Yo.
Lately I've been so bored. Not that there aren't things to do. I think in some ways I am not doing the things I probably should be; procrastinating in a way. But then the things I do end up doing, which don't really seem significantly positive or negative in the grand scheme of things, they just seem, flat? dull? boring? meaningless?
Lately anything other than something that directly relates to my relationship with God, or serving Him in some way, or helping others know Him better; they seem pointless.
Sleeping in.
Watching television.
Playing video games.
Cleaning.
Yard work.
Course registration.
I don't know. Pretty much everything.
It seems pointless.
Even the things that the sinful body of mine desires, they seem pointless intellectually. I won't say I haven't been tempted to thin or act certain ways, but it seems pointless.
And I know I could be using the time God has given me to do more or better things than the amount of lying around doing nothing or playing cell phone games. I need goals. I need purpose. I need more than these things.
I don't know.
This is probably part of why it becomes so easy for me to end up doing a lot of things for God, but forgetting to spend time with Him. I feel the need to be doing something and think that sitting around not doing something is wasteful. May I see more and more the power of 'not doing things' through resting in God and prayer that He would continue to work and work in bigger ways.
D.Fa
15.6.15
Baby Geese
Yo,
yesterday was pretty busy. I was out of the house literally from 9 am to midnight. I had decided to join the Ottawa Christian Chorale for this season, so I had practice for that, followed by worship team practice, assisting a bit with Westfest (an annual neighborhood event in westboro) stuff at church, YA, and street marshaling for Westfest. So it was a busy day, but fun.
1. I am not a tenor. E's I am good with. F's sometimes. F#'s... G............ G# (o. O). A? Please no. So I need to learn how to sing in falsetto, or not sing the tenor parts for some songs. (Otherwise OCC was tons of fun! =D)
2. I biked to and from all of those things. On the way to worship practice I biked along the river and ran into a pack of geese who had a bunch of baby geese! So I had to stop and play with them. I ended up following a couple of the babies that had been separated and caught one when he got stuck on a fence. I held him and pet him. He was very fluffy. (sorry no photos) So I tried again, but I couldn't manage to get the babies away from the parents. They were very protective.
As I mentioned the day before, I think discipleship is one thing that the church really needs more of. Not just my church, but quite a few (I can't comment on all of them to any degree). When I say discipleship I mean more mature Christians kinda mentoring and spending time with younger Christians to help them grow in their faith. And the thing here is that this is what Jesus calls us to! The great commission (Matt28:18-20) isn't to go and tell everyone about Jesus and then leave them hanging. Jesus says to go to all nations and make disciples, people who follow Jesus and grow in their relationship with Him. Paul calls the church at Philippi to follow after examples of godly men and women, and calls the church at Corinth to follow after him as he follows after Jesus' example. And further in the great commission Jesus calls us to teach these disciples to obey everything that God has commanded. And here we see the example set by Paul in 2Tim2:2 as he had trained Timothy who was then to train other reliable men who would be qualified to train others. We see a chain of discipleship, unbroken between generation, age, race, or any other divisions. As Paul explains in Eph2 God has broken down the divisions and made out of two (Jew and Gentile) one church, unified in Him; and again in Rom12 he speaks of the body of Christ being unified yet diversified, each with the different skills and abilities to build up the church.
Discipleship; a chain of disciples following and being further trained by more mature godly men or women as they all follow Jesus.
And discipleship, which I think is so great and the heart of the church, is one thing which I think definitely cannot be offered through parachurch. P2C for example, is a group of students at university. Essentially all in the same phase of their lives, mostly going through the same trials and temptations. Some may have grown up in church and came to truly trust in Jesus earlier, but even they don't have all that much to teach if they themselves are not also growing and being discipled by older men and women. There are some staff members, but they are often not too much older, and are kinda in the same phase of their lives. Additionally, parachurch is typically focused on one thing, and in P2C's case that would be training in evangelism, not so much in deeper bible study or other areas of life.
I had been reading a small book called "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert E. Coleman. The book is all about looking at how Jesus did His ministry and the core concepts we can learn and apply. The second chapter was on 'Association'. Jesus spent time with his disciples. He spent His life teaching and ministering to them so that when He left (bodily) they'd be good to lead the church. The chapter emphasizes the need for this association, without which a new believer may not really grow in their faith and may be swayed by the world and the enemy. And as funny as this may sound, the geese from yesterday morning kinda provide an analogy.
The geese, now mature, protect their babies from any potential threats while also teaching them how to survive and helping them grow. In the analogy I am the enemy coming to swoop down on the unsuspecting poor helpless little geese. But afterwards I had no way to get at them, especially when they stood together in a group in unity.
Thus should the church be; building up, protecting, teaching and caring for their young.
So I will continue to talk about and pray for the church and for God to really help establish a core of discipleship which would cause stronger community, deeper faith, and greater holiness (and Christ-likeness) in the church.
D.Fa
yesterday was pretty busy. I was out of the house literally from 9 am to midnight. I had decided to join the Ottawa Christian Chorale for this season, so I had practice for that, followed by worship team practice, assisting a bit with Westfest (an annual neighborhood event in westboro) stuff at church, YA, and street marshaling for Westfest. So it was a busy day, but fun.
1. I am not a tenor. E's I am good with. F's sometimes. F#'s... G............ G# (o. O). A? Please no. So I need to learn how to sing in falsetto, or not sing the tenor parts for some songs. (Otherwise OCC was tons of fun! =D)
2. I biked to and from all of those things. On the way to worship practice I biked along the river and ran into a pack of geese who had a bunch of baby geese! So I had to stop and play with them. I ended up following a couple of the babies that had been separated and caught one when he got stuck on a fence. I held him and pet him. He was very fluffy. (sorry no photos) So I tried again, but I couldn't manage to get the babies away from the parents. They were very protective.
As I mentioned the day before, I think discipleship is one thing that the church really needs more of. Not just my church, but quite a few (I can't comment on all of them to any degree). When I say discipleship I mean more mature Christians kinda mentoring and spending time with younger Christians to help them grow in their faith. And the thing here is that this is what Jesus calls us to! The great commission (Matt28:18-20) isn't to go and tell everyone about Jesus and then leave them hanging. Jesus says to go to all nations and make disciples, people who follow Jesus and grow in their relationship with Him. Paul calls the church at Philippi to follow after examples of godly men and women, and calls the church at Corinth to follow after him as he follows after Jesus' example. And further in the great commission Jesus calls us to teach these disciples to obey everything that God has commanded. And here we see the example set by Paul in 2Tim2:2 as he had trained Timothy who was then to train other reliable men who would be qualified to train others. We see a chain of discipleship, unbroken between generation, age, race, or any other divisions. As Paul explains in Eph2 God has broken down the divisions and made out of two (Jew and Gentile) one church, unified in Him; and again in Rom12 he speaks of the body of Christ being unified yet diversified, each with the different skills and abilities to build up the church.
Discipleship; a chain of disciples following and being further trained by more mature godly men or women as they all follow Jesus.
And discipleship, which I think is so great and the heart of the church, is one thing which I think definitely cannot be offered through parachurch. P2C for example, is a group of students at university. Essentially all in the same phase of their lives, mostly going through the same trials and temptations. Some may have grown up in church and came to truly trust in Jesus earlier, but even they don't have all that much to teach if they themselves are not also growing and being discipled by older men and women. There are some staff members, but they are often not too much older, and are kinda in the same phase of their lives. Additionally, parachurch is typically focused on one thing, and in P2C's case that would be training in evangelism, not so much in deeper bible study or other areas of life.
I had been reading a small book called "The Master Plan of Evangelism" by Robert E. Coleman. The book is all about looking at how Jesus did His ministry and the core concepts we can learn and apply. The second chapter was on 'Association'. Jesus spent time with his disciples. He spent His life teaching and ministering to them so that when He left (bodily) they'd be good to lead the church. The chapter emphasizes the need for this association, without which a new believer may not really grow in their faith and may be swayed by the world and the enemy. And as funny as this may sound, the geese from yesterday morning kinda provide an analogy.
The geese, now mature, protect their babies from any potential threats while also teaching them how to survive and helping them grow. In the analogy I am the enemy coming to swoop down on the unsuspecting poor helpless little geese. But afterwards I had no way to get at them, especially when they stood together in a group in unity.
Thus should the church be; building up, protecting, teaching and caring for their young.
So I will continue to talk about and pray for the church and for God to really help establish a core of discipleship which would cause stronger community, deeper faith, and greater holiness (and Christ-likeness) in the church.
D.Fa
12.6.15
It Can Be Simple.
Yo.
Lately I've been thinking a bit about what it means for an organization or group or ministry to be 'parachurch' and how the parachurch should be working hand-in-hand with the Church.
I tend to meet two kinds of people: those who love parachurch organizations, have seen their greatest moments while part of them, and have seen God do amazing things through them and so they want to invest all of their time into it, often at the expense of being actively involved in a local church; and those who have seen parachurch groups lose sight of their partnership with the local church and as such these persons have decided to be involved solely in local churches to the extent of being wary of such organizations and keeping others from involvement.
And I don't have an answer per se as to how a parachurch group should work, or how the church should work. I do need to read up a bit more on this. However, from what I know and from the times I've spent as part of a seminary course on the book of Acts (the early church and Paul's work), I know that they should be working hand-in-hand. Often Paul's small missionary team is called a parachurch group. The way I've seen parachurch defined is that it is not the church in that it is focused to a specific task or peoples, but made up of people from the Church, and when done best seeks to support the mission of the Church in whatever means of evangelism, discipleship, or training. A campus ministry, a bible study group, a seminary; each fits into this category.
The question of how the two can work together is at the front of my mind since I've been so stuck between the two groups of people and have kind of flip-flopped between primarily being involved in parachurch or church 'activities' and trying to unify the two groups of people, but not really knowing how to do it.
I had recently talked to a friend of mine who is a staff member with Power to Change (P2C), a campus ministry in Canada and around the world under different names. I asked her, and asked specifically about how she sees it since I knew that she, herself, had not been so actively involved in both while in university. The way she answered was golden, and makes me love God, her, the church, and parachurch all the more. I will now attempt to paraphrase. The way she sees it P2C exists solely to help Christian students grow in evangelism and bringing the gospel to other students while in university. While doing that, to be encouraging active participation in the local church and preparing them to be so for the rest of their lives. The way she sees it P2C (or any parachurch for that matter) should not be trying to do 'church' things which would compete, such as deeper bible studies, sermons, worship services, generic fellowship, life discipleship, etc., but to do what it is called to do; in P2C's case, evangelism training, evangelism, and prayer for the gospel to reach ears that will hear, and nothing more. There isn't time in the life of a full-time student for 20 hours of overlapping content from both parachurch and church, in such cases a student will choose one or the other. To do so all of P2C's stuff would be concise and to the point allowing the students to best be a part of their churches and live as part of the family of God.
When things go like that, she tells me that students are actively involved in sharing their faith, are meaningfully involved in local churches, local churches suggest people to participate in the parachurch ministries while in school, it isn't a burden on anyone, and people are coming to know Jesus! So good.
I also asked then how new believers would be discipled. She replied that they would probably have a short 5 week or so basic lessons on the gospel and our life in Jesus, but in everything to direct them to a local church. I also asked about the desire for community in the parachurch groups. She said community around the mission is great, but that the real deep communities would be in the churches and as such, the students can have fellowship and stuff, it just wouldn't be a P2C event. If they wanted to have worship before a prayer meeting, great! That's a prayer meeting. haha
My desire is to see that day in Ottawa. To see the local churches and parachurch ministries on campus to work together, not against each other. And I think we've been seeing it go in that direction this year. Discipleship groups, acting more as 'action groups' where they learn how to share their faith and then go and afterwards they can do other stuff on their time. Weekly meetings focused around sharing Jesus with others, not on throwing a church service. Students involved at their churches, going on missions, living life together, and in everything lifting up Jesus.
So good.
I want to pray for that and I want to be a catalyst on both sides (church and P2C) to help communicate and work together for the sake of the gospel and good news of Christ going to all. May students be encouraged to share their faith, may they be encouraged to live their life in the body of believers, the church, may they seek after His kingdom and righteousness in everything, may God be glorified through His Church. Amen!
But what do we university students really need more from our church? I think discipleship is the thing. I'll talk more about this tomorrow.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Lately I've been thinking a bit about what it means for an organization or group or ministry to be 'parachurch' and how the parachurch should be working hand-in-hand with the Church.
I tend to meet two kinds of people: those who love parachurch organizations, have seen their greatest moments while part of them, and have seen God do amazing things through them and so they want to invest all of their time into it, often at the expense of being actively involved in a local church; and those who have seen parachurch groups lose sight of their partnership with the local church and as such these persons have decided to be involved solely in local churches to the extent of being wary of such organizations and keeping others from involvement.
And I don't have an answer per se as to how a parachurch group should work, or how the church should work. I do need to read up a bit more on this. However, from what I know and from the times I've spent as part of a seminary course on the book of Acts (the early church and Paul's work), I know that they should be working hand-in-hand. Often Paul's small missionary team is called a parachurch group. The way I've seen parachurch defined is that it is not the church in that it is focused to a specific task or peoples, but made up of people from the Church, and when done best seeks to support the mission of the Church in whatever means of evangelism, discipleship, or training. A campus ministry, a bible study group, a seminary; each fits into this category.
The question of how the two can work together is at the front of my mind since I've been so stuck between the two groups of people and have kind of flip-flopped between primarily being involved in parachurch or church 'activities' and trying to unify the two groups of people, but not really knowing how to do it.
I had recently talked to a friend of mine who is a staff member with Power to Change (P2C), a campus ministry in Canada and around the world under different names. I asked her, and asked specifically about how she sees it since I knew that she, herself, had not been so actively involved in both while in university. The way she answered was golden, and makes me love God, her, the church, and parachurch all the more. I will now attempt to paraphrase. The way she sees it P2C exists solely to help Christian students grow in evangelism and bringing the gospel to other students while in university. While doing that, to be encouraging active participation in the local church and preparing them to be so for the rest of their lives. The way she sees it P2C (or any parachurch for that matter) should not be trying to do 'church' things which would compete, such as deeper bible studies, sermons, worship services, generic fellowship, life discipleship, etc., but to do what it is called to do; in P2C's case, evangelism training, evangelism, and prayer for the gospel to reach ears that will hear, and nothing more. There isn't time in the life of a full-time student for 20 hours of overlapping content from both parachurch and church, in such cases a student will choose one or the other. To do so all of P2C's stuff would be concise and to the point allowing the students to best be a part of their churches and live as part of the family of God.
When things go like that, she tells me that students are actively involved in sharing their faith, are meaningfully involved in local churches, local churches suggest people to participate in the parachurch ministries while in school, it isn't a burden on anyone, and people are coming to know Jesus! So good.
I also asked then how new believers would be discipled. She replied that they would probably have a short 5 week or so basic lessons on the gospel and our life in Jesus, but in everything to direct them to a local church. I also asked about the desire for community in the parachurch groups. She said community around the mission is great, but that the real deep communities would be in the churches and as such, the students can have fellowship and stuff, it just wouldn't be a P2C event. If they wanted to have worship before a prayer meeting, great! That's a prayer meeting. haha
My desire is to see that day in Ottawa. To see the local churches and parachurch ministries on campus to work together, not against each other. And I think we've been seeing it go in that direction this year. Discipleship groups, acting more as 'action groups' where they learn how to share their faith and then go and afterwards they can do other stuff on their time. Weekly meetings focused around sharing Jesus with others, not on throwing a church service. Students involved at their churches, going on missions, living life together, and in everything lifting up Jesus.
So good.
I want to pray for that and I want to be a catalyst on both sides (church and P2C) to help communicate and work together for the sake of the gospel and good news of Christ going to all. May students be encouraged to share their faith, may they be encouraged to live their life in the body of believers, the church, may they seek after His kingdom and righteousness in everything, may God be glorified through His Church. Amen!
But what do we university students really need more from our church? I think discipleship is the thing. I'll talk more about this tomorrow.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
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