Selangorian Church

"Some of the challenges faced by the Church (in Selangor) are: the performance-driven inclination, the complacent longtime believers and indifferent second generation Christians, the yetto- be-reconciled tensions between the modernist-thinking leadership and the discontented intellectual youth, and the rampant consumerism within the church culture." -- Berita NECF, March - April 2007

Polarisasi Kaum

Saya tertarik dengan luahan Mansor Puteh tentang polarisasi kaum dalam media Cina dan India. Dengan sedihnya, saya bersetuju dan berkongsi duka dengan beliau tentang kurangnya bahan-bahan tempatan yang memaparkan kepelbagaian kaum, khususnya dalam media bukan Melayu.

Pemaparan hiburan asing dalam media massa verkanular bukanlah sesuatu yang baru. Saya teringat zaman kanak-kanak saya di mana semua orang kampung saya akan melopong di depan kaca TV untuk menonton siaran Hindustan dan kawan-kawan berbagai kaum di sekolah akan menonton rancangan drama Hong Kong pada waktu malam.

Berikut adalah pemerhatian saya.

1) Rancangan import yang dibawa dari luar mencerminkan kelemahan industri hiburan tempatan untuk menghasilkan rancangan sendiri. Industri tempatan dengan liputan pengguna Cina dan India yang kecil sememangnya tidak boleh bertanding dengan industri besar-besaran di luar negara.

2) Ketiadaan watak dan unsur kemelayuan dalam rancangan kaum India dan Cina tempatan, bukan sahaja mencerminkan tiada komitmen daripada penerbit-penerbit rancangan hiburan ke arah identiti kepelbagaian budaya (multiculturalism), tetapi juga mencerminkan hakikat polarisasi kaum yang dalam masyarakat Malaysia termasuklah polarisasi dalam sistem pendidikan, sosial, politik dan ekonomi.

3) Tiadanya definisi budaya nasional yang diterima dan dipromosi secara meluas oleh segenap lapisan masyarakat juga menyumbang kepada masalah ini. 'Dasar Kebudayaan Kebangsaan' masih lagi dipertikaikan oleh pihak yang takutkan asimilasi budaya dan mempertahankan budaya minoriti. Saya merasakan bahawa lebih banyak dialog dengan aktivis budaya pelbagai kaum, kerajaan dan media massa diperlukan untuk memperoleh kepercayaan dan membentuk suatu identiti kebangsaan yang boleh diterima oleh semua rakyat Malaysia.

4) Kurangnya pendidikan, pendedahan dan promosi kebudayaan nasional dalam masyarakat bukan Melayu. Kurangnya komunikasi, perhubungan, persahabatan dan usahasama di antara penggiat budaya pelbagai kaum menyukarkan usaha merapatkan jurang perbezaan. Di sini saya merasakan Kementerian Kebudayaan boleh memainkan peranan penting.

5) Usaha pembentukan identiti kebangsaan adalah inisiatif yang emosi dan memerlukan kaedah yang lebih lembut untuk memperoleh kepercayaan semua pihak. Usaha ini mengambil masa yang lama dan memerlukan komitmen dan usaha keras daripada semua.

Sama-samalah kita berdoa dan bekerjasama ke arah visi ini.

Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu

The Freeway Coffee House and Church

The Freeway is an innovative, non-profit coffee house and community commons that was started in October 2005 and is committed to re-investing in the local and global community. It's more than just a place to get a great cup of organically grown / fair trade coffee.

It's a place to enjoy culture & creativity.
We want to support local artists & musicians. In that end, we have created an incredible space to engage culture and support the arts. Our coffee house has open mic nights, DJ showcases, art installations, independent film nights and live music every Friday night. We also have tons of great wall space where local artists can display [& sell] their orginal work. We change the art installations monthly.

It's a place to get some extra work done.
The coffee house offers free wireless internet access with any purchase. Simply ask one of our baristas for the code and you can surf the web at high speed. If you have any technical questions, we will do our best to help you out however possible. We also have books, magazines and a great, comfortable study space to really sink your teeth into the task at hand.

It's a place for community.
There could be no better place in Hamilton to come and simply be in community. We agree with Bono, "sometimes you can't make it on your own." We often say that the coffee house is like your living room, only bigger... your life, only bigger. That's true. It's really quite an amazing space to come and chat with friends [or meet new ones], read, surf the web, or just plain relax. The coffee house is specifically designed to be a third place.

We also offer community life workshops on a wide range of topics from computer and internet basics to art and music to spirituality and faith issues.

It's people who try to be good neighbours.
We really care about our community and those that make up our community. Surrounding the coffee house are a growing number of high-risk and homeless people. We collect non-perishable food, clothing and blankets to distribute, and provide informational resources on shelters, programs, and support. Bring in a warm blanket or coat in good condition and receive a free coffee as a "good neighbour discount".

In addition, we are involved in several community projects which seek to help revitalize our neighbourhood.

Evaluating Local Theologies

How do we evaluate our theologies? Dan Sheffield offers some thoughts.

1. Cohesion
Does this theology give importance to the central truths of the Christian faith, rather than peripherals?

Does this theology have a logical, cohesive fitting together? Or do people constantly say, “yes, but what about this…?”

2. Worship
Does this theology resonate with the presence of the Lord in word and sacrament?

When the community gathers to worship, does the theology fit there?

Can we sing the theology and preach the theology?

3. Praxis
Does this theology translate into practical actions that produce change in lives?

What happens to those believers who follow through on the implications of this theology? Do they grow and change, become more and more like Jesus?

4. Unity and Relationship
Does this theology separate us, or cut us off from other churches, believers?

Do we allow our theology to be critiqued by the wider body of believers and churches?

5. Challenge and Mission
Does our theology challenge us to move out beyond ourselves?

What contribution does our theology make to the wider body of believers; to the world in which we live?

Bos, Kopi Tarik Satu!

A wonderful painting by my friend that I met in Soul Survivor, Vincent Phang from Vineyard Cyberjaya. How can we spiritually reflect on it?

"While the arrogance of modern art sets itself against God, Christian art history tells us that art is one of the finest expressions of mankind’s spiritual aspiration. Indeed, art is more than just word or dance or paint, it is also the voice of one’s soul in his or her spiritual quest. In the Malaysian Church context, art has yet to be recognized as having a role in the Kingdom of God."

-- Colin Kirton, Artistic Director of Footstool Players

Reformed Evangelical's Attitude Towards Singing?

Stolen from Scott. An amusing but challenging commentary on the use of music in reformed evangelical circles:

"How can we explain the clear lack of enthusiasm for singing in so many evangelical gatherings? It is a thorough-going anomaly. The singing is often led by wooden leaders who seem to fear the reprimand of theological watchdogs who may interpret their smiles and joyful gestures as the first step on a slippery slide down into the murky depths of charismania. Equally inhibited, the congreagations rarely sound like people who have been so gripped by the gospel which has changed their lives, that heartfelt, Spirit-inspired, God-centred singing is something they delight to participate in. We've all heard the quip by Christians that an eternity spent singing songs sounds more like purgatory than heaven. This says more about the quality of singing in our gatherings than the joy and hope of glory! I suspect that we will sing in heaven, because our first response on beholding the glory of God will not be to break up into disucssion groups, but to break out into adoration and praise."

(Michael Raiter, 2003. Stirrings of the Soul. Matthias Media, p.247)

Grafton Group

It has been a few weeks since I've got this thought of Grafton group. Is it possible that ocf start a small fellowship in this campus as a new venture? Is it feasible? Is it practical? Is it necessary?

There is a few of us in this campus, Wei Lun, Sarah Ho, Vincent and myself together with a couple of friends and contacts in this place. How would ministry in this place be like? How would we witness effectively, strategically, pragmatically, truthfully, authentically, relationally, intellectually and graciously?

After all, is it just about reaching out? Where does community building come in? How can we include social action, christian thought and biblical studies fit into student outreach here?

Pray, trust and obey.

Mourn With Those Who Mourn

Bae Ho-jung, father of the Rev. Bae Hyung-kyu, prays with his forehead on a Bible after it was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that his kidnapped son was killed by Taliban militants.

42 year old Bae Hyung-kyu, pastor of Saemmul Church, was planning to go to Africa for a humanitarian aid work and had brought a group to Bangladesh last April.

May the Lord of all comfort, comfort those who are mourning.

Radically Reformed: Post-Systematic Theology?

"Post-systematic theology: The emerging movement tends to be suspicious of systematic theology. Why? Not because we don't read systematics, but because the diversity of theologies alarms us, no genuine consensus has been achieved, God didn't reveal a systematic theology but a storied narrative, and no language is capable of capturing the Absolute Truth who alone is God. Frankly, the emerging movement loves ideas and theology. It just doesn't have an airtight system or statement of faith. We believe the Great Tradition offers various ways for telling the truth about God's redemption in Christ, but we don't believe any one theology gets it absolutely right.

Hence, a trademark feature of the emerging movement is that we believe all theology will remain a conversation about the Truth who is God in Christ through the Spirit, and about God's story of redemption at work in the church. No systematic theology can be final. In this sense, the emerging movement is radically Reformed. It turns its chastened epistemology against itself, saying, "This is what I believe, but I could be wrong. What do you think? Let's talk." -- Scot McKnight

Graphic

Emergent Evangelism

"For McLaren, the gospel is not primarily informational but relational/missional. That is, imparting information about how to be individually saved is secondary to inviting people into relationship with a king and with members of a kingdom whose foremost concern is wholeness for a broken world, rather than an insurance policy for eternal destiny.

The gospel, McLaren said, starts "with God's concern for the world, in which God creates a community called the church, comprised of persons who stop (or repent of) being 'part of the problem' and choose instead to join God as 'part of the solution'—thus simultaneously entering a mission and a community in which one is accepted by grace, through faith in Jesus."

Making absolute truth claims—so important to evangelism in the modern era—becomes problematic in the postmodern context. Instead, he said, we can focus on recruiting people who follow Jesus by faith (without claims of certainty or absolute knowledge) with the goal of being transformed and participating in the transformation of the world. "Our lack of example in speech, behavior, love, faith, and purity may also explain why we must rely so heavily on arguments, many of them making claims that appear to postmodern people to be coercive and colonial, and therefore immoral, heavily laced with adjectives like absolute and objective to modify the noun truth," McLaren said.

Additionally, he noted that the message of the apologetic of good lives and good works is much more costly than asserting the message of absolute objective truth or proclaiming a version of Christianity as the true metanarrative." more here

Hunger

"Beholding the glory of God is not only a private experience on a mountain as he passes by. It is also a public experience as he multiplies plagues in the land of Egypt, and divides the Red Sea, and swallows the family of Korah into the earth, and turns water into wine, and raises the dead, and causes selfish men to lay down their lives for the sake of love, and turns the hearts of kings toward the cause of Truth.

There is a hunger for God that goes beyond the desire for private experience. It longs for the public display of his glory in the world. It longs for the great dishonors against our God to be set right. It is not content to hope for private revelations of his saving help, as precious as they are. It yearns for the open triumph of his hand in the establishment of God-exalting truth and righteousness—in universities and courts of law and advertising agencies and political debates and all the media of television and radio and newspapers and magazines and movies and
the Internet. It is driven by a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."

Evangelical Catholic?

What can an evangelical learn from the great tradition without giving up the genius of evangelicalism?

Much of Christian theology that we assume to be true, key doctrines such as the Trinity and the deity of Christ, were thought out quite a while ago through rigorous arguments and analysis and debate. Evangelicals kid themselves when they believe that they can re-invent the wheel with every generation, that you have to produce another spate of systematic theology textbooks to teach people the stuff that has already been articulated for generations. Not to say those things aren't important. They are, and obviously you have to write these things depending upon the historical context. However, I do think we have to admit that the way that we read Scripture is through the ideas and concepts that have been passed down to us by a great tradition.

Look, you're not going to come up with the Nicene Creed by just picking up the Bible. Does the Bible contribute to our understanding? Absolutely it does; the Nicene Creed is consistent with Scripture. But you needed a church that had a self-understanding in order to articulate that in any clear way. I am not saying that necessarily means that you have to be a Catholic. But we have to understand that the Reformation only makes sense against the backdrop of a tradition that was already there. Calvin and Luther did not go back and re-write Nicea. They took it for granted. There's nothing wrong with conceding that and celebrating it and reading those authors.

Looking at tradition would also help evangelicals learn about Christian liturgical traditions, like Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism, that many evangelicals reject because they say liturgy is unbiblical. When did these practices come to be? It turns out many of them came to be very early on in church history when people were close historically to the apostles themselves. There must be something to these practices that the early Christians thought was perfectly consistent with what they had received from the apostles.

And I think that would do a couple of things. It would turn down the volume of the rhetoric from evangelicals, at least free-church Protestants. They would understand this goes back a long way. That may not convince them that it is right, but at least it would show them that it was widely held and that Christians who were right there on top of the early church practiced them. That was quite liberating for me, when I became aware of the writings of some of the church fathers and especially the liturgical aspects. Some of the folks who have read my blog post on my return to the church have misunderstood my reading of the church fathers. They think I went back and tried to find theology, and that really wasn't it for me. It was the practices of the church that were more important. I did some research years ago on the relationship of Greek philosophy and the Christian doctrine of God, and that was very helpful. But that's when I first began reading the fathers. One finds the practice of penance very early on during the times in which Christians were being persecuted. Some of the Christians who had denied their faith had to publicly repent for their sins and suffer penance. This was considered to be perfectly consistent with a doctrine of faith.

Francis Beckwith resigned on May 5 as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. One week earlier the Baylor University philosophy professor rejoined the Roman Catholic Church, his home until age 14. He spoke with Christianity Today editor David Neff about the reaction to his decision, theological misconceptions, and evangelical strengths and weaknesses.

Jati Diri

Saya cuba menjadi seperti melayu tetapi tidak dapat, saya masih cina. Saya cuba menjadi seperti cina tetapi tidak dapat, saya tidak memahami kecinaan saya. Saya cuba menjadi seperti india tetapi tidak dapat, sebab saya hanya tahu makan kari dan tengok cerita Bollywood. Saya cuba menjadi seperti orang putih tetapi tidak dapat, meskipun saya tinggal, belajar, makan, minum, sembahyang dalam masyarakat orang putih.

Di manakah jati diri saya?

Ada orang kata, Kristuslah jati diri kita. Kristus itu macammana rupanya? Elitis? Pengkhianat budaya? Barat? Fundamentalis? Pendakyah? Nabi? Anak Tuhan? Manusia? Pengajar sesat? Aktivis? Ahli Politik?

Siapakah saya? Apakah identiti saya?

Saya keliru

The Pursuit of Happyness

"If I were to ask you why you have believed in Christ, why you have become Christians, every man will answer truly, 'for the sake of happiness'" -- Augustine

Gloria Dei Homo Vivens

"Gloria Dei, Homo vivens," (The glory of God is a living human)

-- Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses. IV.xx.7

Allah dimuliakan ketika manusia hidup sebagai manusia. Maka kebalikannya, jika manusia tidak hidup sebagai manusia yang manusiawi, hidup sebagai imej Allah, maka ia tidak memuliakan Allah.

Bagaimanakah kita menjadi 'manusia yang manusiawi'?

O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing

"Let my language return to my lips, that it may flow and glisten like a prized treasure, like the fame strength of the titi in all its glory. Let is sound once more resound in all the corners of the Te Waipoumamu. A thousand goods a thousand dreams," Maori saying

"I can forsake everything in the world except my chinese language," My friend, May.

"Yang kurik itu kendi,
Yang merah itu saga,
Yang cantik itu budi,
Yang indah itu bahasa," Malay poem

Popularity, Friendship and the Meaning of Life

I was never a popular person, shy, introverted and sometimes timid in certain situations.

I don't get along with people that easily, nor find talking to people as easy as breathing. I struggle with starting and maintaining conversation. I struggle to maintain and deepen my friendship with others. I struggle to find common ground to relate with people. I made many acquaintances, but few close friends. I am sad that my close friends come and go.

Someone said that "9 out of 10 things in life, is by just showing up".

I struggle to attend social functions. I loathe spending many hours in birthday parties and meeting a crowd which may not necessarily be genuine in conversing. I don't really go for activities organised by friends, not because I don't like hanging out with them, just that I need time for myself and my flatmates.

But one thing I know, that my worth is not dependant on how popular I am or how many friends I made, but the unconditional love that Jesus had shown me, by dying on the cross for me.

Companionship come and go like wind, but my God is eternal, unchanging, faithful, trustworthy, intimate, my buddy. My God is more satisfying than a friend, a wife, even more than a mistress. In Him alone, my deepest longings for friendship, belonging, love and the meaning of life are fulfilled.

Pliancy at all costs?

Submission to authorities = Pliancy at all costs?
by Ong Kian Ming

A few months ago, the Ministry of Home Affairs banned the Iban Bible and several other Christian books. Many Christians in Malaysia strongly protested against this
ban.

Is it biblical for Christians to disagree with the governing authorities? Was this action by the Malaysian Christians going against the advice of Apostle Paul?

In his letter to the Christians living in the heart of Rome (the superpower of first century A.D.) Paul declared:

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” Romans 13:1

I’ve always struggled in responding to the above passage. Does this mean that this passage gives carte blanche for the government to basically do anything it likes? Is there then no space left for us to disagree with some of the actions of the government which we find particularly objectionable?

The context of Romans 13 suggests that Paul’s advice to submit to governing authorities refers to paying taxes and other state regulations. These are policies that function for the greater good of civilization (i.e. Rom’s Pax Romana policy). This is what he argues in verses 1-5. Why do we say that Paul is using this principle to refer to paying taxes? In verse six, Paul says, “For the SAME reason you ALSO pay taxes, for the authorities are minister of God, attending to this
very thing.” Thus, Christians are to submit to rule of law that upholds justice, fairness, mercy -- be it paying taxes or stopping at traffic lights. This also means that we are not to blindly submit, especially when the authorities are abusing justice, fairness, mercy.

My understanding of this passage has been influenced by my recent reading of the book of Acts. Here, we read of how Paul responded to the authorities when he
was arrested by them.

In Acts 21, a lynch mob in the temple in Jerusalem was in the process of beating Paul and would probably have killed him if not for the timely intervention of …
some Roman troops?

Despite all the faults of the Roman colonial power which included the persecution and repression of its colonies, it was the Roman system which protected Paul from the lynch mob and later, an assassination attempt. Despite the flawed judicial system (Felix was trying to obtain a bribe from Paul and kept him in jail even though he felt that Paul was innocent), it still provided a way out for Paul, as a Roman citizen, to appeal to the highest court in the land – the court of Caesar.

The lessons for these concluding chapters in the book of Acts help us understand this passage in Romans.

Here, Paul’s pointing out that in any system set up by any government, there would be at least a semblance of law, order and justice – even if there are flaws in the system.

Having an authority in power is better than having anarchy and lawlessness. Hence, the baseline or default mode, would be for us to obey the law put in place by the authorities.

But we also need to examine this passage in the light of the modern political system which is very different from that which existed during Paul’s time. We in Malaysia are fortunate enough to be living in a democratic system (albeit a flawed one) where we have the power elect our leaders into office and to throw them out of office.

We elect our parliamentarians into the parliament to govern our nation and we elect our state assembly representatives to govern our states. There are check and balances in the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and the judiciary (theoretically, at least). These checks and balances are there to prevent excesses and the abuse of power by governments. All governments are guilty of these excesses be it Malaysia, Saudi Arabia or the United States. It is the extent to which the checks and balances work which minimizes these excesses.

In a parliamentary democracy, we must also remember that the opposition is also part of the system of governance although not part of the ruling government. An effective opposition would act as a counterbalance to the ruling government on issues concerning the running of the country.

In a healthy democracy, the media or the press would also play its role as the Fourth Estate in revealing any excesses and keeping the three branches of government honest.

In a healthy democracy, there would be healthy channels for citizens to make their views known to the different branches of government.

Hence, in any parliamentary democracy, we would not be disobeying the authorities if we disagree with them on their stand on a certain issue, as long as we use legitimate channels to make our views known e.g. through our MPs (government or opposition), through the media, through citizen’s initiatives.

I would even go so far as to say that our ‘Caesar’ (the authority we ultimately appeal to in our system) would be the ideals of the Constitution and not the ruling authorities. Governments may be able to change the constitution but they cannot carry out actions which are contrary to the constitution.

In comparison to many other developing countries (see Nigeria, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh), the Malaysian government which has been in place since independence has achieved much in bringing peace, prosperity and development to our country.

But there have also been injustices which have been perpetrated in our country usually in the name of national security. God reminds us that ultimately, He holds the scales of justice.

“The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear,
and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down –
those who with a word make a man out to be guilty, who
ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony
deprive the innocent of justice” (Isaiah 29:20-21).

What’s the bottom-line?

We ARE being consistent with Romans 13 if we speak out against injustices that are being carried out with the complicity of the Authorities. That’s because we are asking for change through legitimate democratic channels.

The recent banning of the Iban bible is a case in point. The action was a clear contravention of the principle of freedom of religion as stated in Article 11 of the Federal Constitution. Hence, it would be legitimate for Malaysian Christians to voice their protests to the Minister of Home affairs over this ban.

Thankfully, this ban has since then been lifted. But if it had not, it would have been legitimate for Malaysian Christians to challenge this decision in court as we appeal to our ‘Caesar’, the Federal Constitution.

Ultimately, our obedience to the system may exact a high cost. If for example, in protesting legitimately against injustices, we are put in chains under the ISA, we need to accept the consequences. That’s exactly what happened to Paul – who ended up being imprisoned by the Roman authorities.

Finally, some food for thought:

1) What are some issues of injustice that I see happening in my country, my state, my district and my neighborhood?

2) What are some consequences that may result if I stand up against the injustices that I see in my country and my neighborhood?

3) How has God equipped me with resources to rectify some of these injustices?

4) What’s the one thing I can do, here and now, to take a stand against the injustice that I see?

Karakia Whakamutunga (Ending Prayer)

Kia tau, ki a tätou katoa
Te atawhai o tö tätou Ariki a Ihu Karaiti
Me te aroha o te Atua
Me te whiwhingatahitanga ki te wairua tapu
Amine.

............................

May we all join peacefully

Through the love and support of our Lord, Jesus Christ

and the love of God

and the unity as one through the holy spirit

Amen.

New Zealand Anthem

God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific's triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

Men of every creed and race,
Gather here before Thy face,
Asking Thee to bless this place,
God defend our free land.
From dissension, envy, hate,
And corruption guard our state,
Make our country good and great,
God defend New Zealand.

Peace, not war, shall be our boast,
But, should foes assail our coast,
Make us then a mighty host,
God defend our free land.
Lord of battles in Thy might,
Put our enemies to flight,
Let our cause be just and right,
God defend New Zealand.

Let our love for Thee increase,
May Thy blessings never cease,
Give us plenty, give us peace,
God defend our free land.
From dishonour and from shame,
Guard our country's spotless name,
Crown her with immortal fame,
God defend New Zealand.

May our mountains ever be
Freedom's ramparts on the sea,
Make us faithful unto Thee,
God defend our free land.
Guide her in the nation's van,
Preaching love and truth to man,
Working out Thy glorious plan,
God defend New Zealand.

Church History Rocks

Church history may be perceived as a testament of eternal boredom of popes, princes, debates about transubstantialism, heretics etc. But hey it is more than that. Here in Coffee and Bible (one of Andy Shudall's blogs) someone proposed.

1. Church history is about lived-out faith

Spirituality is a word bandied about all over the place, be it in the church or your local yoga group. When I use the word I guess I mean “relationship and contemplative life with and under God”. The New Testament is not in the first instance a guide to spirituality. In Acts there’s a quick news bulletin: “the apostles met and broke bread”; “they sung a hymn”; “they devoted themselves to prayer and the word” - you get an idea of what sort of things went on, but you don’t get much insight into what this really looked like – there’s no MP3 recording.

I assume that the reason for this is that “spirituality” in the NT is Old Testament spirituality. The few prayers in the Gospels and Acts (Maria, Zechariah, Acts 4) are saturated in the Old Testament. The “word” that demanded devoted study was the Old Testament word – the Psalms, proverbs and other wisdom literature. “New Testament spirituality” is surely interpreted through the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it remains a “Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes” spirituality.

I find myself wanting to listen to what it means to interpret this OT spirituality through the lens of Christ. You get awesome statements from Paul, like: “I live no longer, rather Christ lives in me.” But I find myself saying – wow, great, awesome, but Paul, tell me more – what does this look like? Tell me about how you live that out!

Church history is great because it’s about people following Jesus and working out what it means to live under God in Christ. Once you get past the dates and names (which is helpful to get a grip of the scenery), the way is clear to dip into the books behind the names and soak up all the wisdom and years of experience they recorded for our benefit. You get a sense of what it could mean to continue to grow and become mature in Christ.

2. Church history means you’re surrounded by witnesses

One of the things that has struck me is that even when in every age there are Christians who get the wrong end of the stick and are unbalanced in some area of their theology (of course, we here at the coffee bible club are all perfectly “balanced” theologians, all the time…), in amidst all the fuzz, in every age, God’s Spirit is at work. There’s a sort of unspoken assumption in evangelical circles that all theologians before the reformation were apostate, apart from Augustine - he’s ok because Calvin was a fan. That is certainly unfair to some, but judging by the quotations I hear in evangelical sermons, God’s Spirit only taught truth worth hearing to Luther, Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Packer and Stott. Or if you live in Germany like me then it was only Zinzendorf, Luther, Luther, Luther, Luther and Bonhoeffer.

I’ve been discovering through my church history classes that Luther stood in a long line of theologians who had worthwhile things to say about the sinfulness and weakness of man, the wisdom, glory and grace of God, and the need for reform in the church. “All over the world, God’s Spirit is moving” was a song we used to sing in the church of my childhood. “In all generations,” I might add.

This amazing work of God in all ages in the universal church has been a great comfort to me recently. In all generations there have been believers who - saturated in the culture of their day, challenged by temptations, surrounded with philosophical challenges to their faith - have “fought the good fight” of faith and worked hard at giving an account of their faith in Christ to the world around them.

Many mourn the move towards individualism in our Christianity. I’ve noticed that I am very reluctant to learn from others “since they are only human”. Part of this may be good Christology, but another regretfully large part of it is self-sufficiency on my part. Reading about people like Augustine has shown me how “me and my generation” are not the first to have the tricky double-task of translating the gospel into the philosophical air of the age and defending the faith from the attacks of the age. Every generation of Christians has faced this challenge. And that is encouraging.

So many of the questions that these old guys were dealing with are the same questions we encounter today. It’s mostly just the same, rehashed and repackaged. We can learn from the arguments and struggles of others throughout history and it equips us for the battles we face.

Evangelism

We're in the crossroad of how we should run evangelism. After all, is it something which we 'run' and 'do', or something that we 'are'? Whatever our conviction is, everyone agrees that it is important, it is central to our christian confession and some may go as far as to presume that the church exist for evangelism, and not otherwise.

Every week, some of my good friends would gather around and go for what we call GST, the gospel sharing team, which shares the black book/red book with strangers around university. It is like Mao Tse Tung's communist Red Book, but this one is a silent revolution, which calls people to repentance to the holy God. They are great selfless men and women who put away their comfort, time, energy, security, political correctness and popularity, to share 'this great story' of the saviour Jesus Christ. Like Paul in the book of Acts, sometimes their message was accepted with openness and kindness, sometimes tolerated and sometimes reviled, but nevertheless this bunch of radicals affirm what they believe, not by lip service, but through words and deeds.

But many a times their effort are being challenged by different people with different opinions and ideas. Some people critically dismissed their work, as being fundamentalist in such highly plural and post-modern setting. Some challenge their definition of evangelism as merely a system of getting people into heaven. Some challenge their authenticity and integrity in loving people, since stranger evangelism hardly builds authentic relationships. Some challenged the usage of highly offensive concepts like heaven and hell, sin, judgement and morality.

They defended their position saying, "Despite of the many flaws of our evangelism, its better than your no-evangelism", "Despite of the lack of authentic relationships, those who do it are the most selfless, the most loving, friendly, caring, trustworthy, emphatic people around", "true transformation come from true repentance and agony from sin", all which are absolutely true! We can spend conferences after conferences, forums after forums, books after books on evangelism, when it is simply "go and preach the good news". We can talk about being nice, building bridges, being authentic, but all these do not dismiss the importance of delivering the message itself!

The pressing questions which I think ought to be considered are:

1) What is the Gospel, Salvation, Faith and Evangelism? And where does it stand in priority compared to other tenets of the evangelical faith?

2) What is the content of this "Gospel"? The 4 spiritual laws? The 10 commandments? The "Story"? The Proclamation of the Kingdom? Jesus Christ? The Trinity?

2) What is a framework of evangelism that can be practically adopted by the christian community, taking into the account the different levels of commitment towards evangelism? How do we determine whether a community of faith is doing well in evangelism? How do we measure our effectiveness? How can we improve our effectiveness?

Deep Thought

Knowing Scripture

Studying context

Renewing mind

Rom 12:2 • 1 Cor 2:15-16 • 2 Cor 10:3-5 • 2 Tim 3:16-17

The gospel calls Christian students and graduates to the renewal of the mind. Rejecting an unreflective faith, TSCFers search the scriptures for light on every aspect of work and study, witness and life. Equally, we think deeply about the context of our mission, so that the gospel is brought to engage closely with the issues, the needs, the idolatries of the day.

TSCF works hard to provoke deep thought at its training events and conferences, providing challenging and wise speakers and quality literature. Serious engagement with the scriptures is always at the forefront of the mission.

“An unchallenged faith is no faith at all. TSCF has challenged, teased and provoked me into deeper questioning of the value of my Christian faith – how to relate it to practical life while being steered towards the cross. Rather than accept the Christian values passed on from others, TSCF has taught me to think deeply for myself and to make the Christian faith my own.” -- Elaine Tan

“‘Deep Thought’ is one of the most important aspects of faith and it’s been stimulated by my time in TSCF. As a student I’ve been on a quest to discover the meaning of “life, the universe, and everything.” ‘Deep Thought’ means that we can think as intelligently about our faith as well as about what we study in the academic world. For me ‘Deep Thought’ issues the challenge to be proud of the truth and to treat Christianity as intellectually coherent in a chaotic world.” -- Steve Thomas

Panggil Aku Cina

"Panggil aku cina, jika cina itu sebanding dengan aceh, ambon, banjar, batak, betawi, bugis, dayak, jawa, madura, melayu, menado, minang, sunda, timor, toraja. Namun jangan panggil aku cina, jika cina itu dikontraskan dengan pribumi!"

-- Septian