Sivin Kit's Adventures

Archive for September, 2004

This week has been a good week …On Monday, Andy Morgan’s little book packed with bite-size wisdom Under Pressure: How to Avoid Getting Squashed By Pressure arrived. I like it … in fact I think there’s loads of goodies there we so called “adults” could use! Thanks Andy.

Then of course, the package above with a personal smiley from Jen Lemen (wow!) came yesterday. And you can imagine the excitement I had opening it! Lo and behold … I think I’m the first one in Malaysia who has a copy … hehehe (I’m willing to stand corrected on this).

Now, I can get on doing some work and contributing to the group blog aGenerousOrthodoxy.com. I think I will have something by 5pm later. Now I can move beyond the sample chapter (By the way, I aksed one local Christian bookstore to bring it in, hopefully we’ll have some copies in October. Let me know if you want a copy!)

so, I suppose some thoughts will spill out in the garden here (someone told me to newcomers it’s more like a jungle – I admit I am messy, and I think I’m pretty complex as I age).

With Emergent Malaysia taking some baby steps (you can read it here step one, step two, step three, and some notes here, notes 1, notes 2, the Church on the Other Side (which I think is a usual starting point kind of book), A Generous Orthodoxy would give me some directions on how to keep us moving along together.

I like what Brian pointed out in a recent article Bless This House?: Why efforts to renew the church are often misguided

“…what’s really going on beneath all the superficial talk of “emerging church.” Far more than cosmetics are under consideration: the very purpose of the church, the gospel, and the pastorate are being re-thought. If that doesn’t disturb, surprise, or excite you, you don’t understand what is being said.

Everywhere I go, on the fringes and in unexpected places (including in all the wrong denominations where this sort of things shouldn’t happen), I discover churches and leaders who are grappling with these deep questions. They want to be blessed in order to be a blessing to the world. Their dream does not stop with the church. They’re thinking about God’s kingdom coming on earth as in heaven.

Whatever conversation I’m interested to be part of at a deeper level relates to what he says above (I’m not a Brian junkie by the way .. I just like his style). Maybe it’s been done at the seminary/academic level, or amongst the more “intellectual” group, how about at the grass root level where most pastors are and where the people live? These are the places where “genuine” change is needed. But we need to start listening and talking first. Anyone else wanna join?

By the way, I found the arrival of Andy’s book to be “interesting” .. with so much going on I need every little bit of wisdom to “Avoid Getting Squashed By Pressure” … it’s already a challenge pastoring a young church, being a father of an energetic 2 year old (and soon one more coming), not forgetting I have one wife who needs tender loving care, and a load of other stuff on my plate. God’s grace is always sufficient … that I know …

This is a rare shot by John Kit (my younger brother) of my Dad and his grandson Gareth during Dad’s birthday on the 9th of September.

We also managed to have time for dinner together last night (which was mooncake festival!) These are precious moments we treasure.

From SacredGateway this morning (cf. Luke 9:51-56, when Jesus’ disciples told the Lord to command fire down to burn the unwelcoming Samaritans),

“When we calm down in prayer, similar furies and indignations can rock us. As we stop moving, and quiet our bodies, resentments can bubble to the surface of our mind. Let them bubble and burst. It will not take us long to see that anger, if we indulge it, becomes a burden on us, not on those who offend us. As long as we want revenge and without forgiveness, we are wasting adrenalin, and in one part of our mind we are holding God at bay.”

I’m delightfully surprised by the responses “generated” by our so called first pretty informal gathering actually. Even thoughts from some one who missed the meeting like My Tightrope had some worthwhile questions feeding our future conversations here Emergent Rising and Knees Knocking…, and I thought I was going to have a day of rest today, turned out my mind is still on overdrive! Here’s an excerpt from his post:

What is exciting me most about the “Emergent” movement is the rethinking about our relationship and (to use an increasingly common word) conversations to God and to everyone. Sounds almost cliched but that is exactly what is needed. A rethinking needs, no pun intended, to be thought out. In this particular loci of time, when theology, good and bad, is becoming more prevalent among the masses, when religiosity is giving way dogmatic deconstruction and when our elders start to squirm in their seats and wonder about the good ol’ days.

Where then is the balance? How do we emerge the church in the greater society while holding on to the non-negotiable commandments lest syncretism creep in? How do we balance the touchy-feel conversations and keep our relationships real and fruit bearing to other people looking in? How does the Emerging Church fit into our tapestry of cultures, filial bonds and moral-tradition codes and how can it be relevant without the frequent bumbling Christian toe-stepping evangelism approach? Lotsa questions and lotsa looking forward tos.

“Dua” means 2 in Malay. Here’s another set of notes and a comment from an overseas friend, I like the “the Church is always “emerging” everywhere around the world. “ phrase which is why we decided to jump in and join the party!

From The Confessions of A Hedonese

Had a most stimulating conversation at Bangsar Lutheran Church in the first Emergent Malaysia meetup last Saturday. It’s a great pleasure/privilege to meet up with Sivin and other online frens who share a passion for theology and mission

From CS Lewis, we know these qualities can co-exist in harmony to the glory of God and the good of man!

From Steve K.

Is the “emerging church” just a Western/American thing? I think not. In fact, the Church is always “emerging” everywhere around the world. Brian McLaren has been writing some fascinating stuff about the “post-colonial” church in Africa. Another part of the world that I have a great love for is southeast Asia, and I’m excited to pass on the news that there is a growing movement in Malaysia. My heart and my prayers are with my brothers and my sisters in that part of the world.

After more than one failed attempt in some kind of online interactive community, BLC’s Community Blog The Waiting Room has sprung to life in an unexpected way. I think it’s also a great place for people to have a glimpse of “happenings” in our corporate lives on the edge of Bangsar and beyond!

James has posted an important Question & Answer section to help people know what’s going on.

Here are some nice snapshots of what happened yesterday:

Stepping In! which is connected to Conversations with Jessisca! and of course the food connection after the worship gathering is expounded in Refreshment day

While some had the chance for the much coveted taking-care-of-our-body Sunday afternoon siesta, a bunch of us spend some time with youth from another Lutheran church with the theme Run the Race (which as you can see with so many pictures evidence that I got my Canon A70 back!)

(I’ll talk about this picture at the end of the post…)

Theological Reflection is one area that needs “emergency” emphasis in Christian leadership in Malaysia. I told Andy Morgan that I’m “100% with you on “whatever your view, i do think that the church and its leaders must start to think theologically. ” Especially, in my context this is much needed emphasis. We are challenged to “think pragmatically, experientially, devotionally, etc” But a lot of our problems apart from personal character flaws and emotional health issues do stem from the lack of effort to think theologically …”

It’s really nice to have a peek at what many emerging, post-modern churches all around the U.S. look like and get some “feel” of the concrete lives they live. Thanks to Rodger Sellers Travel Logs we get to join him in a way (via abductive columns)

I’m happy this morning to be reminded of Lessons for Transforming Churches from The Church of the Saviour which I still find an uphill journey to see all these values become a reality in our church. But, I’m challenged to think long-term … so, perseverance is a must!

ok and now some comments on the picture.

First, a big congratulations to Rev. Dr. Hwa Yung who is now the Bishop of The Methodist Church in Malaysia. He was very instrumental in planting the seeds, and preparing the soil in me to “Think Theologically” as my former principal and lecturer in Christian Theology and Asian Theology in Seminari Theoloji Malaysia. Then, it was simply “surprising” & “accidental” (because we were in a wedding dinner upstairs when they were in a thanksgiving dinner downstairs) that we could also catch up with his wife Dr. Lee Bee Teik who was the pre-marital counsellor for May Chin and I. We were delighted that both of them could catch a glimpse of Gareth. Of course, Jerng their son stayed with us for a little while and somehow our relationship links have been connected since. So on one hand, meeting now Bishop Hwa Yung always reminds me of the importance of theological reflection in Christian leadership and seeing Dr. Lee reminds me of the importance of relational connections.

These two individuals just have the amazing ability to construct beautiful paragraph art pieces with words. In short, they take better notes than me! Here goes some excerpts …

From Messy Christian’s Emergent Malaysia’s first meet (click the link for some cool pictures from her point of view)

Wah, sound so grand but actually it’s just a couple of folks getting together to tell their stories. It was a ’safe’ place to confide, hence therapy – something I didn’t think the meeting could be.

The fact that we could do something with our way of looking at Christianity and our faith and affect some kind of change was exciting. (The ability to create change is a big part of who I am.)

From Alwyn Lau’s Story Loci

It was a lively session, facilitated by Sivin (who, if I’m not mistaken, sought to ‘deconstruct’ the Asian inclination towards silence! *grin*!). Met up with my Hedonese pal whom I haven’t seen since, well, some time, and who introduced me to the phrase, ‘evangelical Muslims’ (how about ‘emergent Muslims’, some of whom we may be seeing at the UMNO General Assembly this past few days?). Also present were Messy Christian (who boldly kicked off the conversation by sharing how relieved she was that her questions didn’t prove her ‘weirdness’ – in some ecclesial eyes, at least – but have in fact been pondered on seriously by many emergent authors, e.g. Kimball, McLaren), Yew Khuen and his fiancee (“I’m here because of her,” said YK who also added with a grin that there’s something profoundly true about the statement), pastor and church-planter Alpha and his wife (from whom some of the best lines of the day were spoken, e.g. “Emergent represents church history in the making”, “We ought to care for the 2 and 3 as much as we care for the 2 or 3 thousand”). Delightfully, there was one theme constantly, err, ‘emerging’ which kept the stories united, giving everybody common ground, that of how drums were equated with ‘revival’ in some churches! (And do I hear somebody thinking of African tribal music?!)

At first I thought could it just be me? I dont’t think I’m the only guy who resonates with a big chunk of the stuff in Emergent Village right?

Then some emails exchanges transpired. The next thing is three of us young men met up – three pretty good looking I must say (all praise to the creator! *grin*) Three coming from quite different starting points but with common questions and apparently converging on a similar journey and of course one must mention some interests sparked by Brian McLaren and NT Wright and some other cross-interests here and there (actually there was a fourth one – most “cool” looking chap actually was and still is stuck in UK at the moment, we await thy return oh philosopher).

We lay silent for some time … but began blogging (or tried to) but the emails, the phonecalls, and whenever possible face to face meetings but usually separately. A five guy somehow got “included” … then later started blogging I had the honour of meeting him for the first time today … we tried hard to try to meet together but then … it was just typical Malaysian schedules (read – busy! – for all sorts of reasons) I also noticed the lack of female participation here and I was the only pastor (which I didn’t mind)

And then off I went to UK and then later Germany for a month this year. Upon my return I just did a jump first, fear later and we finally fixed a meeting and asked some interested females and other friends to meet up … had interest even coming from those who read this blog.

Some could make it, others said maybe the next round, one fell sick and others due to other reasons. I was happy three wives turned up (that increased female participation immediately together with another three ladies! Thus a total of 6) One Toddler and one baby were eaves dropping … and the 6 of us guys
(wow! it’s the number 12 for adults! )

Not bad for a start … let’s see what’s going to happen when we meet again in November 6.

Now, I have 101 things I’m reflecting on … all in all … Thank you, Lord. My heart is full of gratitude as well as a load of questions to ponder.

Thanks James Tan for getting this started … we’ll see where it’ll go from here.

Introducing: The Waiting Room

BLC’s Community Blog – the Gatherings, Life Groups, discipleship, social issues, prayers, worship experiences, insights into the Scripture… no random statements of who we had lunch with and what our dogs ate for breakfast. The place where strangers get to know us as a community, who we are, what we’re like, how we function, and to experience what it’ll be like to be a part of us.