Sivin Kit's Adventures

Archive for May, 2007

“In many religious traditions, Christian faith, as it has been shaped culturally, has prepared people to die, but has not equipped them to love well amid the complexities of contemporary culture with an increasing global and ecological awareness. Many of us find ourselves searching, not only for a way to believe, but also a way of life.

… My sense is that there is a need for public discourse grounded in both thought and practice about how we connect the details of our daily lives with the present availability of the kingdom of God.” (p. xiii)

Mark Scandrette’s preface hooked me from the start …

I’ve seen the searching and felt the urgency of moving towards rediscovering a Christian faith which is also a way of life – especially in connecting “the details of our daily lives with the present availability of the kingdom of God”. But much energy is also spend battling what haunts us from the past, or reacting against ways of understanding self, others, the world and God which may have been our crutches for too long. The external problems of unhealthy Christian faith is real, the internal struggles magnifies the challenge.

I’ve been engaged in many many conversations in different shapes and sizes that’s often hitting a dead end road or spinning in circles …. It seems to me, the liminal period where we break free from the “culturally shaped” Christian faith which was designed to prepare us to die at first is liberating, and yet facing our own “unpleasant secrets” when “all hell breaks loose” can be overwhelming. We need fellow companions along the journey, or even those who’ve walked a little further ahead. We also need to be willing to listen as we want others to listen to us.

Mark is one of those people – he listens and is worth listeneing to . And I’m following his adventures through this book with interest.

I love Cameron Highlands …

While I foresee the time there to be relaxing, but there are some important mini-goals to achieve:

1. Speaking at the Lutheran National Young Leaders Camp on “Church” tomorrow morning and relating that to the Luther Plan I’d slotted to conduct the closing holy communion for the last day of the camp.

2. Bringing a group of our church members and council to visit Batu 20 Orang Asli Congregation!  REALLY looking forward to see how the kids interact together.

3. Council retreat and meeting … I think we need to have a better understanding of our leadership and stewardship in regards to the church.

4. Sabbath retreat with others who’ve joined us. Basically, we’ll have some time of prayer and devotions together perhaps in the morning. The afternoons would be free and easy and we can enjoy each other as well as the Cameron highlands. Looking forward to our meals and board game time together! And hopefully some rest thrown in.

The schedule shouldn’t be packed. It’s just occupying my mind a lot.

I’ll be continuing my reading of Soul Graffiti … who knows maybe I’ll finish the book there.

Ok … it’s time to go … see you soon.

Theology of Break-Ups

This is funny:

“… New Perspective on Paul Scholar: Rather than earning God’s blessing, it is established on the basis of our covenant courtship (I asked your dad to date you didn’t I?) which requires the proper response of an intentional and deliberate pursuit of marriage. Yet there is no such pursuit, therefore God’s blessing on or relationship is no longer maintained.

… Lutheran: I want our relationship to continue, but first there are a few things about you that God wants to change. Here is a list of 95 that I made. What? OK, then, I guess we’re done.”

Being faithful, being missional

This is good when read together with morning coffee and listening to Indian sounding music:

“It’s hard to be Christians in today’s culture, for lots of reasons. We’re going to look at how culture shapes us and affects us in various ways. The challenge is not only how can we be faithful Christians in our culture, but how we can be missional Christians to our culture. Being faithful means that we live out the Christian faith in the midst of our culture, that we’re true to what Jesus has called us to be. Being missional means that it’s not just about us, but that we’re intentional about looking outward, influencing others and society.”

The Clergy Shirt & My Pastoral Identity

Over an evening cup of tea one day, a new friend found out that I am a pastor. He asked me, “Where is your clergy collar?”. My immediate reply smiling is, “Oh it’s invisible …” We both laughed together.

Postmodernity as Good News for the Church

David Fitch takes on a helpful approach here …

“My goal here is not to dazzle with postmodern analysis (couldn’t do it if I tried). Rather I wish to use postmodernity to do some “psycho-analysis” on the evangelical church revealing why we are the way we are. And then as with all good psycho-analysis ¦ let us be freed to pursue being the church under the reign of Christ participating in His mission”

Keys to saving time

Ok … let’s practice some and see.

One of the challenges I confess as the pastor or chief sinner of the church I pastor is how we can facilitate a meaningful conversation on topics which matter between those who are more exposed to Christianity and those who are less. Some can spout words like Dispensationalism with ease while others might wonder what’s so “sensational” about that. Others frown with deep thought wrestling with multiple perspective, while others might be happy with a one sentance answer. So, even being part of a community like this gives us opportunity to practice “graciousness”. A “graciousness” to listen to someone who is not in our comfort zone.

“Graciousness is how we externalize to others the grace we have internalized from God.

… To be gracious toward someone is to show that person love, but graciousness points toward love with an important qualification. Graciousness is love that never forces itself on anyone.” (p. 18)

“… graciousness could thus be defined as love offered truly lovingly, as love that makes no show of itself, as love that seeks no praise in return.” (p. 19)

Bringing the God factor in our conversation makes it sound more religious but it also helps us not to degenerate into mere human talk and psychology. We live in a often over-psychologized environment. When we become a little bit over dependent on pop psychology rather than a sustained honest assessment of ourselves, we tend toward quick fixes. And I think that misses the true benefit of authentic use of psychology to help us understand ourselves. But the God factor brings a divine dimension for sure, and an air of sacredness too … and in a Christian faith point of view, concreteness to the words like “grace” and “love”. It strips them from abstractness and sentimentality. There’s sacrifice, there’s pain, there’s suffering. And yet there is also joyful delight, humility and true freedom.

Bob Brow extended much “love that never forces itself on anyone” especially to me at my moment of confusion years ago. While his Model Theology was a wonderful initiation to broaden my horizons, it was those precious email exchanges, prayer support and wise listening plus discernment – and most of all bringing a “God-kind-of” or theological perspective on my situation which made such a big difference. There was space for me to pour own all the mess I had in me and any time, and then there were gentle nudges towards cleaning my self up, healing the wounds and taking baby steps forward again. I confess, it’s wonderful from a receiving end, but it can be painful when we are challenged to offer it to those whom we care. That gives me a glimpse into the heart of those who gives space to allow wandering hearts grow even to the point of needing to let them go. That’s part and parcel of the kind of love and grace we are exploring … it maybe a love that will never let us go as in it’s faithful and loyal … but it’s also a love which wants to let us grow and that kind of love is painful.

Help us Lord, never to take that kind of love for granted.

Emergent Spirituality

How does one go through “the process of deep experiences of purgation” without having one’s faith annihilated? or perhaps it allows one’s faith to be resurrected?

“If it is true that the real intimacy of participation in the divine life, of spiritual union with God in Christ, occurs only through the process of deep experiences of purgation, then somehow we need to foster communities that allow and even promote this journey.”

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

I’ve overheard whether the book genuinely can be seen as a manifesto or is it more like a mosaic of hope? I’m reading the book. … some chapters grab me more than others. I guess the same would go for the posts for the blog site. Brian McLaren offers one perspective on the book which hopes to draw people into the conversation more (as he always done even in real person):

“It’s easy to understand why so many people have been saying that “emergent village is a conversation among highly educated, white, middle-class, younger evangelicals.” After all, when Emergent Village puts on events midweek which require air travel and hotel accommodations and rental cars, large numbers of people—notably poor people—are unintentionally excluded. The same is true regarding publishing—which tends to favor certain kinds of “insiders” and disfavors others. The Internet is more egalitarian, but even there blogging still has a kind of elitism. These problems aren’t unique to Emergent Village, of course.

The truth is, emergent did begin with a lot of young, white, male evangelicals (plus some older ones, ahem). But soon, an emerging women’s leaders’ network helped balance the gender difference; simultaneously, the conversation became a hybrid between post-conservative evangelicals and post-liberal mainliners. A number of Roman Catholics and some Eastern Orthodox became involved as well, and people of color are possessing an increasingly high profile.

For evidence of that growing diversity one only needs to read An Emergent Manifesto of Hope. The list of authors shows how diverse the US emergent conversation has become.

Of course, the book is intentionally a manifesto of the emergent village in the United States, which may mislead some people to think that this conversation is exclusively or primarily North American. This would be another misjudgment, but that’s another story.”

Wondering What to Make of the New “Gospel Coalition”?

I was caught by surprise the stirrings at Bob the builder’s place

Towards an emerged church: thoughts on how deep church can help sustain us

Love the picture of the cross on the blog post!

Institutional Church – R.I.P..?

Read on with caution … waves of questions:

“Our reaction against the institution is seen in metaphors such as organic, an emphasis on the communal or a focus on less structure more free flowing forms of liquid church. Whilst we may fear the term institution we need to look at what underlies this? As Brian McLaren points out in A New Kind of Christian do we really not like organised religion so that we are advocating a disorganised irreligion? Or are we voicing concerns about how the religion has been organised and practised such that the fruit we experience seems false or hypocritical with words not matching up with actions?

Then again do we need to take a reality check – do any of us ever fully live up to our professions or our intentions? Are we just in danger here of expressing dislike for one form of institution only to be guilty of the same practises ourselves?

Maybe worse are we in danger of loosing something where we become deliberately disorganised or de-institutionalised whilst still bearing all the marks of an institution? Or if eschew structure for a claim of every space being sacred and church present do we risk actually having nothing, a liquid that has nothing to contain it flows away, do we so want to end up soaked into our culture that we become indistinguishable from it?”

Emerging from where? (part 2)

Wise words:

“Whilst it is important for the emerging story to engage with what God is doing now we also need to be informed of how we are all part of God’s story, just as we are all parts of the body of Christ. So whilst we can critique the institutional church we must also be open to being critiqued, whilst we can contribute and bring out new things we are also able to learn from what has gone before. “

Emerging to… ongoing thoughts on emerging church and deep church [part 3]

I can relate to this:

“There is no particular need for us to get big headed or consider ourselves better than others, indeed as many people have acknowledged being involved in the vortex of emerging church can be both a very painful and a very hopeful process. “

Deep Church

Timely … Another good wave of questions:

“How do we avoid the slide into a pathological ecclesiology, whilst attending to the very real problems of church. How do we speak prophetically, idealistically and passionately to the need for church reformation, whilst being practical and pragmatic, without losing the confidence towards action? How do we find the best of church through history, to take us forward into the future, without a blind naive sentimentalism to the past, whilst on the other hand avoiding the fostering of a negative and bilious cynicism that invalidates everything that has gone before us?

How do we navigate these dilemmas and arrive at a positive and enabling vision of church, that leads us to ‘wellness?’”

I think we’ve started a good rhythm meeting on every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month using Gracious Christianity as our guide in terms of orientating our conversations and daily praxis. I realize that I’ve been slow to post my thoughts and reflections on what we have talked about and the experience of doing this together. The upcoming series of posts would be the closest to doing a series I’ve ever done on this blog apart from the Friends in Conversation 2007 build up and post-event reflections. For me it’s easier to post some excerpts from the book and allow insights to emerge

“We have a gracious gospel. The good news that Jesus proclaimed is that God is graciously disposed toward us.

… Graciousness is a nonnegotiable dimension of Christian faith. It goes to the very core of the gospel. It is what makes the gospel good news.” (p. 17)

My immediate reaction to the word “nonnegotiable” in relation to the Christian faith usually is associated with words like Christ, Church (community), Canon, , Creed, Trinity, Scripture … etc. So, when”Graciousness” crops up above I’m drawn to re-look at my beliefs and practices from a different angle. It’s not only What is presented before us, but even How the good news is offered to us.

In our catechism classes in BLC, we use Luther’s Small Catechism as a guide for those desiring baptism as well as affirmation. For me, it’s not so much of a closed guide, but using a historical resource to (1) anchor us back to concrete history and our heritage (2) serve as one way to get us started with the help of focusing on the 10 Commandments, the Apostle’s Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Of course, we talk about more than these, but as you can see it’s more of the What which is being emphasized (at least that’s on the surface). The How comes as we work through and struggle through the messiness of our understandings, the back and forth of questions and answers, the clearing of mis-information, the body language, the times of prayer, the expressions of honest doubt .. all happening within the class context. Of course, this extends beyond in how we relate to each other at the coffee shop, before and after the classes, in our email exchanges and so forth.

This phrase “Graciousness is a nonnegotiable dimension of Christian faith. It goes to the very core of the gospel.” is haunting me right now. I know it’s not about being nice and nerdy. But, right action (orthopraxis) is being lifted up together with right thinking or more precise right worship (orthodoxy). And deep down I know no amount of will power is going to make this stick in the long run …

There is something so right about bringing “Graciousness” up front … at least in this time and age where there is so much “ungrace”.  But I do wonder where do we get the strength to be truly gracious?

I’ve grown in my love for reading theology thus changing my ways of thinking helps a lot, when we can be freed from our own mental imprisonment.   My friends who are working in the grass root levels of service and ministry keeps me from any form of Ivory tower thinking, and the need to get our hands dirty. Plus, now how can we do all this “graciously” is an increasing challenge when others might want to “bully” or “bulldoze” there way on us.

Amen to “Graciousness”!  But how, and how in the long run …

Again and again, it’s sitting still like now in meditation or prayerful reflection which puts me in a place of true empowerment of the Spirit. Something which has kept me going for a long time and I believe more years to come. It comes back to simple prayer doesn’t it? Well … it’s more than simple prayer … but I can’t do without it.

Beyond Babel: Pentecost Sunday

Veni, Creator Spiritus ….

Asterix

I miss reading Asterix .. I think I need to return to my first love for the comics!

The Challenge of Interdisciplinary Theology

Good questions:

“1. Should theology be interdisciplinary? Why or why not?

2. For those of you familiar with van Huyssteen’s work, what do you think of his postfoundationalist model of rationality?

3. What are the most significant challenges that the sciences pose for contemporary theology?

4. Other than the natural sciences, which disciplines should theology be in dialogue with?

5. What do you like, or what bothers you, about the way the theology and science dialogue is being conducted today?”

“Bring On United”! “Bring On Building Bridges Conference”!

I am still intrigued by the whole excitement about a football team over more pressing matters of helping to create an environment where people who hold differing “ultimate commitments” can live together and understand each other, and I believe play football together …

A few ideas to help you through a busy day

“Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance anyway” .. this is good advice even though in real life I’m a lousy dancer!

VISION EVAPORATES

Ron helps me recover the babies which I may have thrown out with the bathwater …

Christian Voices From The Middle East

Sooner or later this was going to leak out in Bob’s blog!

Elysia is REALLY special …she’s so full of life, energy, and surprises. While it can be tiring trying to get her to sleep, and she’s very persistent in her ways, the moment she saw me later tonight was full of concern. She said: “Papa is sick oh?” and then pat my shoulder indicating she’s caring for me …

I’m feeling better already … the vitamin C helped I think. But Elysia helped more …

Managed to read quite a bit .. and pre-blogged excerpts based on Gracious Christianity which should come out in installments.

Uploaded two days of photos from Friends in Conversation 2007 on my Facebook.

Questions on Baptism occupied my dinner tonight. How can we help people see that it’s not just an individual religious choice? If the idea of God’s calling is emphasized more, how can than positively help them see the connection with the community of believers starting from the local church?

Drank more water … but couldn’t sleep as much as it’s required.

The TV ads are getting irritating ….

Caught up with some of the articles in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope. I picked and read what caught my attention first.

The internet connection at home has been inconsistent and bad … that’s frustrating …

Soul Graffiti came at the right time. I think I’ve been overdosing on heavier theological works. This book is concrete, insightful, reflective and in my view “storied-theologizing” in accessible language at it’s best. I’ll return to it tonight. I love the “conversation” and “experiment” sections at the end of the chapters.

The time of solitude and journaling was good earlier this afternoon … exactly what I needed. Centering ….

Tomorrow will have at least 2 appointments … one meeting up with friends from Singapore. .. another our UFC – Underground Fertility Clinic LiFe Group meeting in the afternoon. In between I need to get ready for Pentecost Sunday … hopefully, physically I can recover as much as I can.

I was drawn to reconsider my own parenting today … it’s not just about the kids, it’s also about our own growth as humans too. Parenting with all it’s ups and downs, perceived success and obvious flaws, forces us to take a good look at ourselves more than just stressing it’s about “shaping” the kids … a more holistic approach shines the spotlight on the whole family. In today’s case, the spot light was back on me … I need to amend my ways … fumbled as usual.

I said sorry to Elysia for my impatience, and she nodded her head and said: “it’s ok!” … and then gave me a hug in the car.

I realized I started with her in this post and after a little spin all over the place returned back to her.  She’s indeed special.

Leprechaun Name Your Leprechaun Name is Botox O’Malley Get Your Leprechaun Name at Quizopolis.com

Botox? what a humbling name …

This was another wonderful discovery lately … more information here. Saves on the loading time .. occassionally gets cut off .. but I can live with that … when all my chat accounts are rolled into one