Condensed
These are nonnegotiable tenets of faith that all Assemblies of God churches adhere to. This list is derived from the official Statement of Fundamental Truths. Click links below to see the complete original statement with scriptures.
1. WE BELIEVE...The Scriptures are Inspired by God and declare His design and plan for mankind.
2. WE BELIEVE...There is only One True God–revealed in three persons...Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (commonly known as the Trinity).
3. WE BELIEVE...In the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. As God's son Jesus was both human and divine.
4. WE BELIEVE...though originally good, Man Willingly Fell to Sin–ushering evil and death, both physical and spiritual, into the world.
5. WE BELIEVE...Every Person Can Have Restored Fellowship with God Through 'Salvation' (trusting Christ, through faith and repentance, to be our personal Savior). [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
6. WE BELIEVE...and practice two ordinances—(1) Water Baptism by Immersion after repenting of one's sins and receiving Christ's gift of salvation, and (2) Holy Communion (the Lord's Supper) as a symbolic remembrance of Christ's suffering and death for our salvation.
7. WE BELIEVE...the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a Special Experience Following Salvation that empowers believers for witnessing and effective service, just as it did in New Testament times. [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
8. WE BELIEVE... The Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is ‘Speaking in Tongues,’ as experienced on the Day of Pentecost and referenced throughout Acts and the Epistles.
9. WE BELIEVE...Sanctification Initially Occurs at Salvation and is not only a declaration that a believer is holy, but also a progressive lifelong process of separating from evil as believers continually draw closer to God and become more Christlike.
10. WE BELIEVE...The Church has a Mission to seek and save all who are lost in sin. We believe 'the Church' is the Body of Christ and consists of the people who, throughout time, have accepted God's offer of redemption (regardless of religious denomination) through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ.
11. WE BELIEVE...A Divinely Called and Scripturally Ordained Leadership Ministry Serves the Church. The Bible teaches that each of us under leadership must commit ourselves to reach others for Christ, to worship Him with other believers, to build up or edify the body of believers–the Church and to Meet human need with ministries of love and compassion.
12. WE BELIEVE...Divine Healing of the Sick is a Privilege for Christians Today and is provided for in Christ's atonement (His sacrificial death on the cross for our sins). [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
13. WE BELIEVE...in The Blessed Hope—When Jesus Raptures His Church Prior to His Return to Earth (the second coming). At this future moment in time all believers who have died will rise from their graves and will meet the Lord in the air, and Christians who are alive will be caught up with them, to be with the Lord forever. [1 of 4 cardinal doctrines of the AG]
14. WE BELIEVE...in The Millennial Reign of Christ when Jesus returns with His saints at His second coming and begins His benevolent rule over earth for 1,000 years. This millennial reign will bring the salvation of national Israel and the establishment of universal peace.
15. WE BELIEVE...A Final Judgment Will Take Place for those who have rejected Christ. They will be judged for their sin and consigned to eternal punishment in a punishing lake of fire.
16. WE BELIEVE...and look forward to the perfect New Heavens and a New Earth that Christ is preparing for all people, of all time, who have accepted Him. We will live and dwell with Him there forever following His millennial reign on Earth. 'And so shall we forever be with the Lord!'
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Baptisms at Immanuel Fellowship
A Guide for Ministers
Understanding the role of Baptism
Beginning in 2010 Immanuel Fellowship has given more significance to Baptism as the conscious beginning and incorporation of new believers the life of the Fellowship. When we say conscious beginning we are saying that the Fellowship is putting more Biblical content prior to and after baptism so that individual believers understand not only the significance of Baptism but also the responsibilities that accompany it.
Baptism incorporates the believer into Christ and his Body the Church. Just as we belong to Christ so we belong to one another.
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ ( Galatians 3:27);
“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body”
(1 Corinthians 12:13; see also Romans 12:3-8)
Baptism is our rite of passage into membership with the Church whose head is Christ. Our congregation, Immanuel Fellowship, is the local representation of that Body and within it we exercise our distinct and individual functions (or ministry gifts) as members of the Body.
The Baptismal Candidates Seminar explains not only the meaning and the mode of Baptism but also includes teaching on prayer, church attendance, witnessing and giving. We also give more emphasis to Baptism as the individual believer’s introduction and incorporation into the local body of believers which is Immanuel Fellowship. After Baptism the candidates are introduced to the Fellowship in one of the services and are encouraged to join a discipleship program
Types of Baptismal Candidates
Some Baptismal candidates are children of Christian parents who may or may not have undergone a distinct crisis experience called conversion. Baptism for them is a coming of age and a public declaration of their faith and their formal introduction to the life of the Fellowship. Other candidates are young people or adults who have undergone a conversion experience either in the church or in some other church and now want to indicate through Baptism a public affirmation of their faith and a desire to be incorporated into the Fellowship.
Baptism and the Process of Incorporation into the Fellowship
1. Call to Salvation
In every service a call to salvation is issued. There may or may not be an altar service. Although issued in the congregational setting, we understand the response to the call as private. Therefore no names are recorded.
2. Invitation to Baptism
On the third Sunday the pastor announces that for those who have responded to the call to salvation Baptism is the public affirmation of their private faith. They are invited to a Baptismal Candidates Seminar the following Saturday .
3. Baptismal Candidates Seminar
On the Saturday after the announcement the officiating ministers meet with the candidates and the Primer on Baptism is discussed.
4. Baptism
5. Introduction and Incorporation into the Fellowship
The program of incorporation into the Fellowship includes the following:
• Presentation to the Fellowship during a Sunday worship service.
• Home visitation
• Invitation to join a group or ministry team.
• Invitation to attend Purposeful Discipleship Institute.
Officiating Ministers Decorum
The leading pastor may or may not perform all the parts of the Rite of Baptism. He may participate only up to the Profession of Faith (an affirmation of faith taken from the Apostles Creed), and Associate Pastors then will perform the Rite of Baptism itself. Or he may perform all with the assistance of his Associates.
All members of the Pastoral Team are entitled to perform Baptisms, regardless of gender or paid or volunteer.
Baptism is a very important rite of passage for new believers and the joyousness of the ceremony should not be confused with levity. Officiating ministers should wear the required attire and should step into the water only during Immersion. A formal picture of the candidates with the ministers may be taken for documentation before and after Immersion. Only after photographs have been taken and the ceremony is formally ended will ministers join in swimming.
Officiating Ministers Attire
With the new understanding of Baptism as a rite of passage and a public affirmation of faith, officiating ministers to the Baptism need to give it due ceremonial recognition. The formal attire for such occasion in many churches is a White Robe but until then a formal kind of attire such as a Barong Tagalog is acceptable.
Candidates Attire
In some churches white robes are supplied also to each candidate but until such a time that this is made available, all that is required is for the candidates to be decently dressed.
Immersion
Baptism by immersion can be pose problems because depth of water varies. It must be emphasized that the officiating ministers immerse the entire body in water. To do this it is not enough that the arms are used to immerse the candidate’s body into the water. The legs of the ministers must also bend as the candidate is immersed. If there are two ministers, with one on each side, care must be observed that both move together or one will be holding the back of the candidate while the other minister is pushing down.
The Rite of Baptism
1. Scripture Reading (Romans 6:1-11)
2. A short homily on the passage
3. Individual Testimonies
4. Profession of Faith (Apostles Creed)
5. Affirmation to Immanuel Fellowship Statement of Faith and Core Values
6. Signing of the Baptismal Certificate
7. Immersion
Understanding the role of Baptism
Beginning in 2010 Immanuel Fellowship has given more significance to Baptism as the conscious beginning and incorporation of new believers the life of the Fellowship. When we say conscious beginning we are saying that the Fellowship is putting more Biblical content prior to and after baptism so that individual believers understand not only the significance of Baptism but also the responsibilities that accompany it.
Baptism incorporates the believer into Christ and his Body the Church. Just as we belong to Christ so we belong to one another.
“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ ( Galatians 3:27);
“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body”
(1 Corinthians 12:13; see also Romans 12:3-8)
Baptism is our rite of passage into membership with the Church whose head is Christ. Our congregation, Immanuel Fellowship, is the local representation of that Body and within it we exercise our distinct and individual functions (or ministry gifts) as members of the Body.
The Baptismal Candidates Seminar explains not only the meaning and the mode of Baptism but also includes teaching on prayer, church attendance, witnessing and giving. We also give more emphasis to Baptism as the individual believer’s introduction and incorporation into the local body of believers which is Immanuel Fellowship. After Baptism the candidates are introduced to the Fellowship in one of the services and are encouraged to join a discipleship program
Types of Baptismal Candidates
Some Baptismal candidates are children of Christian parents who may or may not have undergone a distinct crisis experience called conversion. Baptism for them is a coming of age and a public declaration of their faith and their formal introduction to the life of the Fellowship. Other candidates are young people or adults who have undergone a conversion experience either in the church or in some other church and now want to indicate through Baptism a public affirmation of their faith and a desire to be incorporated into the Fellowship.
Baptism and the Process of Incorporation into the Fellowship
1. Call to Salvation
In every service a call to salvation is issued. There may or may not be an altar service. Although issued in the congregational setting, we understand the response to the call as private. Therefore no names are recorded.
2. Invitation to Baptism
On the third Sunday the pastor announces that for those who have responded to the call to salvation Baptism is the public affirmation of their private faith. They are invited to a Baptismal Candidates Seminar the following Saturday .
3. Baptismal Candidates Seminar
On the Saturday after the announcement the officiating ministers meet with the candidates and the Primer on Baptism is discussed.
4. Baptism
5. Introduction and Incorporation into the Fellowship
The program of incorporation into the Fellowship includes the following:
• Presentation to the Fellowship during a Sunday worship service.
• Home visitation
• Invitation to join a group or ministry team.
• Invitation to attend Purposeful Discipleship Institute.
Officiating Ministers Decorum
The leading pastor may or may not perform all the parts of the Rite of Baptism. He may participate only up to the Profession of Faith (an affirmation of faith taken from the Apostles Creed), and Associate Pastors then will perform the Rite of Baptism itself. Or he may perform all with the assistance of his Associates.
All members of the Pastoral Team are entitled to perform Baptisms, regardless of gender or paid or volunteer.
Baptism is a very important rite of passage for new believers and the joyousness of the ceremony should not be confused with levity. Officiating ministers should wear the required attire and should step into the water only during Immersion. A formal picture of the candidates with the ministers may be taken for documentation before and after Immersion. Only after photographs have been taken and the ceremony is formally ended will ministers join in swimming.
Officiating Ministers Attire
With the new understanding of Baptism as a rite of passage and a public affirmation of faith, officiating ministers to the Baptism need to give it due ceremonial recognition. The formal attire for such occasion in many churches is a White Robe but until then a formal kind of attire such as a Barong Tagalog is acceptable.
Candidates Attire
In some churches white robes are supplied also to each candidate but until such a time that this is made available, all that is required is for the candidates to be decently dressed.
Immersion
Baptism by immersion can be pose problems because depth of water varies. It must be emphasized that the officiating ministers immerse the entire body in water. To do this it is not enough that the arms are used to immerse the candidate’s body into the water. The legs of the ministers must also bend as the candidate is immersed. If there are two ministers, with one on each side, care must be observed that both move together or one will be holding the back of the candidate while the other minister is pushing down.
The Rite of Baptism
1. Scripture Reading (Romans 6:1-11)
2. A short homily on the passage
3. Individual Testimonies
4. Profession of Faith (Apostles Creed)
5. Affirmation to Immanuel Fellowship Statement of Faith and Core Values
6. Signing of the Baptismal Certificate
7. Immersion
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Comeback Imagination - Envisioning New Life
If you are going to imagine a new reality for your church, it must combine a clear understanding and communication of the current reality and envision and tell an alternative story.
By Ed Stetzer
Imagine it. Dream it. Picture it in your mind. Compose a new symphony. Envision a different story. Then, begin living and telling that story.
Someone asked Ivan Illich if societal change would happen best through revolution or reform. He said neither — not if you desire long-term change. Rather, he said we need to tell an alternative story that draws others because of its irresistible nature.
Apparently, many churches, trapped and mired in plateau and decline, need to tell an alternative story. Many think: Is it possible? Could things be different in my church? Does God desire that my church grow? Dare I take time to pause, pray, and think about how God conceives this church? Does He envision a healthy and growing church — one that reproduces disciples and churches?
For many, this sounds impossible. How could we realize that kind of future? To even consider it may seem like a hopeless effort to envision a fantasy world of sunshine and lollipops. And, you might be right if you are going to imagine a different future without first defining reality.
Over 30 years ago, John Lennon released his hit song Imagine. Here are the words that echo in the minds of many well-intentioned people:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people
Living for today …
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world …
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.
While the words express some wonderful ideas, they are not based in reality. As believers in Jesus Christ and the Bible, we know the song lacks understanding of the reality of sin and the One who could create such a reality. What is the point? If you are going to imagine a new reality for your church, it must combine a clear understanding and communication of the current reality and envision and tell an alternative story.
Vision
In the book, Comeback Churches, that I coauthored with Mike Dodson, we talk about one of the keys to comeback leadership — catching vision and transferring that vision to others. Comeback leaders learn how to activate a shared vision. This kind of leadership requires embracing the reality of the situation along with people from the congregation. Then, with God’s help, it requires engaging these people to seek a new direction and put it into action. We write in this book: “Pastors face the ‘vision challenge’ every day. They must cast a vision so people can respond. People only get on board when they see the boat. God uses this vision to help us commit our time, talent, and treasure to the cause. Anytime we call people to commit to a strategy, we must cast vision. It is essential in church revitalization.”1
We also discuss some important aspects or general principles of vision that you can apply to your situation and help you envision new life:
We need vision because it stretches us beyond where we are and helps us embrace something bigger than ourselves. People want to know they are committing their time, talents, energies, and resources to something worthwhile, to something that is going to matter and make a difference. A compelling vision describes something that must be done — it moves people from passivity into action.
Vision comes from Kingdom faith. Jesus often spoke about the kingdom of God. He helped people see the bigger picture by comparing it to scattering seed on the ground that grows until the crop is harvested. He also talked about the tiny mustard seed becoming a huge plant that provides shade for the birds. By faith, paint a new picture of the future for your church.
Face the challenge of convincing followers to own the vision by filling your credibility tank. Timing is important when casting vision. Do you have the credibility to do it now? Do you need to earn some credibility by building on some small wins before you go for bigger things?
Paint a compelling verbal picture when casting vision. Convince people things are not acceptable the way they are, then motivate them to pursue a better future. First, think and pray through what the future should look like and write it down. Second, practice communicating that verbal picture. Third, get feedback from a few key people in your life and let them help you communicate it better. Last, cast that vision at the right time. Do not unpack it all at once.
Paint a realistic verbal picture when casting vision. Do not simply talk about how great things are going to be. Remind people that achieving the vision will require work and sacrifice. Fulfilling a God-sized vision will always involve risks and challenges.
Focus on key leaders who are persuadable and work on moving forward with them. Initially, the majority will probably not enthusiastically buy into the vision. Some will probably never jump on board. Present a challenging, yet attainable, vision that at least some people can and will follow and put into action.
Vision alone will not grow a church. Growth takes a leader casting vision, followers who are ready to listen, and a group ready to act to build a new reality and accomplish the vision.
Having comeback imagination involves reality and fresh vision. If you are going to seek God’s design for a preferable future in your church, then it will require a renewed focus on your part to dream, to imagine, and to envision something different from what exists now. Paint a picture of reality; then paint a different picture for the future. Tell the sad tale of the current reality, then tell an alternative story of where God wants things to go. Squeeze the lemons, and let God make some sweet lemonade.
Focus
Imagining a different destination for your church is going to take focused attention. Here are helpful tips toward developing comeback imagination:
Focus on where the church is to get the focus on others. Defining the current reality is just the beginning. If a church is in decline, the leaders must acknowledge and discuss that fact (and acknowledge and discuss why it is true) to come to realize they are not reaching new people. Because the church is not reaching people, the gospel is not transforming lives. Things must change so the church can place a renewed focus on reaching the lost and seeing lives changed outside the walls of the church. Define the dismal reality to get focused on meeting the needs of real people in the community.
Focus on why God wants your church to grow to refute why that seems impossible. Study the Bible to discover 50 reasons God wants your church to grow. If you want to be really ambitious, go for 100. This will help you and others in your church be transformed by the renewing of your mind in Scripture. Some people will come up with reasons your church cannot or should not grow.
Focus on thinking beyond where you are so you are not wallowing in mediocrity. Churches end up in plateau and decline because they get comfortable where they are. Doing things halfway or casually becomes the norm. If a church wants to grow beyond where it is, it needs to think and act like it is bigger than it is right now.
For example, some churches are not growing because they are not doing anything intentional to minister outside of the church. Church services are business as usual. They do not give any thought to welcoming guests, toning down churchy language, breaking up fellowship huddles to engage visitors, or following up newcomers.
Focus on keeping the vision fresh instead of thinking people get it. Church leaders often think that if they have communicated something a few times people get it. (I like to think that people should just get it after I have said something once.) People have many things going on in their lives that distract them. Define reality, envision a new future, start living the new life, and keep telling the new story … again and again and again.
Here are ideas to help keep the vision fresh:
1. Plan some simple events to minister to people that involve a group of people from the church. Then have someone share a brief testimony about that outreach experience.
2. Develop an outreach plan for the church and then highlight one different part each week in the worship services.
3. Pray for God to change your heart and the heart of the church during public prayer times. Pray Luke 10:2.
4. Provide training opportunities — such as Sharing Jesus Without Fear — to help people learn to become better witnesses.
5. Make a big deal about baptisms by explaining what they represent and invite candidates to share their testimonies before the congregation.
6. Meet monthly with key leaders to update, recast a vision for outreach, and pray for God to move in the lives of the church family to act on the vision.
7. Develop a list of people who do not know Jesus and pray for them regularly with key leaders and before the congregation.
Conclusion
Take a moment with God and imagine your church being transformed to reach people in your community. Imagine how the community might respond. Imagine how God would be glorified:
* “Can you imagine the community in which you live being genuinely thankful for your church?
* “Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community — even asking for it?
* “Can you imagine the neighborhoods around your church talking about how good it is to have your church in the area because of the tangible witness you have offered them of God’s love?
* “Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about, community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels they never thought possible?
* “Can you imagine the community changing (Proverbs 11:11) because of your church’s involvement?
* “Can you imagine many in your city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, praising God for your church and the positive contributions your members have made in Jesus’ name?
* “Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?”2
So, take a deep breath and a big gulp. With God’s help, define the current reality in your church and start dreaming and envisioning what new life for your church would look like. Start living with comeback imagination. Then, start telling that alternative story … again and again and again. May God help you envision new life and a new future and bless you abundantly with comeback imagination.
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., president, LifeWay Research. He has written Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (with Elmer Towns), Strategic Outreach (with Eric Ramsey), Breaking the Missional Code (with David Putman), and Planting Missional Churches. Stetzer lives in Gallatin, Tennessee.
NOTES
1. Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2007), 46.
2. Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 13,14.
By Ed Stetzer
Imagine it. Dream it. Picture it in your mind. Compose a new symphony. Envision a different story. Then, begin living and telling that story.
Someone asked Ivan Illich if societal change would happen best through revolution or reform. He said neither — not if you desire long-term change. Rather, he said we need to tell an alternative story that draws others because of its irresistible nature.
Apparently, many churches, trapped and mired in plateau and decline, need to tell an alternative story. Many think: Is it possible? Could things be different in my church? Does God desire that my church grow? Dare I take time to pause, pray, and think about how God conceives this church? Does He envision a healthy and growing church — one that reproduces disciples and churches?
For many, this sounds impossible. How could we realize that kind of future? To even consider it may seem like a hopeless effort to envision a fantasy world of sunshine and lollipops. And, you might be right if you are going to imagine a different future without first defining reality.
Over 30 years ago, John Lennon released his hit song Imagine. Here are the words that echo in the minds of many well-intentioned people:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people
Living for today …
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too.
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man.
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world …
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.
While the words express some wonderful ideas, they are not based in reality. As believers in Jesus Christ and the Bible, we know the song lacks understanding of the reality of sin and the One who could create such a reality. What is the point? If you are going to imagine a new reality for your church, it must combine a clear understanding and communication of the current reality and envision and tell an alternative story.
Vision
In the book, Comeback Churches, that I coauthored with Mike Dodson, we talk about one of the keys to comeback leadership — catching vision and transferring that vision to others. Comeback leaders learn how to activate a shared vision. This kind of leadership requires embracing the reality of the situation along with people from the congregation. Then, with God’s help, it requires engaging these people to seek a new direction and put it into action. We write in this book: “Pastors face the ‘vision challenge’ every day. They must cast a vision so people can respond. People only get on board when they see the boat. God uses this vision to help us commit our time, talent, and treasure to the cause. Anytime we call people to commit to a strategy, we must cast vision. It is essential in church revitalization.”1
We also discuss some important aspects or general principles of vision that you can apply to your situation and help you envision new life:
We need vision because it stretches us beyond where we are and helps us embrace something bigger than ourselves. People want to know they are committing their time, talents, energies, and resources to something worthwhile, to something that is going to matter and make a difference. A compelling vision describes something that must be done — it moves people from passivity into action.
Vision comes from Kingdom faith. Jesus often spoke about the kingdom of God. He helped people see the bigger picture by comparing it to scattering seed on the ground that grows until the crop is harvested. He also talked about the tiny mustard seed becoming a huge plant that provides shade for the birds. By faith, paint a new picture of the future for your church.
Face the challenge of convincing followers to own the vision by filling your credibility tank. Timing is important when casting vision. Do you have the credibility to do it now? Do you need to earn some credibility by building on some small wins before you go for bigger things?
Paint a compelling verbal picture when casting vision. Convince people things are not acceptable the way they are, then motivate them to pursue a better future. First, think and pray through what the future should look like and write it down. Second, practice communicating that verbal picture. Third, get feedback from a few key people in your life and let them help you communicate it better. Last, cast that vision at the right time. Do not unpack it all at once.
Paint a realistic verbal picture when casting vision. Do not simply talk about how great things are going to be. Remind people that achieving the vision will require work and sacrifice. Fulfilling a God-sized vision will always involve risks and challenges.
Focus on key leaders who are persuadable and work on moving forward with them. Initially, the majority will probably not enthusiastically buy into the vision. Some will probably never jump on board. Present a challenging, yet attainable, vision that at least some people can and will follow and put into action.
Vision alone will not grow a church. Growth takes a leader casting vision, followers who are ready to listen, and a group ready to act to build a new reality and accomplish the vision.
Having comeback imagination involves reality and fresh vision. If you are going to seek God’s design for a preferable future in your church, then it will require a renewed focus on your part to dream, to imagine, and to envision something different from what exists now. Paint a picture of reality; then paint a different picture for the future. Tell the sad tale of the current reality, then tell an alternative story of where God wants things to go. Squeeze the lemons, and let God make some sweet lemonade.
Focus
Imagining a different destination for your church is going to take focused attention. Here are helpful tips toward developing comeback imagination:
Focus on where the church is to get the focus on others. Defining the current reality is just the beginning. If a church is in decline, the leaders must acknowledge and discuss that fact (and acknowledge and discuss why it is true) to come to realize they are not reaching new people. Because the church is not reaching people, the gospel is not transforming lives. Things must change so the church can place a renewed focus on reaching the lost and seeing lives changed outside the walls of the church. Define the dismal reality to get focused on meeting the needs of real people in the community.
Focus on why God wants your church to grow to refute why that seems impossible. Study the Bible to discover 50 reasons God wants your church to grow. If you want to be really ambitious, go for 100. This will help you and others in your church be transformed by the renewing of your mind in Scripture. Some people will come up with reasons your church cannot or should not grow.
Focus on thinking beyond where you are so you are not wallowing in mediocrity. Churches end up in plateau and decline because they get comfortable where they are. Doing things halfway or casually becomes the norm. If a church wants to grow beyond where it is, it needs to think and act like it is bigger than it is right now.
For example, some churches are not growing because they are not doing anything intentional to minister outside of the church. Church services are business as usual. They do not give any thought to welcoming guests, toning down churchy language, breaking up fellowship huddles to engage visitors, or following up newcomers.
Focus on keeping the vision fresh instead of thinking people get it. Church leaders often think that if they have communicated something a few times people get it. (I like to think that people should just get it after I have said something once.) People have many things going on in their lives that distract them. Define reality, envision a new future, start living the new life, and keep telling the new story … again and again and again.
Here are ideas to help keep the vision fresh:
1. Plan some simple events to minister to people that involve a group of people from the church. Then have someone share a brief testimony about that outreach experience.
2. Develop an outreach plan for the church and then highlight one different part each week in the worship services.
3. Pray for God to change your heart and the heart of the church during public prayer times. Pray Luke 10:2.
4. Provide training opportunities — such as Sharing Jesus Without Fear — to help people learn to become better witnesses.
5. Make a big deal about baptisms by explaining what they represent and invite candidates to share their testimonies before the congregation.
6. Meet monthly with key leaders to update, recast a vision for outreach, and pray for God to move in the lives of the church family to act on the vision.
7. Develop a list of people who do not know Jesus and pray for them regularly with key leaders and before the congregation.
Conclusion
Take a moment with God and imagine your church being transformed to reach people in your community. Imagine how the community might respond. Imagine how God would be glorified:
* “Can you imagine the community in which you live being genuinely thankful for your church?
* “Can you imagine city leaders valuing your church’s friendship and participation in the community — even asking for it?
* “Can you imagine the neighborhoods around your church talking about how good it is to have your church in the area because of the tangible witness you have offered them of God’s love?
* “Can you imagine a large number of your church members actively engaged in, and passionate about, community service, using their gifts and abilities in ways and at levels they never thought possible?
* “Can you imagine the community changing (Proverbs 11:11) because of your church’s involvement?
* “Can you imagine many in your city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, praising God for your church and the positive contributions your members have made in Jesus’ name?
* “Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that would naturally follow if all this were true?”2
So, take a deep breath and a big gulp. With God’s help, define the current reality in your church and start dreaming and envisioning what new life for your church would look like. Start living with comeback imagination. Then, start telling that alternative story … again and again and again. May God help you envision new life and a new future and bless you abundantly with comeback imagination.
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., president, LifeWay Research. He has written Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age, Perimeters of Light: Biblical Boundaries for the Emerging Church (with Elmer Towns), Strategic Outreach (with Eric Ramsey), Breaking the Missional Code (with David Putman), and Planting Missional Churches. Stetzer lives in Gallatin, Tennessee.
NOTES
1. Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2007), 46.
2. Robert Lewis, The Church of Irresistible Influence (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 13,14.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Missionary Who Wouldn't Retire
Note: This is an article from Christianity Today about Lesslie Newbigin. An influential thinker on the church and its message to a pluralistic, secular society, Newbigin puts forward the idea of the gospel as public truth. If you work as a witness in the campuses, this article will help you.
It was an unlikely adventure to launch a global ministry—a tediously long bus journey from Madras, India, to Birmingham, England. It was an unlikely background for a champion of the gospel to emerge from—the theologically liberal Student Christian Movement. It was an unlikely age at which to unintentionally initiate the emergent and missional church movements—age 66 after 35 years of cross-cultural missionary service. But Bishop Lesslie Newbigin made his most important contribution and did his most profound thinking in his 70s and 80s. Can this man, whose birth centenary was celebrated in December, help today's church navigate a critical period of change?
American Christianity is a long way from disappearing, but it is embattled. Newsweek magazine, bus placards, and best-selling books are all proclaiming the death of Christian America. Over the past 35 years, American confidence in religious leaders has dropped significantly—and dropped farther and faster than confidence in leaders of other institutions. Of those under age 30, only 3 percent hold a favorable view of evangelicals, compared with 33 percent who hold a favorable view of gays and lesbians. The 2009 American Religious Identification Survey showed a 10 percent dip in the number of self-identified Christians while also reporting that the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent.
These figures come as no surprise to someone from the other side of the Atlantic. The European church has long struggled with plummeting attendance. The most optimistic reading of our latest church attendance statistics describes the U.K. as "pulling out of the nosedive." Penn State's Philip Jenkins sees Europe taking the lead as the "acids of modernity" (journalist Walter Lippmann's term) dissolve the Christian foundations of a continent.
Others, like sociologist Grace Davie, see Europe as the exception, the only place on the planet where the church is in decline and facing increasing marginalization. Despite the best efforts of the militant New Atheists, we have ended up not with secularism but with religious pluralism.
In the face of alarming statistics, secularist attacks, and media scaremongering, the church has an important ally in Lesslie Newbigin. His writings continue to call the church to its missionary vocation in the midst of cultural change and ideological pluralism.
Newbigin was born 100 years ago on December 8, 1909. After completing theological studies at Cambridge University and working briefly for the Student Christian Movement, he left for India in 1936 to labor as a missionary, evangelist, and apologist. There he was instrumental in bringing together the Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches from India, Pakistan, and Burma into one ecumenical denomination: the Church of South India. On his return to England, he was shocked to find that the West was as urgent a mission field as the East. Refusing to settle into retirement, he wrote prolifically, issuing a clarion call to the Western church to rediscover its missionary mandate.
This was not merely a response to the declining state of the church, but the result of Newbigin's wrestling with the interplay of such enormous ideas as election, modernity, contextualization, the end of Christendom, and missional ecclesiology. Seeing the bigger picture of the gospel has inspired many of Newbigin's readers to grasp more fully the interaction between gospel, church, and culture. Three major themes stand out as particularly pertinent to our time.
Bigger than we think
When I speak with students around the world, I find them confident in their ability to present the gospel. They tell me that God loves me, that I have sinned, that Christ died for me, and that I need to believe in Jesus to get to heaven. Their confidence is reassuring, but their content is worrying. Doctoral students and seminarians often seem to have no deeper grasp of the gospel than do Sunday school children. The gospel they present has been reduced to a personalized product that offers the ultimate bargain—exchanging spiritual poverty for eternal riches. The problem with much of our evangelism is not what we include but what we omit: the Holy Spirit, the church, persecution, obedience, mission, reconciliation, resurrection, and new creation.
The gospel according to Newbigin challenges this thinking in two distinct ways. First, he calls us back to a gospel that brings personal reconciliation with God, but also a gospel that connects us with God's reconciling purposes in conscience, culture, church, creation, and cosmos. Second, he calls us back to a gospel that is more than a series of bullet points, a story that centers on the flesh-and-blood character of the divine Christ.
Newbigin's call is earthed in his careful exposition of John's gospel, but it draws as well on thinkers such as Martin Buber, Michael Polanyi, Hans Frei, and Alasdair MacIntyre, synthesizing their reflections into a powerful, unwittingly postmodern-friendly apologetic. Newbigin encourages us to tell the stories of the gospel as part of the grand sweep of the biblical drama. This is vital if an increasingly biblically illiterate generation is going to hear the gospel for the first time. We must explain that the stories of Jesus, true both historically and experientially, are the only way to understand how our individual stories make sense, and we must demand a personal decision to follow the Lord of all history.
As Newbigin explained in 1994, "The true understanding of the Bible is that it tells a story of which my life is a part, the story of God's tireless, loving, wrathful, inexhaustible patience with the human family, and of our unbelief, blindness, disobedience. To accept this story as the truth of the human story (and so of my story) commits me personally to a life of discernment and obedience in the new circumstances of each day."
As we tell the Jesus story, we draw people to him as a person worthy of allegiance rather than as a proposition to be evaluated.
The gospel as public truth
In God Is Back, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge cite economics as the reason Christianity has fared better in the United States than in Europe. They argue that the disestablishment of the American church opened a free market in which religious ideas flourished while their European state-backed religious counterparts disintegrated along with other politically enforced institutions. This insight offers us hope that European-style decline is not the future of global Christianity, and that the American model may hold the key to the re-evangelization of Europe.
But there is a danger in free-market spirituality. Christianity becomes just another lifestyle option. As we become more aware of the multiplicity of worldviews and religions, and as we rightly value diversity, we can grow increasingly reluctant to commend the truthfulness of the Christian message. Privatized relativism is a real danger for the church. We are tempted to vacate the public square, avoid evangelism out of fear of offending others, and retreat into ghettos. The only alternative seems to be to try to impose Christian values on the wider culture by exerting moral muscle.
Newbigin offers a third way. He challenges the post-Enlightenment separation between so-called objective facts in the public realm (taught at school and presented without the need for the preface "I believe") and the subjective values of the private world of religion and ethics. He argues that the church needs to humbly yet boldly enter the public sphere with a persuasive retelling of the Christian story—not as personal spirituality, but as public truth. He takes the logic for this public dialogue from the scientific community. A scientist does not present research findings as a personal preference, but with hope for universal agreement if the findings stand up to investigation. In the marketplace of ideas, we should likewise present the gospel not as personal preference but as truth that should gain universal acceptance. This allows us to commend the faith with the humble admission that we might not have exhaustively grasped the truth, but that we have truth that needs to be investigated and seriously engaged.
The gospel in community
I remember being in a crowded living room in Birmingham as a group of university evangelists and apologists sat at the feet of a very old man who needed a magnifying glass to read his tightly typed notes. He explained that the bottom line of his whole theological project was "the doctrine of election." That was my first encounter with Newbigin, and after immersing myself in his writings for five years, I discovered that his entire missiology revolved around that idea. God's people are elected to join in God's mission to call others to God in keeping with the Abrahamic calling, "blessed to be a blessing." There is therefore a dual purpose: God wants to reconcile people to himself, but also to reconcile people to each other. The election of individuals cannot be separated from God's election of the church: we are elected to be God's missionary people.The church is, by its very nature, missional.
This has two major implications. First, the church, not the individual, is the basic unit of evangelism. A community that lives out the truth of the gospel is the best context in which to understand its proclamation. This insight is at the heart of courses like Alpha and of the best examples of church planting and church growth.
Second, the unity of the church matters to the mission of the church. Disunity undercuts the gospel of reconciliation that we claim to bring to the world. Newbigin the evangelist's own lifelong commitment to church unity throws down the gauntlet. Whatever we need to do to help this generation to hear the gospel, we need to do together.
As Newbigin wrote, "I have been called and commissioned, through no merit of mine, to carry this message, to tell this story, to give this invitation. It is not my story or my invitation. It has no coercive intent. It is an invitation from the one who loved you and gave himself up for you. That invitation will come with winsomeness if it comes from a community in which the grace of the Redeemer is at work."
Over the past 100 years, the church has made a global impact, and God has proved faithful through every cultural shift. He can certainly be trusted for every new challenge the church faces today. Hearing Newbigin's call to present Christ publicly with courage and humility, in all his glory and with the integrity of a united church that lives his message before a watching world, should fill us with eagerness to prove God faithful in our day and over the next hundred years.
Krish Kandiah is executive director of churches in mission for the Evangelical Alliance U.K.
Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
It was an unlikely adventure to launch a global ministry—a tediously long bus journey from Madras, India, to Birmingham, England. It was an unlikely background for a champion of the gospel to emerge from—the theologically liberal Student Christian Movement. It was an unlikely age at which to unintentionally initiate the emergent and missional church movements—age 66 after 35 years of cross-cultural missionary service. But Bishop Lesslie Newbigin made his most important contribution and did his most profound thinking in his 70s and 80s. Can this man, whose birth centenary was celebrated in December, help today's church navigate a critical period of change?
American Christianity is a long way from disappearing, but it is embattled. Newsweek magazine, bus placards, and best-selling books are all proclaiming the death of Christian America. Over the past 35 years, American confidence in religious leaders has dropped significantly—and dropped farther and faster than confidence in leaders of other institutions. Of those under age 30, only 3 percent hold a favorable view of evangelicals, compared with 33 percent who hold a favorable view of gays and lesbians. The 2009 American Religious Identification Survey showed a 10 percent dip in the number of self-identified Christians while also reporting that the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent.
These figures come as no surprise to someone from the other side of the Atlantic. The European church has long struggled with plummeting attendance. The most optimistic reading of our latest church attendance statistics describes the U.K. as "pulling out of the nosedive." Penn State's Philip Jenkins sees Europe taking the lead as the "acids of modernity" (journalist Walter Lippmann's term) dissolve the Christian foundations of a continent.
Others, like sociologist Grace Davie, see Europe as the exception, the only place on the planet where the church is in decline and facing increasing marginalization. Despite the best efforts of the militant New Atheists, we have ended up not with secularism but with religious pluralism.
In the face of alarming statistics, secularist attacks, and media scaremongering, the church has an important ally in Lesslie Newbigin. His writings continue to call the church to its missionary vocation in the midst of cultural change and ideological pluralism.
Newbigin was born 100 years ago on December 8, 1909. After completing theological studies at Cambridge University and working briefly for the Student Christian Movement, he left for India in 1936 to labor as a missionary, evangelist, and apologist. There he was instrumental in bringing together the Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches from India, Pakistan, and Burma into one ecumenical denomination: the Church of South India. On his return to England, he was shocked to find that the West was as urgent a mission field as the East. Refusing to settle into retirement, he wrote prolifically, issuing a clarion call to the Western church to rediscover its missionary mandate.
This was not merely a response to the declining state of the church, but the result of Newbigin's wrestling with the interplay of such enormous ideas as election, modernity, contextualization, the end of Christendom, and missional ecclesiology. Seeing the bigger picture of the gospel has inspired many of Newbigin's readers to grasp more fully the interaction between gospel, church, and culture. Three major themes stand out as particularly pertinent to our time.
Bigger than we think
When I speak with students around the world, I find them confident in their ability to present the gospel. They tell me that God loves me, that I have sinned, that Christ died for me, and that I need to believe in Jesus to get to heaven. Their confidence is reassuring, but their content is worrying. Doctoral students and seminarians often seem to have no deeper grasp of the gospel than do Sunday school children. The gospel they present has been reduced to a personalized product that offers the ultimate bargain—exchanging spiritual poverty for eternal riches. The problem with much of our evangelism is not what we include but what we omit: the Holy Spirit, the church, persecution, obedience, mission, reconciliation, resurrection, and new creation.
The gospel according to Newbigin challenges this thinking in two distinct ways. First, he calls us back to a gospel that brings personal reconciliation with God, but also a gospel that connects us with God's reconciling purposes in conscience, culture, church, creation, and cosmos. Second, he calls us back to a gospel that is more than a series of bullet points, a story that centers on the flesh-and-blood character of the divine Christ.
Newbigin's call is earthed in his careful exposition of John's gospel, but it draws as well on thinkers such as Martin Buber, Michael Polanyi, Hans Frei, and Alasdair MacIntyre, synthesizing their reflections into a powerful, unwittingly postmodern-friendly apologetic. Newbigin encourages us to tell the stories of the gospel as part of the grand sweep of the biblical drama. This is vital if an increasingly biblically illiterate generation is going to hear the gospel for the first time. We must explain that the stories of Jesus, true both historically and experientially, are the only way to understand how our individual stories make sense, and we must demand a personal decision to follow the Lord of all history.
As Newbigin explained in 1994, "The true understanding of the Bible is that it tells a story of which my life is a part, the story of God's tireless, loving, wrathful, inexhaustible patience with the human family, and of our unbelief, blindness, disobedience. To accept this story as the truth of the human story (and so of my story) commits me personally to a life of discernment and obedience in the new circumstances of each day."
As we tell the Jesus story, we draw people to him as a person worthy of allegiance rather than as a proposition to be evaluated.
The gospel as public truth
In God Is Back, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge cite economics as the reason Christianity has fared better in the United States than in Europe. They argue that the disestablishment of the American church opened a free market in which religious ideas flourished while their European state-backed religious counterparts disintegrated along with other politically enforced institutions. This insight offers us hope that European-style decline is not the future of global Christianity, and that the American model may hold the key to the re-evangelization of Europe.
But there is a danger in free-market spirituality. Christianity becomes just another lifestyle option. As we become more aware of the multiplicity of worldviews and religions, and as we rightly value diversity, we can grow increasingly reluctant to commend the truthfulness of the Christian message. Privatized relativism is a real danger for the church. We are tempted to vacate the public square, avoid evangelism out of fear of offending others, and retreat into ghettos. The only alternative seems to be to try to impose Christian values on the wider culture by exerting moral muscle.
Newbigin offers a third way. He challenges the post-Enlightenment separation between so-called objective facts in the public realm (taught at school and presented without the need for the preface "I believe") and the subjective values of the private world of religion and ethics. He argues that the church needs to humbly yet boldly enter the public sphere with a persuasive retelling of the Christian story—not as personal spirituality, but as public truth. He takes the logic for this public dialogue from the scientific community. A scientist does not present research findings as a personal preference, but with hope for universal agreement if the findings stand up to investigation. In the marketplace of ideas, we should likewise present the gospel not as personal preference but as truth that should gain universal acceptance. This allows us to commend the faith with the humble admission that we might not have exhaustively grasped the truth, but that we have truth that needs to be investigated and seriously engaged.
The gospel in community
I remember being in a crowded living room in Birmingham as a group of university evangelists and apologists sat at the feet of a very old man who needed a magnifying glass to read his tightly typed notes. He explained that the bottom line of his whole theological project was "the doctrine of election." That was my first encounter with Newbigin, and after immersing myself in his writings for five years, I discovered that his entire missiology revolved around that idea. God's people are elected to join in God's mission to call others to God in keeping with the Abrahamic calling, "blessed to be a blessing." There is therefore a dual purpose: God wants to reconcile people to himself, but also to reconcile people to each other. The election of individuals cannot be separated from God's election of the church: we are elected to be God's missionary people.The church is, by its very nature, missional.
This has two major implications. First, the church, not the individual, is the basic unit of evangelism. A community that lives out the truth of the gospel is the best context in which to understand its proclamation. This insight is at the heart of courses like Alpha and of the best examples of church planting and church growth.
Second, the unity of the church matters to the mission of the church. Disunity undercuts the gospel of reconciliation that we claim to bring to the world. Newbigin the evangelist's own lifelong commitment to church unity throws down the gauntlet. Whatever we need to do to help this generation to hear the gospel, we need to do together.
As Newbigin wrote, "I have been called and commissioned, through no merit of mine, to carry this message, to tell this story, to give this invitation. It is not my story or my invitation. It has no coercive intent. It is an invitation from the one who loved you and gave himself up for you. That invitation will come with winsomeness if it comes from a community in which the grace of the Redeemer is at work."
Over the past 100 years, the church has made a global impact, and God has proved faithful through every cultural shift. He can certainly be trusted for every new challenge the church faces today. Hearing Newbigin's call to present Christ publicly with courage and humility, in all his glory and with the integrity of a united church that lives his message before a watching world, should fill us with eagerness to prove God faithful in our day and over the next hundred years.
Krish Kandiah is executive director of churches in mission for the Evangelical Alliance U.K.
Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Following our Servant Lord
I did not come to be ministered unto but to minister. (Matthew 20:28)
The idea of servant leadership has become quite popular; it has been completely secularized, as Christmas and Easter are secularized. What I mean by secularized is that people use the words but deprive it of any connection to the Biblical ideas surrounding it. The concept of serving people is no longer a Christian ideal. Now even sportsmen like Tiger Woods and Manny Pacquiao, despite their marital problems are careful about their reputations in order not to diminish the quality of their service to their fans. Multimillion dollar corporations are careful so that their products provide the kind of service that would bring the highest satisfaction to their customers.
Christians and churches buy into that mentality and it colors their understanding of ministry.
Let me illustrate what I am saying. Two weeks ago I had to pass by Iloilo because I have some meetings to do there before proceeding to Boracay. Along the way it is quite instructive to see how local churches name themselves. Here is a church that defines itself as “fundamental,” another as”conservative” another as “Bible”, another as “apostolic” and of course “Roman Catholic.”
Why do churches have such titles? Who are the intended receivers of these titles? Muslims? Hindus? Atheists? These religions could hardly care whether you are fundamental or apostolic. These words are meant to measure the people in those churches against other Christians.
They are conservative because other Christians are liberal.
They are Bible because other Christians are unbiblical.
They are apostolic because other Christians are modernistic.
They are Catholic because other Christians are narrow and nationalistic.
Whether churches or individual Christians we have a tendency to look at ourselves through the lens of other churches and the implied message is, “We are better than you are.” We have more money. We have more influence. We have more power. Join us.
That reminds of two churches I saw one evening in Singapore. One had a large building capable of seating perhaps a thousand. If it has a sign I didn’t see it. But there are spotlights that highlight the design of the building. It was a building meant to convey success and wealth. Next to it was a very small chapel, I think only five meters across. I calculate maybe less than 50 can be accommodated within. But it had a large blue neon sign blazing at the top of the building. What does it say? “The True Church.” We may be small but we are true. We may be small but we have the power of God.
Indeed implied in service is strength for those who are too weak cannot serve. There is no service if we have nothing with which to serve. No capital to use for our resources. But any form of power in itself is dangerous commodity.
In the late 1980’s a born again general by the name of Efrain Rios Montt, seized power in Guatemala through a coup d’etat. Evangelical leaders in the United States rejoiced and Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were very supportive of him and became his friends. With Rios Montt in power there was much talk about introducing reforms in Guatemala that would result not only in evangelizing the country but also in eradicating poverty.
These were false hopes. His vision of the rule of law was a military junta that subjugated the opposition, silenced freedom of the press, and created military tribunals with the power to impose the death penalty. In a short time, 600 villages in Guatemala were reduced to ashes. In 1982 alone over 10 thousand native Indians were killed and tens of thousands more were annihilated by death squads in the following months.
The regime of Rios Montt, the first born-again president of Central and South American went down in history as the most violent that the American continents have ever produced. Rather than exalting the rule of God, he diminished it. He corrupted the meaning of what it means to be born again.
There is no doubt that Jesus had power. The devil saw it. But Jesus saw what game the devil was playing and resisted it.
Since we are in quoting Scripture hope to emulate Jesus, not sportsmen or captains of industry, how do we understand what he meant by serving and not being served?
For that we have to go back to the way he understood his mission. And we find that in Luke 4 where Jesus said,
18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
Is Jesus saying that salvation is limited to the poor alone? No. Is he even saying that the poor are to be given preferential treatment in his ministry? To some extent yes. But it goes beyond preferential option. It is looking at the world from the lenses of the world of the weak, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed.
Jesus defined his mission through the eyes of the underprivileged.
How did he do that?
First of all he identified himself with them. There is a distinctive odor to poverty. You who have served among them know that. It is the odor of the earth, of animal dung. And that is the odor with which Jesus was born into. Jesus was familiar with animals. He spoke of sheep and cattle, fish and sparrows. He was familiar with the hard life of shepherds, farmers, and fishermen. He did not shun prostitutes and publicans. He walked with them and ate with them.
But there is more to than solidarity with the oppressed rather than being a tool of oppressors. Jesus leaned towards the outcasts, the dispossessed, and the weak as the mirror whereby to understand the mission of God in the world.
The lepers, the woman with the issue of blood, the Samaritans—these were the untouchables of Jesus’ day. Jesus not only touched them but allowed them to touch him.
The woman with an issue of blood, she touched Jesus and was healed. Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Wasn’t that rather insensitive, to expose this woman’s uncleanness to the crowd? He could have let her have what she needed, her healing and release her. But could she go back and be restored into the life of her community? No. Why? Because how could they know she was healed? She would be healed but remain an outcast.
In exposing this woman to the crowd, Jesus was acting as the priest who pronounced healing upon the unclean so that she could return to her community not only healed but reconciled. Once again her children could touch her, and she touch them.
In the healing and restoration of the bleeding woman Jesus is saying that God is calling the outcasts to himself. Jesus presence in society is a beacon of wholeness to those who are bleeding. The bleeding woman’s healing and restoration is a sign of reconciliation between those who are out and those who are in, between those who benefit from the rewards of a corrupt society and those who are left behind, the sick and the stragglers and the lost.
If indeed the church is the body of Christ in the world, if the church is the living presence of Jesus in the world, then the church can be no less a sign of that same healing and reconciliation that happened to the bleeding woman.
Who do we want to touch us? Who do we want to surround us? That is the issue.
After our Sunday service I hurry back to our ministry center where I have a little room. It is comfortable but it is not Boracay. I have to hurry back because there are people waiting for me to open the gate of our center. These are the homeless, street dwellers of Cebu. We minister to their spirit but we also minister to their bodies. About 100 of them adults and 60 children. While crossing from Jollibee a woman approached me and crossed the street with me. She is one of them. At the gate about a dozen or them were sitting on the ground or standing. But another dozen were lying on the ground, resting. Bare ground. There is a puddle of dirty water on the street. Don’t lie on the ground, I said. Come in.
One said, don’t worry pastor, this is our life.
There was a stab of pain in my heart. How could you say we are used to this? I wanted to go back and give them a lecture on cleanliness and on the image of God. But something held me.
Why am I reacting? Because I don’t want these people with their filth and their smell to invade and foul up my antiseptic space?
And where would I rather have this people to lie down? Near a place where sex traffickers are already watching over the growing bodies of their children? Where drug pushers are already at work? Where criminal lords are recruiting children to use?
Efren Penaflorida as you probably already know was a World Vision sponsored child. Through the help of strangers he was able to finish high school, then an associate in computer technology and finally an honors degree in education. I know similar people like him who have risen up from poverty. But as soon as they find a job they forget where they come from. They surround themselves with the kind of people they would like to become, sometimes reinventing themselves with a new name and a new background.
Efren chose to go back. He chose to look at his world from the vantage point of the scavengers and street dwellers. His life is in inspiration to others who dream of becoming heroes themselves. As I look at him I feel rewarded too.
To you in the literature ministry, you too will feel rewarded…
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to publish good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; …
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to inspire those who work among the outcasts and the bleeding of our society,
to the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to heed the call of Jesus to deny itself, take up its cross and follows Jesus…
then to that extent you too will feel rewarded.
Message to OMFLit Staff Cebu 9 December 2009
The idea of servant leadership has become quite popular; it has been completely secularized, as Christmas and Easter are secularized. What I mean by secularized is that people use the words but deprive it of any connection to the Biblical ideas surrounding it. The concept of serving people is no longer a Christian ideal. Now even sportsmen like Tiger Woods and Manny Pacquiao, despite their marital problems are careful about their reputations in order not to diminish the quality of their service to their fans. Multimillion dollar corporations are careful so that their products provide the kind of service that would bring the highest satisfaction to their customers.
Christians and churches buy into that mentality and it colors their understanding of ministry.
Let me illustrate what I am saying. Two weeks ago I had to pass by Iloilo because I have some meetings to do there before proceeding to Boracay. Along the way it is quite instructive to see how local churches name themselves. Here is a church that defines itself as “fundamental,” another as”conservative” another as “Bible”, another as “apostolic” and of course “Roman Catholic.”
Why do churches have such titles? Who are the intended receivers of these titles? Muslims? Hindus? Atheists? These religions could hardly care whether you are fundamental or apostolic. These words are meant to measure the people in those churches against other Christians.
They are conservative because other Christians are liberal.
They are Bible because other Christians are unbiblical.
They are apostolic because other Christians are modernistic.
They are Catholic because other Christians are narrow and nationalistic.
Whether churches or individual Christians we have a tendency to look at ourselves through the lens of other churches and the implied message is, “We are better than you are.” We have more money. We have more influence. We have more power. Join us.
That reminds of two churches I saw one evening in Singapore. One had a large building capable of seating perhaps a thousand. If it has a sign I didn’t see it. But there are spotlights that highlight the design of the building. It was a building meant to convey success and wealth. Next to it was a very small chapel, I think only five meters across. I calculate maybe less than 50 can be accommodated within. But it had a large blue neon sign blazing at the top of the building. What does it say? “The True Church.” We may be small but we are true. We may be small but we have the power of God.
Indeed implied in service is strength for those who are too weak cannot serve. There is no service if we have nothing with which to serve. No capital to use for our resources. But any form of power in itself is dangerous commodity.
In the late 1980’s a born again general by the name of Efrain Rios Montt, seized power in Guatemala through a coup d’etat. Evangelical leaders in the United States rejoiced and Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were very supportive of him and became his friends. With Rios Montt in power there was much talk about introducing reforms in Guatemala that would result not only in evangelizing the country but also in eradicating poverty.
These were false hopes. His vision of the rule of law was a military junta that subjugated the opposition, silenced freedom of the press, and created military tribunals with the power to impose the death penalty. In a short time, 600 villages in Guatemala were reduced to ashes. In 1982 alone over 10 thousand native Indians were killed and tens of thousands more were annihilated by death squads in the following months.
The regime of Rios Montt, the first born-again president of Central and South American went down in history as the most violent that the American continents have ever produced. Rather than exalting the rule of God, he diminished it. He corrupted the meaning of what it means to be born again.
There is no doubt that Jesus had power. The devil saw it. But Jesus saw what game the devil was playing and resisted it.
Since we are in quoting Scripture hope to emulate Jesus, not sportsmen or captains of industry, how do we understand what he meant by serving and not being served?
For that we have to go back to the way he understood his mission. And we find that in Luke 4 where Jesus said,
18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
Is Jesus saying that salvation is limited to the poor alone? No. Is he even saying that the poor are to be given preferential treatment in his ministry? To some extent yes. But it goes beyond preferential option. It is looking at the world from the lenses of the world of the weak, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed.
Jesus defined his mission through the eyes of the underprivileged.
How did he do that?
First of all he identified himself with them. There is a distinctive odor to poverty. You who have served among them know that. It is the odor of the earth, of animal dung. And that is the odor with which Jesus was born into. Jesus was familiar with animals. He spoke of sheep and cattle, fish and sparrows. He was familiar with the hard life of shepherds, farmers, and fishermen. He did not shun prostitutes and publicans. He walked with them and ate with them.
But there is more to than solidarity with the oppressed rather than being a tool of oppressors. Jesus leaned towards the outcasts, the dispossessed, and the weak as the mirror whereby to understand the mission of God in the world.
The lepers, the woman with the issue of blood, the Samaritans—these were the untouchables of Jesus’ day. Jesus not only touched them but allowed them to touch him.
The woman with an issue of blood, she touched Jesus and was healed. Have you ever wondered why Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” Wasn’t that rather insensitive, to expose this woman’s uncleanness to the crowd? He could have let her have what she needed, her healing and release her. But could she go back and be restored into the life of her community? No. Why? Because how could they know she was healed? She would be healed but remain an outcast.
In exposing this woman to the crowd, Jesus was acting as the priest who pronounced healing upon the unclean so that she could return to her community not only healed but reconciled. Once again her children could touch her, and she touch them.
In the healing and restoration of the bleeding woman Jesus is saying that God is calling the outcasts to himself. Jesus presence in society is a beacon of wholeness to those who are bleeding. The bleeding woman’s healing and restoration is a sign of reconciliation between those who are out and those who are in, between those who benefit from the rewards of a corrupt society and those who are left behind, the sick and the stragglers and the lost.
If indeed the church is the body of Christ in the world, if the church is the living presence of Jesus in the world, then the church can be no less a sign of that same healing and reconciliation that happened to the bleeding woman.
Who do we want to touch us? Who do we want to surround us? That is the issue.
After our Sunday service I hurry back to our ministry center where I have a little room. It is comfortable but it is not Boracay. I have to hurry back because there are people waiting for me to open the gate of our center. These are the homeless, street dwellers of Cebu. We minister to their spirit but we also minister to their bodies. About 100 of them adults and 60 children. While crossing from Jollibee a woman approached me and crossed the street with me. She is one of them. At the gate about a dozen or them were sitting on the ground or standing. But another dozen were lying on the ground, resting. Bare ground. There is a puddle of dirty water on the street. Don’t lie on the ground, I said. Come in.
One said, don’t worry pastor, this is our life.
There was a stab of pain in my heart. How could you say we are used to this? I wanted to go back and give them a lecture on cleanliness and on the image of God. But something held me.
Why am I reacting? Because I don’t want these people with their filth and their smell to invade and foul up my antiseptic space?
And where would I rather have this people to lie down? Near a place where sex traffickers are already watching over the growing bodies of their children? Where drug pushers are already at work? Where criminal lords are recruiting children to use?
Efren Penaflorida as you probably already know was a World Vision sponsored child. Through the help of strangers he was able to finish high school, then an associate in computer technology and finally an honors degree in education. I know similar people like him who have risen up from poverty. But as soon as they find a job they forget where they come from. They surround themselves with the kind of people they would like to become, sometimes reinventing themselves with a new name and a new background.
Efren chose to go back. He chose to look at his world from the vantage point of the scavengers and street dwellers. His life is in inspiration to others who dream of becoming heroes themselves. As I look at him I feel rewarded too.
To you in the literature ministry, you too will feel rewarded…
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to publish good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; …
To the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to inspire those who work among the outcasts and the bleeding of our society,
to the extent that the Christian literature ministry continues to heed the call of Jesus to deny itself, take up its cross and follows Jesus…
then to that extent you too will feel rewarded.
Message to OMFLit Staff Cebu 9 December 2009
Marking Time
As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, “Do business with these until I come back.” ( Luke 19:11-13 NRSV)
Some years ago I discovered Advent. I am talking about a season in the Christian year in which we celebrate hope.
It used to be that the second coming of Jesus was a hot topic in many sermons. We even have charts that showed such things as when the rapture would happen, what happens after the rapture, the tribulation, the battle of Armageddon as well as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Today all of these things seem quaint, as are songs such as He’s Coming Soon, and Mansion Over the Hilltop. Our songs today are all about our present experience of worship. To think of God as a very present help in time of trouble is a wonderful truth. But it is too narrow. And the result troubles me because too much of what we read and hear today is how to religion. Go to any Christian bookstore and you see that the titles that sell are practical guides on how to be a good father and husband. How to be a good mother and wife. How to succeed in your career. How to pray. How to worship. Etc etc.
Now there is nothing bad about these how to books. The only question that should bother us is what do these topics have to do with Jesus? I find that many of these books have a lot of things in common with the favorite topics used by motivational speakers such as Scott Peck, Og Mandino, and prior to them Dale Carnegie. How to Win Friends and Influence People.
What I am saying is take away the verses, take away reference to Christian churches and you find little that is distinctively Christian in many so-called Christian books. What they say could be said by an atheist or a Hindu or an Muslim.
How to religion is a religion of self-improvement; and a religion of self-improvement is a religion of self-salvation or works of the law.
The grand celebrations of the Christian church, whether it is Sunday which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, or the Lent season which celebrates the salvation brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost—all of these are celebrations of the acts or the works of God on our behalf and they put context into our practice of the Christian life.
There is a place for works in the Christian life. There is a place for improving ourselves in the Christian life. But as a result of salvation, not as an effort to save or redeem ourselves.
This is the reason why we need to put our efforts all of these how-to’s within the context of these grand celebrations of grace or our efforts will degenerate into works of the law and our attempts to win favor from God, from other people or even to improve the way we look at ourselves. That is self-salvation.
1. To sum what I have said, Advent is a way of refocusing our Christian life so that it is grounded upon what Christ has done to start our salvation and what Christ will do to complete our salvation. In other words, our works is a response to grace; and, because we do them through the power of the new life of Jesus in us, are themselves acts of grace.
2. Secondly, the Advent season helps us to find a reason for being. Why in the world are we still here? Let me illustrate what I mean.
Americans have a day they call Black Friday. Until Lonni told me what that means I thought it has to do with some massacre that happened in their history. Lonni told me it is a shopping spree when department stores outdo each other by offering huge discounts. It was more like worshipping at the temple of mammon.
Well, I have a friend in America who wrote me what he and his son did on Black Friday. “We are both typical males and got everything we thought of and then left the store. We even went on-line previously and bought items. Now women on the other hand would be at the store the whole day and then return half of the stuff the next day. The difference between the sexes!!!” To which I answered back, Long live the difference!
That’s it! You got what you want. Why stay any longer? I can imagine an American husband fuming in his car waiting while wife and daughter merrily hop from one shopping mall to another.
That’s the puzzle of salvation. The goods are safe in our hands. The logical thing is to enjoy what you haveWhat is the purpose of this time between the two comings? Waiting it out until God is done with his Black Saturday shopping? In the meanwhile, what do we do? Sit it out in church listening to sermons that bore you to death? Make sure the pastor and his family doesn’t starve? Make sure he rides a nice Pajero so he doesn’t embarrass you before other people? Be good and try your best not to lose your salvation?
No wonder we are bored.
In Jesus parable of the ten virgins all the virgins have to do is light their lamps and wait.
There is nothing so frustrating as to wait for the big thing to happen. The Cebuano language has a word that has no equivalent other Filipino languages. it is the word “tagihuwat.” It means waiting for the big break. It is waiting for that man to propose or for that girl to say yes. It is waiting for that notice from the Embassy saying that the petition for your immigration has been approved. It is teaching in a small school while waiting for the government to approve your application for ranking. But I think there is a word for it in English—marking time.
Tagihuwat is life being lived between neither here nor there. It means being frozen in a present existence that produces nothing. It is walking on a treadmill. It is life lived in the meanwhile. I am waiting for this to happen…in the meanwhile, I do this. I feel sorry for the tagihuwat. But I feel more sorry for the people who employ them. The tagihuwat’s heart is not in his present job. It is waiting. Just waiting. Marking time.
Just as pathetic are people who have high notions about serving God but never put it into practice. They talk about the mission field. But they can’t even relate to their friends. They talk about changing the world but don’t know how to change their bed.
They remind me of a story I heard. A stranger asked an old farmer how to get to the next town. The old man scratched his head and answered, “If I were you, I would not start from here.”
We’ve got to start somewhere but where do we start?
This is the point being made by another parable--the parable of the ten stewards. Most of us don’t really see this parable because we read it thinking it is the parable of the talents. But this is a different parable. There are ten stewards, not three. All are given the same amount. And then they receive this simple command, “Occupy till I come.”
The word occupy is quite interesting. It only occurs here. And the root is pragma from which we have the English word pragmatic…which means to be practical. The word Jesus used could be translated, “to put this money to good use” or “to invest this money” or “to do business with this money” until I come.
We start from the fact that in salvation the Lord has invested us with the capital of his grace. That’s the entire starting point. Now get busy! Do something about God’s grace. Be occupied until I come!
I remember how I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It took me a long time. But when the Spirit finally gushed out of my being, it was as Jesus said, living water flowing from my belly. For almost half an hour I was in ecstasy. My mentor, the man who won me to the Lord was waiting. While walking home he gently said to me, “Narciso, you’ve received a wonderful gift. Don’t use it all on yourself. This afternoon, join me. Let’s do some preaching.” That afternoon we went out street preaching. My knees were still trembling. I did not know what I was saying. But I got started.
Being occupied, being pragmatic, is the exact opposite of the tagihuwat interpretation of the present Christian life.
The tagihuwat Christian does not know what to do with his time while waiting for things to happen. But the pragmatic Christian has his work cut out for him. Capital has already been placed in his hands. How he invests that capital is up to him.
People who are not where God wants them to be have a great capacity for mischief. So if indeed there is a waiting period in your life, you want to make yourself useful,. be of help, but don’t get in the way. Inspire others; don’t be a source of discouragement.
Conclusion
Tagihuwat is certainly not in the vocabulary of Efren Penaflorida. He is a young man who put his conviction to work.
“From the muddy streets and wet markets of his Cavite City hometown to the flashy lights of Hollywood thousands of miles away. That’s how far teacher and civic worker Efren Penaflorida, 28, has gone and will go in his passion to bring education to out-of-school youths and very young children whose poverty may have limited their options to either jail or the graveyard.”
Penaflorida said, “I would rather do something than complain.” And he did something to change the situation that he saw. His made a difference. And so can everyone of us if we put muscle into our good intentions and if we put to work the capital of grace that God has invested into our lives.
Some years ago I discovered Advent. I am talking about a season in the Christian year in which we celebrate hope.
It used to be that the second coming of Jesus was a hot topic in many sermons. We even have charts that showed such things as when the rapture would happen, what happens after the rapture, the tribulation, the battle of Armageddon as well as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Today all of these things seem quaint, as are songs such as He’s Coming Soon, and Mansion Over the Hilltop. Our songs today are all about our present experience of worship. To think of God as a very present help in time of trouble is a wonderful truth. But it is too narrow. And the result troubles me because too much of what we read and hear today is how to religion. Go to any Christian bookstore and you see that the titles that sell are practical guides on how to be a good father and husband. How to be a good mother and wife. How to succeed in your career. How to pray. How to worship. Etc etc.
Now there is nothing bad about these how to books. The only question that should bother us is what do these topics have to do with Jesus? I find that many of these books have a lot of things in common with the favorite topics used by motivational speakers such as Scott Peck, Og Mandino, and prior to them Dale Carnegie. How to Win Friends and Influence People.
What I am saying is take away the verses, take away reference to Christian churches and you find little that is distinctively Christian in many so-called Christian books. What they say could be said by an atheist or a Hindu or an Muslim.
How to religion is a religion of self-improvement; and a religion of self-improvement is a religion of self-salvation or works of the law.
The grand celebrations of the Christian church, whether it is Sunday which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, or the Lent season which celebrates the salvation brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost—all of these are celebrations of the acts or the works of God on our behalf and they put context into our practice of the Christian life.
There is a place for works in the Christian life. There is a place for improving ourselves in the Christian life. But as a result of salvation, not as an effort to save or redeem ourselves.
This is the reason why we need to put our efforts all of these how-to’s within the context of these grand celebrations of grace or our efforts will degenerate into works of the law and our attempts to win favor from God, from other people or even to improve the way we look at ourselves. That is self-salvation.
1. To sum what I have said, Advent is a way of refocusing our Christian life so that it is grounded upon what Christ has done to start our salvation and what Christ will do to complete our salvation. In other words, our works is a response to grace; and, because we do them through the power of the new life of Jesus in us, are themselves acts of grace.
2. Secondly, the Advent season helps us to find a reason for being. Why in the world are we still here? Let me illustrate what I mean.
Americans have a day they call Black Friday. Until Lonni told me what that means I thought it has to do with some massacre that happened in their history. Lonni told me it is a shopping spree when department stores outdo each other by offering huge discounts. It was more like worshipping at the temple of mammon.
Well, I have a friend in America who wrote me what he and his son did on Black Friday. “We are both typical males and got everything we thought of and then left the store. We even went on-line previously and bought items. Now women on the other hand would be at the store the whole day and then return half of the stuff the next day. The difference between the sexes!!!” To which I answered back, Long live the difference!
That’s it! You got what you want. Why stay any longer? I can imagine an American husband fuming in his car waiting while wife and daughter merrily hop from one shopping mall to another.
That’s the puzzle of salvation. The goods are safe in our hands. The logical thing is to enjoy what you haveWhat is the purpose of this time between the two comings? Waiting it out until God is done with his Black Saturday shopping? In the meanwhile, what do we do? Sit it out in church listening to sermons that bore you to death? Make sure the pastor and his family doesn’t starve? Make sure he rides a nice Pajero so he doesn’t embarrass you before other people? Be good and try your best not to lose your salvation?
No wonder we are bored.
In Jesus parable of the ten virgins all the virgins have to do is light their lamps and wait.
There is nothing so frustrating as to wait for the big thing to happen. The Cebuano language has a word that has no equivalent other Filipino languages. it is the word “tagihuwat.” It means waiting for the big break. It is waiting for that man to propose or for that girl to say yes. It is waiting for that notice from the Embassy saying that the petition for your immigration has been approved. It is teaching in a small school while waiting for the government to approve your application for ranking. But I think there is a word for it in English—marking time.
Tagihuwat is life being lived between neither here nor there. It means being frozen in a present existence that produces nothing. It is walking on a treadmill. It is life lived in the meanwhile. I am waiting for this to happen…in the meanwhile, I do this. I feel sorry for the tagihuwat. But I feel more sorry for the people who employ them. The tagihuwat’s heart is not in his present job. It is waiting. Just waiting. Marking time.
Just as pathetic are people who have high notions about serving God but never put it into practice. They talk about the mission field. But they can’t even relate to their friends. They talk about changing the world but don’t know how to change their bed.
They remind me of a story I heard. A stranger asked an old farmer how to get to the next town. The old man scratched his head and answered, “If I were you, I would not start from here.”
We’ve got to start somewhere but where do we start?
This is the point being made by another parable--the parable of the ten stewards. Most of us don’t really see this parable because we read it thinking it is the parable of the talents. But this is a different parable. There are ten stewards, not three. All are given the same amount. And then they receive this simple command, “Occupy till I come.”
The word occupy is quite interesting. It only occurs here. And the root is pragma from which we have the English word pragmatic…which means to be practical. The word Jesus used could be translated, “to put this money to good use” or “to invest this money” or “to do business with this money” until I come.
We start from the fact that in salvation the Lord has invested us with the capital of his grace. That’s the entire starting point. Now get busy! Do something about God’s grace. Be occupied until I come!
I remember how I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It took me a long time. But when the Spirit finally gushed out of my being, it was as Jesus said, living water flowing from my belly. For almost half an hour I was in ecstasy. My mentor, the man who won me to the Lord was waiting. While walking home he gently said to me, “Narciso, you’ve received a wonderful gift. Don’t use it all on yourself. This afternoon, join me. Let’s do some preaching.” That afternoon we went out street preaching. My knees were still trembling. I did not know what I was saying. But I got started.
Being occupied, being pragmatic, is the exact opposite of the tagihuwat interpretation of the present Christian life.
The tagihuwat Christian does not know what to do with his time while waiting for things to happen. But the pragmatic Christian has his work cut out for him. Capital has already been placed in his hands. How he invests that capital is up to him.
People who are not where God wants them to be have a great capacity for mischief. So if indeed there is a waiting period in your life, you want to make yourself useful,. be of help, but don’t get in the way. Inspire others; don’t be a source of discouragement.
Conclusion
Tagihuwat is certainly not in the vocabulary of Efren Penaflorida. He is a young man who put his conviction to work.
“From the muddy streets and wet markets of his Cavite City hometown to the flashy lights of Hollywood thousands of miles away. That’s how far teacher and civic worker Efren Penaflorida, 28, has gone and will go in his passion to bring education to out-of-school youths and very young children whose poverty may have limited their options to either jail or the graveyard.”
Penaflorida said, “I would rather do something than complain.” And he did something to change the situation that he saw. His made a difference. And so can everyone of us if we put muscle into our good intentions and if we put to work the capital of grace that God has invested into our lives.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Numbering Our Days
Psalm 90:`12Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. NIV
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. NRSV
I don’t know about you but I was confused about the thing we are observing today.
When I was growing up all I know is kalag-kalag or pista minatay, and that’s supposed to be on the 2nd of November, but that it’s bisperas or the mass is performed on the eve of kalagkalag.
Later, I don’t know who, perhaps it was our catechism teacher or our own teacher in public school, said, “No you got it wrong, we are not celebrating the dead, but honoring all the saints.” Todos los santos. A feast to honor all the saints, and that is today the 1st day of November.
So now comes the Americans and their magazines and newspapers and TV shows talking about Halloween and that it falls on the 31st of October. So now which is which—30 or 1 or 2?
For most Filipinos this practical question is simple, when do we visit the graves of our loved ones? I think most are agreed that it is on the evening of November the 1st, whatever you call it.
So let’s go to why we are celebrating on these three days, for it is clear somehow they are all associated with death, dead martyrs, dead saints, dead Christians. The simplistic answer is to lump all of these as pagan, like Christmas is pagan, and Easter is pagan. This is the kind of mistake made by people who think they know more about the Bible than their neighbors. It is one thing to know the Bible, it is another thing to read the Bible with some understanding about the longings of the human heart.
This day is about patching up the missing gaps, the empty spaces of our lives, spaces that could have been filled with stories. But when loved ones die, they take away their stories with them. So those stories will have to be filled up by those who are left behind. We, all, human beings need to find those connections. Without them we are like lonely flotsam and jetsam tossed to and fro by the ocean waves.
This is the reason behind all of this confusion, this failure to understand the longing for connectivity in our lives.
1. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church tried to put Christian meaning into pagan practices. So Todos los Santos was originally Fiesta para los Martires, a festival to honor the martyrs of the Church. But that would leave out Saint Mary, for she did not suffer a martyr’s death, and all others who lived saintly lives but did not die violently. So a festival was made in commemoration of them, and it took the place of the pagan festival for the dead. So it became a Fiesta para Todos los Santos, “A Feast for all the Saints.”
2. But instead of honoring the saints what did the Christians do? They went to the graves of their loved ones anyway. Instead of honoring Sta Felicita and Sta Barbara and San Bernardino, and San Martrin de Porres, they went to the graves of nanay and tatay and undo, and inday, lolo and lola.
So the church again thought all of this was sheer paganism. To solve it they said, “Hala, if you cannot be prevented from your celebrating dead loved ones, go ahead, but pray for their souls in purgatory. “ So that’s why we have All Soul’s Day. The idea is to make this a day for intercession for the dead who were not good enough for sainthood, whose souls languished in purgatory.
It was a good move for it made money. Not any one can just pray for the release of a soul from purgatory. You need to have a priest. And you know that priestly intercession is not free. Well for those with money it was fine. But it seems to me as far as the general public was concerned, they would rather give their money to the rice trader, cook some puto and suman, and sikwate and eat it at the grave, and that was enough.
3. And what about Halloween? That came from two words, hallow is the same is holy, or saintly, which is for all saints day. But the mass for all the saints is said the evening before, and evening is often shortened into even and even into een. So we got Halloween. And it became just a thoroughly pagan celebration involving witches and ghouls and masks, etc.
It has been said, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We only succeed into creating a monstrosity. People who are so afraid of paganism, who don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter, and even Sunday, don’t understand that not everything pagan is evil. We have to distinguish between what is human and what is demonic.
To be homesick is human. To long for departed loved ones is human. To visit their graves is human. My grandmother, mother, brother and aunt—they were all buried in the ground. Eventually the cemetery their remains decayed and other bodies were put in their place. But my father was placed in a niche. A year ago I visited it, alone, a week after All Saints Day. Something in me wanted to speak to him and I did. Then I reached out my hand in a parting farewell, to trace his name in the headstone. It reminds of a poem quoted during the funeral of Princess Diana.
Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love,
time is eternity.
Henry Van Dyke
I was scanning old family photos to be posted into an online family photo album. As I looked at the photos of my mother and father, my brother and sister, my aunt a powerful wave of longing came over me. If only I could let them see this city, go with me to Boracay.
There are huge gaps in my father and mother’s life that I know nothing about. I would like to know how this illiterate boy learned to speak very good Spanish. Who taught him to cook, for he was exceptionally good in making fine Spanish sausage, ham, smoked fish, etc. Who taught him fine cabinet making, making intricate inlay work on jewelry boxes, etc.
Then in Boracay a former student showed up. He told me he is now working with a microlending corporation and financing small businesses. Then he gave me the name of his boss, “Not the Chinese but the original owners of this family name. “ I know that family I said. For my father worked with them. Making boats, fishing, speed boats, yachts. Wood boats, steel boats, and fiberglass. Then I told him about the shop where my father worked. The hum of machinery, the squeal of wood being sliced, the flash of welding steel to steel, the smell of steel being ground smooth, the vat where they were cooking ham, the boatyard, the ice plant, the piggery.
And most wonderful of all, the frame of a small canvas skinned airplane hanging from the trusses of the shop. An engine eventually was fitted to the frame and my father was its first passenger in the test flight. I knew told him many more little bits of information that only someone who family well would know.
The following day I received a text message from my student. What is your father’s nickname? After giving the nickname of my father, a text answer came back, “My boss wishes to meet you.” I couldn’t believe it. I look forward to my meeting with this man for it will fill up the gaps in the story of my own life.
We belong to a web of humanity. We have to find the connections, otherwise we are like spiders lost from their web. We are like jetsam and flotsam bobbing In the vast ocean alone. For the same reason we create Facebooks, celebrate birthdays, hold family and class reunions, so we celebrate today. For the same reason the Bible gave us genealogies, so we celebrate today. Connections. For God did not make us as individuals but as a family that started with Adam and Eve.
There is one more reason why we celebrate this day.
Today people all over the Philippines are flocking to the cemeteries. The memorial parks and the cemeteries will be bright and there will be music and dancing.
Yesterday American children carved pumpkins and put candles inside them. The Frankenstein masks are sold even here in the Philippines. But only for today. Today we can make fun of death. Because tomorrow, next week when the tombs are desolate, we don’t want to visit again.
We are cowards and we know it. Death haunts us. Terrorizes us. Walking in a dark place. Riding an airplane. A narrow mountain road. A trip to an island when the sea is rough. News of another typhoon. Waiting for the result of our annual physical examination. A headache, a rise in blood pressure. We panic.
Kalagkalag is really a coping mechanism. We make fun of that which we fear. We are cowards and Satan knows it and takes advantage of our fear and binds us with that fear. I can almost see death grinning and saying, “Salig mo ron kay daghan mo. Suwayi balik sunod semana, ikaw ra, wa kay kauban.”
If you want to take way the dread, the horror of death, there is a better way. Find someone who died and came back to tell the story.
The Jesus of glory now says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev 1:18).
The Christian hope is not based upon the promise of immortality. It is based upon a fact of history. Jesus too faced the terror of death, pleading to his Father, “Let this cup pass from me.” He suffered, he died and was buried. He followed humankind’s destiny which is the grave. But on the 3rd day he defied that destiny. Jesus rose again triumphantly.
It is in the triumph of Christ that Paul could exult, “O death, where is thy sting? Oh death where is thy victory?”
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. NRSV
I don’t know about you but I was confused about the thing we are observing today.
When I was growing up all I know is kalag-kalag or pista minatay, and that’s supposed to be on the 2nd of November, but that it’s bisperas or the mass is performed on the eve of kalagkalag.
Later, I don’t know who, perhaps it was our catechism teacher or our own teacher in public school, said, “No you got it wrong, we are not celebrating the dead, but honoring all the saints.” Todos los santos. A feast to honor all the saints, and that is today the 1st day of November.
So now comes the Americans and their magazines and newspapers and TV shows talking about Halloween and that it falls on the 31st of October. So now which is which—30 or 1 or 2?
For most Filipinos this practical question is simple, when do we visit the graves of our loved ones? I think most are agreed that it is on the evening of November the 1st, whatever you call it.
So let’s go to why we are celebrating on these three days, for it is clear somehow they are all associated with death, dead martyrs, dead saints, dead Christians. The simplistic answer is to lump all of these as pagan, like Christmas is pagan, and Easter is pagan. This is the kind of mistake made by people who think they know more about the Bible than their neighbors. It is one thing to know the Bible, it is another thing to read the Bible with some understanding about the longings of the human heart.
This day is about patching up the missing gaps, the empty spaces of our lives, spaces that could have been filled with stories. But when loved ones die, they take away their stories with them. So those stories will have to be filled up by those who are left behind. We, all, human beings need to find those connections. Without them we are like lonely flotsam and jetsam tossed to and fro by the ocean waves.
This is the reason behind all of this confusion, this failure to understand the longing for connectivity in our lives.
1. In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church tried to put Christian meaning into pagan practices. So Todos los Santos was originally Fiesta para los Martires, a festival to honor the martyrs of the Church. But that would leave out Saint Mary, for she did not suffer a martyr’s death, and all others who lived saintly lives but did not die violently. So a festival was made in commemoration of them, and it took the place of the pagan festival for the dead. So it became a Fiesta para Todos los Santos, “A Feast for all the Saints.”
2. But instead of honoring the saints what did the Christians do? They went to the graves of their loved ones anyway. Instead of honoring Sta Felicita and Sta Barbara and San Bernardino, and San Martrin de Porres, they went to the graves of nanay and tatay and undo, and inday, lolo and lola.
So the church again thought all of this was sheer paganism. To solve it they said, “Hala, if you cannot be prevented from your celebrating dead loved ones, go ahead, but pray for their souls in purgatory. “ So that’s why we have All Soul’s Day. The idea is to make this a day for intercession for the dead who were not good enough for sainthood, whose souls languished in purgatory.
It was a good move for it made money. Not any one can just pray for the release of a soul from purgatory. You need to have a priest. And you know that priestly intercession is not free. Well for those with money it was fine. But it seems to me as far as the general public was concerned, they would rather give their money to the rice trader, cook some puto and suman, and sikwate and eat it at the grave, and that was enough.
3. And what about Halloween? That came from two words, hallow is the same is holy, or saintly, which is for all saints day. But the mass for all the saints is said the evening before, and evening is often shortened into even and even into een. So we got Halloween. And it became just a thoroughly pagan celebration involving witches and ghouls and masks, etc.
It has been said, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We only succeed into creating a monstrosity. People who are so afraid of paganism, who don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter, and even Sunday, don’t understand that not everything pagan is evil. We have to distinguish between what is human and what is demonic.
To be homesick is human. To long for departed loved ones is human. To visit their graves is human. My grandmother, mother, brother and aunt—they were all buried in the ground. Eventually the cemetery their remains decayed and other bodies were put in their place. But my father was placed in a niche. A year ago I visited it, alone, a week after All Saints Day. Something in me wanted to speak to him and I did. Then I reached out my hand in a parting farewell, to trace his name in the headstone. It reminds of a poem quoted during the funeral of Princess Diana.
Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love,
time is eternity.
Henry Van Dyke
I was scanning old family photos to be posted into an online family photo album. As I looked at the photos of my mother and father, my brother and sister, my aunt a powerful wave of longing came over me. If only I could let them see this city, go with me to Boracay.
There are huge gaps in my father and mother’s life that I know nothing about. I would like to know how this illiterate boy learned to speak very good Spanish. Who taught him to cook, for he was exceptionally good in making fine Spanish sausage, ham, smoked fish, etc. Who taught him fine cabinet making, making intricate inlay work on jewelry boxes, etc.
Then in Boracay a former student showed up. He told me he is now working with a microlending corporation and financing small businesses. Then he gave me the name of his boss, “Not the Chinese but the original owners of this family name. “ I know that family I said. For my father worked with them. Making boats, fishing, speed boats, yachts. Wood boats, steel boats, and fiberglass. Then I told him about the shop where my father worked. The hum of machinery, the squeal of wood being sliced, the flash of welding steel to steel, the smell of steel being ground smooth, the vat where they were cooking ham, the boatyard, the ice plant, the piggery.
And most wonderful of all, the frame of a small canvas skinned airplane hanging from the trusses of the shop. An engine eventually was fitted to the frame and my father was its first passenger in the test flight. I knew told him many more little bits of information that only someone who family well would know.
The following day I received a text message from my student. What is your father’s nickname? After giving the nickname of my father, a text answer came back, “My boss wishes to meet you.” I couldn’t believe it. I look forward to my meeting with this man for it will fill up the gaps in the story of my own life.
We belong to a web of humanity. We have to find the connections, otherwise we are like spiders lost from their web. We are like jetsam and flotsam bobbing In the vast ocean alone. For the same reason we create Facebooks, celebrate birthdays, hold family and class reunions, so we celebrate today. For the same reason the Bible gave us genealogies, so we celebrate today. Connections. For God did not make us as individuals but as a family that started with Adam and Eve.
There is one more reason why we celebrate this day.
Today people all over the Philippines are flocking to the cemeteries. The memorial parks and the cemeteries will be bright and there will be music and dancing.
Yesterday American children carved pumpkins and put candles inside them. The Frankenstein masks are sold even here in the Philippines. But only for today. Today we can make fun of death. Because tomorrow, next week when the tombs are desolate, we don’t want to visit again.
We are cowards and we know it. Death haunts us. Terrorizes us. Walking in a dark place. Riding an airplane. A narrow mountain road. A trip to an island when the sea is rough. News of another typhoon. Waiting for the result of our annual physical examination. A headache, a rise in blood pressure. We panic.
Kalagkalag is really a coping mechanism. We make fun of that which we fear. We are cowards and Satan knows it and takes advantage of our fear and binds us with that fear. I can almost see death grinning and saying, “Salig mo ron kay daghan mo. Suwayi balik sunod semana, ikaw ra, wa kay kauban.”
If you want to take way the dread, the horror of death, there is a better way. Find someone who died and came back to tell the story.
The Jesus of glory now says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev 1:18).
The Christian hope is not based upon the promise of immortality. It is based upon a fact of history. Jesus too faced the terror of death, pleading to his Father, “Let this cup pass from me.” He suffered, he died and was buried. He followed humankind’s destiny which is the grave. But on the 3rd day he defied that destiny. Jesus rose again triumphantly.
It is in the triumph of Christ that Paul could exult, “O death, where is thy sting? Oh death where is thy victory?”
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