The Narrow Road?
Living differently. The last few years I’ve been attending SWBTS and lately the chapel sermons have been centering on living differently, esp. for those called to the ministry. I guess the message has not changed much over the years, but why has it been hitting me so hard lately? Do I act like the world? Do I need to change? I wonder is it all legalism? But I guess in a world where evangelical leaders are found out to be gay, drug taking fiends (hyperbole), well its not your mama’s church leader. Where even the question of homosexuality as a sin is questioned?
Should we be watching certain movies? Or listening to certain kinds of music? Is it ok to smoke? Can we drink a beer if we don’t get drunk? Is it ok to use profanity? Definitely I am convicted that we need to live a different kind of life. (If you have time, about 1 hour, check out this sermon by Paul Washer). The sermon calls on the carpet “American” Christianity…y’know stuff like how our divorce rate is higher than outside the church…
I also wonder where does being AsianAmerican fit into all this? (When being Christian is hard enough.)
Paradise on Earth?
I guess you will have to view the site. http://www.paradise08.com/.
Basically on Memorial Day weekend a large gathering is planned for the geographic center of the US. That is Paradise, KS. The day is to be a day of worship. Nothing will be sold…
Ministry Idea
David’s recent post made me think about church ministry. I can’t guess where your church is at. Church plants can be preoccupied or hampered with small manpower…and it just seems worthwhile to have ministries that confront our society (for the gospel). And David talked about the abuse of women, and in particular, in the Asian American/Asian community. We need to stop the violence. (that’s a great slogan, don’t you think?)
I have been thinking about outreach ministries. I think that churches outside of the Bible belt have been working hard on presenting the Gospel in new, engaging, and challenging ways. Seems to me that we aren’t as innovative…until I came across a church in Alabama (the pastor was at Chapel a few years ago and had spoke at one of Dr. S. Tsoi’s Youth Camps in Phx). The church decided not to televise a worship service but to have a hunting show.
So I thought that my seminary should do a “This Old House” Type show…or that a Chinese church do a cultural broadcast, or cooking show, or martial arts, and of course like that hunting show, present the gospel at the end.
For a few years I’ve been holding on to an idea about fixing up a Honda to appeal to the “Rice Rocket” crowd. Then on the news I saw this story about the National Guard detailing cars to promote the guard, why not one of our churches “soup” up a car to present the gospel. (The news segment was about a soldier who made a tribute car to his fallen comrades, the army saw it and asked the soldier to detail cars to promote the army). We could “pimp” our church vans! But seriously I know tons of Asian guys getting all into their rice rockets…can you see it, we can have gospel stickers to place on our windshields. Jesus written in Kanji…ok, j/k about that…but definitely invision going out, opening up the trunk and sharing with the young men and women. “Ladies; gents, your cars will rust away one day, just as we do too. Like our cars our souls need preventative maintenance…”
Contributing to Someone Else’s Blog
I occasionally stumbled on this blog, but for some reason never noticed the page announcing that this was a collaborative blog. A long time ago I attempted to start one but it didn’t work out due to low readership. Why write when only three people (two others besides the writer) were reading your words? And the other two were brothers. Also we were all pretty much “ABC’s” from the American SW.
Well thank you David Park for allowing me to write. I discovered I commented on here a few years ago on annabanana’s blog entry related to “Women In Ministry”. Two years later, I wonder if my comments were rude? Maybe one day, when video blogging becomes quicker that would be a better forum. To clarify, I’m not sure if I am a good enough writer (or anyone else for that matter) to truly convey my thoughts on a matter. What I mean is, in writing, it’s hard to guage someone’s tone. There may be items left to intrepretation, or questions of interpretation. So I commented on another Next Gener.Asian’s post on women in ministry and as I revisit my comments it has caused me to think and possibly need to clarify…no matter, the conversation sort of ended.
As I go back to the post by Anna, I would add (today). I think the 1 Timothy 2:12 verse deals with the home and the church. Women are teachers in the bible. As I delve more into the Egalitarian/Complimentarian debate, that on the surface complimentarians seem old fashioned. But the Bible does have women teaching other women, and even men (but those situations as far as I’ve noticed are in private settings, not in the church). And I see Deborah as a political leader. Why not woman pursue your doctorate, write books, teach (there are many avenues-from parachurch to schools)…but in church and home, submission to male authority in today’s age would be the ultimate act of humility…well not compared to God becoming a human person…but close. (Esp. as women are the stronger sex).
Someone argued that 1 Timothy 2:12 begs the question, “Does that mean that other men have authority over my wife?” After some thought it has occurred to me, well, in your church it would be your Pastor as the authority (not all the other men) because not all the men are pastors…and in your home, that would be the father/husband. I recently got married, and its just me in my home. Now in regards to that I may be the head but my wife is the neck!
I guess my stance has changed a bit, and I hope to flesh this out a bit more. As I revisit that post (linked above), some additional comments:
- “losing support” (the author works/ed in a para-church org)-that was a shame, since she actually did not work in the church. I’m sure some would say that the parachurch group should support the church, and that’s where discipling is best done. But our churches are not getting the job done.
- I’m not sure that breaking fellowship over this issue is what needs to be done, although the battles along egalitarian/complimentarian issues seem like that…
- ordination-I was curious for what reason? If to receive validation from one’s congregation that they are called to ministry, I say great. Its good to have a body validate one’s ministry, but perhaps the greatest validation comes not from the bride but the bridegroom. The body/church/bride will disappoint, but Jesus never will. Pleasing the church in their wants may displease Jesus, so we do all we can to be please our King. This may involve not getting recoginized by other people…
David Park
djchuang
annabananalee
cuttingtruth
mezuzah
daniel so
