This weekend, I attended the Willowcreek Leadership Conference. Ok, I’ll confess. I’m not a fan of Willowcreek or its leadership conference. I don’t believe in “Can approach” to life.
While I’m still quite skeptical about Willowcreek’s version of “leadership”, I’m thankful that I’d attended the conference. Got a lot of insights as well as challenges:

Greatest challenge is from the session with British film producer/writer Richard Curtis.
Curtis is known as the creator of Mr. Bean, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Nottinghill. He is a great comic writer. However, outside of his film life, he’s a great promoter of charity works especially in the alleviation of poverty. He visited Ethiopia in 1985, saw the poverty and death first hand and was changed forever. He was the founder of Comic Relief , Live 8 concerts as well as the American Idol special “Idol gives back” episodes this April which raised over $70 million to fight poverty.
Bill Hybels said that this is the “most disturbing interview” for him (and I agree) because he’s a pastor interviewing a non-believer (or at least a non-committed ex-catholic), and it’s the ex-catholic who has raised over $1 billion in the past 20 years to fight poverty, and it’s this ex-catholic who’s challenging the Christian churches to join the fight. Curtis cites simple but crucial biblical concepts: love your neighbor, and exhorts Christians to put their Sunday sermons and evening prayers into action. Do something! You can Help!
Yes, as a Christian pastor, I do feel too that we Christians, Evangelicals in particular are not quick to help. We are not leaders in the fight against poverty or HIV/AIDS or inner city problems…so far, we haven’t helped very much! But the glass is not half-empty. It is half-full: If our not helping was a problem before, it can be an opportunity now! The truth is: We can help, and we must help if we are to continue to call ourselves Christians (little Christs)!
And if you want to join the fight, check out these sites: One Campaign, World Vision, World Relief, or this article: Five things anyone can do.

John Chan

It seems that some people think advancing one’s career is not always being compatible with being a good Christian in the market place.  I don’t agree.  I believe God is the creator and controller of the secular world as much as He is in the spiritual world.  The fruits of the Spirit that Christians should strive towards are equally valued in the spiritual world.

Sometimes I hear people say, “I will not stop serving God in the church no matter how busy I am at work.”  Then I would think to myself, if you think serving God in the church is different from serving God at work, the you don’t really understand what is serving God, period!

To borrow from the speaker of the weekend retreat I went to last week, who said, “God is not just interested in your spiritual life, He is interested in your life”, I would say, “Don’t just be a good Christian at the workplace, be good!”

Eva Mak of Toronto

During this summer, I have been helping to teach a course entitled “Authentic Humanity” to the young people of our church. These young people range from high school to recent university grads. Many of these young people are from Christian families and have been attending church all their lives. But our class discussions revealed that too many of them are unable to relate faith to life. Maybe I would make the same discovery if my class were consisted of average middle-aged or elderly Christians. I don’t think this is a condition limited to young people in the church.

Take for example, during the class this past Sunday, I asked the question, “What does salvation mean to you?” One of the young people said that salvation only means whether one will be going to heaven after death, and does not have any effect during this life. It took me a minute before I could respond, during which I thought to myself where had our Christian education gone so wrong? Such concepts could not have come from the pulpit. Practically every sermon I heard preached told us not to be a “Sunday Christian” in some form or other. How can we even start talking about incorporating faith into our everyday lives when we do not understand what salvation means to our lives here on earth today, and not just some day some where? Apparently just listening to sermons is not enough to help us do that.

It started me thinking about what may be more effective Christian education. I think of how Jesus Christ taught His disciples. He delivered sermons to crowds of thousands, but more importantly He hand picked some to go with Him every where and taught them wherever He had the chance. It seems to be common wisdom that this is an effective way of intense training, like how the Jedi knights are trained in the Star Wars movies. They are taken from home at a young age and followed their masters around, including going on missions.

From my reflections, I have two suggestions:

1. For Christian parents, don’t be too anxious of our children’s physical needs and well-being. Chinese parents are notorious for pushing our kids to do well in school, learn to play the piano, take swimming lessons etc. Don’t think of them as your kids. Rather, think of them as your young “padiwans” (the term used in the Star Wars movies), learning to become a Jedi knight under your charge. After all, Christians are called out of the world to fight the good fight for God’s kingdom.

2. If you have the chance, be a mentor to young Christians, whether they be in your work place or in your church. Let them see how your Christian faith affects your every day life. This of course presumes that your faith does affect your every day life.
This is not to say that I am better than others. Far from it, I deeply share Paul’s sentiment that I am the greatest of all sinners. I always believe that we must always be ready to listen to God’s small voice, don’t wait till He shouts, that would probably be some catastrophe in life.

Eva Mak of Toronto

It is always challenging to share the Gospel with non-Christians, especially to those who have previously heard the story of Jesus Christ or have serious misconceptions about Christianity.  Many working Christians face this challenge (and opportunity to share the Gospel) week after week amongst co-workers.  Christians are to be a reflection of Jesus Christ and that includes being the salt and light in a secular workplace darkened without God.  

During one particular opportunity this summer, I was able to prepare and share a short devotional/Bible study with a group of young workers and university/college students.  Praise God for the message that was pressed upon my heart, which I want to share with you today.  Let us begin by pondering two questions that are often asked by those in the contemporary working world: 

What are you living for?  What do you consider to be the true meaning of life and happiness? 

The typical Sunday school answer would be, “Knowing God and bringing Him glory.”  This is correct, but I wonder how many of us truly believe this, pursue it and have evidence if it in our lives?  When you thought about these questions, what was the first thing that popped into your head; family, education, a good job/career, financial security?  These things are not bad in and of themselves.  However, it is extremely important to realize what place these items have in your life.  What is in your heart?  

The Bible is the infallible Word of God given to us to learn and be fully equipped for every good work[1], so let us turn to the following two passages: Luke 12:13-21 and Matthew 6:19-24. 

In the first passage the Lord Jesus teaches us about what it means to be a fool, a RICH fool.  Jesus tells a parable about a foolish man who has placed his treasure in something that is very temporary.  A key idea in this passage is that “…life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15B ESV).  A person’s life is not defined by what he has or possesses.  Temporal earthly possessions should not be our focus as Christians, for we are “strangers and exiles on the earth.” (Heb. 11:13B ESV).  

The second passage, Matthew 6:19-24, further elaborates on this idea by warning us not to place our desires on earthly things, where they can be destroyed and/or stolen.  Verse 21 is especially important: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21 ESV)  

Although it is easy to verbally state that your heart and desires are for the Lord, I wonder how many of us believe this and try to keep this in mind during a busy day at work.  We as Christians have no excuse for placing our hearts and desires on the things of this world.  Unfortunately, we have misplaced our energy to pursue the things of this world more often than we would like to admit. 

Where is your heart?  Is it on the things of this world or on the Lord?  

Have we lost the true meaning of life and happiness in this secular world where we are only strangers and exiles? 

[1] (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV) “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”     

“There is not one centimetre of human existence to which Christ, who is
Lord of all, does not point and say, That is mine.”
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)

As “Porject Contempo” is seeking to build up a new generation of disciples
in the working environment, we always find that our context of doing
discipleship has changed as compared to the previous generations. Here are
a few key areas that are challenging our traditional views and demand
further and deeper reflections:

(1) Rethinking Creation
The “creation mandate” in Genesis 1:27-28 clearly stresses that taking
care of God’s creation is a godly matter. As “the land” itself is an
important theme in the bible, we need to find creative ways to connect
Christian faith with current issues such as global warming, international
poverty, and disputes about the land among the First Nations community.

(2) Rethinking Christology
While we have been stressing the “divinity”of Jesus in our traditional
teaching, the current battle about “who is Jesus”challenges us to
rethink Jesus’ incarnation. We need to present a more connected view about
Jesus who was and is equally 100% divine and 100% human.

(3) Rethinking Redemption
The biblical pictures about the future redemption of the body (Philip
3:20-21) and the liberation of creation (Rom 8:19-21) are good reminders
about the deficiency of our traditionally “dualistic” faith. As
“holistic” become a buzzword in the new economy, we need to rediscover
the biblical integrity of body and soul as we are seeking to connect
Sunday and Monday.

(4) Rethinking Missiology
Jesus’ three-fold ministry in teaching, preaching and healing is a strong
demonstration about Jesus’ concern for the whole person. (Mt 9:35) While
we are upholding the primacy of evangelism (soul care), we cannot ignore
the role of social responsibility (social care) as an indispensable part
of the Christian mission. And for Project Contempo, our challenge will
also be challenging the new generation not just to think about “business
and mission” but also “business as mission”!