education – Page 2

Tag: education

A Christian’s simple guide to voting

3 May 2011 blogpastor 12 Comments

Who should I vote for is the question on my mind and on your minds too. Some thinking and feeling and praying should go into my vote. To help me think through, I came up with a list of criteria. If you want to use it to help you in your decision go ahead but do attach your own individual weight of importance to each of the criteria. Since I am a preacher permit me to indulge in alliteration.

Personality

Who are the candidates in the GRC or the SMC? Certainly integrity of character and ability would be an important factor in my choice. While it is difficult to assess a candidate’s character in just two weeks, the testimony of others and character references do help. The speeches and interviews may also let slip some clues. Still it is advantageous for the incumbent, and since its difficult to be fair here, I give this less weight. I just need assurance there is no major doubts about the integrity or ability of the candidates to represent me in Parliament.

Property or practical benefits

This is probably the most self-centred of all the criteria as it has to do with “what’s in it for me and my family?” PAP’s explicit and publicly stated policy is to benefit whichever constituency votes in their candidates. This behaviorist’s approach of carrot and stick in politics has served them well in the past though today’s young voters are a different breed.

Party

Another approach is simply to choose the party whose platform and values I am most aligned to and consonant with. A perfect match is unlikely but I can surely choose the party I am most comfortable with. Read their manifestos and hear the speeches will help me reach a reasonable judgment.

Principles

This criteria is related to the one before it: specific issues and policies. Cost of living, availability of affordable housing, ministers’ salaries, the immigration and foreign worker policy, the care of the elderly and the poor, casinos and their social costs, health care, transparency of dealings of national reserves, and other such matters that fire your heart. Certainly, how strongly I feel for or against the present state of affairs will somehow be factored into my thinking process.

Perspective

The big picture, the long term good of the whole of Singapore comes to the forefront here. It’s no longer about whether my mum gets a lift at her floor, or upgrading of the landscaping in my area. It’s about the future I want for Singapore and for my children and children’s children. Which party is more likely to bring me towards that future?

Personal convictions and values

Faith cannot be totally divorced from this. The faith or religion I have does influence what I believe to be important in life and society, and therefore it does colour how I view the world and the decisions I make, including this vote. Christianity values the integrity and righteousness; peace and harmony; truth and justice; compassion and mercy; stewardship of the earth; etc.

Personal ranking of criteria

Individual Christians will of course place different weights of importance to each of these depending on their experiences, stage in life and convictions. Ranking the factors in order of importance helps me make a clearer decision, one that I can be at peace with, one that expresses the unique “me” at this stage of my life.

Prayer and peace

It is important to pray about my vote. Prayer is not only for when I am in trouble. The vote I take can then be free from the forces that have been unleashed by all the different political parties: fear and greed (the same forces that dominate the stock market). When these primal emotions dominate your personal landscape it is difficult to make a peaceful decision. Confidence in God’s love and care provides the basis for me to enter into a restful vote. So I will talk about this with the Lord.

Further reading: The Catholic Archbishop Chia’s pastoral letter for 2011 general elections.

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Society and religion discernment, education, Singapore, Spiritual Formation & Discipleship, Voting

Making Disciples

24 January 2011 blogpastor 6 Comments

My main textbook was Making Disciples by Sylvia Wilkey Collinson. This is indeed a book that cries out for more readership. Well researched, readable and clear the author Sylvia Wiley Collinson has made a significant contribution to the slowly growing literature on making disciples. Not many scholars will consider this subject weighty enough to warrant their attention, and this is sad.

The popular fare on this topic have been written by Navigators-influenced authors like LeRoy Eims, Dawson Trotman(founder), Jerry Bridges, Walt Henrichsen, Bill Hull, and Edmund Chan. The latter two authors have written quite a bit about disciple making in a church setting but the rest write of discipling in a context that is very much independent of the church. Doing discipling one with one or with a few.

This is why I feel Collinson’s book has a place in the pantheon of classic books on discipling. The book looks at discipling in the Greece, Rome, Egypt and other cultures surrounding Israel. Then she examines discipling in the Old Testament and in each of the Gospels, Acts, and the epistles. She refines her definition as she goes along. Attention is given to the differences and changes in discipling between the gospels and after the church was formed. Then she views all her findings in the light of surveys of Australian church life and compares what she learned of discipling methodologies with recent educational research. The conclusions are not earthshaking, but give you a sense that there is much to be done in reforming educational methods of discipling in the church.It is much more than just one with one; it has to do with the whole community, with culture and values education as well.

It was a pleasure to be able to discuss the content with the author as well. In lectures and in interaction inside and outside the classroom, the subject can be absorbing and exciting. Dr Collinson was able to give perspectives that come from years of research in related fields, suggesting further resources and readings in various journals and books.

The book is printed under Paternoster theological monographs and due to the niche demand, is rather expensive at $40 over. However it is worth the price and the time and effort to study and discuss it. Especially, for those passionate about disciplemaking in the church. How I wish S.U., the Navpress, or Campus Crusade could imprint a cheaper version and make it available to a larger audience at a lower price.

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Spirituality Church growth, Disciplemaking church, education, Making Disciples

AGST MTH(ED) – Making Disciples (4th module)

17 January 2011 blogpastor 13 Comments

Studying is a spiritual discipline – one that helps you to grow spiritually in grace. Yet it was with some apprehension that I entered into a formal program of study. After all it had been over twenty years since I wrote essays with endnotes and bibliographies. And the sight of students studying in the Trinity Theological College’s library always evoked feelings of pity in me for them. The Asia Graduate School of Theology Master’s in Theology (Education) is the only post-graduate course that appealed to me and stoked my long dormant affair with education. Only that my interest had shifted long ago from school to education in the faith community. So the challenge felt like climbing Mt Kinabalu: it’s doable, but you may not make it, and it called for preparation, sweat, money, and perseverence.

Kuang, the town where the Malaysian Bible Seminary(MBS) campus was located is 45 minutes north of Kuala Lumpur Sentral by KTM. MBS had bought over and renovated what was formerly a leisure farm/golf country club. This would lend the MBS the distinction of being the only bible school in all of South East Asia with a swimming pool! The hostel room I stayed in was once a golf driving range and its door open to an open field. There was even a very large indoor stadium for basketball and badminton. The grounds were large and breezy: I liked it immediately on arrival. Though the furnishings were spartan, they were clean and there was an attached bathroom and airconditioning. The AGST program would move among its several affiliated member theological institutions in Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand.

While we were there, the Petaling Jaya Evangelical Free Church was also using the grounds for a two week intensive vacation bible school for school leavers. There were about 30 of them studying the Word in depth in the mornings; workshops in the afternoon and ministry at night. At the end of the school they would take all the services in the church over the weekend, except preaching. Another group that used the place was SIB KL’s worship ministry having a 2 days retreat.

The lecturer was Dr Sylvia Collinson and she had written her thesis on Making Disciples which was then the basis of her published book, “Making Disciples: The significance of Jesus’s educational methods for today’s church”. Having read her book as part of the preparation I was keen to interact with her and the other students. The students were of different nationalities and ethnicity: Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean. They are theological lecturers, pastors and leaders of parachurch groups. We were all at different stages of the course, some near the end, others at the middle, and me and Carlos just at the beginning.

The readings before the course were beneficial and since reading and writing are pleasurable activities for me, doing the reading report and the class presentation were as easy as climbing Bukit Timah Hill. Its the formal essay requiring research, footnotes and bibliography that presents a psychological barrier. To help me overcome that, Benedict installed in my laptop a software called “Endnote”.

We began at 9am each morning and typically ended around 4.30 to 5pm, including Saturday. The course was marked with a good balance of lecture, small group discussions, class presentations. Everyone contributed to the learning but the lecturer was the main contributor and facilitator as well. I look forward to the next course in April on Spiritual Formation. But first I need to complete an essay for this course by the end of February.

Meal times were leisurely and the food was good local fare. Breakfast was mostly Malaysian, and only on one occasion we went Western with bread, bacon, eggs, sausages and baked beans. The banter were usually stories, discussions over lectures and getting to know you stuff. All were mature people with a sense of purpose. It was enjoyable.

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Spirituality AGST, education, Kuang, Malaysian Bible Seminary, Spiritual Formation & Discipleship, Study

The Francis Yeoh interview

5 January 2011 blogpastor 4 Comments

Bear with the short Mandarin prologue before the interview in English begins. This is a powerful testimony of market place ministry, of being salt and light to the world while being in business.

This is Wikipedia’s write up about Francis Yeoh.

Tan Sri Dato’ Francis Yeoh Sock Ping CBE (Chinese : 楊肅斌; pinyin: Yáng Sùbīn, born August 23, 1954) is a prominent business personality in Malaysia, and the eldest son of Malaysian billionaire Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Yeoh Tiong Lay. He obtained a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) Degree in Civil Engineering from Kingston University, United Kingdom in 1978.

Francis had his secondary school education at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where he was School Captain. He became the Managing Director of YTL Corporation in 1988. Under his stewardship, the YTL Group grew from a single listed entity in 1985 to a force comprising five listed companies, and is now one of the biggest conglomerates in Malaysia.

On January 16, 2003, he was awarded the First Malaysian Ernst & Young Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2002 in recognition of his entrepreneurial acumen. On February 13, 2004, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from his alma mater, Kingston University. He was awarded BusinessWeek’s “25 Stars of Asia 2003” on November 6, 2003 in Hong Kong; and was ranked 21 by Asia’s 25 Most Powerful Business Personalities on August 9, 2004.Fortune Magazine Francis married Rosaline Yeoh in 1982, and they have five children. His siblings reside in Malaysia and are fellow directors of YTL Corporation. In 2006, he was conferred Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his philanthropic endeavours. His wife, Puan Sri Rosaline died on 5th August 2006.

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Gospel, theology and story education, Francis Yeoh, marketplace, Spiritual Formation & Discipleship, Suffering

NUS or NTU business school: which is better?

30 January 2010 blogpastor 1 Comment

I asked an on-line friend, Darryl Chen, his opinion on which business school is better: the National University of Singapore or the Nanyang Technological University? This is his comprehensive and well written reply. If you have any opinions to add, feel free to add your 2 cents worth…

“Hi Pastor Kenny,

Anyhow, yes I did go to NUS Business School. Here’s my personal & unbiased(as much as possible) opinion about both schools….My feel about NTU is that it offers a more technical(because they start specialising in the 2nd year) grounded type of approach toward business education, whilst NUS tends to offer a more generic strategic(because they only start specialising in the 3rd year) type of approach. The good thing about NTU is that it offers direct honours to those who qualify, i.e. they don’t have to spend an extra year just to get their honours, whilst NUS has its students(those that qualify) spend one year on academic research to come out with a thesis to be awarded honours. Qualification is based on attainment of a certain GPA(grade point average, maximum 4) or CAP(cumulative average points, maximum 5). NTU uses the former whilst NUS uses the latter. However, I’m not sure if there has been changes in the systems in either schools since I have left NUS for about 4 years coming already. (Whoa! I didn’t know it was THAT long ago!)

I do not think that employers in Singapore today favour NUS over NTU, or vice versa. I verified this with a couple of my HR colleagues as well. From personal experience, when I was hiring 2 graduate interns in my job 2 years ago, I did meet with some NUS and NTU business graduates. My opinion from the employer side of the table, based on those interviews, was that the NUS students were more able to handle themselves in a professional manner and their responses to my questions tended to be slanted more “big-picture”. The NTU students, on the other hand, tended to be more reserved and did not leave as strong an impression as the NUS students. I’d like to think that this is an unbiased opinion, because my manager agreed with my assessment as well, and she’s from NTU. (Hahaha….)

But having said that, I don’t think either school is stronger than the other….they just offer different approaches to business studies. Your son should go with his heart and he’ll be fine. But just out of curiosity, did your son also consider SMU? I understand they offer a very good business program as well and based on the few SMU graduates I know, I’ve been quite impressed and I also heard good feedback about the program being offered there, although they do tend to be slightly pricier than NUS/NTU.

As for becoming CFA, I don’t think going to either school would aid or hinder him from getting that qualification. It shouldn’t, since CFA is a professional qualification and it is strictly based on a seperate set of coursework to be done, and I believe either NUS or NTU would give him the appropriate grounding. I always think that its most important to enjoy yourself while studying because that’s when you won’t drag your feet to school and you’d avail yourself to be receive whatever your professor has to impart. So, go with the heart….that’s what I say….

Thanks for writing. Hear from you again and see you around soon…

Cheers,
Darryl

p.s. your son should do well in Uni….i have very high esteem for people who go from the poly into university because they’re very hardworking people yet humble and capable. I always enjoy working with them in my uni days.”

(Re-posted from old blogpastor file dated 9th May 2007 for the benefit of those applying for university entry next month)

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Society and religion education, teaching