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Graduated…sort of

11 July 2012 blogpastor 6 Comments

I should be squirming with delight that Elaine my youngest daughter graduated from NUS on Monday, but it was not to be. To be sure, I felt proud that she graduated with first class honours and received a Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy scholarship to do her Master’s. This had to be the Lord’s doing. But I also felt relieved that my eldest brother’s generosity and my investment in her education has come to fruition, and a full-stop!

On Monday morning, when her name was called and she strode across the stage, I pressed the video button of my Sony Ericsson Xperia phone camera. Later, while endless names of other graduates were called, when I reviewed the video, there was the beginning clip when she began her walk, and the end clip when she ended her walk, and nothing in between when she shook hands and received her diploma with a smile. I thought, This is such a bad deal. While busy recording I lost the priceless feel of the glorious and crucial moment. While hoping to record a precious past, I lost the crucial present moment. Instead I got nothing but the peripheral. Thank God this is just a video: some people live out their whole life like that!

Believe me there were some moments of self-incrimination, though not enough to take the shine away from my satisfaction. It seemed like such a long wait, but finally in the same year, my second son, Matthew, has graduated, well sort of, and so has my daughter, well sort of.

Spiritual formation for young people

5 July 2012 blogpastor Leave a comment

Handcrafting young people

One of the main things we can do as a small church is to handcraft young people to take on the mantle of servant leadership in the church. One way is for us to actually use that period when young people are waiting to study in some institution, or for new semester to begin, or to go into National Service. It is difficult to find a similar period for Polytechnic students as the different polys have different breaks. However we managed to find a period for the former. We found a period of 40 days and brought together 6 of them. We “de-schooled” the training and made it more relational, interactive, research-active, digital and communal. Nine to 5 from Tuesday to Saturday is intense and by the fifth week we were feeling like climbing the last stretch of Mt Kinabalu at 3am in the morning. But it felt so satisfying to have persevered to the end-point.

One thing young people found very helpful

One thing that really struck me was how the participants were hungry to make sense of the Bible. They were looking for meaning that tied together the seeming jig-saw of Bible stories, laws, instructions, prayers, wise sayings, poetry that were written long ago over a long period of time by a host of different authors with different purposes. They was a definite search for thematic perspectives. Its more than a book by book survey. Its the blood red vascular system that runs through the flesh of the biblical text that begs exposition. It’s also the historical and cultural and literary context that they wish to unlock as these hid the treasure.

A memorable ending

Another thing that helped them was the challenge at the end. After they had viewed the mercy of God, and experienced His love in prayer and reflection, we brought them to Kranji War Memorial to reflect over how they would like at that juncture in their journey to offer themselves as a living sacrifice unto God. This experiential learning was poignant and helped to tie up everything they have learned and experienced into an appropriate response to God. For more pics and information go to wrpf.org.sg

Kong Hee’s arrest: framing a gracious response

2 July 2012 blogpastor 57 Comments

Being human I am not surprised at myself when a secret momentary delight surfaces when the mighty are cut down. We small church pastors have been made to look like inferior products compared with these mighty men and their churches, and whenever a merciless media cut them down to size, we somehow feel taller. However, it was not to be so when news broke about Kong Hee’s arrest together with 4 other leaders of City Harvest Church.

The morning after the Straits Times featured their stories, I awoke and imagined how painful it must have been for Kong Hee and Sun Ho. It ached. I flashed a prayer to the Lord for them. I am learning to weep with those who weep, to feel other people’s pain in my heart, and not to throw stones. Prayer has a way of aligning our heart attitudes to God’s.

I see the seriousness of the charges, but I do not condemn him. Not because we share a similar vocation, but simply because he is another frail human being. Only God is perfect, and all of us are flawed and imperfect. We are but common, easily broken, and earthen pots with hairline cracks; our only glory is in the content within: Christ himself. Even if he is guilty, which has not been proven yet, who am I, another frail human being, to throw stones?

Christians will be besieged by questions from friends and family members. With wisdom and graciousness we can let God’s grace shine even from what seems to be a dark moment for the church. For one thing, we must realize the church is not a target of the authorities. Let’s not demonize the intentions of the government. God knows the intention of every heart, so leave that to Him.

Neither should we demonize the accused, because they like everyone else are innocent until proven guilty. The wise will not speculate or prejudge before the conclusion of the case. Although we often assume that if the government agency spent two years investigating, it is likely there is substance to their case, let us not make that assumption that the parties are guilty of all they were charged of.

On the other extreme, we put the accused on the pedestal, perfect as a classic sculpture, without a single flaw. We deify him; he could do no wrong. This is to be expected of followers of men, but not followers of Christ. Michael Jackson was perfect. Whitney Houston was perfect. Don’t you dare insinuate otherwise. This is not good, not real. We should support and love unconditionally and that means we let the law run its course and acknowledge that they may have done something wrong, we have faith in a sovereign God, we pray for the accused through this difficult trying period, and even if proven guilty, they will not be abandoned and thrown aside like used tissue paper on a hawker centre floor.

I cannot allow for some of the comments I have seen in the last two blog posts. I have to do unto others as I would want others to do unto me, and I wouldn’t want my church’s name put down in digital infamy forever and ever amen. So I have privatised the last two posts – too many specific churches’ and pastor’s names have been mentioned negatively. Some of you have fire in your bones and some have pain in their hearts, and I request that you go directly to the people concerned and express your feelings. Perhaps you have already done that and there has been no response or change as you would want. I urge you then to leave it to God since you have done all that you can to speak the truth in love.

The saga, if I may call it that, will not end any time soon. May the Lord bless all believers with a spirit of love and discernment for we need these two qualities the most in these last days.