse of Orchard Parksuites. I was not curious about the building behind Wisma Atria, which I never knew existed, but about the meeting which was dubbed: Roundtable Discussion on Marketplace. Apparently Arrows Ministry, founded by Pastor Benny Ho, had earlier organized a marketplace retreat to hear the heart of marketplace people. This built on that and was a conversation between “pulpit ministers and marketplace ministers” facilitated with the help of Pastor Derek Hong, retired pastor of Church of our Saviour. I was invited to eavesdrop on the “conversation”. There were over 40 people present, half were pulpit ministers and half were marketplace ministers.

Pastor Derek Hong on pastors and the marketplace

After the preamble and roundtable introductions, Pastor Derek Hong spoke something pastors need to hear. He shared his journey which shifted from being a pastor focused on growing Church of our Saviour in numbers to a pastor seeking to equip God’s people to be effective in being salt and light in the marketplace. He grimaced about how he used to use people for church growth instead of powering them up to light up the marketplace. This shift resulted in him receiving reports of greater impact for Christ at all levels and spheres of the marketplace. People were saved in the workplace and though they did not end up in COOS, they were in the kingdom of God and that satisfies if you are kingdom-minded. The workplaces too were impacted by ethical applications of the gospel by ordinary people of God. What he shared really resonated at different levels. I do not know if that spoke to many pastors but it certainly spoke to my situation.

What marketplace leaders wanted to say to pastors

The conversation was interesting thus far, but it got more sensitive when Benny asked the marketplace ministers this question, “If you had a chance to tell pastors what they can do for marketplace people what would you say to them?” I wore my bulletproof vest and braced myself. Let me summarize what some of them shot said :

Christians are not acting ethically and living out their faith and are stumbling blocks to pre-believers coming to Christ. There needs to be better formation of Christians by the churches.
The clergy-laity divide still exists, sometimes in subtle forms, and need to be bridged. The sacred-secular divide need to be broken down.
Most church members spend most of their working life in the marketplace while most pastors spend their time in the church and their respective views of life do not match, and this is reflected in the sermons preached, and the ministry focus, and demands of members’ commitment to church activities.
Perhaps the fault lies with the seminaries and the way they equip the pastors.
Pastors should harness the opportunities of mobilizing members to be witnesses in the marketplace. Part of that witness is simply doing their job well so they have credibility when they talk about Christ. The potential is too great to ignore. Instead of church based outreach activities develop workplace based outreach and prayer with a kingdom mentality.
80% of people feel they have not heard any teaching on the theology of work (Barna).
Do not demand so much involvement in church ministries and activities that they cannot even do their workplace jobs well.
We need the equipping and support of pastors for effective workplace witness.

These were all good pointers but I must admit to holding my breath at times as we pulpit ministers listened to all the frustrations of serious marketplace people. There are so many expectations to meet as a pastor, and this is another one added to the list. Of course most of us have an awareness of these issues, but many of us are already panting on a treadmill running at the speed of 12 and it would take some skill and great conviction to get off and do something different without a fracture.

What pastors wanted to say to marketplace leaders

Then it was the turn of pastors to have a chance to say what they would like the marketplace people to know and to do. We did not have much to say actually. Was an apology to the marketplace people needed? Were we too diplomatic? Were we too afraid or ignorant to say anything? Did we want to show we were above giving tit for tat? So we had a little bit of meandering here and there. However, Pastor Benny did share something worth looking at. Many members are in one of several levels in terms of being salt and light in the workplace. The levels are Struggling – Surviving – Stabilizing – Succeeding – Significance. An estimate would put most in the first three mentioned levels but need to move to the last two levels. My take is all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and we need the gospel again and again in all our churches.

I did not take many photos of people because nowadays I am not sure about the Personal Data Protection Act and maybe I was too lazy to ask permission and take photos. I did take some shots of the nice though hazy views from the penthouse and of the exquisite 7 course meal we were blessed with. These cannot complain about their photos being uploaded on the internet.

Nice view from corporate suite of Orchard Parksuites

Nice food - one of 7 courses — Parcel of flounder and chive - one of 7 courses

Poached Chinese pear wiht lily bulb — Poached Chinese pear with lily bulb

Christian veterans of marketplace

I met two Christian veterans of the marketplace. Both of them know my eldest brother Colin. One was David Chan. He was my brother’s classmate at St Andrews pre-university class, and fellow members at St Hilda’s Anglican Church. He worked for many years at senior executive level but had done theology at Regent College and is now a…take a deep breath….Chaplain in Far East Organization. I have heard of armies, football teams and hospitals with chaplains, but this is the first time a famous large corporation in Singapore has appointed a chaplain. I should not be surprised as its owner is a Christian who seems quite committed to applying his influence in the marketplace. He said his most common question is, “What do you do?” I wondered too but I could guess what kind of people would approach him with what kind of problems and it proved to be correct. “What kind of work week?” He works a few days a week. My next question was, “Do you need an assistant?” Haha.

The other Christian veteran I met was Georgie Lee, another St Andrew’s School alumni. This is the second time I have met him. Early in January, I sat beside him at one of the lunches at the Love Singapore Summit. He shared with me what he was doing as Vice President of Full Gospel Businessmen, and I was impressed that this organization, like an ember taken out of the ashes of its past glory and fanned to flame, has come up with a practical nuts and bolts plan to help marketplace people execute the more conceptual vision of mobilizing the church to influence the seven gates of arts and entertainment; business, science and technology; communications and media, divine institutions; education and school; family and home; government and leadership.

As an aside, Galven Lee his son is a first class honours history graduate who once interviewed me about the lesser known school revival of the early 1970s that was formed into World Revival Prayer Fellowship, the church I have been serving these past 34 years. He was doing his thesis about the charismatic revival in Singapore. I think it is a great contribution to Singapore’s church history, done as it was by someone schooled in research methods and under rigorous supervision.

To top it all, I had a wonderful time of talking shop with Pastor Richard Wong from Canaan Christian Church and Pastor William Lee of New Life Christian Church. It is always a blessed fellowship to journey together with spiritual friends.