Power of influence…

“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ…” 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NASB)
This is a famous statement from Paul as he was writing to the church of Corinth. Today during the sermon Dr. Brian Thom talked about this statement and the importance of what it means to be Christ-like in our lives. Paul here makes such a bold statement to the Church and tells them to imitate him. However if we stopped there then Paul may have started a new cult. It is the second part of this statement that sheds light to what Paul is saying about becoming his imitators. He asks people to be imitators ultimately of himself but of Christ. He is and yearns to be an imitator of Christ; to be Christ-like in all things. We are to be Christlike so that others if they begin to “follow” (in NIV and KJV translations) will be Christ-like not you-like, not me-like and not Bmannn-like. Christ is and must be the centrality of our Christianity; hence Christ in Christianity.
There are two things that I would like to comment about…
1. I’ve been talking with the counsellors a lot about discipleship. And I am still struggling a lot with what discipleship means and how it can be realistically lived out in the church. I think that this is a big portion of discipleship and that is becoming the imitators of Christ. How are we as Christ followers living out and speaking as Christ would have acted and spoken? Discipleship responded and acted as Christ has taught and lived out His life; Jesus’ compassion was shown and not preached upon, Jesus’ love was not only taught but was revealed through His reaching outwards. Discipleship has to do with becoming imitators and allowing others to imitate Christ through your life.
2. This is quite a scary thought! In recent conversation I’ve discover the power of influence and of imitation. There are a lot of people my friends who are looking at your life and even have high regards to your life. Sometimes we may not implicitely or even explicitely hear about it but do acknowledge and know that your life is being watched by many. Your actions and your words affect many people who are in and around you. They may hang on the way you respond to certain issues or even your mannerism. Remember to always be an imitator of Christ so that those who follow you do not becoming immitators of you.

One last thought… as Christians we hope not to have disciples of people, we don’t want to have disciples of Bmannn because that’ll probably be a cult. We want to see disciples of Christ; those who have an authentic relationship with the Lord and those who live out is life.

Consider what incarnational ministry means? Incarnate comes from the description of Jesus who became human… what do you think incarnate ministry means?

 

The Justice Mission

Currently watching the Justice Project this has been a very tough and difficult video to watch. It talks of so much oppression and the brokenness of the world. It reveals some of the deep pockets of the world.

http://216.128.18.195/JusticeMission/

more when I get a chance to digest what is happening…

 

When you have two coats you have stolen a coat from the homeless – Dorothy Day

It has been a few years since I’ve really been to boxing day shopping. I may have dropped by a mall here and there in the last two boxing days but never wake up early and go shopping. Today I’ve decided to go with my mom and family to check out the crazy festivities; and also that I was asked to buy a new winter jacket because my winter jackets were a) not warm enough and b) not the kind of jackets for the rought winter plays such as winter camp. So we woke up early to head down to Eaton center.
Prior to this though I have been struggling with the whole concept of boxing day. It is very strange because the North American market relies so much on the sales and the business generated through Christmas; boxing day becomes the single biggest day of commodity in the North American retail culture. I was listening to the radio today and heard that 1/3 of Canadians are buying but just buying online. The commodification of Christmas is ever vibrant even in our recession. (although it does seem less packed this year)
Today at Eaton center there are buckets of people piling in the mall by the hour. We got there at 8am and people were already shopping. It was madness I tell you! Hollister and A&F were so packed with people that the lines waiting outside started to go around the block. I suppose that there are great deals happening there?
As I departed from my mom and the fam I started walking around the different stores and reflecting. I looked at the people lining up and rummaging through the busy mall, I see the lines of people waiting to go into Hollister and A&F and I see people with bags from all kinds of stores. I wondered to myself whether or not this has become one of the greatest festivals of Mammon manifested in another form? Mammon being a Babylonian (I think?) god of money – but isn’t our world of “stuff” just another reflection of Mammon? 46″ TVs, cameras, clothes… STUFF… just another reflection of a god and an idol to the desires of our heart; the yearning to consume and to HAVE. What a struggle eh? Honestly I was quite disguised at being at the mall and looking at the jacket was no longer appealing and with any lure at all. Although there were moments when I was a little tempted haha as I walked into Foot Locker and saw these Air Pippens (my fav shoes since grade 5) were on sale, they were remades! Original 300 but now for 200. But however I let that go too because it’d be foolish of me to pay for something like that. I kept walking and I began to search for Jesus somehow in the mall? You may think I’m delurious or something to be in search for Jesus but I really wanted to see and hope to see that Christ would be lieved out by people in the mall. Not-too-surprisingly through the pushing and shoving by people I felt that the mall would have been hard for one to live this lifestyle. I was very compell to go around then to show love; the love of Christ to others – especially those who are in need. I must tell you though I’ve missed a few opportunity which I wish I could take it back. But I had a few good conversations with some of the store keeps. In the short two hours I began a journey just to meet different people. In that time I’ve walked around Eaton Center 3 times, Future shop, Yonge Street and Queen Street. Honestly I wasn’t sure what I was looking for but just driven to walk around. Maybe it was also the phrase “When you have two coats you have stolen a coat from the homeless” by Dorothy Day really stood out to me and I was pressed with that thought. I was struggling because I’m buying a coat and yet I already am wearing a coat. I think I was actually beginning to look for someone who was homeless and maybe just chat with them. Surprisingly I was left with no one on the streets except busy shoppers. It was strange… instead of people who were pan-handling on the street corners I see people beside their big screen TVs standing in the street corners waiting to be picked up. A very different kind of view to say the least!
After about 30 minutes out in the cold as it began to snow (and it was quite cold caz I left my jacket in the car) I’ve decide to go back in. I went for a drink and some grubs since I hadden eaten all morning. At the same time I began to observe people with their bags and as they walk here and through the mall. I believe that there began a very different perspective in my paradigm in the homeless. The homelessness isn’t just the physical homelessness but it is also the spiritual homelessness. A kind of wandering where we are not able to define who we are but use world identifiers to have signify and identify ourselves. Home depends on the kind of clothes we wear, the television we have and the different gadgets that we own. But depth of these things… does it have depths? I dunno something for all who read to respond and dialogue with me about. I begin to struggle to see that the homelesses are within the means of the people in and around me; this mall packed with people aimlessly walking hoping to save a few dollars; the latest gadgets, the beautiful dresses. But isn’t life more than that?
Do I really have two coats? or am I to give you my coat, the one that I cherish but because of loving people so much that my coat is yours? That love compells and takes fills all things?

Consider the story of the prodigal son… he was clothed with new clothes and a new ring… his identity isn’t so much about the new things but about the love that came from the father who embraced him and received him. It was the son’s identity in his father that made the significance of the clothing.

I can imagine the father saying “Son this is your coat, it belongs to you because you are my son. It is because you are my son that you can wear the coat and have the blessing and be proud of your identity in me.” So I pray that I can give my coat away and be sharing in the ministry of God’s love and for others to see their identity and their home in God.

 

CYWC – Day 1

Wayyy too much to share but this is wayyyy too late…
How shall I explain this?… the day was packed

10am-11:30am Sid Coop on preaching to youth
1pm-3pm Starfield, Shane Claibourne
3:30pm-5pm Sonlife rep talking about the story of God
5:30pm-6:30pm Alliance meeting
7:30pm-10:00pm Starfield, Tony Campolo

There is so much to think through… and work through…

 

“Truth from cetain point of view. Many of the truth depends on my own point of view.”
oBi Wan Kenobi from Empire Strikes Back

This is a great postmodernism quote I find it very interesting. Postmodernism is about the subjective truth… it is about how a personal truth where no one is correct.
But then again what is Truth without objectiveness? Isn’t there A TRUTH?

Maybe as we are seeking what truth is we are doing something completely wrong? Maybe the question has nothing to do with what it is? Maybe the question about truth has to do with who…
“I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6a)

 

Love… is it within confines and boundaries?
Love… is it without rules?
Love… is it without definitions?
Love… is it really that radical?
Love…

 

Bedside books update…

Reasons for God – Timothy Keller
Becoming the answers to our prayers – Shane Claibourne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Goindg All the way – Craig Groeschel
Experiencing God – Henry T. Blackaby & Claude V. King
Ancient Future Worship  – Robert Webber
Vintage Jesus – Mark Driscoll
Cost of Discipleship – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Crazy Love – Francis Chan

I don’t even know how many of these books I’m going to finish haha… *sigh

there are also other books on the stack but I’ll intro later

 

What’s love got to do… got to do with it?

Tina Turna’s song… “what’s love got to do… got to do with it?” brings such a HUGE question to the Christian mindset. Living as the calling of being the light of the world what does love got to do with it?

Lately I’ve been reflecting a whole lot on what it means to love and what does love mean in general? Past few weeks I’ve been reading (finished) The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. Once again another theologian begins to tackle this wonderful parable. It is very interesting of the struggle of the older brother; someone who has always been “right” with the father. Keller brings a very interesting point that the older brother actually did not truly loves the father. In his work and in his service for the father it has nothing to do with the right and good relationship with his father. It has everything to do with his own self-desires. We see that in the conversation “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” (Luke 15:29-30)

• “All these years I’ve been slaving…” – Have you NOT seen how HARD I’ve been working all these years! So are we slaves to the Lord? that we are only servants to the work that He has granted and given us? or do we have more of a significant role? When serving God I do not think it is so much of a chore because it has so much to elicit negative connotations. But I think as we begin to learn to serve God and be submissive to His will that there is purpose and fulfillment.
• “never disobey your orders…” – Look!!! I have lived a life that’s nice and perfect!!! The danger of self-righteousness where individuals become one who lives with an attitude of holier-than-thou mentality. I have NEVER done any wrong before your eyes; the rules I have live to the tee. The question would be so what else did you do? Is the teachings of Christ live within the restrictions of the law or does it transcend and embody a lifestyle? and to say that never disobedience is already fallen short because the respond to the celebration is already disobedience to the father. It is disobeying the grace and the mercy the father has for the younger brother.
• “Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends…” – Where’s my cut in this whole ordeal? Keller encapsulate the idea of how the older son is looking for his cut in the deal. The younger brother got his but where is his? He didn’t even get some goods to enjoy? Wow! quite ungrateful especially when later the father explains that “what is mine will be yours.”

Keller’s explanation of the older brother really reveals the true attitude of the older brother. Isn’t having the love and the relationship with the father sufficient? it seems that it ISN’T enough! We want the cake too!

Love… the truth of how the Father’s reckless embrace of both brothers. Two brothers who are lost to disobedience… lost to self-love… lost to the world’s definition of love. yet the father’s love extends beyond that and covers all of that.

I am beginning to see and understand more about this kind of love; this love that in 1 John 3 – this is a sacrifical love. There is no room for self love. There is no room to orient for the self. I am beginning to learn that love embraces others and orients towards other. Love only exist when we can give ourselves to another. Without this “another” it is self-indulgence, self-fulfillment and self-purposement. There is no room to love others if we love the self. Love must be a self-denial sort of love, it must transcends looking at the purpose and self-gratification. Notice the father’s love is embracing… forget about the property, forget about how stupid his sons have been, not holding to his status and who he is but embracing two sons who just need to be loved.

The power of love… the father’s kind of love…
“Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Threaten our children and bomb our homes and our churches and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hours and drag us out on some wayside road and beat us and leave us half-dead, and as difficult as that is, we will still love you. But be assure that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom from ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory.”
Martin Luther King jr. – 1963

So what does love got to do with it? LOVE has EVERYTHING to do with it!

 

A Simple Way?

I’ve begun to read a book this week called Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claibourne. It has been an experience of challenging my faith and my concept of church. I am beginning to see something different and begining to appreciate even more the scriptural text.

Shane and a group of Christians live together in a community called Simple Way they live within one of the most impoverish area in a particular state (I really forget where I think it is Chicago?). Their lifestyle is drawn with Jesus’ teaching of what it means to care and love the poor. I admire that a whole lot because that is something as a suburbanite is hard to chew. I think as I walk around and as I look around myself the glamour and the beauty of the things we have is just incredible. There is so much STUFF. Shane explains that in his experience he has gone and worked with Mother Teresa (he called her Momma T which I thought was really cool) in one of the most poorest area in the world. He’s come back and kept that zeal for the love of the poor and found people still lonly eventhough they have much.

I live in that world… the second of the worlds. People have much but yet are lonely. Poor not in material but poor in other areas. It is strange today as I was walking in a mall today during lunch time and as I was walking around I was struggling a whole lot with the STUFF around me. The social issues that is influence by an establishment such as a mall. I’m struggling with the identity of a Christian in a materialistic world? What and how does this mean? I am challenged by the words from the Bible, the life style of Jesus and the early church… I begin to question what that means?
Jesus was a radical teacher… but am I a radical disciple…

 

On Church

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the concept of Church. I don’t know where it began but I am sure it has to do with my very un-conservative thinking of what church means today. It must have begun when I began to envision a coffee shop ministry a couple of years back. I still recognize its validity in our community and its effectiveness in ministering to people. This past week as I was walking in the hallway of the seminary and was engaged in a dialogue about ecclesiology – the future of churches and pastors. Our conversation started about one person’s opinion on pastors having a second job in the secular world. I don’t agree that the reason for the second position is so there is less reliance on the ‘role’ or ‘job’ of the pastor. However I think it is important that a pastor be aware and be engaged in the secular world; it is learning and experiencing culture as others have. That’s one of the reason that has brought me to write and reflect in this posting on what ecclisiology means today.
In a conversation I had with a pastor friend of mine we were talking about coffee ministry. He began to help me shape and see something that I have missed; how a coffee shop style location could become a prime market for sharing the gospel of Christ to people. If you have thought about a Tim Hortons or even classier places such as Starbucks and Timothy’s, these are location of conversation and dialogues. Many time the owner gets to know the people and a whole lot of talking happens. If we began to see the shop as a sanctuary then it will also alleviate the issues with a wasted space… our conversation continued with understanding and seeing how this is possible and what theological and spiritual implications came about. I will probably discuss this in another blog posting.

Sacred Space!
Now that I have set the stage I would like to get into what I am contemplating a whole lot about. With regards to church I know that the body of Christ is the church. 1 Corinthians 12:12 talks about the unity of the Body of Christ; churches is made up of the body of believers. Church is the people and not so much the building. There is however sacrdness in the churches. They are building that has been devoted and dedicated for the purpose of allowing people to worship, praise and glorify God. My reflections has brought me to think what church has become over time? Is it an institution or merely a building? Has it become a profane space instead of the sacred space. Do we see an apostolic church? or do we live in a understanding of the church as a temple?

The apostolic church model can be found in Acts 15:42-47

 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

From the above passage: church is a community of believer sharing, caring and loving one another and directing their focus, prayer, and their time together for God. Has our church focusing on the study and reading of the word of God? the sharing of time and experience together? is our church a body of believers (seeking to be directed and understanding the word of God)?

I sometimes see the massive buildings that we have in churches today questionable? We talk about the church being the body of Christ; the people of Christ. So if the people is not together then there isn’t really a church? So what about the buildings that are in the church today? Is it still sacred because of the building or has it been profane because of what has been associated it with? I question about the legality of the church; that certain areas of holier than others. I question about the usage of church own properties (don’t get me wrong I am very thankful that we have). I question about the definition of church today? More money is being poured into church buildings and church space. Is that really the postmodern churches of tomorrow? Are they really making an impact for their community?

I would love to study how the churches in the time of Acts were chosen. I know many have brought forth issues about my thinking and perspective of the church. However I question as we are evolving in a post-post-modern culture, as future church leaders and missionaries how are we responding to the culture we’re living in?