My 3,000th blog post

It is a good time to revisit why I started blogging in 1 January 2006

Why I Begin Blogging

I always think that a blog is a stain on my shirt after I ate laksa noodles until someone pointed out to me that a laksa sauce makes a blot but a blog is a specialised website where you can write your journal or your ideas and post it into the Internet for all to see. Thus, in an attempt to reduce my ignorance, I ventured into the land of cyberspace and to my delight discovered that there is a vast domain there, waiting to be explored and to bring into the influence of the Kingdom of God. Here are some of  the reasons why I blog for God.

Firstly, there is a vast store of information stored in the Internet. While it is important to recognise the fact that not all information on the Internet is reliable but this is also true of much of the information from television, books, newspaper and our friends. The onus is now on the receiver of the information to filter them and decide which to trust. One rule of the thumb is that the source of information must be trustworthy. An educational or recognised organisation is more reliable than a personal website (unless you know that person, of course).

Secondly, the Web has made a true democratisation of knowledge. Information and knowledge has always been controlled by government censors, media magnates and professional watchdogs (also called peer reviewers). Now, anybody can post their comments and their thoughts on the Web. Where some websites have moderators to block the more offensive contents, independent websites are relatively free to post whatever they want. The bad side is that a lot of nonsense is on the Web. The good side is that there is a freedom of speech. What has impressed me is the ‘wiki’. A wiki is an encyclopaedia-like website where people are working together in consensus to build up a searchable information database free for anyone to use. One good example is wikipedia www.wikipedia.org. Here is a large encyclopaedia slowly being built up containing most of the knowledge of mankind. Contributors are professionals and others who are giving away their knowledge for free. One would expect such a collaborative effort to be full of errors. A recent study done by Science shows that the context of wikipedia is as reliable as online Britannica Encyclopaedia!  Personally I feel more Christians should be contributing to the building up of this type of databases. The apostle Paul asked a question of how  people are to know of the gift of salvation if they have not been told about it first.

Thirdly, over the years, the ways we are learning have changed. Gone are the days when we can sit down and listen to two hours long sermons by Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards. We are now used to being given information bites in small amount, interestingly packaged with sounds and pictures courtesy of CNN and MTV. Teens are learning more from the Web than from the church or schools. The forms of communications have changed. And the church has to change its forms of communication if it is to be relevant to the present generation. The church’s mandate is to go forth and make disciples, not wait for the disciples-to-be to come to them. The message has not changed. Only the ways of saying it.

Finally, Weblog is an area in which online communities can form. A blog is a personal website where one can post whatever thoughts or comments. This is a form of discussion forum but less structured. This is read and commented upon by other bloggers (people who write blogs). If there are common interests, over time communities will form. Christians and seekers have also formed such online communities. One of the challenges I see to the church in the coming years is that these communities will become more numerous and may even outnumber the existing brick and concrete churches. Such church communities share sermons transcripts, listen to sermons online and offer comfort and fellowship to one another. Instead of condemning such communities, the church should embrace these communities and incorporate them into the existing church structure. I am waiting to for pastors of cyberspace churches to appear.

People perceive and receive information differently nowadays compared to those twenty years ago. For people to believe the good news, they must first hear it. To hear it, they need to have the good news communicated to them. The forms of communication have changed. It is time Christians learn to use the new forms of communication. Why do I blog? To communicate. Welcome to blogosphere.

Looking back, I have learned much from blogging. The social media and technology have changed much since then. Now there is Facebook, microblog Tumbr, Pinterest, Linkin, Youtube, Whatsapp and numerous others which are multiplatform connecting media. I am happy that I am part of a larger community of people who cares about what I care about, and seems genuinely interested to connect with me. Of course, nowadays, they call your community your tribe.

So to my tribes out there and in here (my heart), thank you for your friendship. And keep sharing.

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TEDS: Seth Godin on Tribes

About this talk

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

About Seth Godin

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and blogger who thinks about the marketing of ideas in the digital age. His newest interest: the tribes we lead.

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Why Pastors need Pastoral Care

Some sobering statistics from Pastoral Care,Inc.

Statistics

• 90% of the pastors report working between 55 to 75 hours per week.
• 80% believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families. Many pastor's children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents.
• 95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
• 33% state that being in the ministry is an outright hazard to their family.
• 75% report significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.
• 90% feel they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.
• 80% of pastors and 84% of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged as
  role of pastors.
• 90% of pastors said the ministry was completely different than what they
  thought it would be like before they entered the ministry.
• 50% feel unable to meet the demands of the job.
• 70% of pastors constantly fight depression.
• 70% say they have a lower self-image now than when they first started.
• 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend.
• 40% report serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.
• 33% confess having involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church.
• 50% of pastors feel so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if
  they could, but have no other way of making a living.
• 70% of pastors feel grossly underpaid.
• 50% of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years.
• 1 out of every 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.
• 94% of clergy families feel the pressures of the pastor's ministry.
• 80% of spouses feel the pastor is overworked.
• 80% spouses feel left out and underappreciated by church members.
• 80% of pastors' spouses wish their spouse would choose a different
  profession.
• 66% of church members expect a minister and family to live at a higher moral standard than themselves.
• Moral values of a Christian is no different than those who consider themselves as non-Christians.
• The average American will tell 23 lies a day.
• The profession of “Pastor” is near the bottom of a survey of the most-respected professions, just above “car salesman”.
• 4,000 new churches begin each year and 7,000 churches close.
• Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month last year.
• Over 1,300 pastors were terminated by the local church each month , many without cause.
• Over 3,500 people a day left the church last year.
• Many denominations report an “empty pulpit crisis”. They cannot find ministers willing to fill positions.

#1 reason pastors leave the ministry — Church people are not willing to go the same direction and goal of the pastor. Pastor's believe God wants them to go in one direction but the people are not willing to follow or change.

Statistics provided by The Fuller Institute, George Barna, and Pastoral Care Inc.

read more

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A Month of National Holidays

In his Grace@Work Commentary GRACEWORKS MAIL 31/10 August 6, 2010 Edition.
(A ministry of Graceworks: www.graceworks.com.sg) Rev Dr Tan Soo Inn writes about National Day Celebration in August. For Singapore, their National Day is on 9 August and for Malaysia it is on 31 August. I like what he writes about the needed pro-active role of the Singaporean and Malaysian churches.

The church represents the Kingdom of God in society. In the words of Newbigin, the church must function as the "hermeneutic (interpret, unfold the significance . . . ) of the gospel." (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 222 ff) Newbigin also suggests six characteristics that will mark church communities that are trying to flesh out the gospel for society. (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 227 - 233)

1. It will be a community of praise.
" The Christian congregation . . . is a place where people find their true freedom, their true dignity, and their true equality in reverence to One who is worthy of all the praise we can offer." (228)

2. It will be a community of truth.
"A Christian congregation is a community in which through the constant remembering and rehearsing of the true story of human nature and destiny, an attitude of healthy scepticism can be sustained, a scepticism which enables one to take part in the life of society without being bemused and deluded by its own beliefs about itself. " (229)

3. It will be a community that does not live for itself but is deeply involved in the concerns of its neighbourhood.
" . . . the local congregation (must be) perceived in its own neighbourhood as the place from which good news overflows in good action . . ." (229)

4. It will be a community where men and women are prepared for and sustained in the exercise of the priesthood in the world.
"It is in the context of secular affairs that the mighty power released into the world through the work of Christ is to be manifested. . . . (The validity of our preaching) carry weight only when they are validated by the way in which Christians are actually behaving and using their influence in public life." (230)

5. It will be a community of mutual responsibility.
"If the Church is to be effective in advocating and achieving a new social order in the nation, it must itself be a new social order." (231)

6. It will be a community of hope.
" . . . the gospel offers an understanding of the human situation which makes it possible to be filled with a hope which is both eager and patient even in the most hopeless situations." (232)

read more here

Newbigin is an importance influence in my own thinking about the church and I am glad that Soo Inn brought him into the discussion about the hermeneutic role of the churches in Singapore and Malaysia.

Wales and the Founding of Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales: Founder of Wikipedia

With a vision for a free online encyclopedia, Wales assembled legions of volunteer contributors, gave them tools for collaborating, and created the self-organizing, self-correcting, ever-expanding, multilingual encyclopedia of the future.

Jimmy Wales went from betting on interest rates and foreign-currency fluctuations (as an option trader) to betting on the willingness of people to share their knowledge. That's how Wikipedia, imagined in 2001, became one of the most-referenced, most-used repositories of knowledge on the planet, with more than one million articles in English (compared with the Britannica's 80,000) and hundreds of thousands in dozens of other languages, all freely available.

The "wiki" in the name refers to software that allows anyone with Internet access to add, delete or edit entries. This has led to controversies about the reliability of the information, prompting the Wikimedia Foundation to set tighter rules for editors, while still keeping Wikipedia open-source. One thing is certain: Wikipedia will never be finished. In the meantime Wales has started working on Wikiasari, a wiki-style search engine.

"Wikipedia represents a belief in the supremacy of reason and the goodness of others. ... From the respectful clash of opposing viewpoints and the combined wisdom of the many, something resembling the truth will emerge. Most of the time."

WIRED

Facebook as a Learning Management Tool

Technology is changing education. William Drummond explores using Facebook as a learning management tool and a panel explores the 21st century student. [12/2008]

Struthers on Pornography and the Male Brain

I have read the book recently and find it a fascinating read with many new insights.

This Is Your Brain on Porn
The science behind the struggle, and how the church can help.
An interview with William Struthers

William Struthers is dedicated to understanding the brain. In his role as associate professor of psychology at Wheaton College (IL), Struthers teaches courses on behavioral neuroscience—biological reasons why people make the decisions they do. In Wired for Intimacy: How pornography hijacks the male brain (IVP, 2009), Struthers explores the science behind why men find pornography compelling, what it does to their brains, and how they can find freedom. Leadership associate editor Brandon O'Brien spoke with Struthers to find out how pastors can help men break the patterns of pornography abuse.

| Finish this article |

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The Church: A Family Affair

2010 > May

Christianity Today, May, 2010

THEOLOGY

A Family Affair

What would the church look like if it put we before me?

Joseph H. Hellerman | posted 5/28/2010 09:20AM

What if church is a relational entity? challenges Joseph Hellerman, professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California. He is the author of When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community (B&H Academic).

His definition of church resonances with my thinking on what being church is all about.

Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. Persons who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding. And they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to fellow human beings. This is especially the case for those courageous Christians who stick it out through the messy process of interpersonal conflict. Long-term relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life. People who stay grow.

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Will You Be My Facebook Friend?

Do you get irritated by people who invites you to be his or her friend on Facebook? Or are you happy to be invited. What if you decline? Are you worried about offending someone? Richard Baum of Reuters writes about How to decline Facebook friends without offence. He offers some suggestions

One is to accept the invitation and then use Facebook's privacy settings to limit the flow of information between you and your new "friend." To do this, you can create a "colleagues" list from the Friends menu and then add to it your new friend. Then navigate to the privacy settings and use the "Profile Information" section to control what information people on the "colleagues" list can see.

An alternative, says workplace etiquette expert Barbara Pachter, is to suggest to the colleague that you connect instead on LinkedIn, a social network for professional relationships.

"You can just go ahead and ask them to join you on LinkedIn and hope they forget they sent you a Facebook friend request," said Pachter, the author of New Rules @ Work.

"Or you can say, Thanks for asking me. I'm keeping Facebook for my family and friends. I'm asking you to join me on my professional network instead.'"

Pachter said that whatever you do, it's important not to offend your colleague -- and that's not just because politeness is good etiquette.

"The person you offend might end up being your boss next year," she said.

Ha. That's unlikely for me but I do like to make friends on Facebook. Each friend brings new aspects and perspective of humanity. For a student of human nature like me, that is a bonus. Some reveal too much of themselves while others reveal too little. Yet each life is of value and I am constantly being amazed at the diversity of my friends' interests. I am also amazed at how much time some of my friends spend online with Facebook. I assume they do have a life somewhere.

It is interesting that Facebook was started only 4 years ago according to Wiki but 6 years ago according to founder Mark Zuckerberg in his Facebook blog. This is because Facebook seems to be around like forever. Entertainment Weekly notes its value, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?" This was also during the peak of blogging. Nowadays, many bloggers are Facebookers (yes, there is such a term. I checked).

Many Facebookers are also gamers. The top 5 games on Facebook today are Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World, Fishville and Zunga Poker. CNN Doug Gross gives us the highs and lows of The Facebook games millions love (or hate). No, I have not played any of these games yet. I am still trying to figure out Star Trek online.

Facebook is a virtual watering hole for the gathering of the futurists, the nerds, the internet addicts,the technocrats, the lonely, the bored, the seekers, the gurus, the joyful and the sad. Facebook is a pub in L-space. It is also a place of interconnectivity for people to connect with one another, keep abreast of each others' activities, and retain a sense of control in our fast moving fragmented world. It is also a safe place to hide from intimacy and the emotional investments of a 'real' human relationships. As in the television series Cheers, it is a place where everyone knows your name!

Update

After writing this post, I read a blog post on Facebook Friendship by my Facebook friend Bob.

picture credit

Introverts for Jesus

I am an extreme introvert so I find such books interesting.

Illustration by Amanda Duffy

BOOK REVIEW Introverts for Jesus, Unite! How to get along with the extroverts who populate the Western church. By Christine A. Scheller

Pastoral Concern for Migrant Communities

The latest from Thinking Faith...


A ministry of welcome
Why does our faith demand of us a pastoral concern for migrant communities? Bishop Pat Lynch introduces the principles of Catholic Social Teaching in which the Church’s mission to migrants is grounded. As we mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on 17 January, we are encouraged to welcome and accompany migrants as our brothers and sisters.
Read >>
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Theological Hospitality

With Christians moving from church to church for whatever reasons, and the decreasing emphasis on denominationalism, it is not unusual to find within a a single congregation, many different theological stands. How does the leadership maintain a unity within the church? Often these theological differences are potential time bombs and may lead to churches to split.

Dr David Dunbar from Biblical Seminary writing in the online Missional Journal issue January 2010 tells of theological hospitality.

The biblical exhortation to hospitality provides helpful imagery when thinking about the pursuit of unity. Christian hospitality is rooted in the character of God who welcomes us into his family through Christ. Various texts encourage believers to extend that same hospitality to one another and to the stranger in their midst (Romans 12:3; Heb. 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9). This was a virtue already commended in the Old Testament.

Denver Seminary professor David Buschart uses this image as a guide for exploring eight different families or theological traditions within Protestantism. Theological hospitality is the practice of welcoming other Christians whose understanding of Scripture and theology may seem strange or challenging to us. This welcome is appropriate, says Buschart, in light of the ontological reality of the church's present unity in Christ and the assurance of complete unity at the return of Christ. Thus his examination of each tradition (Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, Pentecostal, etc.) is an exercise in careful listening and friendly (but fair) evaluation...

We should understand, therefore, that commitment to a particular theological position or tradition is not in itself a hindrance to the faithful practice of hospitality. A crucial determinant is attitude. Do we see our tradition as a fortress (to be defended against the enemy!) or as a home (in which to welcome friends)? The latter requires us to practice humility, and this "entails admitting that one's theology is neither complete nor free of errors.... Such fallibility is often acknowledged, at least in principle, but theological hospitality requires acting upon this humility."

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The Blessings of Spiritual Friends

Spiritual friendship, according to the great twelfth century English Cistercian Abbot, Aelred of Rievaulx is “mutual harmony in affairs human and divine coupled with benevolence and charity” (Aelred, Spiritual Friendship, Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications). What he meant is that spiritual friendship is the love of the Christians given by God that combines goodwill and charity and is only possible between those who resist sin and seek to follow Jesus. There are certain characteristics that make up spiritual friendship.

Firstly spiritual friendship has ‘sacred space’ that allows each of us to grow in our relationship with the Lord, with other people and with ourselves. The ‘sacred space’ is a safe space where we are free to make mistakes. It is also a space where we are to be non judgmental about each other. Therefore this ‘sacred space’ allows us to be ourselves, without the burden of putting on our false selves and trying to be someone else. In spiritual friendship there is an understanding of ‘agreeing to disagree.’ This meant that it is possible to hold differing opinions about politics, theology, lifestyle preferences, and cultural heritage without the need to prove ourselves right or to tear down the other person’s opinion. In many subtle ways, this will enrich our lives.

Secondly, spiritual friendship is a relationship with trust. This trust is about spiritual friends respecting each other’s confidentiality and privacy. It is in our psychological makeup that we need people we can trust so that we can open ourselves. This opening of ourselves is cathartic and results in our emotional well being. We need to be able to be free to verbalise our fears and desires. Confession is an important part of the process of repentance. Confession helps us to avoid the temptation of sidestepping our moral responsibilities. We cannot do all this if we do not trust our spiritual friends with our confidentiality.

Thirdly, spiritual friendship involves accountability. Spiritual friends are accountable to each other because they are brothers in Christ. Much of the problems of the world are the results of lack of accountability. Many Christian leaders fail because they do not allow themselves to be accountable to other Christians. Christian spiritual friends hold each other accountable in their spiritual life, thought fantasies, marital fidelity, fulfilling of promises, and management of finances. We need these check and balances because we are prone to self deception. The bible teaches that our hearts are very deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9).

Finally, spiritual friends make very good prayer partners. There is a certain joy in praying together with someone we know and loves. Praying together reminds us of our dependence on the Lord. One of the highlight of my working week is the weekly lunch-time prayer with a spiritual friend. Spiritual friends are able to discern the working of the Holy Spirit in the life of one another other and to offer spiritual direction. This is especially useful when major decisions need to be made.

How do we seek spiritual friends? We start by becoming friends with others. Gradually we will come to be aware that certain people may become our good spiritual friends. We are comfortable with these people because they offer us ‘sacred spaces.’ We know that we can trust them to keep our confidence (not a gossip), are willing to be accountable to each other, and willing to pray together with us. The friendship of David and Jonathan is one such example (Isaiah 18:1-4). In my spiritual journey I am grateful for the friendships of many spiritual friends who live in many countries all over the world. I thank God for all of them. When you have a spiritual friend, hang on to them because they are very precious and very rare. You may even have to travel thousands of miles for them.

Soli Deo Gloria

Gordon MacDonald on Church Leadership

From Christianity Today online

Gordon MacDonald's articles and books are insightful and are always worth the reading. I like this article where he applies principles from Jim Collins' book How the Mighty Fall to church leadership.

How a Mighty Church Falls

What it takes to prevent congregational decline.

Gordon MacDonald | posted 11/29/2009

Soon after I finished my theological education, I was asked to become pastor of a congregation in Southern Illinois. This was my first great awakening to the realities of pastoral leadership, and it was an uncomfortable experience.

The skills (or gifts) that led the congregation to invite me to be their spiritual leader were probably my enthusiasm, my preaching, and my apparent ability, even as a young man, to reach out to people and make them feel cared for.

The position description called for me to report to a board of deacons who, while well-intentioned, were not highly experienced in organizational leadership. It also said that I was responsible to lead a staff that consisted of a secretary, a Christian education assistant, two day-school teachers, a part-time choir director, and a janitor.

What it didn't say was that the congregation was seriously divided and disillusioned due to an acrimonious split in which the previous pastor had persuaded a hundred people to join him in leaving the church to form a new one down the road.

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Coffee Fellowship

One in Christ or Coffee?

The danger of replacing Communion with a coffee bar.

by Paul Louis Metzger

It's very difficult for many contemporary Christians to recognize how much we have been shaped by the consumer culture in which we live—it is in the air we breathe and the water (or coffee) we drink.

Consider that in many churches the coffee bar has displaced the Lord's Table as the place where real community happens. Due in part to the neutralizing of sacred space that has been popular since the 1980s, churches began removing or deemphasizing the Lord's Table and introducing coffee bars. Without doubt the desire has been to build community by offering people a culturally familiar setting to engage one another. But we must ask: What formative message does a coffee bar convey?

A coffee bar mostly carries the values of our culture. We've come to expect coffee bars to offer a number of choices to meet our desires (decaf, tea, hot chocolate), and the setting is one of leisure and comfort. We usually gather in affinity groups. We sip the beverages not because we're thirsty but because we're conditioned to want them.

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Read the full article at LeadershipJournal.net

Paul Louis Metzger is professor of Christian theology & theology of culture at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

Doctors in Detention

Doctors in detention and the Hippocratic Oath

Meera Selvakone, MD

Family physician
Richmond Hill, Ont.

Every year, many newly qualified doctors recite the Hippocratic Oath upon graduating. But how many of us would actually put those words to the test if our own lives were in jeopardy? Half a world away, three physicians faced this dilemma.

During the first five months of 2009, an intense war played out in the densely populated coastline of northeastern Sri Lanka. More than 300 000 civilians were trapped between battle lines. A government-imposed media blackout meant the world was largely unaware of what the United Nations called a "bloodbath."

I solemnly pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity.¹

Doctors Thangamuthu Sathiyamoorthy, Thurairajah Varatharajah and Veerakaththi Shanmugarajah were employed by the government to work in the conflict zone. Dr. Shanmugarajah might easily have been working in a peaceful nation; several years ago, he emigrated to Canada only to return to Sri Lanka to serve the developing nation.

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CMAJ • November 10, 2009; 181 (10). First published October 19, 2009; doi:10.1503/cmaj.091527
© 2009 Canadian Medical Association

Image courtesy of Fred Sebastian

Helping Hands

In light of the recent natural disasters in Indonesia and the Philippines, the Johor Bahru Pastor Fellowship is initiating a relief project. Please help.

Happy Deepavali

Wishing all a Happy Deepavali

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Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Wishing all my Muslim readers

A Call to Spiritual Formation (7)

Paragraph Four

Spiritual formation happens in community. As we long to know and follow Jesus and be formed into his likeness, we journey with those who share this longing. God is calling the church to be a place of transformation. Here we struggle to fulfill our calling to love. Here we learn to attend to the invitations of God’s Spirit. Here we follow the presence of God in our midst. Spiritual community is the catalyst for our transformation and a sending base for our mission of love to the world.

Christian spiritual formation occurs best in a community of faith. While a community of faith often refers to a church, it may also refers to a small group of Christians gathering together for bible study and fellowship, an accountability group or a few regular friends chatting over coffee. James Wilhoit emphasizes in Spiritual Formation as if Church Matters that “spiritual formation is the task of the church.”

A community of faith has two roles in Christian spiritual formation. The first role is the role of a nurturing community. A nurturing community contributes to spiritual formation by providing a framework in which individual members are taught about the Word and the traditions of the church, is a safe place to make mistakes, provides skills to deepen the spiritual life, love and care for one another, and share in the joys and sorrows of life events. Its strength is that the community nurtures by using the members’ spiritual gifts.

The second role is that of corporate spiritual formation. Being part of the community itself is transforming. A community is like an organism and it grows and responds to the external world. This is also true of communities of faith. Communities of faith grow, develop and create its own identity. Paul often addresses the churches in the singular, as in his call for the church (singular sense) to put on the armour of God (Ephesians 6:11-13).

In summary, Christian spiritual formation develops best in a community of faith. It is in the context of interaction with other persons that we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. It is in the context of persons-in-community that we become the Body of Christ.

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