It's been a hectic week. I keep thinking all week that I'm sick. Whatever it is, I've been feeling drained and flat since Monday. I'm reminded as I write this of Paul's humbling portrayal of ourselves as gospel workers. "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" 2 Cor 4.7. The treasure of the gospel is carried in such ignoble, abject vessels and it is by God's good pleasure this is so; that he may show the greatness of his all-surpassing power. I am reminded that the work of the gospel is not done out of my own strength but by him who doesn't need sleep, doesn't have bad days, doesn't ever grow tired or weary or dull or listless, doesn't ever need to just sit and unwind, and doesn't ever fail.
News From GracePoint/Prayer Requests
Thank you to all who have been praying for the Burwood evening church. Some of you may know that we were recently going to be evicted from our current worship premises by this Sunday because the Club that we're renting from decided to renovate their function centre. However now we they are no longer beginning renovations until June the very earliest. In addition, the local Baptist church have agreed to house us temporarily while the renovations are taking place. This has relieved a lot of the stress and anxiety of finding a gathering place for a hundred people for three months this year. Please give thanks to God, who is our provider in every way!
The Burwood Easter Festival is coming up on Saturday. It is an event supported by the local council that seven churches in the area have had the privilege of organizing. On Saturday, in celebration of Easter, there will be a parade down the main road of our suburb, ending at the local park, where there will be a program with music, food, and other various attractions. It's a great opportunity for us to raise the profile of the church in our community, and to celebrate Jesus and declare that he is alive and the risen King! GracePoint will be there making balloon animals and doing face-painting while we hand out gospel tracts and flyers to our church.
Pray that God will use this to call people to him through faith in Jesus Christ. Pray that people will go to churches wanting to know more and Jesus and why he is Lord, and that they will hear the good news of his work on the cross, repent for their sins, and receive forgiveness in him.
Scripture Of The Week: 2 Cor 5.18-20
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
What I've Been Learning
I meet up twice a month with Pastor Owen and one of the things we've been working through together is the theology of pastoral counseling and how to do it biblically. The book that we're reading through to help us is Instruments In The Redeemer's Hands and I highly recommend this work. It is not only an indispensable work for pastors; it is relevant to anybody who wants to understand more deeply what it means to be a friend or bf/gf or husband/wife, son/daughter, or what God's intentions are for our relationships. It grounds our relationships in God's work of gathering a people for himself in this sinful world to grow to become more holy and find joy in growing in Christ-likeness and helping people around to do the same.
These last few weeks, as we work through the book chapter by chapter and discuss how I can immediately apply those biblical principles in my relationships, have been an immensely stretching experience. It frightens me to think that my work as a pastor is to gently and with grace help people become aware of their sin and their need for Jesus. That is highly intrusive and not a comfortable thing to do.
I've had pages and pages of reflections based on this recent endeavor, and I'll share one that I wrote a few months ago, on the subject of pastoring and grace. It can be found on my other blog, HERE.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Update 31st March 2011
I'm back after an unannounced, two-week hiatus! Things have been pretty busy here at GracePoint, but I thank God that I'm on the other side of one of my busiest weekends!
News from GracePoint
I'll share three big things that went on this last week.
1) GracePoint Music Team Training: On Saturday, I ran two two-and-a-half hour training courses for the church music teams. The two main questions we examined were, "What is worship?" and "What is corporate worship?" and how that helps us understand our role as music leaders within the church.
Here is session number two: for the Burwood leaders.
Chong is out and we're not even half-way through! But can you blame him? He's a drummer...
There's Tiffany, the youngest GracePoint musician!
2) On Monday, I gave three back-to-back gospel talks to about 90-100 kids at Homebush boys high school. Praise God for such a wonderful opportunity! The school originally wanted to hold a "multi-cultural day"; some kind of celebration that advocates tolerance and cultural sensitivity. But Jo Chan, one of our church members who teaches at the school, saw it as an amazing chance to share with kids about Jesus. This is a great example of Christians being missional and gospel-oriented in the workplace. Also a great example of how Christians can "love the city"!
Here I am, giving the talk. Apparently, there were also a Muslim, Jew, and Hindu giving talks as well, but I didn't get to meet them.
3) This past Sunday, my dear friend Heidi and community group co-leader got baptized! I am thankful for the joy of working with her to care for our Bible study group and I admire her commitment to loving people, even when it is exceedingly inconvenient to do so.
Here she is, after giving her testimony, and ready to receive the sprinkling. Her immensely personal testimony so powerfully reminded us of the grace of Jesus and its work in restoring broken, hopeless, sinful people; even in restoring and saving broken families. I really hope and pray that some of the people she invited to the baptism will be moved by the good news of Jesus.
Scripture Of The Week
Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- This is your spiritual act of worship, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is; his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12.1-2
What I've Been Learning
I've been playing around with the idea of starting up a new project. God has blessed the city of Sydney with a strong, faithful evangelical Christian presence and one of the sub-blessings of that is an abundance of solid Christian resources for every part of life and ministry. The leaders, (even lay leaders!) here are well-trained in theology and ministry and godliness. Christians here are encouraged to read and immerse their minds in Scripture and books that will help them love Jesus and live the Christian life. There are reading lists, blogs, sermons made available online, and a culture that places a high premium on head knowledge. There are strong, vibrant, flourishing evangelical campus groups in most of the major universities. And I haven't even begun to talk about the Christian conferences!
"Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship" The thing about true Christian worship is that it is an act that involves your entire life - every faculty of your existence offered in reverent submission to Christ. In one sense, you can even say that worship is not even an act, but a state of being! The state of being is one in which the individual is ever undergoing transformation and renewal that makes him think, speak, act, love, and feel more and more as Jesus does. In a nutshell, being a Christian and worshiping Jesus does not just mean that I do God's will; it also means that I know God's will and love and desire it and regard it as supremely good, pleasing, and perfect (Rom 12.2)
Going back to my project, I have found in my experience that a generalization can be made of the difference between New York Christianity and Sydney Christianity; a sweeping generalization, but a helpful one that is based on truth. Here in Sydney, one of the perennial difficulties that ministers face is how to get their people to move beyond a worship of head knowledge and to a worship of heart and hand knowledge. In other words, how to get the Christians here to not just learn theology, but apply the knowledge into a life of repentance and obedience to God. There is such good teaching here but sometimes it seems like there is a disconnect between the teaching given on Sundays and the living done from Monday to Saturday.
On the other hand, in New York City, to my knowledge of Christianity here there is a different need. There are many churches with genuine, faithful Christians seeking to live a life of worship, but lacking in direction. There are Christians who somehow vaguely intuit that Scripture contains the words of life, but are unsure how to access its power. There are people who know that the call to follow Christ is a call to holiness, but don't know how it works. There are people who want to know more about Jesus, but have never been taught how to read the Bible. There are people who know that God has something to say about how they live, how they go to work, how they study, how they fall in love and get married, but WhAT DOES IT SAY?? Come on, God! It's a two-thousand year old work of literature written by dead people I never met. What does it mean for my life??*
This is where my project comes in. I want to create a database of free resources online out of the abundance and availability here in Sydney that is available for all people with internet access. The resources I'm seeking are:
1) Things to teach people how to read the Bible
2) Things that make theology accessible to lay people
3) Things that teach people what the Bible says about living the Christian life
4) Things that help lay Christians do ministry and serve their church
5) Things that help people do evangelism and proclaim the gospel
This is a fairly new idea, though it's been one that I've been batting around in my head since I came back to visit last December. I've spoken briefly with my Sydney-sider friends who had come to visit with me and they are keen to help me out. Keep on the lookout for the next few weeks and pray for this project!
I recognize that I perceive this need largely due to my own spiritual upbringing. Since the day I first step foot in GracePoint church to the day I went to the Katoomba mountains for my first Sydney Christian conference to this day, I have felt like I was raised in such a theologically-impoverished environment. I've never been in an environment like there, where pastors and laymen alike are able to have theological discourse that rests on the same evangelical positions.
Prayer Points
~Pray for my new project: That God may use it to edify his people in New York City and allow people in Sydney to have a grander view of ministry and missions and gospel partnership outside the boundaries of their city.
~Pray for the Burwood music teams, to be leaders and servants of the church by submitting their entire life in worship to God. Pray for them also to be committed to building up the church through diligent practice other-mindedness in the way they view their gifts.
~Pray for the 90-100 kids as well as the 5-7 teachers that got to hear the gospel this past Monday. Pray that they will be so moved by the radical, out-of-this-world grace that was shown in Jesus Christ that they will want to find out more from their local Christian groups. Pray that God will choose some of them to hear and receive the Word and respond by repentance and trusting in Jesus for salvation.
~Pray the same thing for some of the non-Christians who came on Sunday to Heidi's baptism. "I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior!" Pray that those who heard Heidi's testimony will believe this to be true and give thanks to Jesus for the healing he brings in our lives through the cross.
In Christ,
-Dan
News from GracePoint
I'll share three big things that went on this last week.
1) GracePoint Music Team Training: On Saturday, I ran two two-and-a-half hour training courses for the church music teams. The two main questions we examined were, "What is worship?" and "What is corporate worship?" and how that helps us understand our role as music leaders within the church.
Here is session number two: for the Burwood leaders.
Chong is out and we're not even half-way through! But can you blame him? He's a drummer...
There's Tiffany, the youngest GracePoint musician!
2) On Monday, I gave three back-to-back gospel talks to about 90-100 kids at Homebush boys high school. Praise God for such a wonderful opportunity! The school originally wanted to hold a "multi-cultural day"; some kind of celebration that advocates tolerance and cultural sensitivity. But Jo Chan, one of our church members who teaches at the school, saw it as an amazing chance to share with kids about Jesus. This is a great example of Christians being missional and gospel-oriented in the workplace. Also a great example of how Christians can "love the city"!
Here I am, giving the talk. Apparently, there were also a Muslim, Jew, and Hindu giving talks as well, but I didn't get to meet them.
3) This past Sunday, my dear friend Heidi and community group co-leader got baptized! I am thankful for the joy of working with her to care for our Bible study group and I admire her commitment to loving people, even when it is exceedingly inconvenient to do so.
Here she is, after giving her testimony, and ready to receive the sprinkling. Her immensely personal testimony so powerfully reminded us of the grace of Jesus and its work in restoring broken, hopeless, sinful people; even in restoring and saving broken families. I really hope and pray that some of the people she invited to the baptism will be moved by the good news of Jesus.
Scripture Of The Week
Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- This is your spiritual act of worship, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is; his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12.1-2
What I've Been Learning
I've been playing around with the idea of starting up a new project. God has blessed the city of Sydney with a strong, faithful evangelical Christian presence and one of the sub-blessings of that is an abundance of solid Christian resources for every part of life and ministry. The leaders, (even lay leaders!) here are well-trained in theology and ministry and godliness. Christians here are encouraged to read and immerse their minds in Scripture and books that will help them love Jesus and live the Christian life. There are reading lists, blogs, sermons made available online, and a culture that places a high premium on head knowledge. There are strong, vibrant, flourishing evangelical campus groups in most of the major universities. And I haven't even begun to talk about the Christian conferences!
"Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship" The thing about true Christian worship is that it is an act that involves your entire life - every faculty of your existence offered in reverent submission to Christ. In one sense, you can even say that worship is not even an act, but a state of being! The state of being is one in which the individual is ever undergoing transformation and renewal that makes him think, speak, act, love, and feel more and more as Jesus does. In a nutshell, being a Christian and worshiping Jesus does not just mean that I do God's will; it also means that I know God's will and love and desire it and regard it as supremely good, pleasing, and perfect (Rom 12.2)
Going back to my project, I have found in my experience that a generalization can be made of the difference between New York Christianity and Sydney Christianity; a sweeping generalization, but a helpful one that is based on truth. Here in Sydney, one of the perennial difficulties that ministers face is how to get their people to move beyond a worship of head knowledge and to a worship of heart and hand knowledge. In other words, how to get the Christians here to not just learn theology, but apply the knowledge into a life of repentance and obedience to God. There is such good teaching here but sometimes it seems like there is a disconnect between the teaching given on Sundays and the living done from Monday to Saturday.
On the other hand, in New York City, to my knowledge of Christianity here there is a different need. There are many churches with genuine, faithful Christians seeking to live a life of worship, but lacking in direction. There are Christians who somehow vaguely intuit that Scripture contains the words of life, but are unsure how to access its power. There are people who know that the call to follow Christ is a call to holiness, but don't know how it works. There are people who want to know more about Jesus, but have never been taught how to read the Bible. There are people who know that God has something to say about how they live, how they go to work, how they study, how they fall in love and get married, but WhAT DOES IT SAY?? Come on, God! It's a two-thousand year old work of literature written by dead people I never met. What does it mean for my life??*
This is where my project comes in. I want to create a database of free resources online out of the abundance and availability here in Sydney that is available for all people with internet access. The resources I'm seeking are:
1) Things to teach people how to read the Bible
2) Things that make theology accessible to lay people
3) Things that teach people what the Bible says about living the Christian life
4) Things that help lay Christians do ministry and serve their church
5) Things that help people do evangelism and proclaim the gospel
This is a fairly new idea, though it's been one that I've been batting around in my head since I came back to visit last December. I've spoken briefly with my Sydney-sider friends who had come to visit with me and they are keen to help me out. Keep on the lookout for the next few weeks and pray for this project!
I recognize that I perceive this need largely due to my own spiritual upbringing. Since the day I first step foot in GracePoint church to the day I went to the Katoomba mountains for my first Sydney Christian conference to this day, I have felt like I was raised in such a theologically-impoverished environment. I've never been in an environment like there, where pastors and laymen alike are able to have theological discourse that rests on the same evangelical positions.
Prayer Points
~Pray for my new project: That God may use it to edify his people in New York City and allow people in Sydney to have a grander view of ministry and missions and gospel partnership outside the boundaries of their city.
~Pray for the Burwood music teams, to be leaders and servants of the church by submitting their entire life in worship to God. Pray for them also to be committed to building up the church through diligent practice other-mindedness in the way they view their gifts.
~Pray for the 90-100 kids as well as the 5-7 teachers that got to hear the gospel this past Monday. Pray that they will be so moved by the radical, out-of-this-world grace that was shown in Jesus Christ that they will want to find out more from their local Christian groups. Pray that God will choose some of them to hear and receive the Word and respond by repentance and trusting in Jesus for salvation.
~Pray the same thing for some of the non-Christians who came on Sunday to Heidi's baptism. "I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior!" Pray that those who heard Heidi's testimony will believe this to be true and give thanks to Jesus for the healing he brings in our lives through the cross.
In Christ,
-Dan
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Update 11th March
What a week! It's just past 4am and I just finished writing eight mini-Bible studies on the gospel of Mark. Don't take this as Pastor Eugene overworking me so much as my own misplanning and poor time management. BUT... Euge if you're reading this it doesn't mean that I don't have enough work!
New From GracePoint
Our first week without our Lidcombe church planters was a bit sad, but praise God for their successful launch! I wasn't there myself, but I was told that there were lots of supporters who came by to be a part of the occasion.
This past weekend, the FCG (Friday Community Group - University Bible study groups of GracePoint) leaders had a retreat where we were able to spend time with each other, bond and get to know each other better, and spend an entire afternoon working on a SWOT analysis for FCG. The goal is to work out how FCG is helping our church members mature in Christ and serve the mission of God, where we are falling short, and what we need to do to faithfully work towards God's mission this upcoming year.
Congratulations to Stephanie Wong, who graduated with a Diploma of Divinity and Ministry Training for Women credentials from the Presbyterian Theological College! May you continue to support Simon as the two of you lead our church to reach Lidcombe for God!
Some pictures of our community group leader's training on Tuesday:
Scripture of the Week: Eph 2.14-18
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Something That I've Been Learning: Diversity In The Church
See my other blog for a reflection I wrote earlier this week on church planting.
I've since had a few conversations with Simon, Euge, and a couple of other people. I think this meditation was quite raw and unrefined when I first wrote it, but with the sharpening I received from my mentors, I am developing a sharper understanding of ecclesiology and the way it plays out in planting and nurturing churches.
Prayer Points
~Pray for me as I continue to develop a deeper understanding of church and how we are called to do it in Scripture. I am thinking through serving God's mission in the areas of evangelism, mercy ministry, and community.
~Pray for my community group as I seek to apply what I'm learning to help them love and honor God. We are seeking to do this by loving each other and loving our city.
New From GracePoint
Our first week without our Lidcombe church planters was a bit sad, but praise God for their successful launch! I wasn't there myself, but I was told that there were lots of supporters who came by to be a part of the occasion.
This past weekend, the FCG (Friday Community Group - University Bible study groups of GracePoint) leaders had a retreat where we were able to spend time with each other, bond and get to know each other better, and spend an entire afternoon working on a SWOT analysis for FCG. The goal is to work out how FCG is helping our church members mature in Christ and serve the mission of God, where we are falling short, and what we need to do to faithfully work towards God's mission this upcoming year.
Congratulations to Stephanie Wong, who graduated with a Diploma of Divinity and Ministry Training for Women credentials from the Presbyterian Theological College! May you continue to support Simon as the two of you lead our church to reach Lidcombe for God!
Some pictures of our community group leader's training on Tuesday:
Scripture of the Week: Eph 2.14-18
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Something That I've Been Learning: Diversity In The Church
See my other blog for a reflection I wrote earlier this week on church planting.
I've since had a few conversations with Simon, Euge, and a couple of other people. I think this meditation was quite raw and unrefined when I first wrote it, but with the sharpening I received from my mentors, I am developing a sharper understanding of ecclesiology and the way it plays out in planting and nurturing churches.
Prayer Points
~Pray for me as I continue to develop a deeper understanding of church and how we are called to do it in Scripture. I am thinking through serving God's mission in the areas of evangelism, mercy ministry, and community.
~Pray for my community group as I seek to apply what I'm learning to help them love and honor God. We are seeking to do this by loving each other and loving our city.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Update 3rd March
"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance" - Ecc 3.1-4
This past Sunday, we at GracePoint evening church did both as we sent off 25 of our brothers and sisters to go plant a church in the neighboring suburb of Lidcombe. As I think about my future ministry, I am more and more convinced that God calls us to plant churches. The way we win cities and nations for Christ is by scattering our people so that they may preach the Word and gather more people into his kingdom. I want my future ministry to be done with a constant eye on expansion.
It's not easy though. For a church to commission and send off a team of planters, it means breaking off part of the community, and that comes with much mourning. People will be losing dear brothers and sisters, best friends, people who've discipled and encouraged them, people who they've discipled and encouraged, and people they've fought alongside in the trenches of gospel warfare. I've only been here a year and I'm so grieved by it. Ultimately though, the night was a marked by celebration and thanksgiving over this great opportunity for our church to proclaim the gospel! During our final dinner together, there certainly was a confusing air of joy, sadness, and excitement. Let's keep in touch, Lidcombe evening!
As promised, here are some pictures of our church service:
The music team.
Me with two of the planters, Dan Chu (Middle) and Simon Wong (Right).
Spoz chairing his last Burwood evening service! I photoshopped out the tears.
Before the sermon, we had a special time of prayer, where we had all the church planters come to the center aisle. Those who wanted to went up to lay hands on them and everyone spent a bit of time committing them to God's hands.
Roy praying along after doing some sweet jonsi-style Sigur Ros licks to add to the mood during the open prayer time.
Ronnie doing the Bible reading.
The congregation following along. I'm pretty sure Mike in the front is using a Bible app on his cell phone and not texting or facebooking!
Euge preaching on Ephesians 5 and the Godly husband. Ah, look at this experienced Gen Y preacher! He's got the wireless headset so that he can be more expressive with both arms. He's sporting the untucked button-down shirt with rolled up sleeves, and he's even skipped the pulpit, preferring a single Manhasset Symphony music stand that just says, "I know my music equipment... because I'm cool. I bet you didn't even know that I play guitar too." Now all he's lacking is the tattoo on his arm that "suggests he has an complicated past".
Prayer Requests
~Please pray for Lidcombe church! They will be having their first official gathering this coming Sunday. Pray that even on their first week, newcomers would arrive to find out more about Jesus. Pray that all the members of this new church would have the mission of God in their sights and be EXCITED about proclaiming the good news.
~Pray for their outreach to the neighboring Sydney University campus.
~Pray for Spoz, who will be preaching for quite a few weeks in a row as he seeks to set his church under the authority of God's Word
~For us back in Burwood, pray that we would continue in fervor with our renewed ministry. Pray that we would seek to fill those seats that were vacated with new people who will hear the gospel and submit their life to Jesus.
~Pray for those who are continuing in Burwood to step up and fill the leadership positions that have been vacated by those going to Lidcombe. And not necessarily official leadership positions, but leading by doing things that mature Christians do, like welcome newcomers, disciple, teach, correct, and rebuke, show love and concern for one another, pray for each other, and serve one another.
Thanks for your prayers!
-Dan
This past Sunday, we at GracePoint evening church did both as we sent off 25 of our brothers and sisters to go plant a church in the neighboring suburb of Lidcombe. As I think about my future ministry, I am more and more convinced that God calls us to plant churches. The way we win cities and nations for Christ is by scattering our people so that they may preach the Word and gather more people into his kingdom. I want my future ministry to be done with a constant eye on expansion.
It's not easy though. For a church to commission and send off a team of planters, it means breaking off part of the community, and that comes with much mourning. People will be losing dear brothers and sisters, best friends, people who've discipled and encouraged them, people who they've discipled and encouraged, and people they've fought alongside in the trenches of gospel warfare. I've only been here a year and I'm so grieved by it. Ultimately though, the night was a marked by celebration and thanksgiving over this great opportunity for our church to proclaim the gospel! During our final dinner together, there certainly was a confusing air of joy, sadness, and excitement. Let's keep in touch, Lidcombe evening!
As promised, here are some pictures of our church service:
The music team.
Me with two of the planters, Dan Chu (Middle) and Simon Wong (Right).
Spoz chairing his last Burwood evening service! I photoshopped out the tears.
Before the sermon, we had a special time of prayer, where we had all the church planters come to the center aisle. Those who wanted to went up to lay hands on them and everyone spent a bit of time committing them to God's hands.
Roy praying along after doing some sweet jonsi-style Sigur Ros licks to add to the mood during the open prayer time.
Ronnie doing the Bible reading.
The congregation following along. I'm pretty sure Mike in the front is using a Bible app on his cell phone and not texting or facebooking!
Euge preaching on Ephesians 5 and the Godly husband. Ah, look at this experienced Gen Y preacher! He's got the wireless headset so that he can be more expressive with both arms. He's sporting the untucked button-down shirt with rolled up sleeves, and he's even skipped the pulpit, preferring a single Manhasset Symphony music stand that just says, "I know my music equipment... because I'm cool. I bet you didn't even know that I play guitar too." Now all he's lacking is the tattoo on his arm that "suggests he has an complicated past".
Prayer Requests
~Please pray for Lidcombe church! They will be having their first official gathering this coming Sunday. Pray that even on their first week, newcomers would arrive to find out more about Jesus. Pray that all the members of this new church would have the mission of God in their sights and be EXCITED about proclaiming the good news.
~Pray for their outreach to the neighboring Sydney University campus.
~Pray for Spoz, who will be preaching for quite a few weeks in a row as he seeks to set his church under the authority of God's Word
~For us back in Burwood, pray that we would continue in fervor with our renewed ministry. Pray that we would seek to fill those seats that were vacated with new people who will hear the gospel and submit their life to Jesus.
~Pray for those who are continuing in Burwood to step up and fill the leadership positions that have been vacated by those going to Lidcombe. And not necessarily official leadership positions, but leading by doing things that mature Christians do, like welcome newcomers, disciple, teach, correct, and rebuke, show love and concern for one another, pray for each other, and serve one another.
Thanks for your prayers!
-Dan
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Update 24th February
I wrote in a blog entry about a year ago that “a yes is a thousand nos”. I think it was in response to my first shock at the realization that I can't actually do everything that I want to do. That was back when I wanted to read an five NYTimes articles daily, skype with three New Yorkers besides my family every week, run two miles a day, and get back on track with my life goal of learning Chopin's Ballade #1 in Gmin.
This week, I reiterated that same truth in resigned frustration, but for a different reason. I have too many ministries I want to try this year! I want to get my hand into every candy jar, and there are too many candy jars. I'm experiencing something my dear mentor Pastor Don told me a year and a half ago: “Sometimes it's not what you choose to do, but what you choose to leave out that defines your ministry.” I've been contemplating that statement a lot in various contexts. I've asked myself, “if I were to plant a church somewhere, how would I word my church's mission?” What words would I use and what would I leave out? What ministries would I consider important and what would I leave out? “If I were to take a job at a dysfunctional or waning church, how would I spend my time in my first couple of years?” What ministries would I devote myself to and what ministries would I temporarily leave out?
It's good that I've been using this opportunity to reflect on future ministry, but for now I am still trying to wisely and prayerfully work out how to spend my time this year. I've been experimenting with various kinds of calendars and timesheets. In all this, I've been trying to keep in mind two things:
1) If my mission is God's mission, then he will accomplish it with or without my help. And he'll do a perfect job at it too. God sovereignly rules over all of creation and is also executing to perfection his redemptive plans. He's already gotten the timing down for the most crucial part of his plan! In other words, if God can so flawlessly bring about the perfect execution of his plans, even to the point of having the right person born at exactly the right time and dying at exactly the right moment in exactly the right circumstances.... I get the feeling like he is in control! So then, if Christ died “at just the right time” (Rom 5.6), then can't I trust that everyone that I am serving and doing ministry to will receive grace and grow “at just the right time” as well?
2) If my work is God's work, he will give me enough time and resources to accomplish it. The times when I, granted that I've worked as hard as I could, worry and lament over things not getting done are the times I am not exercising trust in and dependence on him. I make myself to be more important than I really am and thus despair when I, in my human weakness, fail.
I guess, jumping ahead to prayer points, please pray that I can learn to trust in God and depend on him for my work to be accomplished. Pray that I will, in my ministry, make less of myself and more of him, seeking to give him praise and glory and thanks for all things.
News From GracePoint
This is a picture, taken yesterday, of my desk. If I had taken the picture a month ago, it would have looked like this:
The truth is, ever since we've been set for a move to a new building, I've been pretty complacent with working at my desk. People have always treated it as a garbage disposal/storage area, and I've gotten pretty tired of throwing out people's trash for them and occasionally taking something nice home (just kidding). I usually just get work done on someone else's desk or on a table in the library. Hopefully, when we move either in late March or early April, I can start afresh!
But before that, the next big move in our church is sending off our church plant team, who will be worshiping with us one last time this coming Sunday! It's been really exciting to hear from Simon, the church plant pastor, the different ways that they've been getting to know their community, from walking around and visiting random shops to striking conversations with random strangers. They have a real love for their new mission field and a real desire to share the good news of Jesus with their neighborhood!
In unrelated news, the English pastoral staff started their monthly training and mutual encouragement meetings. We kicked off our first one by discussing an article on spiritual disciplines taken from a book. Pictured above, from left to right: Euge, Owen, Tom, Ronnie, who is volunteering at church one day a week, and Pete Hughes. Not pictured: Simon Wong and Amy Leong.
Scripture Of The Week: 2 Timothy 3.14-17
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Something I've Been Learning: The Need For Reproducible Bible Teaching
Last week I shared some of my thoughts on growing in the people you disciple a love for God's Word based on a joy and awe in God's revelation to us. Another thing I've been thinking about is how to teach someone to read the Bible. The above passage tells us that the purpose of Scripture is to make us wise for our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. That means that the end goal of reading Scripture should be to behold Jesus in his greatness, grow in understanding of him and his love, and respond in faith, repentance, and worship. The question is, "How do I teach this to someone not just so that they know, but also so that they may teach others to do the same?"
The object is a faithful Bible reading method simple enough to be replicated not just by your disciple, but also by your disciple's disciple (2 Tim 2.2). This means employing a number of different acronym-based methods. In GracePoint, all the community leaders were taught the COMA method (Context, Observation, Meaning, Application), which I hear is pretty popular in Sydney. Back in New York, I learned the similar OIA method (Observation, which also counts as context, Interpretation, Application). Something I worked out, that I've been teaching my disciples is to ask three simple questions:
What does it say?
What does it mean?
What does it mean for me?
Some people might say that it's a little too simple and can be misleading. But I believe teaching the questions clearly will prevent your disciple from reading inaccurately. There are many Christians for whom the word "context" is too difficult and abstract, let alone "interpretation".
Prayer Points
~Continue to pray for the Lidcombe church-planting team, who will be launching their service in March. I will post up pictures of our commissioning service next week.
~As mentioned above, pray for my time management and dependence on God.
~Pray for the music ministry training event that I will be running in late March.
~Pray for the people of Christchurch, NZ, who recently suffered a devastating earthquake that left their city in shambles.
This week, I reiterated that same truth in resigned frustration, but for a different reason. I have too many ministries I want to try this year! I want to get my hand into every candy jar, and there are too many candy jars. I'm experiencing something my dear mentor Pastor Don told me a year and a half ago: “Sometimes it's not what you choose to do, but what you choose to leave out that defines your ministry.” I've been contemplating that statement a lot in various contexts. I've asked myself, “if I were to plant a church somewhere, how would I word my church's mission?” What words would I use and what would I leave out? What ministries would I consider important and what would I leave out? “If I were to take a job at a dysfunctional or waning church, how would I spend my time in my first couple of years?” What ministries would I devote myself to and what ministries would I temporarily leave out?
It's good that I've been using this opportunity to reflect on future ministry, but for now I am still trying to wisely and prayerfully work out how to spend my time this year. I've been experimenting with various kinds of calendars and timesheets. In all this, I've been trying to keep in mind two things:
1) If my mission is God's mission, then he will accomplish it with or without my help. And he'll do a perfect job at it too. God sovereignly rules over all of creation and is also executing to perfection his redemptive plans. He's already gotten the timing down for the most crucial part of his plan! In other words, if God can so flawlessly bring about the perfect execution of his plans, even to the point of having the right person born at exactly the right time and dying at exactly the right moment in exactly the right circumstances.... I get the feeling like he is in control! So then, if Christ died “at just the right time” (Rom 5.6), then can't I trust that everyone that I am serving and doing ministry to will receive grace and grow “at just the right time” as well?
2) If my work is God's work, he will give me enough time and resources to accomplish it. The times when I, granted that I've worked as hard as I could, worry and lament over things not getting done are the times I am not exercising trust in and dependence on him. I make myself to be more important than I really am and thus despair when I, in my human weakness, fail.
I guess, jumping ahead to prayer points, please pray that I can learn to trust in God and depend on him for my work to be accomplished. Pray that I will, in my ministry, make less of myself and more of him, seeking to give him praise and glory and thanks for all things.
News From GracePoint
This is a picture, taken yesterday, of my desk. If I had taken the picture a month ago, it would have looked like this:
The truth is, ever since we've been set for a move to a new building, I've been pretty complacent with working at my desk. People have always treated it as a garbage disposal/storage area, and I've gotten pretty tired of throwing out people's trash for them and occasionally taking something nice home (just kidding). I usually just get work done on someone else's desk or on a table in the library. Hopefully, when we move either in late March or early April, I can start afresh!
But before that, the next big move in our church is sending off our church plant team, who will be worshiping with us one last time this coming Sunday! It's been really exciting to hear from Simon, the church plant pastor, the different ways that they've been getting to know their community, from walking around and visiting random shops to striking conversations with random strangers. They have a real love for their new mission field and a real desire to share the good news of Jesus with their neighborhood!
In unrelated news, the English pastoral staff started their monthly training and mutual encouragement meetings. We kicked off our first one by discussing an article on spiritual disciplines taken from a book. Pictured above, from left to right: Euge, Owen, Tom, Ronnie, who is volunteering at church one day a week, and Pete Hughes. Not pictured: Simon Wong and Amy Leong.
Scripture Of The Week: 2 Timothy 3.14-17
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Something I've Been Learning: The Need For Reproducible Bible Teaching
Last week I shared some of my thoughts on growing in the people you disciple a love for God's Word based on a joy and awe in God's revelation to us. Another thing I've been thinking about is how to teach someone to read the Bible. The above passage tells us that the purpose of Scripture is to make us wise for our salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. That means that the end goal of reading Scripture should be to behold Jesus in his greatness, grow in understanding of him and his love, and respond in faith, repentance, and worship. The question is, "How do I teach this to someone not just so that they know, but also so that they may teach others to do the same?"
The object is a faithful Bible reading method simple enough to be replicated not just by your disciple, but also by your disciple's disciple (2 Tim 2.2). This means employing a number of different acronym-based methods. In GracePoint, all the community leaders were taught the COMA method (Context, Observation, Meaning, Application), which I hear is pretty popular in Sydney. Back in New York, I learned the similar OIA method (Observation, which also counts as context, Interpretation, Application). Something I worked out, that I've been teaching my disciples is to ask three simple questions:
What does it say?
What does it mean?
What does it mean for me?
Some people might say that it's a little too simple and can be misleading. But I believe teaching the questions clearly will prevent your disciple from reading inaccurately. There are many Christians for whom the word "context" is too difficult and abstract, let alone "interpretation".
Prayer Points
~Continue to pray for the Lidcombe church-planting team, who will be launching their service in March. I will post up pictures of our commissioning service next week.
~As mentioned above, pray for my time management and dependence on God.
~Pray for the music ministry training event that I will be running in late March.
~Pray for the people of Christchurch, NZ, who recently suffered a devastating earthquake that left their city in shambles.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Update 17 Feb 2011
I have officially been living in Sydney for one year and twenty days and I am now just over halfway through my two-year ministry apprenticeship program. My first year I was woefully irregular in my ministry updates and for that I apologize. I am convicted that, for the purposes of accountability and transparency, and also that you may share in my joy as I continue to grow in my love for the gospel and desire to serve the Lord, I will begin updating weekly, using a simple format. Each week, I'll share a little bit about what's been going on in GracePoint church, a Bible verse that I've been thinking through, something I've been learning, and some prayer points. I hope that those who are reading will be encouraged by the great things that God is doing in the Inner West of Sydney through this church, as he gathers a people for himself, saved and bought by his Son Jesus. I also hope that you will partner me and the saints here in prayer, lifting up our needs to the Father.
News From GracePoint
It's that time of the year again, when the GracePoint ministry engine roars to life! Many things are starting up this month, including community groups, Advance 1 + 2 emerging leader's course, and music teams (officially starting in March). Friday Community Groups (FCG) is kicking off this week, sending mixed feelings of excitement and dread through our University and TAFE students; excitement over the fact that we're meeting regularly to study God's Word together but dread over the start of classes!
In addition to our regular ministries starting up, we're also pretty excited about our relaunch and church plant! Some of you might know that two weeks ago, our Burwood evening church relaunched its Sunday meetings in a new location down the street, along with a vision for a renewed gospel ministry in our suburb. Praise God that we are settled in and thank him for our new meeting location, offered to us by the kind staff at the Coronation Club. In two weeks, we will also be commissioning a team of Christians from our own church to plant a new service in Lidcombe, which is a suburb about ten minutes away. That team is led by pastor Simon Wong (former MAP student) and we are all so excited for them!
Second-year emerging leaders class meeting over yummy cherries and the Word of God
Scripture Of The Week: 2 Timothy 1.13-14, 2.2, 3.14-15
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit... And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to each others... But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Something I've Been Learning: Love God's Word!
We at GracePoint are on about teaching the Bible. We believe that every Christian should love the Word of God and desire it. Now down here in Sydney, there are some pretty smart people. There are some really academic, scholarly Christians. Christians who know what the word “Christological” means. Ordinary, non-full-time ministry Christians who are not pastors who know what “Christological” means. Down here in Sydney, among Christian circles is a culture of conference attendance and biblical scholarship; many high school, university, or young worker-aged Christians attend yearly conferences that really hammer you with theology, teach you how to read and exegete Scripture, and give you tools of scholarship for deeper Bible reading. They LOVE it down here, and praise God for this culture of loving his Word.
But one question I've been asking myself recently is, “What do you do if someone doesn't like reading, or isn't a scholar or an intellectual?” How do you teach him to love God's Word? What do you do if someone isn't the best reader, never liked his studies, or is maybe even illiterate? What do you do if you have someone who is great at very many things, but one of those things is not the abstract, intellectual kind of thinking necessary to understand complex theology and string together doctrine? Is he then, unable to love God's Word? Does someone like that have access to the words of life?
I realize there are two ways to teach someone to love God's Word. You can send them off to the Katoomba mountains to learn exegesis and hermeneutics and to take crash courses in biblical and systematic theology. You can buy them a commentary or read Graeme Goldsworthy's Gospel And Kingdom with them. Or you can tell them that the Bible contains the words of life. You can tell them what the Bible is about; that it is about Jesus Christ, who is God, who died for us on the cross so that we may know and love and be received by the God that we rejected. You can tell them that the Bible is God's very own words to us! It is his message, inspired by his spirit, and purposed for saving us and bringing us into his kingdom, through the Son who purchased us with his own blood!
You can tell them that if they want to know their God better, reading the Bible is the way to go. You can give them simple, non-academic tools to read the Bible and to understand it on their own. You can tell them that Scripture is perspicuous, that it is clear and understandable for all people whose hearts are awakened by the Spirit. Next week, I will share some of what I've been learning about reproducible Bible teaching.
Prayer Points
~Thank God for his grace, given to us as the Burwood evening church moves out of our Belmore st. location and settles into our new gathering place right next door to the mall!
~Pray for the Lidcombe evening church plant. Pray that they continue to be excited about bringing God's mission into a new place, and that they would be excited about the gospel there. Pray for Simon and Steph Wong, who are leading the plant.
~Pray for Friday Community Groups (FCG), which is kicking off this week. We're expecting a lot of newcomers to our church and quite a few non-Christians, so pray that we can welcome them and be on about sharing Jesus with them.
News From GracePoint
It's that time of the year again, when the GracePoint ministry engine roars to life! Many things are starting up this month, including community groups, Advance 1 + 2 emerging leader's course, and music teams (officially starting in March). Friday Community Groups (FCG) is kicking off this week, sending mixed feelings of excitement and dread through our University and TAFE students; excitement over the fact that we're meeting regularly to study God's Word together but dread over the start of classes!
In addition to our regular ministries starting up, we're also pretty excited about our relaunch and church plant! Some of you might know that two weeks ago, our Burwood evening church relaunched its Sunday meetings in a new location down the street, along with a vision for a renewed gospel ministry in our suburb. Praise God that we are settled in and thank him for our new meeting location, offered to us by the kind staff at the Coronation Club. In two weeks, we will also be commissioning a team of Christians from our own church to plant a new service in Lidcombe, which is a suburb about ten minutes away. That team is led by pastor Simon Wong (former MAP student) and we are all so excited for them!
Second-year emerging leaders class meeting over yummy cherries and the Word of God
Scripture Of The Week: 2 Timothy 1.13-14, 2.2, 3.14-15
What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit... And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to each others... But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Something I've Been Learning: Love God's Word!
We at GracePoint are on about teaching the Bible. We believe that every Christian should love the Word of God and desire it. Now down here in Sydney, there are some pretty smart people. There are some really academic, scholarly Christians. Christians who know what the word “Christological” means. Ordinary, non-full-time ministry Christians who are not pastors who know what “Christological” means. Down here in Sydney, among Christian circles is a culture of conference attendance and biblical scholarship; many high school, university, or young worker-aged Christians attend yearly conferences that really hammer you with theology, teach you how to read and exegete Scripture, and give you tools of scholarship for deeper Bible reading. They LOVE it down here, and praise God for this culture of loving his Word.
But one question I've been asking myself recently is, “What do you do if someone doesn't like reading, or isn't a scholar or an intellectual?” How do you teach him to love God's Word? What do you do if someone isn't the best reader, never liked his studies, or is maybe even illiterate? What do you do if you have someone who is great at very many things, but one of those things is not the abstract, intellectual kind of thinking necessary to understand complex theology and string together doctrine? Is he then, unable to love God's Word? Does someone like that have access to the words of life?
I realize there are two ways to teach someone to love God's Word. You can send them off to the Katoomba mountains to learn exegesis and hermeneutics and to take crash courses in biblical and systematic theology. You can buy them a commentary or read Graeme Goldsworthy's Gospel And Kingdom with them. Or you can tell them that the Bible contains the words of life. You can tell them what the Bible is about; that it is about Jesus Christ, who is God, who died for us on the cross so that we may know and love and be received by the God that we rejected. You can tell them that the Bible is God's very own words to us! It is his message, inspired by his spirit, and purposed for saving us and bringing us into his kingdom, through the Son who purchased us with his own blood!
You can tell them that if they want to know their God better, reading the Bible is the way to go. You can give them simple, non-academic tools to read the Bible and to understand it on their own. You can tell them that Scripture is perspicuous, that it is clear and understandable for all people whose hearts are awakened by the Spirit. Next week, I will share some of what I've been learning about reproducible Bible teaching.
Prayer Points
~Thank God for his grace, given to us as the Burwood evening church moves out of our Belmore st. location and settles into our new gathering place right next door to the mall!
~Pray for the Lidcombe evening church plant. Pray that they continue to be excited about bringing God's mission into a new place, and that they would be excited about the gospel there. Pray for Simon and Steph Wong, who are leading the plant.
~Pray for Friday Community Groups (FCG), which is kicking off this week. We're expecting a lot of newcomers to our church and quite a few non-Christians, so pray that we can welcome them and be on about sharing Jesus with them.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Life Is Good
It's 4.50am, Saturday morning and I have just finished my sermon for Sunday. I am preaching at the two services in Hebron Chinese Alliance Church. I will sleep for four hours and then wake up to go to music rehearsal. Then I will have my music team over for lunch. Immediately after, I will be going to my good friend's 21st birthday party. The party will end close to midnight. Then I will go home and sleep for seven hours before waking up to preach at back-to-back services. After preaching, I will go to FCG leader's meeting, followed by music rehearsal, followed by Burwood at 5 service. After service is church dinner, followed by one final meeting for the Study Lounge. In total, I will have eleven hours of rest between now and the end of Sunday.
This year, I have worked harder than I have ever worked before and I have been more exhausted than I have ever been at any time in my life. This weekend is probably going to be the hardest I've had this year, but there have been a few similar to it.
But in all of this, I have experienced more joy in my life and in what I'm doing than I have ever experienced at any point in my life ever. I have loved every single minute of my life and I have considered that which I am working towards to be of more worth than any other pursuit I have ever endeavored.
I made a mistake this week with my time management and I'm paying for it, but I'm still so thankful for this moment.
I would like to declare that I've done more meaningful living this year than I've done at any point in my entire life.
Earlier this evening (I cannot believe it was almost eight hours ago), I shared with my Bible study group that to the degree that you throw yourself without abandon into a mission or goal that you consider of supreme worth, you will experience infinitely increasing joy. I testify with my life that this fact is true.
This year, I have worked harder than I have ever worked before and I have been more exhausted than I have ever been at any time in my life. This weekend is probably going to be the hardest I've had this year, but there have been a few similar to it.
But in all of this, I have experienced more joy in my life and in what I'm doing than I have ever experienced at any point in my life ever. I have loved every single minute of my life and I have considered that which I am working towards to be of more worth than any other pursuit I have ever endeavored.
I made a mistake this week with my time management and I'm paying for it, but I'm still so thankful for this moment.
I would like to declare that I've done more meaningful living this year than I've done at any point in my entire life.
Earlier this evening (I cannot believe it was almost eight hours ago), I shared with my Bible study group that to the degree that you throw yourself without abandon into a mission or goal that you consider of supreme worth, you will experience infinitely increasing joy. I testify with my life that this fact is true.
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