Who has heard of Kame ManNen? I have not, that is until now. Its a Japanese optical frame brand known for its design and quality. Tired of cheap spectacles made in China and Korea, I tried going Japanese. An internet search showed that this strange sounding brand got its name from a old Japanese proverb that “turtles live for a thousand years”. Started in 1917, they wanted to “create distinctly beautiful optical frames using the finest materials and built to last”. That sounded like what I wanted. The frames had a bias towards the round shape and I was told it’s a popular Japanese preference. The few round frames I tried made me look arty or like the literati – maybe a professor, a playwright, author, architect or someone in advertising. If I wore them, I would not need to craft catchy introductions to sermons. However, everyone in the Sunday congregation, would be so fixated with the spectacles, they wouldn’t remember what I preached. So safely I chose the titanium frame that looked rectagular-round and vintage gold colour, with turtles etched all around. Super light and small so that the lens’ thickness doesn’t show. Linda Teo at Sintat Optical, at Katong Shopping Centre served me super well, a rare treat considering the service levels we experience in Singapore. Kame ManNen…..remember that name.
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This old family photograph brings back memories of a time when my children were still in nursery, and kindergarten and primary school. It was about twenty years back in the 1990s when I lived in Bukit Batok East Avenue 4. The long wooden TV console in the background, the cane furniture by the side and the beige ceramic tiles on the floor of the four room HDB apartment.
Their mum had gone so my wife helped her younger sister, Baby, through her confinement periods, when both her children, Wen Mun and Wen Por, were born. Wen Por was a toddler in the picture so I wonder if the family was there because Wen Mun was then born.
Joshua was wearing spectacles at such a young age. He loved to read – always borrowing books from the library. Still does. Matthew was the good-looking one. Still is. Elaine was the amiable one. Still is. All were very huggable and adorable and surprising at that age. But not anymore. Now they are all in their twenties. They are more educated and smarter than me, and taller too(except Elaine), as can be seen in a recent photo below.
Twenty years have come and gone at the snap of my fingers. Will I be staring at an empty nest in another snap?
What is the most misunderstood aspect of spirituality?
That it’s a kind of specialized form of being a Christian, that you have to have some kind of in. It’s elitist. Many people are attracted to it for the wrong reasons. Others are put off by it: I’m not spiritual. I like to go to football games or parties or pursue my career. In fact, I try to avoid the word.
Many people assume that spirituality is about becoming emotionally intimate with God.
That’s a naïve view of spirituality. What we’re talking about is the Christian life. It’s following Jesus. Spirituality is no different from what we’ve been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading Scriptures rightly. It’s just ordinary stuff.
This promise of intimacy is both right and wrong. There is an intimacy with God, but it’s like any other intimacy; it’s part of the fabric of your life. In marriage you don’t feel intimate most of the time. Nor with a friend. Intimacy isn’t primarily a mystical emotion. It’s a way of life, a life of openness, honesty, a certain transparency.
Doesn’t the mystical tradition suggest otherwise?
One of my favorite stories is of Teresa of Avila. She’s sitting in the kitchen with a roasted chicken. And she’s got it with both hands, and she’s gnawing on it, just devouring this chicken. One of the nuns comes in shocked that she’s doing this, behaving this way. She said, “When I eat chicken, I eat chicken; when I pray, I pray.”
If you read the saints, they’re pretty ordinary people. There are moments of rapture and ecstasy, but once every 10 years. And even then it’s a surprise to them. They didn’t do anything. We’ve got to disabuse people of these illusions of what the Christian life is. It’s a wonderful life, but it’s not wonderful in the way a lot of people want it to be.
Yet evangelicals rightly tell people they can have a “personal relationship with God.” That suggests a certain type of spiritual intimacy.
All these words get so screwed up in our society. If intimacy means being open and honest and authentic, so I don’t have veils, or I don’t have to be defensive or in denial of who I am, that’s wonderful. But in our culture, intimacy usually has sexual connotations, with some kind of completion. So I want intimacy because I want more out of life. Very seldom does it have the sense of sacrifice or giving or being vulnerable. Those are two different ways of being intimate. And in our American vocabulary intimacy usually has to do with getting something from the other. That just screws the whole thing up.
It’s very dangerous to use the language of the culture to interpret the gospel. Our vocabulary has to be chastened and tested by revelation, by the Scriptures. We’ve got a pretty good vocabulary and syntax, and we’d better start paying attention to it because the way we grab words here and there to appeal to unbelievers is not very good.
Looks like Eugene Peterson, pastor and lecturer, and famous author of Bible paraphrase “The Message” and other notable books, is passionate when talking about how the church’s language has been held captivity by the culture it finds itself in. He has even more to say in the full interview with him done by Mark Galli for Christianity Today(30th June 2010) titled, “Spirituality for all the Wrong Reasons”
The heart of the gospel: justification by faith
The heart of the gospel is justification by faith alone. St Paul wrote, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous shall live by faith’”(Romans 1:17). “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”(Romans 3:21,22).
Message for the baptized too
This message is basic, and many pastors feel it is only for the unsaved, and therefore not needed anymore for the baptized. There is a gospelution going on that underlines the need for this “heart” to be preached to the baptized too. The baptized need to hear it over and over again, cooked and served in a hundred different ways, from Old and New Testament texts, to keep them from straying into the unmarked side trails that lead to condemnation, religiosity, Phariseeism and legalism.
Message of the Reformation
Some think that this message originated from Joseph Prince. It does not: it was the message of the Reformation; the message of Martin Luther and John Calvin, and it is still preached today, and needs to be preached much more from all the pulpits in Singapore and Malaysia. R.C. Sproul is a Reformed theologian and John Piper is a pastor. They are respected by many and I include myself among them. Watch them here teaching or preaching about the “heart” of the Gospel.
Malaysian cell church conference
Pastor Chua Seng Lee was invited to conduct a workshop titled “Experiential Learning in Cell Group” in the 14th Malaysia Cell Church Conference hosted by Damansara Utama Methodist Church. Evidently after Faith Community Baptist Church had transited into the G12 model, the mantle of doing the cell church conference had fallen on the shoulders of what is now the largest Methodist church in Malaysia. We had just held our own church camp in Petaling Jaya, and my wife and I were generously sponsored by Pastor Chua and Josephine, to accompany them to the workshop. The whole group stayed three nights at the Hilton Hotel, Petaling Jaya.
DUMC ‘s birth
The DUMC is 30 years old and has an attendance of 4,000. They started as a small church plant of Sungei Way-Subang Methodist Church, a rare Methodist church with a passion for church planting. Twenty two young professionals in their 20s and 30s, with an evangelical IVCF background, started services in 1980 in a first floor shop lot under the leadership of Daniel Ho and two other leaders.
Three waves of the Spirit
The cell church strategy was the main vehicle of growth, but it was fuelled by three waves of Holy Spirit revival, according to their 30th anniversary coffee table book. One was the charismatic touch that manifested healings, deliverances, visions and prophetic words. The second wave was triggered by the pastor’s return from the Toronto Airport Vineyard Christian Fellowship. It was a revelation of the Father’s love and holy laughter that refreshed the church. The third wave was a revival of “first love” and devotion to Christ.
The Dream Centre
By 2007 they have settled into their Dream Centre, a former warehouse on 5 acres of land, renovated into a church 
facility for about RM$40 million, inclusive of the land. They have moved three times and this was their fourth move. Dream Centre has a seating capacity of 3000, a total built up area of 200,000 square feet, a fellowship hall that doubles up as an indoor sports centre and parking space for 200 cars. The church kept growing and the vision of the church is now focused on equipping God’s people to be salt and light in the world. They seek the transformation of the city of and society and God knows and every Malaysian knows that Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian society needs transformation by the grace of God.
Experiential learning
This course was one many would regret that they did not sign up for. The workshops were held in the afternoon after lunch when participants would find it hard to stay the course or pay attention. It was not to be so in this workshop. Pastor Chua was succinct, clear in explanations and instructions, employed several specially designed activities or “experiences” and demonstrated how these could be used for reflective learning. As he conducted the workshop, I gained a better understanding of experiential learning, and saw how it is underutilized in most churches’ teaching and discipleship methodology. The participants were trained to facilitate and actually had some hands-on experience in doing so. This is why workshops are called workshops: the participants were put to work, and they learned by doing. We had an enjoyable time and I have uploaded a video of a sample activity to give you a better idea of what took place.
Pastor Chua
Pastor Chua Seng Lee, in his early forties, joined the church pastoral team in February this year. He came to us after having served in a megachurch (FCBC) for nearly two decades. The perspectives, philosophy, competencies, insights 
and ideas he brought along has been like fresh air in a stale room and we have been greatly blessed as a church by his input.
It was wonderful to have these few days of meals together. My wife and I had a wonderful time chatting with his wife Josephine, daughter Rachel, the huggable son, John, and two of their disciples Veronica and Pei Yi. The family is close-knit and warm. They are a hugging family and that’s a great model. The Chinese family stereotype of cold formality and unexpressed affectionate love should be thrown into the shredding machine. Amen!
Makan, shopping and makan
We were treated to warm Malaysian hospitality. Veronica’s niece brought us to an authentic Hakka meal in a restaurant at Jalan Apa Saya Tak Tau, where we had a meal with her relatives. Then she brought us to the Pavilion and we stayed around that shopping area for the whole afternoon. We bought some clothing at bargain prices – thanks to the good exchange rate.
It was Chua’s birthday so we went back to the hotel and had a seafood meal at a coffeeshop nearby. The food was not as tasty-great, but at the price we paid we ain’t got no complaints.