KingdomSheepDog's Xanga

21st Century Challenges of the Church

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:12:54 GMT

Dr. Scorgie of Bethel spoke at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of CBC last Sunday. He presented a threefold challenge to CBC for the next 20 years:

1. A deeper sense of God's presence must be prevalent in all of the church's ministries

2. A deeper commitment in personal relationship with fellow brothers and sisters that actually fosters authenticity, and the practice of accountability and mutual forgiveness

3. A deeper and more focused involvement in missions

I thanked Dr. Scorgies for his candid sharing. This is indeed the message we, the 21st century churches, need to hear.

Bioethics of the 21st Century

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:59:52 GMT

Fathering a child after you are dead

In August 2002, 19-year-old Sergeant Kevin Cohen was guarding an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip. At 7 a.m. he was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper. It was that bullet that killed Kevin and his dream, which he had related to his mother, Rachel Cohen, of one day fathering a child.

But this week, four years after his death, a dramatic ruling by an Israeli court means Kevin Cohen’s dream may very well come true. Kevin's mom won the court fight to have ownership of her son's frozen sperms. She then advertized for a woman to agree to be impregnated by it. Mrs. Cohen is now waiting for the good news that maybe nine months from now she will become a grandmother. At last she will be able to look at her son’s picture and tell him he has a child.

Some readers' comments:

* This woman doesn't need a grandchild, she needs a grief counselor.

* How absolutely creepy.

* I THINK THIS IS WONDERFUL AND SO SAD THAT THE MOTHER OF A SON SHE WISHED TO HONOR, HAD TO GO THROUGH SO MUCH. THIS IS A PLACE WHERE THE COURTS SHOULDN'T BE INVOLVED,THEY HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN FIGHT OVER SPERM. THEN AGAIN MAYBE THIS IS A RELIGIOUS THING, I DON'T KNOW. THANK GOD NOW A SON, A MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER WILL FINALLY COME TO BE.

What do you think?

Currently Preaching

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:43:11 GMT

I am currently preaching a series titled: Embracing the Love of God

First two sermons preached:

1. God is Love (Exodus 34:1-8; 1 John 4:8)

Christians don't know the true nature of God's love. We thought that God loves the way like we do, only more intense, more consistent, more persistent... In fact God loves covenantally, whereas human loves contractually. God's love is also tough. Not knowing the nature of God's love hinders us from truly embracing the love of God.

2. Be Real (Luke 18: 9-14)

Here I talk about the unconditional acceptance of God. Very few Christians fully experience the unconditional acceptance of God, even though we know this doctrine well, because deep down we still struggle to maintain a vestige of self-righteous goodness about ourselves. We are very innocent about the harm this would do to our spirituality, because it actually prevents us from experiencing God's unconditional acceptance in its fullness, which in turn hinders us to love others like the way God loves us.

One of the key steps to help us fully experiencing God's unconditional acceptance we can learn from the tax collector of Luke 18 is to be real before God and man. "Be real" is a step of self-acceptance, a step of facing the dark side of the self honestly, a step that gets rid of all the pretense of goodness. The tax collector somehow in his life was driven to this point and he had an experience of Jesus' total acceptance.

This is the first step to the path of truly embracing the love of God, because God's loves flows in authenticity.

The third sermon is in the making. The idea is for us to take the next step: accepting others as they are. This is a step to allow God's love to flow through us, which will have amazing results... May God help me with this sermon.

What is spirituality?

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:42:44 GMT

Recently, Daniel said he is not spiritual enough to be a pastor. That brings up a question in my mind: What is spirituality? I found an answer by Yaconelli. What do you think?

"Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. The way of the spiritual life begins where we are now in the mess of our lives. Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality, not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws, but because we let go of seeking perfection and instead seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives. Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God's being present in the mess of our unfixedness."

Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality (Zondervan, 2002), p. 13

Have you come across other definitions? Let's share it.

Evangelism, Urgent Still

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:16:58 GMT

Christianity Today has an article titled "What's Next?" which is an appraisal of what will be the key issues for Christianity in the next 50 years.

One part of it says, "There are 3.5 million churches worldwide, but fewer than 7 percent are evangelistic. That's a huge issue now and will be for the next 50 years, according to leading evangelists who spoke to Christianity Today."

Alarming figure.

I am glad GLORY is pushing for the Evangelism Explosion program. We are doing EE in our second quarter now (in the Mandarin side). We are proud to be in the 7 percent. I am sad the percentage is so small.

Currently Preaching

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:55:47 GMT

I just finished a sermon series titled as "A Table in the Wilderness," in which I attempted to outline the unique offerings of Christ to humanity. The take of the series really lies in the contrast of those offerings with what we found in the world (i.e. wilderness). Therefore, we find salvation on the Table vs. alienation in the Wilderness, grace vs. merit, Christly wisdom vs. worldly wisdom, identity and meaning vs. fame and emptiness...

Currently, I am working on a sermon series titled as Principles of Christian Services, the three sermon titles preached so far are:

1. Girded to Serve (John 13:1-15)

2. Mission Impossible (Isaiah 6:1-11)

3. Avoiding Burnout (1 Kings 19:1-18)

There will be a couple more titles to come. In this series, I am attempting to lay out biblical principles to help us serve the Lord better avoiding or minimizing some of the mishaps along the path of Christian service.

Every time I prepare a sermon, the Lord is so faithful that I've always learnt something new from the text I studied. Praise and thanks be unto my Lord!

A long summer break from Xanga

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 03:11:06 GMT

Summer has been hectic for me, so I took a long summer break from xanga. We took a missions trip to China, and it was amazingly meaningful, though physically very tiring. After the trip, we have a clearer picture of what the future direction of missions to China should be like. China is desperate for youth and children's ministry. It is also in dire need for systematic, comprehensive, and orthodox theological training. We pray that Glory can have a significant role in those areas.

I thank the Lord for the trip, because it really has opened the eyes of our leaders. Now they have firsthand experience of the challenges and rewards of missions to China.

I have also sent off my son Nat to Davis, which is emotionally draining to me in some sense, because I did feel a sense of loss upon our separation. I need to remind myself that this separation is good for Nat and us, and it is going to be short. I am just glad Nat is in the hand of the Lord.

Homeless Joe

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 17:32:41 GMT

In recent weeks, there is a Homeless Joe living in the hillside of the back of the industrial complex near our church. He left notes requesting for food on our church's door step. Several brothers and sisters were helping him, leaving him bags of groceries also at the church's door step. That seems to work well, and Homeless Joe occasionally left notes of thanks and appreciation. However, our people were late in responding to his last request. (I don't know how it happened.) I found the following note tagged on to my office door by Homeless Joe:

Rev. Gee

You preach God's word but you do not live Gods word. Thank you for helping me while I'm sick & haven't ate for 5 days. I know, not your problem. Homeless is everybody's problem. I'm not homeless because I choose to be nor do I want to be. Thanks for the food your church could not help me with. God sees you as you really are.

A friend?

Homeless Joe

Sorry for keeping Homeless Joe hungry for 5 days, and I am dutifully admonished. May God forgive us, and I am glad to see our people responding to his request more promptly after this note. Reportedly, he has now found a job and will no longer need our unreliable help.

This note of the Homeless Joe is now tagged onto the bulletin board of my office, just as a reminder of how incompetent I am in helping the poor. Thanks to those brothers and sisters who actually went out and bought HJ food.

Sheepdog Theology, 1

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:08:17 GMT

Preface

When I started this Xanga site, one of the things I wish to do is to write down some of my untested thoughts, tentative opinions, etc. I think it is time to do some of that. So bear with me, if you feel what I put down here teems with contradictions, illogical inferences, or simply some very childish thoughts. Perhaps, that is exactly what they are. Just don't get uptight over this, because that is the last thing I wish happen.

1. Theolgogy and Ethics

I have been a sheepdog for several years now. Herding sheep in real life helps put me into the right perspective regarding many things, particularly on the subject of theology. After witnessing some deadly sheep (wolf?) fights over some fine points about certain Bible passages or over some indistinguishable nuances of certain doctrines, I become convinced ethics maybe more important than theology, once we get passed the basic core of our belief.

A sad case in point: Calvin is esteemed to be ¡§the most important systematizer of Protestant theology in the sixteenth century¡¨ (J.L. Gonzalez). However, Calvin played a key role in the burning of Michael Servetus, whose theology Calvin considered heretical.

A friend argued with me when I shared with him this thought: Yeah, Calvin did that, but most everybody else also did something like that at his time. In fact Gonzalez also offers the same lame excuse for Calvin: ¡§But one should also remember that at that time all over Europe both Protestants and Catholics were acting in similar fashion against those whom they considered heretics.¡¨

As a sheepdog who has first hand experience recognizing the value of someone else¡¦ life, I refused to accept those feeble defenses. As a matter of fact, I read a very touching story of two well-known political opponents befriending each other after they both had retired from the political arena. They didn¡¦t kill each other, when killing your opponents was also common practice at that time. It happened in approximately 1200 AD in old China. None of them knew Christ¡¦s love, and yet they practiced an ethics that was above the political norm of their time. If you are curious who they were, here it is: An-shih Wang and Tung-Po Su. Both were very famous statesmen and poets.

Calvin¡¦s lapse of personal ethics has taught me great lesson. Even though people don¡¦t kill each other now over theological differences, but my observation of recent Reform theologians of the Calvin tradition (or their students), unfortunately, still has not shown much improvement in term of that graceless, fighting attitude. I hope this is just a very narrow, isolated observation. However, it explains my deep, innate aversion from Reform Theology despite its supposedly impeccable logics and acclaimed scholarship.

An incredible day

Mon, 22 May 2006 22:45:00 GMT

Yesterday, I was speaking at an LA church. I was invited by a student of a seminary that I teach at. Cindy's uncle told me that the pastor there went to the same high school I did when I was in HK. I had no memory of the pastor when he was in that high school. I guess I never had a class with him. But it was still exciting that there was some common history between us.

When I got there, I met the pastor, Pastor Yip. Yeah, I had no memory of him. It turned out that he was one year younger than I, but we did went to the same high school. And then he asked me, "Do you remember Steven Ko?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed.

"He is here in this church," Pastor Yip said.

What an exciting piece of news! Incredible!

Forty years. Forty years has gone by without any exchange of news or information, and the three of us ran into each other in a church, connected by my student. That really made my incredible day.

Steven Ko was very popular in high school. He was the track star of our school. He broke the 100 meter sprint record of our school at 11 second. I am glad he accepted the Lord and is serving in this LA church. Steven said he still remember me. As we shook hand, Pastor Yip commented little people like us never had real chance to shake Steve's hand then, since he was so popular and high up there. We were just his cheering squad. But now he shakes our hands heartily. What a day!