Some BLogs/ Sites That Blows my mind BOOM

Jesus Creed
Alan Hirsch
Dan Kimball
David Fitch
Emergent Village
Brian Mclaren
Sivin Kit
Tony Jones
Doug Pagitt
N T Wright
The Resurgence
Ben Witherington
Rob Bell
Christianity Today
Alter Bridge

Moving from a Christian culture to the beginnings of Post Christian Culture...We are Heading there

The issue at hand; 'the church in a post Christian culture' has been widely acknowledged by the Western world. We can see evidences of this in Europe in particular where Christianity is simply something of a fad. But can we actually say that this kind of influence is infecting our local context/ place?

We don't have to be experts in this (although research would make our claims more authoritative), just to see the climate of influence the church has over society as a whole. Fewer and fewer young adults are attending church or attend on an occasional basis. Youths in particular are dwindling in numbers, and to think that does not alarm us! Soon, if we continue and allow this to prolong, eventually our churches will end up like the churches in Europe.

What are our current climate in expanding our christian influence at this point of time? This question is one that i would like to answer in the local context that I am presently in.

There is not much i would say in terms of methods. It has always been the standard of holding some sort of 'evangelistic rallies' or christian functions and encouraging members to attend with the hope that they will bring their 'non-christian friends'. This could be understood as 'invitation method'. But as it always goes not many 'non-christians' would feel welcomed because the intent is only that they get converted. Furthermore the context in which we invite is not contextualized. What i mean by this is we explain the gospel in our own jargons which people who are not familiar with those words will not understand a word.

Another difficulty with the 'invitation method' is that we put the 'non-christian' always on our turf. When i explain turf here i mean our church building or our programs. What about going on their turf for a difference? When i say this i have to explain otherwise people might think that i mean condoning going to stripper club, the pub or night club. So i better spell this first for people who think i am crazy. But regardless if we are to reach people now we have to think out of the box. We could either think of attending battle of the band as a bridge to create friendships. I say this because we have a lot of musical talents.

At the moment I just want to leave it here at the moment. Maybe if i am not that lazy i might have some other ideas to plow. Until ideas start pouring in.

What we can learn from Metallica

Talking face to face as a means to resolve issues is not something that is practiced in these parts of the world (by this I am talking about context and culture). This is always the case. Asians are not fond of constructive conversations that requires people to talk face to face and resolve their feelings, may it be in an argumentative nature. What is important here is that we let the other know how we feel and the other person let us know how he or she feels. This requires both persons having respect of the others feelings and willing to listen to the thorny words that are conveyed. But the important thing is that there is an element of true humility and a sense of finding a form of reconciliation.

Asians, in how I understand them easily take things to heart. We have extremely sensitive hearts that is just ready to pounce in a defensive mode when we feel threatened by someone’s response to us, may it be in the form of verbal words uttered to us, letters, what we hear from people. It just ticks us off in a manner that we must defend ourselves.

This kind of attitude creates barriers for communication. People tend to shut up and let the whole fiasco boil up in their souls. Another way that we might react is to tell others about how we feel to other people. Usually we stab people who hurt us behind our backs. Thus we leave things unresolved and create other problems and the cycle will go on and on and on.

One of the most ironic thing that I found in the net is how a band (Metallica) went into this kind of problem and did what they could to resolve the issues that have been following them from the beginning which eventually boiled up when their bassist quit the band. This made the current members rethink how they have approached their relationship with one another and they way that they dealt with communication. I found the clip with Dave Mustaine and Lars Ulrich very enriching. You could feel some sort of tension when they spoke of what they felt but with that I am just respecting them for taking that step. Not that I am promoting Metallica but I find that Metal Heads make decent human beings too. After all they are people just like us. Sometimes we forget that. This is something the Christian community should pave the way for authenticity of what Christianity means. Not some very out of this world spiritualization of things. Lets learn from the most unlikely of sources.

Respect...an Asian Perspective (as how I see it)

When we look at this word 'respect', one of the things I am realizing now is words have very different meanings depending on the context of where we are. I am seeing now that 'respect' in the Asian perspective is 'unquestionable submission'. If you are someone in a lower position there is no such thing as conjuring up enough strength to ask questions. The only thing that one in a lower position is responsible of is, to make as i understand is, 'shut up and do as you are told and no questions asked'.

This is really a misunderstanding of the word respect. It is also a misunderstanding of how we understand 'questioning'. When someone 'questions' in an Asian context, it is understood as an attack. I think this is something we Asians struggle with. I think this is also because of the kind of culture that we have been brought up in.

I see it as something that the church has to overcome and be models to the world. It is a cultural shift, and this is where i can see the church paving the way forward.

RAndom

These offerings gives aspiring guitarist that they can be better too...

Kirk suck here.

Oh man Tremonti gets the slip. And he makes mistakes too. Phew! Don't worry I'm still a fan. Adie hard fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Missional...a shift from the Emergent/Emerging Perspective

I have been going through some books lately, two to be precise. I'm almost finished with "The Shape of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and going through another book called "Breaking the Missional Code" by Ed Stetzer. These books are amazing. They centre around mission's concept of being church. I have got to say that this is somewhat new to me. The proposal that stems from the book, from what I have read seems radical. I would say that if we would be bold enough to incorporate these concepts, pricipels and ideas we would ripple the institution of our churches.

The first book is a hard read because i am not that familiar with some of the things that they are addressing. Probably, if one wants to start to understand the Missional conversation, read the second book that i mentioned above. Only then read the first one.

Some of the impressions that i got from reading "The Shape of Things to Come" were 'This is interesting', 'are you kidding me', 'you got to be serious', 'i want to see how you work this out', 'man i don't understand this part please clarify', 'If we do that here we are sure to get the boot!', 'GROUND BREAKING!'.

Well, I just have one more chapter to go on "The Shape of Things to Come". So if you guys have the chance to buy or order the book, i highly recommend these two books. I'm also planning to read "The Forgotten Way" by Alan Hirsch. This is another amazing book too.

We need to educate ourselves as an up and coming generation of leaders for the greater challenges ahead for the church. Things are not going to be easy, so that is why we have to prepare ourselves to get our hands dirty! These books are a way forward!

An insecure tribsman

Deep in the jungles of Borneo there were these native people. The as you can guess by now lived in the jungle, away from civilization. These were primitive people who still lacked the knowledge of hygiene. As natives they had certain things that they do that they pass on to the next generation. Things like how to hunt, tricks and lessons on where to go, how to survive and all that. These things were passed on from generation to generation. This was to ensure survival of the next generation as there was wisdom passed on to them.

There was once this tribe headsman who knew a lot (That's why he was the headsman Duh!). He was the One (If you know what i mean). He was respected by his tribe because of the abilities he had, he knew his way around and he was handsome too which all the village girls were smitten whenever this 'Brad Pitt of the jungle' passed by. You could say that he had everything.

But his problem was he was insecure. He did not want anyone to be as good at him. He loved his status so much that he rarely passed on his wisdom. He kept them most to himself. Ok, he wasn't all that bad. He did show some of the wisdom he had to certain tribesman but it was just to those who he knew would be his 'yes men'.

As you could expect the tribe soon dwindled because there was no acquired wisdom being passed on to the younger generation. A lot of them were ignorant to the ways of living in the jungle. Some died as a result.

It was soon to be the destruction of this certain tribe, because there was no jungle wisdom passed on to the new generation. In the end the tribe leader who was insecure died and soon everything died on with him.

This was the tribe called 'A complete work of fiction but a story non the less'.

The Cronicles of SHEEP (Pt1)

Once upon a time there lived a shepherd. Ok many shepherds say like a few to be exact. These shepherds were given some responsibility by another shepherd. This was the head shepherd. He simply said tend the sheep. Feed them, clean them, make sure you take care of the sheep if they get sick, nurse them if they need it. And one more thing, protect them at all costs. If lions come, or bears or dogs hurt them, it is your responsibility to fend these animals off. Do what you can to protect these sheep that i am entrusting to you.

And with that the head shepherd left them with some sheep dogs for the purpose of protecting the sheep. As soon as he had given his shepherds these mandate he left. "I will return soon," he said.

So as times passed, there was some sort of chaos happening in the sheep pasture. Some sheep were found wounded, some were being deprived of food even. This was strange because there were shepherds and dogs helping around to tend after the sheep. This was confusing.

The sheep were in constant fear.

Why?

It was said after interviewing some of the sheep, those sheep that were quit vocal on the culprit were shut down because there was fear. "We should not even talk about it," they all snickered. These were either sheep that were looking at the positive outcome but really didn't want conflict.
But news was soon spread by two or some more sheep that some of the dogs were responsible for the chaos. So a contingent of the sheep that felt that they should bring these things to the open went to meet the shepherds, who were the authority figures.

But instead of hearing their voices the shepherds said just forgive the dog even though he did what he did. He is responsible to the head shepherd. Yes we see the bite marks on your bodies but it is for your own good. Suffer for a while.

"What is this???" the sheep said. They could not believe their fluffy ears. Didn't the shepherd have the authority to protect them????? This was confusing.

to be continued....

Some Sort of Feeling

Going back to the college again and taking up a module (to salvage something) on counseling is cool for my mind but sort of uncool for my appearance. Generally I got to know that 'pastors' are forbidden to have long hair (that's if you call mine long. It is kind of, but it's not that long.). There were a few people who still regarded me as a human being but i just feel a sense of rejection. Wow talk about a place that is teaching about God, and saying that Christianity is about relationships and freedom, we are not under the law. Sure, we can buy all those things but it's a hoax.

I mean, does it matter how we dress? We say we must be smart. I got to know that there is such a thing as how an SIB member dresses. Wow! We have dress codes in SIB. Amazing but i would rather call it SAD! It is kind of sick. No wonder we don't have people outside who find that there is anything interesting about Christianity or the thing about following Jesus. To be a Christian is sort of like wear a certain kind of dress code, keep tidy, don't drink, smoke, hold girlfriend's hand in public, go out with girlfriend in public (don't you just wonder why these relationships look for secluded areas because Christians are JUDGEMENTAL), don't have long hair, don't wear torn jeans, has to be smart when going to church, has to speak a certain way, and the list goes on. Welcome to religion! But then we say it's about freedom and relationship. Well if the list talks about freedom and relationship to you well well you just painted another name for religion!

You know what? I am tired of this kind of Christianity. It's sort of sick. In the end Christianity becomes more an image thing rather than a relationship with God and the community. I'm just tired. I feel rejected by my own peers. You know when they had tea breaks, i would prefer to get myself as far away from that community. It's a pain. How would those outside feel. I would spell it for you: REJECTED.

Remember that Jesus sat at the table with the wrong crowd. Are we still rooting with Jesus or the Pharisees? We have to ask this question.

How does a Chrisan Suffer?

This is just some random thought for your consideration. It has been bugging me lately, the issue of 'it is better to suffer for righteousness, we don't have to speak up'. Although that is a noble thought and it depicts a pious attitude is it somewhat 'biblical'?

I would reply by saying that it is half 'biblical' truth. So you might be saying that i am proposing that we retaliate and have fights? No, not at all.

To me, there is something that is lost in understanding how a Christian should carry himself/herself in public. This has been a dilemma in my culture. Christians are depicted as 'nice' people. Sure, nice is a good depiction in some sense, but it should not be that overall depiction of a Christian. To tell you the truth, its a hoax if we subscribe to this world view of being a Christian.

In the context that i am in (Malaysia-Sarawak-Miri-SIB to be frank) a depiction of suffering as a Christian is at most in the context of eating up everything that comes in our way. Say for example being ripped off of ones rights, the way the Christian reacts is they give in, say nothing and say 'it is better to suffer for righteousness'. This is somewhat pathetic to say the very least.

Suffering is always depicted as non-retaliation. Sure i understand that but the non-retaliation is not the same as speaking up if we have valid things to say, be it harsh in a sense that we don't us swear words. What is wrong with that?

I was reading this in 1 Peter 3:17 'It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.' It says what it says when we read it but what goes up in the mind when a person influenced by my cultural context reads it? This is how the person reads it "It is better, because it is always God's will, to suffer for being nice in a way that we don't say out a single thing because if we do so we are fighting , than for us to do evil".

I don't know if you agree with me on this or not but i find it to be prevalent in my culture (for those who happen to read this and is not from Malaysia-Sarawak-Miri-SIB). I mean we have to really read and understand what the WORD is trying to communicate to us. There are instances when we read in Acts where Paul speaks up. When i say speak up what i mean is, there are times when we have to argue our case. Read Acts. There was an instance where Paul was about to be flogged and he spoke up that he was a Roman citizen and they didn't even give him a chance for trial yet. Please understand that when i say speak up i don't mean you just rant violently and hurl abusive words. I would explain these cases here as instances where it is not God's will for the person to suffer in his body yet. Because in 1 Peter above it says 'if it is God's will'. Following that one does not have to suffer on all occasions. There are some specific occasions when suffering is God's will.

The other thing that we don't really get is in understanding 'good'. To take 1 Peter again 'to suffer for doing good...'. We read it as 'suffer for being nice'. The verse explains that it is better to suffer for doing good- that would mean a course of action that is depicted as good. Lets get some explanation in some of the things that we define as good. Say we help people. That is good. Lets move on further and define help. We help people as in those who are homeless o beggars on the streets. So we might help them in ways like helping them look for work and stuff like that. But say that these beggars are somewhat controlled by some ring leader who uses them to get money. Sort of the thing we watch in the TV. Because of that we are going against something in society. Say for example this ring leader has associations with those in authority like the police or some politician. I don't have to spell the outcome to you. You will get persecuted for doing good. So i would term good here as in actions that is separate from the bad practices. Remember it says 'suffer for doing good' not being good or nice. There is actions involved!

Let me show you again in Acts 19:23ff. There was some sort of ripple in how the gospel was effecting the society in Ephesus. The gospel that Paul was bringing was making those people who made idols loose business. And because of that they were angry with Paul. There was an ugly uproar in the city. So we simply cannot say that Paul was just being good and nice and all of a sudden people hated him. That is so stupid. To get this kind of reaction from people Paul had to do something good.

Well, i can go on and on on this issue but i think my reflection will be too long and people will not read it if it gets too long. Hope that we be Christians that are not mindless people offering their bodies to be persecuted without knowing if it is actually God's will!

THE GODS AREN'T ANGRY

I just have to share this with you guys. This is another brilliant DVD (p.s. its not some sort of movie or concert, it's sort of something of an 'in between', that is something between teaching and preaching), clocking about 1 hour 29 mins. There are amazing stuff in there to say the least but i just dig every second of it.

I liked where he explained that the cultures during OT period (specifically Abraham's culture) had this sort of conception of god. That there is simply no standard to know how much offering that one has to offer to appease the gods.

Say for example a person offers his produce to the gods and in the process he gets like more then what he offered. The person is faced with a dilemma. Does he give the same amount that he gave before? Well that would be some sort of mockery to the gods. You ought to give more in accordance to what had been given. Just to make it rather absurd, the gods keep on blessing the person and his offerings are 'mountaining' up. This might sound and look crazy but there was nothing to measure what amount was there to please the gods.

Another scenario is a drought occurs or someone gets sick or a plague hits a village. So people go to the altar and give some sort of offering. But the bad omens still persists. So people have to still give more and more and more until they have to part with something that is very valuable. That is what culture or people in those days cut themselves, offered their babies, you name it, just to appease the gods. But the thing is no one knew the standard. The mentality was people had to give.

But there was some sort of enlightening taking place. Here was Abraham. His story where God told him to go and sacrifice his son, the son in whom he loved. So taking into consideration that the culture during those days understood this as devotion to a deity, Abraham went along with it, no questions asked. But just as he is about to do that God said don't do it. And he provides a ram for the purpose of sacrifice. There, during that period Abraham got this revelation of God, that this God provides and thus shatters the concept of people bringing their sacrifices to the gods. But for Abraham this God is the one who initiates the sacrifice. Amazing.

There are a lot of other things but all in all this is amazing to say the least!

You cannot ask questions...Period!

There is this sort of complexity hovering especially in my culture. It pains me to think about it because you are accused of being angry, ranting baseless views, creating distentions and a lot of things. The thing about the culture that i am living in is that one simply cannot ask questions.

Hard questions, inquiry questions, wanting answer questions, wanting clarification questions, you name it, there is no room for questioning. Not to mention if you are young. OK, that does not really qualify too much but at some points it applies in some cases like if someone is young and has no status (meaning is not a figure, no major qualifications, no money etc...) then the more it validates the issue of the person is not in the position to ask questions.

Wow. That seem like very primitive culture. I guess Malaysians cannot handle questionings. To us it seems like opposition. That is in the political scene. I won't surge in that direction though.

It also applies to Church, which make sit bad for some reason. Questions are supposed to be a good thing. Something that is valid because one wants answers, just some sort of clarification. At some points some questions are somewhat harsh, but non the less are still questions, minus the curse words.

What is wrong with this kind of attitude? Well for one thing, it creates some sort of oppression. That turns to a feeling that there is some sort of conspiracy happening and taking place. Well sometimes there is that kind of feeling. Another thing that might crop up is the feeling that it is not safe to ask. And that will really create robotic kind of attitude. When this happens this kind of attitude will eventually burst, something like the MATRIX movie, where the truth is finally realized.

Questions are important. They open up the mind for both the one asking and the one answering. It also corrects and creates a better way.

Sometimes a simple question may save a movement.

Words that make my stomach sick

Lately there have been some words that have been getting on my nerves. I love these words actually and constantly use them but lately the words have been somewhat 'abused' and now they don't have the same impact that they used to have on me. Here they are:

1. Vision
2. 'Market-place'
3. New Sanctuary
4. Dynamic
5. Impact
6. Cultural transformation
7. Natives as opposed to Chinese culture

Oh well, it's just that the words have a bad taste to my taste buds already. YUCK! I love them but its just the way some people use them. It just makes me sick!

Questions...

My cousin just passed away yesterday and the whole things just is a shock to everyone in the family. I just couldn't believe my ear when i heard about the news because, i guess because he is family. Today i just feel numb, same as when i got the call. I just feel lost at the moment. Why and how can this happen, it all seems unfair!!! Why God...

Is this the end...? What will courage accomplish

Just to get a head start in news to those who are readers of my blog (maybe a few :) ) i just did something sort of putting my job jeopardy. No, it's not some sort of sin. It has more to do with justice (ouch that word carries a lot of weight).

I don't really know how to explain about the whole issue as of now, but i am waiting for what will happen this week or these few days. I have written a letter and sent it via e-mail to that someone putting my name on the typed letter.

Honestly, i am sort of scared at what is going to happen. But i just can't ;et this thing prolong on and on and on. What will happen to the church and those working in the future. And i do it for justice. This is by far my first take at reforming.

What will happen?