January 2007

Leaders must feel that they need the community, as much as the community needs them.

Leaders must have the humility to acknowledge that they too are human beings with an intrinsic longing for community and belonging. Leaders need to allow others to speak into their lives and say the things that they may not be able to say to themselves.

Leaders must not mask their needs and their struggles from people. In doing so they lose out on the grace that God gives them through community. Not only that, seemingly perfect leaders can also indirectly demean the needs and struggles of others in the process. Leaders need relationships of all types from other leaders, peers, and followers in order to remain relationally healthy in the leadership journey.

Who do you need in your life right now? Who do you go to vent to, for encouragement, and how might we increase or deepen these types of relationships?

Actually, it’s “gentian violet”, for treating any possible infections. It doesn’t come off for a couple days. We ended up calling Stellar names like little hobo, drunk, and sailor, during that time.

Here’s some other hilarious photos of babies with the purple beard on flickr.

Last night Yvz was watching something on tv, where they were interviewing kids in the ghetto.

The reporter asked one kid - “What do you want to do when you grow up?”

boy resonds - “become a CEO”

the reporter is a bit shocked and says - “become a CEO of what?”

the boy then says - “actually i have a dream…”

reporter - “oh and what’s you dream?”

the boy says - “…I want to be batman”

My wife was commenting on how the boy probably got the CEO-part from his parents; but what was in his heart, was batman.

Are you living your dream? or someone else’s?

I never explained one of the items in my Lon-gerie fashion line earlier.

A while back I had wrote on my MSN messenger tag “My life is brilliant”, inspired by the first line in the James blunt song ‘You’re beautiful”.

Someone wrote to me and said how it was so typical of me, and how easy it is for someone like me to say that.

After which I changed it to

YOUR LIFE IS BRILLIANT…

you

just

don’t

know

it

yet.

think about it.

Thanks for reading my daddy’s blog!

Thank you for hearing his thoughts, commenting, interacting, and sharing your own life through this little space on the web!

After averaging a couple thousand unique visitors a month, my mommy and daddy (who both aren’t working) have made a whopping $12 the past two months through google adsense!

Feel free to spread the word by linking to this site, blogrolling, and subscribing to it!

My silly dad thinks he can help change the world! I still won’t be able to talk for a good while, so please keep tuning to either press his madness forward or smack some sense into him (even you lurkers out there!)

Muah! Life Rocks! I can’t wait to be up and running with my mommy and daddy!

For five years I’ve waited and asked the administration for a church planting course at Tyndale Seminary. It still hasn’t happened. Church planting courses are in our academic calendar, but they haven’t been offered supposedly due to a lack of interest. This semester I decided to enroll as a visiting student to Heritage Seminary for their church planting foundations course way out in Cambridge.

A couple thoughts from my first class specifically regarding demographics between the U.S. and Canada. (Because so often many people try to plant ‘American’ churches in a Canadian context, when in fact many of our values are diverging).

- The state of California alone has more people than all of Canada

- Statistically the values of the most liberal states (New England area) are still more conservative than Canada’s most conservative province (Alberta)

- Where postmodernism is a philosophical system embraced in the U.S., it is intrinsic to who Canadians are - we are almost exclusively postmodern

- Canada has quickly surpassed the UK in secularism

- “In the U.S. it’s legal to bear arms, in Canada it’s legal to bear breasts”

- Some additional generalizations for the U.S. - Risk-taking, money is everything, winner takes all, higher standard of living, and aspiration

- As compared to in Canada - Risk-averse, money is suspect, income redistribution, best quality of life, and accommodation

Much of this and many more stats are found in Michael Adams’ books, Sex in the snow, and Fire & Ice.

For my American friends here’s one of our infamous Molson Beer “I am Canadian” commercials.

For my Canadian friends, who are oblivious to American politics for the most part, check out this awesome speech by Senator Barack Obama who’s in the running to be America’s first black president (though I’ve got my bets on Hillary).

What do you think?

Shakespeare wrote: “I have immortal longings in me”. Don’t we all?

See the last three posts if you’re still catching up. Some people say ‘preaching is dead’. I often think so as well, but I still believe our post-Christian culture opens new opportunities for the ‘preacher’ today.

Postmodernity blurs the lines between everything - fact and fiction, on and offline, news and entertainment. Although there are inherent dangers to this blurring of boundaries, in many ways this cultural milieu provides the opportunity for us to preach a more holistic message. God’s story and the human story do not need to be separate. Faith and everyday life no longer need to be compartmentalized. The good news of the kingdom of God can be preached as a reality that can permeate every aspect of humanity.

Another new reality for our preaching today is the opportunity to call people to change immediately. Gone are the days where everyone requires all the empirical evidence upfront and then weighs out all the pros and cons. People today often only process information that they can apply immediately. Preaching to a postmodern world is conducive to action-oriented life transformation. Just as in the Scriptures James speaks strongly of acting on what we learn, when postmodern preaching offers people clear life applications, people have an opportunity to move towards faith, even if incrementally.

One of the most unique opportunities of our postmodern times is for preachers and followers of Jesus themselves. Being a post-Christian era, this offers us a unique time of humility, revisiting our roots and faith, re-placing our trust to where it belongs, and re-aligning ourselves back to becoming the church that Jesus had in mind when He was on the cross. As we do this, preachers have a rare opportunity to shake the culture again. Postmodern culture does not expect anything relevant to be coming out of the church. But when they are encountered by a church that is re-aligned with God and the voice of God is heard in a way that connects, it will be shockingly relevant, because that which is eternal is always relevant.

Spirituality is at an all-time high today, and religion is disdained more than ever. When we reveal to the postmodern world that Christ was very much the same way, this will immediately resonate. Though postmoderns want spiritual values without constraints, if we preach the radical values of Christ, they will form their own boundaries. Though postmoderns distrust institutions, if we preach that Christ did not come to establish a religion but a movement of followers that will change the world, the church will be seen differently. Though postmoderns stress personal fulfillment, if we preach that following Jesus brings people closer to the person they were always created to be, it can bring people to craving this deeper place of fulfillment. As Graham Johnston says, “Hope in Christ addresses the restlessness and arbitrary existence of the postmodern world�

The role of preaching in a postmodern world is just as crucial as ever. Although the challenges have changed since the modern era, the greatest needs of a human soul remain the same. Biblical and relevant preaching can transcend all of the negative stereotypes of postmodernity. Preaching is able to ask what no one dares to ask, dialog even deeper into the human heart, and proclaim a story that all are invited to participate in. Preaching is able to reveal to people what God is doing; in the life of the preacher, the world around them, and even in their own humanity. Preaching is able to integrate God with all the disconnected realities people live in today, calling them to change, while surprising them about the goodness of God. Preachers must learn to see the invisible and hear the inaudible, that the heart of the postmodern world is ‘preaching’ for us to preach Christ centered messages clearly to them.

Some excellent thoughts coming from the discussion in the last two posts (1 and 2) on preaching. I’m going to continue discussing preaching as valuable in postmodern contexts where we still have an audience. However, I believe this must not be reduced to the transfer of information, which it often is. If it does not lead to transformation it is a waste of all of our time. I’ve been guilty of this when I’ve spoken in the past.

Preaching through questions

I see preaching as a genre of communication of which there are many methods. It does not have to assume only the traditional role of an expert communicator pounding truth into their listeners. With postmodernity no longer subscribing to authority figures having all the right information, a more helpful form of preaching may be one where instead we “raise the right questions�. Although this may seem like a counter-intuitive way of delivering truth, if the gospel is in fact true, if we continue encouraging people to ask the right questions and seeking, the person of truth is where they will ultimately land. This process of discovery facilitates learning and more convicting answers for the postmodern audience.

A preaching dialogue?

Although the form of preaching can seem like a monologue, effective postmodern preaching cuts through the superficiality of the postmodern conversations and can actually launch a dialogue at the deepest levels. When a postmodern preacher can properly exegete the culture that it is communicating in, through the monologue one can actually draw out things that the listener dares not ask out loud. By being aware of the internal conversations of the audience, a preacher can have a very effective dialogue through the preaching monologue. This cultivates a sense of safety and understanding for the preacher. Taking this one step further, the conversation when effectively facilitated can become a trialogue where both the preacher and the listener together interact with what God maybe saying through the Scriptures, the Spirit, or even Creation itself.

Storytelling

Another form in which preaching can take shape is through storytelling. The language of the postmodern culture is image rich and desperately lacking a coherent storyline. God’s story is “an intranarrative� connecting all people can be very appealing. Although a single grand story may appear exclusive, what if we invited people to universal story that can incorporate their own story? Are there ways in the preaching moment where we can allow people to immediately begin participating jointly in the greatest developing story ever told?

I still believe in preaching, but there are its share of challenges.

Where the church has in many ways led western culture for most of the past millennia, during the past fifty years, the culture has leaped forward, lapping around the church; leaving it in the dust. Today the church is seen as the remnants of an archaic institution. The church did such a good job adapting to modern culture, with its rationalism, hierarchy, and structures that it has become irrelevant to the postmodern culture today.

In the modern preacher’s mind the surrounding culture is in complete and utter chaos. Today’s preacher often makes the tragic mistake of trying to answer questions that no one’s asking. This is a prime example of how broken the lines of communication are between the church and the culture. People no longer understand what the church is babbling, and the church has no idea how to communicate to a relative, subjective, pluralistic, and amoral society. All of these factors are no excuse for relinquish our mandate to preach the gospel.

Although it may seem like an uphill battle, in the mind of a missionary, this is a unique opportunity in history. Most of the emerging literature today attempts to expand the definition of what it means to ‘preach the gospel’, but if your gifting is to preach, then the church needs you to be the very best preacher that you can be. Preachers must take upon the mindset of missionaries in a foreign land where the culture we are engaging happens to be postmodern.

I still believe there is a place for biblical and relevant preaching in North America today and going forward… isn’t there?

I love my church, but an ear-aching silence hit me while I was sitting in the sanctuary trying to listen to the message today.

200 people sitting quietly in one moment in time. That’s an awful lot of people to not be expressing themselves.

However, I still believe in preaching. I’ll post a few thoughts on it in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: by the way this not a knock at my church, but the very act of the preaching moment to a postmodern audience in general. Our church often attempts to engage people in different ways (ie. forms of worship, response, skits, informal randomness, laughter, visuals, etc.)

As for now, does your church look anything like this?…

Stellar’s a thinker and a poser just like daddy.

Here’s a thought of the week:

Could we create a church of missionaries that sends out so many people it ceases to exist?

Sweet links for the week

- The entire Passion ‘07 event is available for viewing till midnight tonight. Speakers include John Piper, Beth Moore, Francis Chan, and of course Louie Giglio.

- A very interesting and humble response from John Piper on some ‘inappropriate’ language he used during the event.

- Free pdf download of Piper’s book When the darkness will not lift.

- Audio of NT Wright speaking in Toronto for the empireremixed in ‘06

- NT Wright article on Mere Mission.

- A Canadian social networking site for mom’s. I feel a bit excluded as all the pregnancy/parenting sites seem to be geared only towards mothers.

- The Evolving Church Conference featuring Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, and Shane Claiborne will be held march 24th.

- Church for men…?

- Off-Road Disciplines book FREE for bloggers thanks djchuang

- and Sweet and sour pork flavored stamps!

I dropped in on two other church planting network groups this past week. One was connected with Church Planting Canada out in Bowmanville (don’t ask me where that is).

Very cool, as all the guys here were in the messy midst of the early stages of church planting.

The other group was connected with the resonate, which they call greenhouses in downtown Toronto. Everyone there is in the dreaming and scheming phase of creating new forms of church. Very interesting.

I like the idea of a greenhouse

it makes me think of that overplayed Snow Patrol song, “Chasing Cars”. The one good verse that always sticks with me is where they sing “Show me that garden that’s bursting into life”

I see church planters as people who unleash cities that are bursting into life.

Update: If you haven’t heard it already, here’s an acoustic version of the song.

I’m not much of a TV watcher, especially after Alias ended. But I’ve found a new favorite show that I finally just caught up with online.

Heroes. It’s about ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities. Sounds like a call to all of humanity.

One of my favorite characters is Hiro Nakamura. Besides the ethnic affinity, I love Hiro because he naively assumes that he can change the world and yet struggles to be brave enough.

One of the best lines from Hiro was:

“If I’m too afraid to use my powers, then I don’t deserve them.”

What powers have you been given?

Some random links that might feed your online addictions…

You’ve probably seen the stats on the global village (ie. what the world would look like if it were shrunken down to a hundred people), here’s a flash video of it.

Quick tool for generating rss subscription buttons like I have on my sidebar.

ziki - helps manage your onine visibility. For the first 10,000 people they will sponsor your name on google, yahoo, and msn for free.

Moby writes about those insane Christians in his journal

Mac Tablet finally coming. If only I didn’t quit my job…

At least I can watch hundreds of tv shows online for free.

Or I can start a charity for myself on Network for Good.

Remind me again why I should plant a church?

DJchuang’s set up an excellent wiki for those interested in Asian American Church Plants.

Otherwise we could just sit around and watch other people create America’s Most Innovative Churches

and twiddle our thumbs waiting for Transformer’s the movie to come out.

The following is a great nugget from Pernell

To all you young ‘uns (and other assorted riff raff) who have ever thought about - or are thinking about - planting a church: Before you embark on your “rock-star-like” career, I think your perception of church planting may be a little clouded by the bull crap you see in the church, and on blogs, and at conferences.

Allow me to wipe that crap away: being a church planter will not make you cooler nor will it make you any more popular or more attractive to the opposite sex.

It will not make you any more spiritual and almost no one will respect you more for your courage, risk taking, or intrinsic motivation.

It will not make you braver or more disciplined.

It will not teach you to ‘take it like a man’ or ‘be a real woman’, it likely won’t help you to get on TV and it won’t allow you to buy nicer clothes, shoes, or hair gel either.

It won’t allow you to finally be part of the perfect church, or to shed institutional politics, nor will it guarantee that people will accept you for who you are - authentic community.

It will, however, expose every limitation you have and defeat you at almost every turn.

It will bite you on the butt whenever it gets the opportunity, it will choke you, break you, wind you, bruise you, cut you and batter you, emptying any sense of self-sufficiency along the way. It’ll wind you up like a clock until you feel like tearing your own face off and walking away in snivelling submission.

It’s probably the most fun you’ll ever have.

Or maybe it’s just me.

No I didn’t go this year. But Yu-ling’s been doing some live blogging from the event.

If you don’t know what Urbana is, it’s a missions conference with twenty-thousand or so students every few years. See here for streaming videos of the sessions.

In keeping with blogging more this year, I’ll be posting some archived posts as well as some yet-to-be published thoughts / articles.

I’m too embarrassed to post all of it, but here are some excerpts of an article I wrote after returning from Urbana six years ago:

God wants to do something for us, so that he can do something with us. Although He may be sending us to serve on mission, we are still His mission field.

We are called to be worshippers before workers – A.W. Tozer

Often the greatest thing that hinders us from worshipping God is our service to Him. We do not respond to him by our busyness for Him. God simply wants us, as we are, completely. God has enough burnt offerings. Don’t offer the sacrafice of fools. He wants our hearts.

God doesn’t want our worship… If we’re not going to repent. What has God done for us if He hasn’t forgiven us? How can we worship God while clutching on to sin?

Worship is not for the flawless, but for the broken. Worship is for the wounded. Worship is for the sinners; for those that desire God’s mercy.

“If you want to be a part of people’s healing in the future, be a part of people’s healing now. If you want to love and care for people who are different from you in the future, love and care for people who are different from you now. How you live now, will shape how you live in the future� - Susan Cho Van Riesen

Is what you’re living for, worth Jesus dying for?

Some goals for 2007

Family - spend lots of quality time with my two ladies. Become more and more a healthy and spiritual household of influence to our communities.

People - Consistently invest my time and resources into people - extended family, friends, maybe even some Christians

Ministry - I’ll be giving my time and energy for about a year to an yet-to-be-decided internship beginning this summer. If anyone has any good leads, recommendations, connections in the area that would fit a dude like me, please let me know.

Work - I’ve still got bills to pay. Hopefully the internship can be a payed one, but if not, I’ll definitely need to look into some new options. Starbucks is high on my list right now.

Network - I’ve had the aching sense the past year that I desperately need to connect with more people. I’m absolutely certain the dreams and visions I have on my heart are impossible on my own. I hope this year I can connect with more planters, pioneers, peers, heroes, mentors, and emerging leaders.

Club - as in join and be active in some type of non-ministry related club or group this year

Discover my voice by using it - There have been a few books on my mind that I’ve been wanting to write. I wasn’t planning on attempting to publish anything till my forties, but I feel the need to maybe get the process started sooner. I hope to be publishing more via the blog and speaking more as a baby-step towards this for the year.

If anyone has recommendations or suggestions with helping me along any of these goals, feel free to chime in!