Jolt Quote XII

On the four senses (or meanings) of any passage we read:

"The literal teaches you facts, the allegorical what you should believe, the moral what you should do, and the anagogical where you are headed." (William A. Clebsch, Athanasius - Life of Antony, preface,xviii)

ks

Re-alignment

These days, I have not been blogging as much as I am trying to decide what direction and for what purpose is this blogsite for. It started as a way for me to document and to share my experience here during my sojourn here in Vancouver. It has since grown to cover a lot of other areas including my hobbies, my reading experiences as well as my family highlights. I toggle between deciding what to share, what is sensitive and what is not, what deserves to be public and what is private. Often, making such decisions is not that simple. Take for example some event that I have been wanting to share, but because if I do not get into more specifics, in the interest of protecting the privacy of the people around me, the posting will lose a lot of contextual meaning.

I am not aiming for this blog to become famous. I am publicity-shy. I am not intending for this blog to eventually make money. I remain a skeptic on web-ad earnings on whether it brings more benefit to the author or the hosting services (more likely the hosting providers). I am not concerned about crusading for things like world peace, as I not Gandhi or Mother Teresa. This is simply a blog. A snapshot of my own journey in Vancouver. A frame in time to register some of the things I have learnt. A portrait of my spiritual pilgrimage that contains flaws, weaknesses, joys and ecstasy of what it means to be human. It captures moments of learning and reflection in the things God has enlightened me about. It helps me bridge the physical distance with good friends and family members far away, using technology to foster and cultivate a social and emotional warmth. It is effectively a window into the house of my life.

How should I re-align this blog? Should it be theme focused? Should it be a haphazard sharing of different happenings? Maybe, it should stay the way it is. Tell me.


ks

The Sabbath (Abraham Joshua Heschel)

"What is the Sabbath? Spirit in the form of time. With our bodies we belong to space; our spirit, our souls, soar to eternity, aspire to the holy. The Sabbath is an ascent to the summit. It gives us the opportunity to sanctify time, to raise the good to the level of the holy, to behold the holy by abstaining from profanity." (Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath, p75)

Greek Site

Incidentally, yesterday was a Greek (great?) weekend along broadway. Even the public libraries were promoting Greek books and culture. Vancouver is indeed colourful. This is an example of a multicultural embracement in action.

Found this Greek Bible parsing site. Great resource for Greek scholars working on the New Testament.

ks

Intelligent Church

This is another of those new books that talks about the church needing to be 'relevant' to the world. The idea of an intelligent church is one that is able to connect the Bible with 21st century culture, to be authentic and have thought through its practice. The authors (Steve Chalke and Anthony Watkis) believe that how a church does its work, is a reflection of their understanding of who God is. Important point.

Two Interesting Points
When I picked up this book from the library, I thought that this is a book that talks about 'how-to' do church in the 21st century. The gist of being 'intelligent' is being able to connect biblical faith and the new 21st century context. The idea of 'intelligent' is described in terms of being inclusive, the others being (honest, purposeful, generous, vulnerable, diverse, dependent and transforming). The two most catchy ideas about being an intelligent church is the call for the church to be both 'messy' and 'political'. Being inclusive necessarily mean things will get messy. One needs to learn to live with things in its various stages of 'disorder'. (For example, living together in a home, one needs to accept that some people prefer their toilet rolls to be rolled inside-out while others prefer outside-in. In this sense, things are never in any one order at all times.) It is developing that state of acceptance of one another. This does not mean accepting all kinds of doctrines or theologies. It means living with the idiosyncrasies of each person.

The second surprise I have is regarding the 'political' element. I am all for the separation of church-state, believing that the excesses of the politicising the church will tarnish the church's image instead of being more faithful in representing Christ. Essentially, God is ABOVE all. Why then should we subject the church that Christ loves, under the state? Theologically speaking, the church will rule the new world with Christ in future. If the Church lives in God's purpose, politics need not be a dirty word. Jim Wallis was quoted "We need a politics that offers us something we haven't had for a long time: a vision of transformation." In other words, there is such a thing as GOOD politics. Charles Spurgeon describes it best:

The Christian preacher carries a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other - and reads them both!

The Church thus needs to be engaged in politics not in a power grabbing sense but in a participatory manner. We should not separate church-state relations to the point that the church don't care. The Church must care. Let this care lead the way in terms of participatory politics and supporting good policies.
Other Aspects of Intelligent Church
1) DIVERSE: An IC needs to be 'diverse' because it cannot simply be merely an accepting church. It needs to CELEBRATE the diversity within the church. Whenever we have any one group that trumpets their supremacy based on their prowess, their ethnicity, their affluence, or whatever that distinguishes them from others, we have to watch out. In fact, the way a church celebrates its diversity prepares itself for effectiveness in other lands in mission. How true! The way to be diverse is thus to purposefully be open to all groups in all its ministries. Isn't it strange to call a church group diverse when all the members of body are from a homogenous group?

2) DEPENDENT: An IC being dependent, helps keep one from complacency, and to learn to be authentic. How can created beings who are ontologically (their very being) dependent, ever dare to claim independence? That will be foolhardy. The way to learn dependence is to learn to trust God and to depend on him to fulfill what he has promised.

3) GENEROUS: The authors defined 'generosity' as the act of giving or sharing more than is necessary or expected (91). The IC needs to be generous with its time, its resources and with its grace. It gives people the benefit of the doubt, and learns generosity from God.

4) HONESTY: One of the biggest dangers of any church is to force members to conform to their expectations, even at the expense of who they are. For example, if a church member starts to doubt certain doctrines, rather than addressing that doubt, there are some church people who seeks to force down acceptance rather than reason with the doubters. Room need to be given for people to explore their doubts, to be honest with one another. After all, Jesus allowed people to doubt (see doubting Thomas for example).

5) PURPOSEFUL: Chalke and Watkis goes on to emphasise the need to plan, be intentional and to have a clear strategy in whatever the IC do. It sounds a little like Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven Church. I would say that I have some gripes with this part of the book, where the authors stresses on being "outcome-focused". Aren't Christians in general need to hold up both the journey of holiness and the focus on the outcome simultaneously?

6) VULNERABLE: Yes. Relationships require vulnerability. It reflects trust. Practicing it is however tough. Try asking the leadership to give up control especially in areas where they feel vulnerable.

7) TRANSFORMING: I like the quote from Charles Spurgeon that reads"A little faith will get you to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to earth." Chalke and Watkis reminds us that humanitarianism is never enough. We cannot simply do the feeding. We need to help transform a culture that expects others to do things for them, to be able to help one another to help one another. The way to do this is to share love.

Finally, in an afterword, the authors reminds us of Augustine's famous quote: "The church may be a whore but she is still my mother." We may still have gripes about the church, but we cannot disown her. We need to do church not based on traditions, meetings, buildings, liturgies, governance, dress codes and other earthly identification signs. A Church need to allow its Christology (understanding of Christ) shape its ecclesiology (theology of church), which in turns influences its missiology (theology of missions).

My Thoughts About this Book
This book is a book that gives lots of ideas. It is a reminder that we need to learn to do church contextually, all the time. The intentions of the author is commendable. While the quotes and adjectives used to described the IC is attention grabbing, I find myself questioning the overwhelming drive 'to be different'. Is this drive from the Holy Spirit? Or is it another man-made how-to-do-church kind of wake up call? Any work that becomes overly explicit about how to do church makes me explicitly cautious whether that is really the way to do church. It should be used as an ignition starter, rather than a detailed manual to do church.

ks

A Blogger's Prayer

Sometimes we do need to question why we do what we are doing. Is there a spirituality when blogging? I find this prayer pretty helpful. Credits to Andrew Jones.

Our Father
who lives above and beyond the dimension of the internet

Give us this day a life worth blogging,
The access to words and images that express our journey with passion and integrity,
And a secure connection to publish your daily mercies.
Your Kingdom come into new spaces today,
As we make known your mysteries,
Posting by posting,
Blog by blog.

Give this day,
The same ability to those less privileged,
Whose lives speak louder than ours,
Whose sacrifice is greater,
Whose stories will last longer.

Forgive us our sins,
For blog-rolling strangers and pretending they are friends,
For counting unique visitors but not noticing unique people,
For delighting in the thousands of hits but ignoring the ONE who returns,
For luring viewers but sending them away empty handed,
For updating daily but repenting weekly.

As we forgive those who trespass on our sites to appropriate our thoughts without reference,
Our images without approval,
Our ideas without linking back to us.

Lead us not into the temptation to sell out our congregation,
To see people as links and not as lives,
To make our blogs look better than our actual story.

But deliver us from the evil of pimping ourselves instead of pointing to you,
From turning our guests into consumers of someone else's products,
From infatuation over the toys of technology,
From idolatry over technology
From fame before our time has come.

For Yours is the power to guide the destinies behind the web logs,
To bring hurting people into the sanctuaries of our sites,
To give us the stickiness to follow you, no matter who is watching or reading.
Yours is the glory that makes people second look our sites and our lives,
Yours is the heavy ambiance,

For ever and ever,
Amen

"Driven by Fear" or "Led by Love"?

Am I living a life that is driven by fear, or one that is led by love? More often than not, I think it is the fear. Lord, let me sleep leisurely in your love, help me rest under the shadow of your wings.

Keep me as the apple of the eye;
         Hide me in the shadow of Your wings (Ps 17:8)

Photo Credit: Apple of my eye (by Jenn Kouwenberg) Honorable Mention in Heartfelt Images contest 2005