Happy One month, Sydney!

Wait a second, who's Sydney?

(I totally forgot to snap pictures all week, though it's been a good week.)

Since FCG started up this past Friday, I officially feel like everything's begun! Last night's kick-off event was a lot of fun. We had a barbecue (yes, you poor Northeasterners, the weather was great enough for us to grill outside), played a few icebreaker games, and interviewed all of the FCG leaders before breaking off into small groups. In our small groups, we talked about individual goals and expectations for the year. In my group, I laid out three things I want to be shaping our identity as a Christ-centered community:

1) To be a community that treasures Jesus above all other things (Mk 12.30). This is what we look like on the inside; in our hearts we want to be people that love God more than anything else in this world.

2) To be a community that is transformed by Jesus (Mk 12.31). This is what we want to look like to others on the outside. We want to be marked by the love of Jesus that overflows into our love for other people, inside and outside of our community group.

3) To be a community that is missional. This is our purpose as a community group; to always be looking outward to fulfill Jesus' great commission for all his disciples.

I think next week, I want to write something about the relationship between mission and community.

Advance Year 1: Advance is Gracepoint's emerging leaders seminar. It runs for two years; the first years meet twice a month and the second years meet monthly. I attend the meetings partly for my own benefit and partly to help teach it and offer myself as someone to meet up with and work through difficult issues of the faith with. This past Tuesday, the first years met and discussed the first two chapters of Desiring God, by John Piper. The discussion unearthed a lot of very deep questions from the group members. Eugene assigned these questions back to the group for them the wrestle through and search the Scriptures about. I was reminded that I still had a lot of questions which I have more or less resolved for myself, but I still needed to understand it well enough for me to teach and explain it to others.

One issue that I am going to be studying is, "Why does God choose to save only some people and not all people?" The question isn't whether it is God's sovereign right, because it most certainly is, but whether the Scriptures give us a perspective of God's purpose in his good, pleasing and perfect will. To work through this issue, I will be meeting with a guy named Dave, whom I have become swimming buddies with, to work through Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 together.

Some Aussie discoveries

1) Apparently, if Bob's your uncle, then all is well with the world: I had just finished preaching my youth talk in front of Peter Hughes the youth pastor and he was giving me some pointers. "So, all you need to do is add an illustration after your first point, find a NT passage to back up your Christology point, and then Bob's your uncle" I gave him a weird stare for a few minutes before he realized he needed to explain what he just said. Anyway, who wants to revive this antiquated Aussie colloquialism with me?

2) If somebody calls you a "cack" then they consider you a pretty funny person who can always lighten the mood with a joke. If you "cack" so hard that milk comes out of your nose, then somebody around you probably told a really good joke. This is definitely the dirtiest-sounding Aussie term I've encountered to date.

Praise and Prayer points

1) PRAISE GOD I HAVE FOUND A PERMANENT PLACE! It is in a nearby town called Strathfield; it is about an hour walk from church and maybe 15-20 minute bike ride. There is also a bus that stops really close by that takes me right into downtown Burwood. I will be moving in early next week and I will FINALLY be able to unpack my two suitcases!

2) I really had a lot of fun at FCG last night. It was truly a joy to meet my CG members and I am very excited to grow closer with them over this year. Pray that we would be like-minded, one in spirit and purpose, that we would truly wrestle with what it means to be a community centered around Christ and his cross work; that we would be able to live out the implications of that profound truth in our lives and in our relationships with one another and in the way that we talk to other people. Pray for me and my co-leader Jenny, that we would be committed to serving our group and leading them always towards Christ in love and conformity to his likeness.

3) By the time most people on the East Coast wake up and read this, I will be preaching already, but pray that my talk in the Youth Extreme service tomorrow will go well. Pray that it will lead to a deeper understanding of the centrality of gospel and how the prophecy in 2 Sam 7 points to Christ and how God's will is to establish an everlasting kingdom for his son, King Jesus.

I would also once again like to thank all those back home and here in Sydney who are supporting me continuously through prayer and kind emails and IMs. It's been a real encouragement and I feel so blessed to be partnered with so many people for the sake of the gospel. I also thank the loads of people that I constantly pester online to send texts for me to people in the States, particularly to my girlfriend Kat. I really do appreciate it because a long-distance relationship is really hard and you guys are helping us a lot.

-Dan

Friday Community Groups

It's been an exciting week! The highlight of which was going on the FCG (Friday Community Group) Leader's retreat this weekend. There, I got connected with all the FCG leaders, most of whom are around my age. I am so glad for the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of my peers and get to know some really fun people; people who I am going to be serving with this year.

What is FCG? In Gracepoint Burwood, the way that we grow in community with Christ is by meeting in small groups of 10 to 12 to encourage one another and grow in knowledge of the Word of God together. In these groups, we work together to fulfill the Gracepoint vision: to build up God's people and to reach out in God's world. The Friday Community Group is a collection of groups that all meet together on Friday nights. These groups are primarily composed of University-aged members. Each small group usually has one leader and one co-leader. Through these groups, we get to know a few church members better and learn to love and support one another and grow in faith and knowledge of the word together. There are five FCG groups, and I am leading one with Jenny Chan.

I am very excited for FCG to begin because this will be a great experience for me. In College, I led a community group at Citylife Church of Boston, so I have had some experience with this kind of church structure. However, I believe that God will be putting me in many opportunities to grow. I am excited to invest in the lives of my group members and meet up with them often to actively find ways to encourage them and build them up. I am excited to put into practice my conviction that discipleship should be Scripture-focused and God-focused. And I'm looking forward to all the ways that my group members and my co-leader will build me up and equip me for future ministry as well.

What else have I been learning?

I have been learning more about the country of Australia, particularly the fact that every living creature here wants to kill you. Australia boasts the most venomous jellyfish, octopus, spider, and fish in the world, a few of the most venomous snakes in the world, the largest crocodile in the world, and Hugh Jackman.

Prayer Requests

~FCG is starting up this Friday (2/26/10). Pray that we would have a smooth start to the year, that God would use the night, and that all the groups will get along.

~Please pray for the FCG Leaders to have a heart for their group. This year, our biblical focus is on practicing the gospel in counter-cultural ways. Pray that we would be led by the Spirit when preparing Bible studies and that it would be used to transform the lives and practice of ourselves and our group members.

~Pray for the Matt and Pei-Chi Lui, who are overseeing the entire FCG, that they would be faithful and obedient to God in running this ministry all year.

Pictures (Top to Bottom)

1) Hayson Lo slicing broccoli

2) Matt Lui chopping potatoes

3-4) Taking care of admin business over delicious snacks

5) Jenny Chan, Matt, and Pei-Chi in the kitchen

6) Beautiful Aussie beach

This has been quite an eventful week! It started with an excellent Super Bowl victory by the New Orleans Saints, which I watched with my good friend and potential future roommate Matt Davis, and it ended with an Elder's meeting just this morning (Saturday) at Eugene's house. A number of mildly notable occurrences also took place. I took the bus and train for the first time and didn't get lost. I settled into my “MAP” cubicle, which was my predecessor Thomas Lai's old cubicle and also Sharon Law's before him! I saw Sydney harbor, had my first meetings, and also (FINALLY) got medical insurance. Praise God especially for the latter!

(picture descriptions below)

Three lessons I've learned

I've been encountering a zillion and one lessons a day, but I'd like to share two things God's been teaching me and that I've been thinking through:

1)The role of the pastor is to pray for his people.

What is one of the most important responsibilities of the pastor? It is to lift up his people before God in prayer. I first started thinking about this because Eugene sends out a weekly prayer email to all his pastoral staff and elders. As leaders, we are to be modeling dependence on God and humility in our ministry by praying. When we do so, we acknowledge that we cannot accomplish anything without him and that we are participating in HIS work for HIS kingdom. We are building the house of God on the foundation of Christ, who is the vine. Apart from him, we can do nothing (John 15.5). During the Elder's meeting this morning, one of the most encouraging things I've seen was when we took a big chunk of time right in the beginning to pray for the church, including individual members of the church. I thought to myself, "This is what TRUE leadership looks like!" I've not seen such raw pastoralship than when all the leaders of the church gather in one place to commit their flock to the Great Shepherd.

2)The role of the church is to recruit, train, and sustain each generation of leaders.

Whose job is it to train and equip pastors for the church? The seminaries, right? No! It is such a fallacy of our thought that if you want to be a pastor, you just go off to seminary; and 3 years later they'll send you out as a gospel-worker, fully ready to lead a church. For a long time, I've been thinking through the church's role in sustaining herself. I think many churches and Christians in America (and all over the world!) undervalue the work of partnering with individuals who feel the calling to serve God full-time. The norm should be churches and church leaders identifying mature and gifted Christians, encouraging them to consider full-time ministry, training and equipping them, send them off to seminary (to develop a solid biblical foundation), and support them as they re-enter the church, ready to serve. To use a baseball metaphor, when churches hire new pastors, they think too much of signing free agents as opposed to developing their own talented workers through their farm system.

Anyway, as I think through this some more, I encourage my readers to entertain the idea of a holistic calling into ministry, where an individual not only feels a personal calling, but is also confirmed and supported by his Christ community. On that note, I am so thankful to my own mentors like Don Yee and Scott Sheet and Greg O'Brien and Eugene Hor, who have identified me, tithed their time to train and equip me, encouraged my path into ministry, and done whatever they can to prepare me for gospel work. I am also thankful for Boon church, who have sent me out and pledged their support during my entire training. I hope that we all have a greater vision of fulfilling the great commission by raising up gospel workers in our churches and supporting them!

3) DON'T EVER DRINK MILK FROM THE CHURCH FRIDGE

Or eat anything in there that's not yours. EVER.

Things I've done this week

Since this is my second full week here, I am definitely starting to fill up my schedule. On Thursday, I made it out to Sydney city to eat lunch with a church member named Akke. That was pretty awesome, because I finally got to see some famous parts of town! We had a great time eating our sandwiches by the beautiful harbor, and it was such a nice, hot sunny day; the opposite of what the Northeast is getting right now!

I also got to see Ying Yee, whom I haven't seen since Boon Church's summer retreat last year. It was a real great opportunity to sit in on a planning meeting that he and Eugene were having; they were discussing an upcoming pastor's meeting where they will be hosting a dialogue on training and equipping the next generation.

I am starting to meet more and more church members. I met up with a couple of guys that were going to be in my community group, such as Danny and Will. A few nights ago, a couple even invited me to their house for dinner!

Prayer Requests

1) I feel like I've properly settled down and in many ways gotten into a routine of sorts, but all the same I am starting to feel a little bit overwhelmed with all the information that I'm taking in. I feel like a flowerpot that's been watered too quickly and the soil hasn't been given enough time to absorb it all. There are still a lot of things that I need to get used to, and a lot of things to keep in my mind all the time. It makes me feel “uncomfortably full”. Pray that I would be able to find a time in the next few days to be alone with the Lord and reflect on my first two weeks here and digest it all. Pray that it would give me energy and renewal so that I have room to fit in the many more things that I'm going to learn.

2) Please continue to pray for my relationships with people as meet more and more people. Pray that I would have opportunities to encourage them and share from the Word of God with them. Hopefully, in the upcoming weeks, I can narrow down my focus so that I can build up a deeper relationship with one or two guys that I wish to disciple this year.

Pictures (Top to Bottom)

1) Me at Sydney harbor! The shadow wouldn't let me take a nice picture, so I turned it into an "artistic silhouette" photo.

2) Rev. Ying demonstrating a full integration of the three Cs of meeting people in ministry: Christ, conversations, and coffee.

3) Euge and Ying talking and thinking through a meeting they're supposed to run on training and equipping the next generation of gospel workers.

4) Beautiful Sydney City

5) My desk! It once belonged to Thomas Lai, and Sharon Law before him. I feel honored to be a part of such a distinguished line of MAP apprentices! Man I really need some photos and personal effects for decoration.

P.S. - Next week's update will be late because I will be attending a community group leadership retreat until Sunday.

And We're Off!

This week, I officially got started. On Tuesday, Eugene ran me through "orientation". We laid out my ministry expectations, what was expected of me, my roles and responsibilities, and such. I will be spending my time in a combination of growing in biblical knowledge, Christ-like character, and ministry skills. Some of my responsibilities include meeting up regularly with the pastors and elders of the church to learn from them, reading the Bible through once a year, reading a variety of other theology and ministry books, and learning by being actively involved in Gracepoint ministries. Not many things have started up yet, but next week I'll attend my first meetings for “FCG” (Friday community groups) and "Advance", Gracepoint's emerging leaders training program.

The rest of the week was a bit lighter. I attended SCG (summer community groups) on Friday and met a lot of high school graduates who are going into college (also called "uni") in a month. Today, I went with Eugene to a uni conference held by Rice: Surge, which is a college-aged gifts conference. Eugene gave a workshop talk there on "Being part of a church plant core team".

Impressions

My time here has been such a great blessing so far, because I am learning so much! I think the best part is all the time that I spend with Eugene. Since I have no ride, he has to take me to and from church every day and I use every opportunity to ask him questions about ministry, theology, and whatever I can think of. From meeting with people, talking to Euge, and getting started in the books I'm supposed to read, I feel so saturated with knowledge and insight that sometimes I can't even take it all in! I am quite literally forgetting more about ministry right now than I knew before.

Prayer points

~I still don't have a permanent place to live, but I am not too worried about this. There are a number of apartments being offered that Eugene is taking me to see next week.

~My biggest prayer request is that as ministry starts up in earnest next week, I utilize every chance to meet some of the younger church members. Pray that God would open up opportunities for me to meet up with them and connect with them. A large part of my ministry is in discipleship and helping others grow in the Word in one-on-one situations.

~Pray that I would continue to grow in a deeper understanding of God's Word so that I may faithfully teach it. I would like to strengthen my understanding of biblical theology, which is the discipline of understanding the entire Bible in the context of God's revelation to humanity.

Q&A TIME

It was brought to my attention by Alex Chang that some people have questions about Australia that they'd like me to answer. I will try to answer a few every week. If you have any more, feel free to email them to me (dshih87@gmail.com) and I'll pick all the good ones.

1)What's the temperature like there?

As you might have noticed in the picture up there, there is a little bit of rain going on right now. In general, since it's summer here; it's nice and sunny, around the high 70s to mid 80s, and a touch on the humid side. I hear in the winter (which is summer time in the U.S.), it drops down to a more “comfortable” temperature. One thing I've learned is that these Aussies are pretty spoiled! I tell them that when we get a nice day in New York, everyone's extolling the goodness of God and writing up psalms and whatnot. On a hot day or a rainy day, Aussies will just complain!

2)Does the toilet actually flush in reverse?

It's hard to tell because the toilets here work a little differently. Instead of flushing and creating a tornado; they just dump a whole bunch of water! Anyway, I tested it in the sink a couple of times, and it seems to drain clockwise. Tracy Chang has confirmed that it drains counter-clockwise up in the Northern hemisphere. So to answer the question: No it does not flush in reverse. That would be disgusting. The water simply spins in a different direction.

Pictured

1) Burwood Chinese Presbyterian Church from the outside. The building on the left is where the lunchroom and offices are. The building on the right is the sanctuary.

2) Rev. Eugene Hor. Lead English Pastor and my main mentor.

3) Pastor Owen Seto. Assistant pastor to the English and director of the community groups.