Dan Down Under

Update 7th April 2011

2011-04-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Update 31st March 2011

2011-03-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

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

Update 11th March

2011-03-10T09:06:00.000-08:00

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.

Update 3rd March

2011-03-03T05:06:00.000-08:00

"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

Update 24th February

2011-02-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

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.

Update 17 Feb 2011

2011-02-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

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.

Life Is Good

2010-11-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

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.

Ministry Is About People: One-To-One Discipleship

2010-09-30T22:49:00.001-07:00

This is a continuation of the series "Ministry is about people", which began here.

Here at GracePoint, a large part of church life and growth is in the preaching of the Word through individual meet-ups. The following is a lesson I learned a few months ago:

Let's say you're meeting up with someone, one on one. You meet at church on a Friday or a Sunday. You get there a little earlier, but the person you're meeting with is running late. You find some of your friends just hanging around because it's before worship service starts and so you go to strike up a conversation with them while waiting for your guy. Finally he arrives and as you're about to walk down to Burwood rd/Main st to get some lunch, your friends make it known that they haven't eaten yet and would be interested in joining. Your friends are dense and don't realize that you were going to meet with your friend alone to catch up, share, and encourage each other. As you try to break away, they keep following you. You don't want to make it awkward by telling them that you'd like to eat alone and that you were going to do some serious one-to-one "ministry".

What do you do??

I should back up a bit and give two reasons why this situation seemed like such a dilemma to me. Doubtlessly many of you who serve the church and are dedicated to seeing its people mature in Christ have encountered similar situations as this. Perhaps this occurs to GracePoint members more often than my readers from other churches because here in Australia, one-to-one meet-ups are a very strong cultural expression of building up the body. Well at any rate, I was in a quandary because:

1) I'm not a fan of awkward situations. I'm sure many of you can relate.

2) Much weightier than the first reason, I am too aware of how often meet-ups like these can degenerate into unproductive, unedifying hang-out time. Those who've had more than a little ministry experience know that encouraging each other and strengthening each other's faith is unnatural. It is difficult and counterintuitive to us because our hearts by nature fall away from Christ and because the act of strengthening each other requires openness and vulnerability, two things our culture is not good at. When we meet up, it is much easier to have our spiritual planes fly in a holding pattern rather than seek to point each other in the right direction. Talking about anything else besides our spiritual walks is easier. You can hit up every other conversational topic under the sun, your week, the weather, cool music you've recently discovered, the Steelers being 3-0 without their first, second, or third string quarterback.... and never actually get to the strengthening each other part; the part where you say, "I'm really struggling with this sin", "I read this passage the other day during my quiet times and I don't understand what it's saying", "You know recently, I've been learning that God is like _______", or "This person that I'm caring for is going through _______ and I don't know how to handle it".

Paul instructs Timothy his disciple to avoid godless chatter because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly (2 Tim 2.16). Not reflecting on God and actively moving towards Christ in your life inevitably leads you down a path away from him. Earlier on in Philippians, he instructs the saints there to reflect on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy and fill their thoughts with those things (Phil 4.8).

Avoiding godly dialogue is easy enough when you meet up with a friend, but the problem is compounded in group situations. Good friends can talk about anything; it is the nature of good friendships to be comfortable with not having a direction in conversation. I've seen hours fly by in a fast food restaurant; long after the last french fry is consumed and someone eavesdropping our entire conversation might not have a clue that we were Christians. Weeks can pass without people praying for each other; months go by without challenging someone to godliness or encouraging them to run the race.

And so that's what I let happen. What could I have done instead?

First, I could have just made my intentions clear. Godly fellowship is far too important in the life of the church for me to pass it by because I want to avoid a little awkwardness.

Another thing I could have done is turn it into a teaching opportunity. And indeed, I wish I had done that. I wish I had said, "You guys are more than welcome to come to lunch with us, but today is 'Jeff* day'. I'm hanging out with Jeff to catch up with him spiritually and so that we can encourage each other in our walks with God. Join us as we share with each other, only whatever Jeff is comfortable sharing of course, and pray with us and pray for us. THAT'S the agenda for lunch today".

I lament the irregularity of spiritual fellowship among brothers and sisters in Christ, but one of the remedies is to model it for others to see and imitate. Spiritual fellowship is unnatural among Christians, especially younger Christians, but it will always remain a rarity as long as those who are doing it continue to do it privately without passing it on.

My readers probably fall into two categories; those who are already making it a habit to meet regularly with fellow Christians to encourage each other, and those who've never considered the importance of fellowship in the Christian life. For those in the latter group, I commend to you two books and some Scripture for reflection: One-to-One Discipleship by Sophie De Witt, and The Trellis and the Vine, published by Matthias Media. Proverbs 27.17, Ecclesiastes 4.9-10, Colossians 1.28-29, Hebrews 3.13; 10.45.

For those who are in the former group, those already gripped with a desire to see the church built up and committed to making it happen one Christian at a time, let me encourage you to keep meeting and to teach others to do the same! Bring someone along when you disciple someone, model it for them, explain to them what you're doing, impress upon them its importance, and train them as they learn from you.

In Christ's service,
-Dan

*fictitious

Ministry Is About People - The Series

2010-08-30T00:46:00.000-07:00

September will be upon us in less than three days, for both my Eastern and Western hemisphere-dwelling readers. As I enter the second quarter of my ministry apprenticeship here, one lesson seems to be distancing itself from the ocean of character and skill building experiences I have been having here and it is that ministry is about people. It seems like no matter what books or articles I read, what Bible lessons I prepare, or who I meet up with, God keeps taking me back to this short, four-word principle. There seems to be quite a few excellent, just-as-valid answers to the question, "What is ministry about?" and when I took a brief poll of my friends who were currently online, I received all of the following answers:

Love
Jesus =)
The spreading of the gospel
Serving God and his people
Carrying out love
Sharing a passion
People

That last one was by my co-leader Jenny, who claims to have given her response because she was, "well-trained by Owen Seto and Jesus".

Anyway, I am becoming firmly convinced that from all my experiences thus far in ministry, the fact that ministry is about people is meant to be the overarching theme of the year, the persistent motif of my present education, the one thing for me to take away if I've learned anything whatsoever this year. Now it's so short, but it's quite a packed statement! And that's why over the next few weeks as I try to make up for the overall lack of updates in this blog I will be expounding this big idea.

As for how I am doing? The answer is, just wonderful! There are so many things to give thanks to God for right now. Here's just a few:

~I'm thankful for the love and support of my New York friends, four of whom recently came to visit me.

~I'm continually thankful for my brothers and sisters at GracePoint. I'm thankful because no relationship in this life brings more joy than one of gospel partnership; as I teach and learn and pray alongside my friends here, I find that I am becoming best friends with some of these people here that I just met seven months ago. I can share a thousand drinks or go on a thousand road trips with someone but not feel as close as another person with whom I've labored hard for the kingdom.

~I'm thankful for my family; my mom and my dad and my brother, who's constantly facebooking me to share about ministry and faith.

~I'm thankful to Mark and Amanda Hing, who visited NYC recently and called up my family to let them know that I've been prospering here and then came back and gave me my first "I <3 NY" shirt!

~I'm thankful for God's goodness in allowing me to see his work. Recently my landlady's daughter Cynthia has been interested in coming to church and has been going to Easy English Cafe Church at GracePoint! I'm also thankful for Simon and Steph Wong's faithful ministry with that group and the way God is using it to reach the people of Burwood

Some Prayer Points:
~Please pray for my landlady (whom I just call, "Ah mah") and her daughter Cynthia. Though they've recently become interested in Christianity, they will be returning to Taiwan at the end of September for five months. Pray that God will grow the gospel seed in their hearts and that in the next few weeks I can faithfully water it.

~Please pray for GracePoint church and the upcoming months as we seek to move to our new building in Lidcombe. Pray that the move will be smooth and that through it God will open up many doors for the gospel to be preached and for Jesus to reign among the hearts of our people.

~Please pray for the GracePoint full-time workers who recently came back from a conference called "ENGAGE". The point of the conference was to excite and encourage God's people in the work force to do good in the name of Jesus and to reach society for Jesus by their radical, counter-cultural living and loving. Pray that our workers would apply the things they learned to their lives and their occupation. Pray that our people would understand that ministry is for every sphere of life and that the declaration of God's riches in Jesus does not cease on midnight Monday morning.

In Christ's service,
-Dan Shih

Apocalypse Soon, But Not Now

2010-06-21T19:15:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday, I gave a talk at our "Extreme" youth church from the book of Revelation. The passage was Rev 19.11-21, where it talks about Jesus' returning and leading the armies of heaven against the forces of evil and defeating all of God's enemies, and Rev 20.11-15, the great final judgment. One of my points in the talk was, "knowing the end affects the way that you understand the middle." This is true of most stories; it's the reason why we would hate it if someone came in while we were watching a movie, pointed at a character in the screen, and said, "that guy's gonna die at the end!"

So what should we be looking forward to? What does the world have in store for the future? What Revelation 19 tells us is that one day, Jesus Christ is going to have complete, unconditional victory over all of the enemies of heaven! Total victory. No contest. Jesus wins, the beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown into the lake of fire, and the armies of heaven STOMP all over the armies of hell. Not a single doubt about the outcome. Go check out Rev 19.11-21 yourself because I doubt there is a greater, more epic battle scene that has ever existed in past, present or future in any form, whether history or fiction. It's like all the battle scenes from Lord of the Rings put together times infinity.

Anyway, my point is, if you read carefully you'll notice that interestingly enough, there isn't a single mention of a battle. What you see is two vast armies gathered to make war, and then immediately evil loses! The beast and false prophet are captured and thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, the rest of the army is killed with Jesus' sword, and some vultures come down to gorge on the flesh of the dead. That's it! No struggle, no wavering back and forth... from the very start, victory was sure for Jesus' side.

Lately I've been watching a number of "post-apocalyptic" films. It didn't occur to me until recently, but something that all s0-called post-apocalyptic films have in common is that they are social commentaries on the depravity of man and the hopelessness of good to triumph over evil. Sometimes they just want to tell a good story, but most of the time, these movies are a producer or director's observation about the world. And what is most striking is that, it's always humanity that's the cause of the end of the world. What's the premise behind every zombie apocalypse movie? It's science gone horribly wrong. "I Am Legend" is a clear example of that. "The Book of Eli" takes place a number of years after a catastrophic world war that has led to famine and shortage of drinking water. In a sense, it's the same mold as the Matrix films and even the Terminator series, though they might not be traditional apocalypse movies.

Underlying all these apocalyptic movies is an incontrovertible human focus. Even in the apocalypse, the circumstances and story is markedly man-centered. WE messed up the world. WE brought judgment on ourselves. There is no need for an outside force, a transcendent owner of the world to come and wrought judgment. No. In typical post-modern fashion, hope is dashed and futility reigns for humanity, yet we REFUSE to acknowledge that anyone could have done this to us but ourselves.

A few weeks ago someone lent me the movie, "Children of Men". The story takes place some years after a mysterious illness has caused all the women in the world to become infertile and explores the panic and dystopia that comes from that condition. The entire story is an allegory of hope. Children of Men recognizes an intrinsic hope of goodness in the face of a bleak human condition, but it is instrinsic. It is within us! We can save ourselves if we try hard enough and the circumstances are right! But there is certainly no need for an outside savior.

In post-modern film, hope is shattered but autonomy remains. We're crushed by the weight of our sin, but not enough to bend our knees. It is because ages change, but human nature stays the same, and its nature is rebellion.

Earlier this morning, I was reading Isaiah 24. The first few verses say this:

See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants - it will be the same

for priest as for people,

for master as for servant,

for mistress as for main,

for seller as for buyer,

for borrower as for lender,

for debtor as for creditor.

The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken the WORD.

It is true, we as humans do bring a lot of suffering and disaster on ourselves. The Bible says that. The Bible says that in our rebellion and idolatry God gives us over to a depraved mind; he in a sense allows us to tear ourselves to bits in our evil ways. The whole world has become untethered from the God who sustains it, and now it is subject to futility and frustration, pain and suffering, boredom and death. But we are fools if we think that God's judgment ends in abandonment. No. The just God is going to return and he's going to pay us back for our evil. If God had left us alone after the Edenic exile, that would be terrible enough. But the rebellion has yet to be quashed and evil has yet to be finally punished.

In that day, the LORD will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the LORD almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.

- Isaiah 24.21-23

This is what's to come and it's guaranteed by the holy Word of God. So how does this foreknowledge of the future affect the way we see and understand our present? I wonder if many Christians live knowing that the end is coming. I wonder if I have been living a life informed by the knowledge of what's to come. If I knew that one day Jesus will return and he will have total victory, how should that make me live? It would make me want to live each day trying to validate the fact that I'm on the right side of the war. "Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure." (2 Peter 1.10)

If I knew that one day God will judge the earth and every man and woman for their deeds, how will that affect the way that I experience injustice now? It will give me a heavenly reserve of patience, for I know that God's patience doesn't mean his failure to judge. Rather, God's patience and kindness lead to repentance! "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Pet 3.9). If that's the case, then am I urgently preaching the gospel and teaching about Jesus whenever I get the chance?

Our sure future in Christ informs and affects our present. One day, Jesus will return to finish unfinished business. Terrible judgment and wrath is in store for the entire world. If we're in the age of patience and kindness and mercy; the age that comes before final justice, how then should we live like it?

Fear and Crossing "The Boulevarde"

2010-04-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

A few times a week, in order to get to church I have to cross The Boulevarde during morning rush hour. Now I am not using insider's Sydney lingo to describe a specific street; it is quite literally called, “The Boulevarde” and if that strikes into your heart a sense of trafficky awe and wonder, then its doing its job. It is not a wide street by New York standards, having only two lanes each way, but with no traffic lights anywhere near the section I approach and given the Sydney commuter's utter disregard for pedestrian existence, crossing this street is usually the part of my morning when I either wake up or die.

Well earlier just today, I was taking my usual stroll to church but a little loopier than I usually am in the morning because I stayed up late working on a workshop the night before. As I got to The Boulevarde, I leaned over the street to get a look at the traffic and then jumped back onto the sidewalk mere meters before a bus flew right past where my face just was. As the advertisement on the side of the bus flew past me inches from my eyes, I involuntarily used God's name in vain (I'm sorry, God) and adrenaline rushed into my veins. Apparently this morning God graciously allowed me to wake up instead of die.

As I came to my senses and said a prayer of thanks and relief, I sprinted across the boulevard safely and started thinking about my near collision with something much greater and weightier than I. In particular, I thought about the feelings that grew within myself as I thought about how powerless I was as I stood before all that inertia. Now believe it or not, I've seen buses before. I know that they are neither the largest vehicles nor anything particularly incredible. But when my face was at such an intimate distance to one as it sped past me, my awe and wonder and fear increased.

(kind of like this, but more accidental and with wetter trousers)

I realized this week that there's a certain continuity between the feelings of wonder and fear. As wonder increases towards infinity, the emotion gives way to a sense of fear. As the object of wonder increases in immensity, so does it increase as an object of terror. As our perception of something mighty becomes clearer, so does our response change from awe to fear.

I wonder if many Christians feel this way about encountering God. When we believe ourselves to be in the presence of the Almighty, do we experience him so clearly as to fear him? I think of passages like Exodus 33, when God causes all his goodness to pass before his servant Moses, and how it was so powerful an encounter that God actually had to protect Moses, covering him with his hand, so that Moses could only come out and see God's back. I think of Isaiah 6, when the prophet beholds God on his great throne, being worshiped by a temple of angels. I think of his exclamation of utter terror and dread as he realized that he, a sinful human, has seen the King, the Lord Almighty.

What is our experience of God? When I come before God to worship or to pray, from what angle am I approaching him? I daresay that nowadays, our tendency is to approach God from an overly friendly perspective. God is my best friend, and when I am feeling down, he comes to cheer me up like Tinker bell or one of the fairy odd-parents! When I am feeling empty, he fills me like a hot bread bowl full of New England clam chowder.

Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I'm Your friend

You are my desire
No one else will do
'Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find the way, bring me back to You (Draw Me Close – Hillsong Australia)

Now read carefully because I am not saying that God is NOT our friend or our most intimate lover. Believe it or not, the Bible portrays Christ's relationship to his church as a loving husband, one whom he loves so deeply he would die for unconditionally. He fulfills our deepest longings for intimacy, for presence, for comfort, sympathy, and oneness. But God's love and care must be understood in light of his utter transcendence as the Almighty Ruler of the Universe. To discard that truth is not to INCREASE our perception of his love, but to WEAKEN it's incredibleness! If God is not my Lord and King, then my amazement of his intimate love for me actually will decrease! Think about it, because this principle works in all areas of life. What would bring you more awe, that your college buddy called you and wants to play pickup ball on Saturday, or that President Obama wants in on your fantasy baseball league?

My first response, if Mr. Obama did call me up, would be “AWEsome!” If he considered me a good friend, I would feel pretty good about myself. But when I meditate on God's greatness alongside his commitment to love me, that awe and wonder increases beyond its borders. Awe, when it increases past a certain point, gives way to fear. Have you ever thought about the fact that the ONLY thing that separates your sinful, sorry self from God's raging holy wrath is the good and perfect name of his Son, Jesus Christ, who took your place in punishment? Does that not impress fearful joy into your heart?

As a closing thought, I would like you to think about your experience of the holy and awe-ful. What do you revere in your life? I confess that there are too few things in my life that I find sacred. Perhaps in our post-materialistic and post-scientific world, it is exceedingly difficult to find anything in life that is more than profane. I think if I were to dig deep, I would find that the objects of my reverence are not God but things invented by man. I venerate the human intellect and human achievements. I can read a passage like Proverbs 8 and think, “okay that's cool. God formed the very foundations of the earth with wisdom.” But then I turn to my friend and then think, “What! There is NO WAY you finished that Sudoku puzzle already! It's been like 9 minutes!”

We must balance our experience of God's love with our understanding of God's fear-eliciting immensity. If we do not, then perhaps we don't see God completely as he truly is and that is something that we must pray for. I pray that each day, my fear of God would lead to a humility concerning myself as well as a deep desire to obey his commandments and live in a way that is pleasing and honoring to him.

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee

2010-04-20T23:57:00.001-07:00

First of all, I hate this hymn. I think the melody has done the words of this song the greatest injustice. It has rendered it impossible for me to say this sentence without creating an awkward break in my speech. How many of you Christians, when you read this title, said it in your head like this:

"Take my lips and let it be - filled with messages for Thee"

How awkward is that! Anyway, moving on.

I am not a good writer, speaker, or thinker.

On Sunday, 18 April 2010, at about 6ish in the evening, I made this line a prayer for the first time and the following story explains how I got to that point.

For the last 4 weeks, I've been feeling not unlike (I don't know why I chose to use the double negative here; it is both grammatically awkward and conceptually difficult to apprehend, but it's what first came to my mind and this is my diary so I will keep it this way) Zechariah the father of JBap. I haven't been mute, but I might as well be. I feel thrown off my rhythm, out of my groove, endlessly searching for the right word or phrase or entire response altogether. A large part of my responsibilities this year is to meet up and disciple individual students at GracePoint, teaching God's Word, leading them to Christ, helping bring the Bible to bear in their life issues, and encouraging them in their Christian walk. I haven't been able to do any of that adequately. I don't know why, I just feel like every time I meet up with someone, I can't seem to get anything rolling and I can't think of what I want to say when I want to say it! I leave and go do training or reading hours later, and then what I should have said hits me.

My words and thoughts feel crossed up inside my head. I feel inexplicably inarticulate. I think of illustrations too late. A thousand and one good ideas and concepts float in and out of my head each day. It's like my life was a spaceship and all these thoughts which were previously stacked up neatly onboard are now floating everywhere because somebody sabotaged the artificial gravity.

IT. PISSES. ME. OFF.

But it has been teaching me radical dependence on God. I say radical dependence because I have been learning recently how utterly helpless we are in every walk of life. It seems like every lesson in my life for the past few weeks has been converging on this one motif: that before God we are utterly incapable of helping ourselves in anything. A couple of quick examples:

1) We have recently started a sermon series on Exodus at GracePoint. As I read through the narrative of the ten plagues and how Pharaoh in all his worldly might cannot overcome God's tireless will, I think of the arrogance that we develop when life is going well. Pharaoh was the ruler of one of the most powerful nations in the Ancient Near East. He had a vast army and a slave nation at his disposal, not to mention the Nile River, a perpetual stream of living water in that society. He was as successful as he got yet it did not produce thankfulness or praise in his heart. How often and quickly do we become overwhelmingly big-headed when we find ourselves in a position of comfort and power in our world? How often do we accredit our success to ourselves? How often do our prayers become like that of Bart Simpson's: "Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing!"

Yet we later find out, for all his might, he couldn't stand toe to toe with the Almighty God for 10 rounds. God systematically attacked and destroyed Egypt's economic, cultural, and religious fabric and didn't even break a sweat. Before God, The king of Egypt was as helpless as an infant.

2) A week ago a volcano in Iceland erupted, throwing massive clouds of ash and debris into the air and causing officials in 38 countries around Europe to ban all air travel for a week. Millions of people were stranded in Europe and millions more were kept from flying into their countries, causing massive inconveniences all over the world. My friend's parents were vacationing in Paris at the time and their flight was canceled. As flights are finally starting up again today, officials predict it will be weeks before everyone who was supposed to leave during this time finds a flight home.

One stinkin' volcano. For all the effort it took, God could have barely twitched a pinky muscle. And it inconveniences the entire world. It reminded me once again of how precariously human society sits on a balance of God's grace. For all of Sir Francis Bacon's triumphant claims of subjecting mother nature to the will of man (and that was an opinion from FOUR centuries ago, albeit before the atrocities of the 19th and 20th centuries shattered our naivete), we are all collectively so helpless in our world. Sure, death by lion mauling has gone down since the invention of guns and since the dawn of modern medicine we have ended one major world disease (polio).

WOOPTY. FREAKIN'. DO.

One earthquake. One arbitrary twitch of earth's tectonic plates. That's all it takes for God to claim the millions of lives that belong to him. One tsunami. One clump of dirt falling into the ocean. That's all it takes. We are so great and powerful, aren't we?

And that's it. We are helpless. If the Scriptures are true, then we are told that our lives are at the mercy of God the creator to do as he pleases. In addition, we are told that our sin put the price of death on our heads. What a wonder that there are still men and women walking about believing they have any measure of control over their fates.

To bring this all back to my original point. I am not surprised that I have felt so inarticulate lately and that it has been the source of much grief to my life. It has curbed this growing, sinister root of arrogance and pride in my heart. Am I so praiseworthy? Am I so well-spoken and useful that my ministry is indispensable to God's kingdom work? What a ludicrous idea! But I confess, this belief is present in my heart and has put me in a dangerous place. In that light, God muting me was the most loving form of discipline that could be offered me. In my inability to speak, God has allowed me to watch helplessly as he did his work in my life and in the lives of those around me. In my figurative silence, I have seen myself become not so much an instrument for God's work but a video-camera recording it all in wonder.

This time period was not easy. It made me angry that I couldn't speak well. I felt like I wasted so much time meeting with people if I couldn't even properly encourage them. I hated it. The only thing that I could effectively do was write things down. According to the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator, I am an INTJ and one of my difficulties is expressing thoughts and insights that I receive intuitively.

I don't know how much longer I will feel this way. I don't know if I will always be frustrated in verbal communication because of who I am. I don't know if I will always be a better writer than I am a conversationalist. Even having said that, I am not a naturally good writer; I labor intensively at these things. All I know is, I am called to preach and teach the Word and I will be equipped by my Lord. If this is the thorn at my side, then fine; I will just learn to trust that he will put words in my mouth when he pleases to. In my life, my prayer will be this:

"Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee."

Happy One month, Sydney!

2010-02-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-22T17:19:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T00:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-02-03T22:04:00.001-08:00

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.

Hello!

2010-01-30T03:19:00.000-08:00

That's how you say "Hello!" in Australia. It's weird, I know; but when you move to a different country, you're going to have to start to try learning their language. It's been a hectic couple of days getting settled and getting used to life down here, but all in all, I'm thankful that the transitions haven't been too difficult. Here are some of my first impressions of Sydney life.

Opposite-side driving: More than once, I've almost gotten hit by a car and put out of commission before I even officially began serving! I keep forgetting that the Aussies driving on the opposite side of the road means that I have to look RIGHT before looking left.

Weather: So I've been checking people's facebook updates and apparently there's been a bit of a cold front passing through the Northeast. The last three days I've been to church, I've worns jeans and a t-shirt and at home, I immediately change into shorts! It's been a touch humid, but all in all, the weather is wonderful!

Coffee: Reverend Eugene is a HUGE coffee drinker and a little bit of a coffee snob (self-described!) and so I was blessed to start off my first official day (Friday) with a delicious latte that he made (shown above). Apparently Aussies are big coffee drinkers. Good for me!

What I've been up to: Since I flew in on Thursday morning, I spent the rest of the week just getting used to things and resting up from the jet-lag. I've met most of the Gracepoint (Burwood church's English ministry) staff, and all of them have been very welcoming and not too harsh about my American accent! On Saturday, there was an all-day conference for the 2010 Community Group leaders. I will be co-leading a College community group. The training was excellent, but tiring because in between sessions I had to meet and get to know all the other leaders.

What's coming up: Tomorrow will be my first official Sunday service where I will be formally introduced to two of Burwood's congregations; the Auburn (young married couples, couples with children) congregation and the 5pm (College/young workers) congregation. They will interview me and ask me about my plans for the future and what I hope to get out of the MAP program. I will tell them it is to one day return to my home, NYC and proclaim the gospel there!

This coming week, Eugene will be giving me an official "orientation" and giving me regular tasks. I will be involved with my community group, the youth church, and training up first and second year English leaders. More specifics to come.

Prayer Requests: More permanent housing has not been found for me yet, and so I am currently living in Eugene's mothers apartment while she is away on vacation. Please pray that I can find an apartment to get settled into long-term. Please pray that I can be energized for my first full week. As I continue to meet more and more members of the church, please pray that I wouldn't be too drained, and that I would find time to rest and be alone and regain strength through the Word of God.

Sixteen

2010-01-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

That's the number of hours I'll be ahead of you in New York. That means when you wake up at 6am to get ready for work or school, I'll be at home, winding down for bed. That means when you take out your lunch for a well-deserved break, I'll be sound asleep (I hope). That means when you get off the bus and start walking home, ready to relax (or for HS students, start your homework), I'll in the office already, working on some Bible study or meeting with someone.

For those of you who aren't blessed to be on the East Coast, you can work out your own time difference relative to mine. As I sit here in LA, imagining what it will be like a week from today, wondering how I'm going to be able to maintain all my relationships back at home and still keep myself open for the amazing Australian people God will bring into my life, I feel both an overwhelming eagerness and excitement as well as a terrible sense of dread.

I can't lie. I will miss home. I miss home so dearly already. I love New York and all my friends in New York and at Gordon and scattered across the 50 states. However, I know there are so many opportunities just waiting to happen across the pacific. It's going to be a delicate balance, opening myself to the people I will meet in Sydney as well as keeping in my thoughts and prayers all my good friends and family at home, but I will do my best to be available for all those who know me and seek me out for anything.

This blog is an attempt for me to keep those at home updated on what's been going on in my life. I hope to write in it once a week. I will include prayer requests as well as pictures when I can. I appreciate your comments and notes on my posts; you don't need a blogspot account to leave a comment; you can just leave it along with your name.

I hope that you check it when you can to find out what Austalia's like, if there really are giant poisonous spiders there, how many koala bears I can take on in a fight, and what I'm learning in my ministry training!

-Dan Shih