Contempo is doing a national online survey of the English-speaking congregations of the Canadian Chinese churches. This national survey is not primarily a survey of churches but a survey of individuals. These include all who attend the English service of a Canadian Chinese church, irrespective of their age, employment and ethnicity. All responses will be kept anonymous and the results will be tabulated and analyzed nationally.

A special session has been set apart during our next national conference (to be held from June 27th to 29th 2008 in Calgary) to discuss the implications of this survey at the conference. The panelists include Rev. Paul Wang formerly of Vancouver, who coordinated the English track program at the 2006 CCCOWE conference in Macau, now a professor at the Biblical Seminary in Philippines, Dr. Daniel Wong, assistant professor at Tyndale College in Toronto and Rev. Arch Wong, director of field Education and assistant professor at Ambrose University in Calgary. Later we will provide the statistical analysis of the survey and the key conclusions of the panel discussion upon request.

It is the first of such survey. In order to have a representative study, a broad sample is needed. The deadline of the survey is May 31st 2008. It will only take 15 minutes to complete. Simply go to http://projectcontempo.ca and follow the link provided.

Remember everyone counts! Please complete the survey and encourage two friends from your church to do it.

Clement Yeung

At work, we are currently doing performance evaluations.  This means we need to talk about our successes, accomplishments and failures over the past year with our employer.  In most jobs, the evaluation is directly or indirectly tied to salary increases in some way.  So people try to present themselves in a manner that will get them a bigger raise. 

Many jobs have some kind of yearly review or employee evaluation process and workplace Christians will face some difficulties during this process.  I won’t provide answers or solutions to the issues but just discuss a few of them.

1. We find it hard to brag about our successes because we are taught to be humble. 
This one is tough.  How will your boss know you are doing good unless you tell him/her?  Matthew 23:12 says, “And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  On top of trying to be humble, sometimes explaining your strengths involves comparing yourself to your coworkers.  We must be careful to not talk poorly of our coworkers.      

2. We may feel under appreciated or not recognized for our good works.
Often our employers don’t see the overtime we work, or the extra effort we put in.  It’s natural to feel under-appreciated when your coworkers are being promoted instead of you or when your raise is smaller than you were hoping for.  Don’t be discouraged but be encouraged.  Your coworkers see the hard work you are doing and it is a great testimony as a Christian.  Also never forget that God sees all the good work that you do and ultimately, all the work you are doing is for Him.

3. We may be tempted to bend the truth or exaggerate to make ourselves look better.
This one tends to sneak up on Christians.  We are good at not outright lying because “Thou shalt not lie”.  But sometimes we leave out “unimportant” details or exaggerate “a little”.  We can make a person believe something without directly lying, but it is still dishonest.  We must be careful.  Truth bending and exaggeration is a slippery slope that leads to lying, deceit, and compromised integrity. 

4. We may try to hide our failures and weaknesses.
This one is tough too.  No one wants to point out their insufficiencies or their failures.  But it’s hard to improve when you do not acknowledge you need improvement.  It may be a pride thing or maybe you don’t want it to reflect badly and reduce your salary increase. 

5. We may be tempted by greed and our pursuit of promotions.
Increasing our wealth and the prestige of getting promoted are desires that are often driven by greed and pride.  Christians must be very careful here.  When our fleshly desires for either of these is too strong, we will have more difficulty with the issues we have already talked about.  Lk. 12:15 - “be on guard against every form of greed; life is not in possessions” 

Christians in the workplace will inevitably face these issues.  Sometimes we fall, but we need to get back up, ask for forgiveness and try to do better next time.  Our employers may evaluate us yearly, but the final evaluation is yet to come. 
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” - 2 Cor. 5:10

-Jackson (from Calgary) 

“so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.” Psalm 78:6-7

What are we leaving behind for the GENERATIONS after us?  The pastor of a Church walked into his usual weekly meeting and sat down and looked at his staff and proceeded to lead this group in building the Church.  35 years later, this same pastor walked into his usualy weekly meeting and sat down and when looking at his staff, he noticed that all of them were in their late 20’s and early 30’s… something had changed in that instant because instead of leading them to build his God-envisioned Church of 30 years ago, he opened the meeting by saying, “I am here to lead you in building your Church.”  By this, he meant that the new era of the Church will focus on the NEXT.  The elders and seniors of the Church had felt the same calling as their pastor so instead of grumbling about the lack in the seniors ministry, they re-emerged with a calling to build not just for the NEXT generation but for GENERATIONS to come.  This is the testimony of my pastor right now.  How encouraging it was to hear him say this with the utmost integrity and humility.

What are we leaving behind for the GENERATIONS after us?  Something that I have noticed in ethnic Churches (my experience coming from pastoring in a Chinese Church context, but having friends who have pastored in an East Indian and a Croatian Church) is that once a child has grown to a level of certain maturity, they leave the Church because it’s “too old fashioned” or “there is nothing here for us” or “They’ll never allow us to grow up or lead this place…”  It broke my heart to hear the parents/leaders of these churches saying, “well, this is our way and the kids need to find their own way so let them go” or even worse, “they need to be trained on how to maintain this Church the way we have done it”

What are we leaving behind for the GENERATIONS after us?  I would like to challenge you in your service to God to not only think about what he’s calling you to do NOW but to think about what he’s calling you to do for GENERATIONS to come.  A pastor/professor of mine at Bible College clearly stated that when a Church plans to build a new building, it should be built around the nursery.  His implication was that a Church may build a new building to meet the demands of today BUT the spiritual reality is that when a Church has an opportunity to build something new, look at the GENERATIONS after us and build it for them.

What will you leave behind for the GENERATIONS after us? that they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.

Naoto Yuki, Calgary