Archive for ‘Pastoring’

Three weddings and a funeral

By kenny, 3 January, 2010, 4 Comments

It began with my son listening to his Japanese love albums. Overhearing, I found them catchy despite not understanding the lyrics. It sort of grows on you. I have watched many episodes of Japan hour and even caught some J movies and serials. Lately, I have used Japanese tracks for some of my slides in YouTube and videos. And I have been hearing them on and off. Subconcious decisions. Even now, with the cool of afternoon drizzle outside my window, Japanese songs are blaring in my bedroom and I am happily writing my blogposts for the week. Maybe its the J pop that stoked my creativity and lightness of being as reflected in my blogpost today.

I have conducted three weddings and a funeral in recent months. Interesting and very different ones.

Nat and Janice in the middle

The first was at an award-winning restaurant along Clarke Quay just before the lunch crowd. It was a small intimate family affair. A ceremony for registration of the marriage of Nat and Janice. The HDB required proof of marriage but wedding plans was later. It reminded me of my own situation in 1980. I did the registration of my marriage to satisfy HDB requirements, and later did the church marriage solemnization. It was not uncommon in my days and quite a number of couples landed in the same quandary. So I conducted the marriage registration as deputy registrar of marriage for Nat and Janice, and after that they continue to live separately until their actual church marriage ceremony. Umm…..never mind if you don’t understand. Anyway I enjoyed the ambience, and the sumptuous leisurely lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the Singapore river.

Tea ceremony: Eunice and Colin

The second wedding was the marriage of my god-daughter Eunice and Colin. I was of course happy to see their relationship blossom into a covenant before God and man. An answered prayer for me. The wedding was elegance in full bloom. Well dressed good-looking young men and women of the entourage, as well as family, guests and well wishers. The location was unique and understatedly grand: the Asian Civilization Museum, with its old Brit colonial swagger. The ceremony went smoothly, everyone was relaxed despite the formality of dress, and the hall and reception area was tastefully decorated with elegant design touches that drew out the oohs and aahhs and phone cameras from aesthetes. Later they had a tea ceremony in the hall itself.  Eunice has uploaded early pics on her blog, Memoire of Eunice. The next evening was a dinner at the Tanglin Club with close family members and friends. It was like being in a movie as couples took to the dance floor and danced to live music….including novices like me and my wife, a first for us. :)

Mr and Mrs Stephen Koh

On New Year’s day, which was yesterday,  I did another kind of wedding. This one was done at home in a five room HDB flat. Stephen Koh and Lily Lim. It was surprisingly refreshing, free from the burden of dress and formality of the usual weddings. We were all dressed smart casual, and I could see the power of community of the small church, as the friends from the cell group went all out to help make the wedding special. From photo taking, to decor, to whatever else was needed that kept them at work until 4 am on the wedding day itself. The groom was so touched he choked while saying a heartfelt thanks to the cell group and helpers. I did the solemnization next to the LCD TV and the signing in the balcony, and we had excellent food from Four Seasons outside the larger than normal lift landing. The couple hosted their reception with two groups: one over lunch and one over dinner.

All three were so special. I like weddings. More Lord, more.

Now that I have written about three weddings, I have no heart to write about a special funeral I witnessed and participated in. The mood is just not right. Perhaps another time. But I will not change the catchy title for obvious reasons. :)

Raphael Samuel goes back to Bolivian missions

By kenny, 29 November, 2009, 3 Comments

Lord let the bonds of love continue till kingdom come, for friendships are your gifts to us.

We had a nice lunch at the Bukit Gombak CDANS restuarant to say goodbye to Archdeacon Raphael Samuel, Anglican priest and missionary. My good friend and classmate is flying back to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  Back to his missions field. He goes with his wife and son but the son will return later to study business in the Nanyang Technological University. He’s been here for two years and during that time he was ministering in Christchurch Anglican Church, a Tamil congregation near Kandang Kerbau Hospital. During the two years we have had several occasions to fellowship and support each other and to have those reunions with bible school classmates whenever Rev. Benedict Muthusamy, a Malaysian Presbyterian minister and moderator, or Dr TanYak Hwee, a seminary lecturer in Taiwan drops over. We have been meeting like that for over 20 years, since we all graduated in 1985 from Trinity Theological College. Goon Heo and myself are the ever-present core in this group. I wonder if other cohorts and classes have this kind of regular enduring get-togethers. So much strength and sharpening can be gained from such friendships.

Eating the flesh of Joseph Prince

By kenny, 27 November, 2009, 7 Comments
Eating the flesh of Joseph Prince

There are things preachers and pastors can learn from Joseph Prince, the pastor of New Creation Church.

Read More →

Epigram Pte Ltd: creativity and generosity

By kenny, 25 November, 2009, 4 Comments

Lord thank you for your provision

It was a chance meeting at my mum’s funeral. It was something like Ruth in Boaz’s fields: “As it turned out, she Lord, thanks for Edmund Weefound herself working in a field belonging to Boaz..” (Ruth 2:3). Edmund Wee, founder and owner of design company Epigram Pte Ltd was there to offer condolences. His family and my wife’s were next door neighbours and family friends for decades. He had just won the prestigious President’s Design Award for 2008, and I knew he published annual reports for companies. But I did not know how well the company was doing until I checked out his website after he offered to do pro bono design work for the church. I was blown over and very impressed.

When I shared with the leadership they too were pleased. Edmund is known for his generosity but I never knew he was creative too. When the designs came, I liked the originality and creativity of the logo idea that they proposed to us. Our old logo was the winner of a church competition and it has served its time. Now its time for the new one to mark a new chapter in the church’s life. The new look was unique, clean-cut and elegant. I loved it staightaway. They did designs for stationery and signage and other stuff as shown above.

The new church logo had many doves in flight, forming an 8, a significant number in our church’s history, because at its first baptism 8 were baptized on the 8th of August (eighth month) on the 8th anniversary of Singapore’s independence. In the Bible the number 8 symbolizes salvation and new beginnings and resurrection. It all fits and makes sense.

Singapore churches are preaching the half gospel

By kenny, 22 November, 2009, 15 Comments

Lord anoint your servants to preach the good news of JesusI find Michael Horton’s books invigorating. I have read his “Putting the Amazing Back into Grace” and “Power Religion” of which I would warmly commend the former. But I have not read his more recent books titled Christless Christianity and the Gospel-Driven Life but they should be thought provoking stuff.Michael is currently the  professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary in Escondido, California, and the author of many books. Recently he was interviewed by Mark Galli from Christianity Today.

I am posting excerpts from this interview on some issues raised in these recent books to strengthen my claims that preaching in Singapore is too man-centered and imperative-driven and needs to return to being God-centered and indicative-driven or gospel-driven. What people have been receiving is a half gospel. The interview will clarify what I mean.

Here are some excerpts from there:

ARE OUR SERMONS IN CHURCHES TODAY CHRISTLESS:

What is at the core of the temptation to practice a Christless Christianity?

When the emphasis becomes human-centered rather than God-centered. In more conservative contexts, you hear it as exhortation: “These are God’s commandments. The culture is slipping away from us. We have to recover it, and you play a role. Is your life matching up to what God calls us to?” Of course there is a place for that, but it seems to be the dominant emphasis.

Then there is the therapeutic approach: “You can be happier if you follow God’s principles.” All of this is said with a smile, but it’s still imperative. It’s still about techniques and principles for you to follow in order to have your best life now.

In both cases, it’s law rather than gospel. I don’t even know when I walk into a church that says it’s Bible-believing that I’m actually going to hear an exposition of Scripture with Christ at the center, or whether I’m going to hear about how I should “dare to be a Daniel.” The question is not whether we have imperatives in Scripture. The question is whether the imperatives are all we are getting, because people assume we already know the gospel—and we don’t.

But aren’t many churches doing good preaching about how to improve your marriage, transform your life, and serve the poor?

The question is whether this is the Good News. There is nothing wrong with law, but law isn’t gospel. The gospel isn’t “Follow Jesus’ example” or “Transform your life” or “How to raise good children.” The gospel is: Jesus Christ came to save sinners—even bad parents, even lousy followers of Jesus, which we all are on our best days. All of the emphasis falls on “What would Jesus do?” rather than “What has Jesus done?”

Why is this such a temptation for the church?

It’s our default setting. No one has to be taught to trust in themselves. No one has to be taught that what you experience inside yourself is more authoritative than what comes to you externally, even if it comes from God. Since the Fall, it has been part of our character to look within ourselves. And it is part of our inherent Pelagianism to think we can save ourselves by following the right instructions.

In such a therapeutic, pragmatic, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps society as ours, the message of God having to do all the work in saving us comes as an offensive shot at our egos. In this culture, religion is all about being good, about the horizontal, about loving God and neighbor. All of that is the fruit of the gospel. The gospel has nothing to do with what I do. The gospel is entirely a message about what someone else has done not only for me but also for the renewal of the whole creation.

ON WHATS A GOSPEL-DRIVEN LIFE (IS HE TAKING A DIG AT THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE?):

What specifically do you mean by “a gospel-driven life”?

Because I live in San Diego, I think of a sailboat decked out with all of the latest equipment that tells you where you are and where you need to be. It plots your course, but it’s a sailboat, so you need wind in your sails. You start out, and it’s a beautiful day with wind in your sails. You’re out in the middle of the ocean when the wind dies down. You’re just sitting there dead calm. And your radio tells you that a hurricane is approaching. But all of your sophisticated equipment will not be able to get you to safety. What you need is wind in your sails.

A lot of Christians, especially people who have had dramatic conversion experiences, go sailing out of the harbor with wind in their sails. They are so confident in Christ and what he has done for their salvation, and that gospel wind is in their sails. Yet after two years, they have heard just one imperative after another. They have lots of course plotting, lots of books on how to do this and that. They’ve read every manual on spiritual disciplines. They have heard their pastor tell them they need to pray more, to read the Bible more, to evangelize more. Now they are dead in the water. There’s no wind in the sails.

Paul calls the gospel “the power of God unto salvation,” and I don’t think he meant the power of God just unto conversion. The gospel remains the power of God unto salvation until we are glorified. Calvin once said we need the gospel preached to us every week, and the Lord’s Supper to ratify that promise, because we are partly unbelievers until we die.

‘Paul calls the gospel “the power of God unto salvation,” and I don’t think he meant the power of God just unto conversion.

In The Gospel-Driven Life you use news as a metaphor. Why?

I stole it from the apostles! Their dominant metaphor for the gospel message is “good news.” The content is that God has done all the saving, no thanks to us. Someone asked Martin Luther what we contribute to salvation, and he said, “Sin and resistance!”

The gospel is not even my conversion experience. If somebody asks me what the gospel is, I’m not going to talk about me; I’m going to talk about Christ. All of the testimonies we find from the apostles’ lips are not testimonies about what happened in their hearts. They are testimonies about what happened in history when God saved his people from their sins. That’s the gospel. Although the gospel makes all sorts of things happen inside of me and gives me the fruit of the Spirit, the gospel itself is always an external word that comes to me announcing that someone else in history has accomplished my salvation for me.

Someone comes with instructions and says, “Here’s what your life could be like if you do x, y, or z.” Good news is, “Let me tell you what has happened!” The gospel is not good instructions, not a good idea, and not good advice. The gospel is an announcement of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

So what is the first step in living a gospel-driven life?

Become a recipient again. Mary and Martha, the two sisters and disciples of Jesus, had different relationships with Jesus. Martha busied herself with many tasks, and she was getting mad at Mary for making her do all the work. Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning from him. Jesus rebuked Martha for criticizing her sister and said Mary had chosen the better part.

First and foremost, disciples are recipients of Jesus Christ’s teaching. His teachings are really teachings concerning his person and his work. He has accomplished our salvation. He has accomplished our redemption. So first, allow the gospel to soak in again.

Then allow the imperatives that arise out of that to be our reasonable service. Instead of trying to live the victorious Christian life, instead of trying to get into God’s favor by following tips and formulas, let’s receive the gospel and then follow the commands of God’s law when it comes to directives. Then our sailboat is perfectly equipped. Now we have the wind in our sails—the gospel—and we also have God’s own wisdom to guide us in that gospel-driven life.

If we understand what Michael Horton is saying in this interview, we will understand why our churches of full of tired Marthas running around on an empty tank in the kitchen, and who will end up in churches that cater for Marys.

For the full interview go to Christ the Center article in online Christianity Today.com.

And read a related article which I posted recently on the indicatives and imperatives of the gospel.

Indicatives and imperatives of the gospel

By kenny, 19 November, 2009, 3 Comments

preachingUnderstanding the indicatives and the imperatives will help anyone identify what is effective and empowering preaching and teaching of the gospel. This is something many believers and preachers miss. Their criteria of good preaching hinges too much on peripheral issues of structure and style. What is crucial is the content. It distinguishes us from the professional motivational speakers, religious gurus and politicians.

Nowadays there are a great deal of “How to…” messages which give instructional, moralistic, practical, Readers Digest type advice albeit with a Christian makeover. While I admit there is a place for this, the diet of God’s people has to be balanced with apostle Paul ’s order of indicatives(what God has done for us) before imperatives(what we therefore ought to do in response).

Most churches in Singapore preach the imperatives and the result is that Christians may mistakenly or subconsciously think that Christianity is another set of do’s and don’ts like Buddhism, or Islam: a moralistic religion with pragmatic, adaptable and logical rules and advice for living.

One of the more insightful succinct books I have read on preaching is “A Primer for Preachers” by Ian Pitt-Watson, a Professor of Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary. I particularly like his emphasis that preaching the Good News is founded on, and driven by the ‘indicatives’ (who God is and what He has done). Here is an extract:

What is preaching? It is procalmation, not just moralizing. It is Good News, not just good advice; it is gospel, not just law. Supremely, it is about God and what he has done, not just about us and about what we ought to do. Logically and theologically(though by no means always chronologically) preaching is about God before it is about us; it is about what God has done before it is about what we ought to do. Our self-understanding must flow from our understanding of God. When we speak of what we ought to do(as of course we must, our moral imperatives must issue from our knowledge of what God has done. Otherwise our imperatives are no more than pious moralizings that refuse to face the facts of life: “When I want to do the right, only the wrong is within my reach”(Rom 7:21). Or else, if the moral exhortations are seriously intended and seriously attempted, the consequence is simply to compound in our hearers their burden of guilt when, inevitably, they make the same desolating discovery that Paul made: “The good which I want to do, I fail to do; but what I do is the wrong which is against my will”(Rom 7:19). Only through what God is and has done can I be what I ought to be and do what I ought to do. What I cannot do for myself, “what the law could never do, because [my] lower nature robbed it of all potency, God has done.” At heart, preaching is about what “God has done: by sending his own Son in a form like that of our own sinful nature”(Rom 8:3). That is the gospel.

The practical consequences of these theological conclusions are of immense importance to the preacher. Now that the “what?” question has been faced, the “how do you dos” of preaching can be answered with more confidence. If preaching is to be proclamation and not mere moralizing, then the ethics of our preaching must be rooted in the theology of our preaching. We cannot make sense of who we are and what we ought to do until first we know who God is and what he has done in Jesus Christ. The Christian ethic, severed from its theological roots, is no more than a new law, more demanding and therefore more burdensome than the old. That is why it is always so clear in the letters of Paul that the ethic flows out of the theology. We can be what we ought to be and do what we ought to do only because of what God is and has done. The theology empowers the ethic; it does not just accompany it with an encouraging, heavenly-father pat on the back. For every imperative of the Christian ethic there is an empowering indicative of Christian theology. In the Sermon on the Mount the imperatives are indeed there and inescapable in their demand. But they are more than imperatives; they are descriptions of life in the kingdom of God, indicatives of that kingdom. Perhaps that is why the Sermon begins, not in the imperative mood speaking of how things ought to be, but in the indicative mood speaking of how things are. “How blest are those who know their need of God; the kingdom of heaven is theirs”(Matt, 5:3). This is how things are in the kingdom that in Christ is already in our midst. People are happy(makarios) with the special kind of happiness that comes from God alone. The most surprising people are happy in the most surprising circumstances. They are not told to be happy or trying to be happy. They just are happy. The blessed indicative of the Beatitudes precedes and empowers the demanding imperatives of the kingdom that are to follow.

“Don’t preach!” means “Don’t just tell me what to do; help me to do it.” That is precisely what authentic biblical preaching is all about. It is about action enabled by insight, imperatives empowered by indicatives, ethics rooted in theology, “what we ought to do” made possible by what God has done. (p21,22)