Intro to Stepping Stones

Do you know who helped Billy Graham to discover his gifting in preaching? Who helped Benny Hinn to move in the supernatural healing gifts of God? Who was instrumental in shaping the life of Mother Theresa?

The three Christian servants are well known for their service to humanity. Billy Graham preached to millions and saw great numbers of salvations. He was used by God to stir up faith within the body of Christ to believe in evangelism. Benny Hinn preached salvation and healing. Many wonderful miracles were released in his meetings. He was an inspiration to many in the healing power of God. Mother Theresa was an icon of Christian love. When the world looked for an icon for love, they turned to the wrinkled face of Mother Theresa. She was well known to the whole world as a nun who served the poorest of the poor, those whose lives were least valued.

While these are the servants of God, I wonder if you have ever paused to think of the many who obeyed the prompting of God, and came to inspire them, to guide them, to affirm them, to correct them, to release them into God’s wonderful destiny for their lives. These are the unsung heroes of God in His kingdom. These are the many who served not in limelight but simply for His delight. These are the unknown faces of the multitudes, some who are now among the many witnesses in heaven cheering us on, some who are still here on earth, motivating us on to finish our race heavenward in Christ.

These, are God’s “Stepping Stones”.

They came to serve God by lifting us up on a higher plane so that we could see God and reach out for His destiny in our lives. They are happy just to be that step which we could step on to reach our higher destination. They are not known, not remembered, not around when we reach the next level. They could be our primary school teachers, our Sunday school teachers, our seniors, our parents and most definitely our youth pastors!

To many, the term “Stepping stones” is not a nice description to describe people who have mattered in our lives. It gives a negative connotation that they have been used for our selfish gain. But yet in a sense, every mentor, disciple-maker, youth worker ARE Stepping Stones. They came and allowed us to step on them to reach our highest potential (not selfish gain).

As I turn 40, after serving God for more than 14yrs in full-time ministry as a pastor, I feel it is time to pen down my thoughts to thank the many stepping stones of God in my life as well as those in the lives of many of you out there. They deserve our appreciation!

time to revamp my blog

i have been travelling a lot this past months.
i have been passing my article to be posted at MOLMAN.blogspot.com rather than here.

But soon...i will want to start a new series here just on this blog. it would be a book i hoped to publish when i was younger. it would be about my reflection on my last 20years on youthwork. i have entitled the book "Stepping Stones". And instead of publishing it on paper, i think blog would be the more suitable media for this new generation of youth and youth worker.

It is my intention to bless the youthworker of old and new about the challenges and blessings of youthwork.

Should you know someone who is a youthworker, you can invite him on my behalf to come and share this journey with me.
Intro
1 Why stepping stones;
a humble call to youth work; forgettable group of workers among church team. Youth worker does not retire they just fade away.
Youth Ministry
2 Why youth work? U
nique grace; openness to gospel, Holy Spirit and readiness for radical commitment. They are leaders of tomorrow but what kind?
3 Youth – leaders of today!
4 History of Youth work –
from incidental to intentional to integration
Youth workers
5 Youth worker is king-maker!
6 What really matters to the youth & youth development?
a. Research on adult leaders who has been impacted by youth ministry
b. Chronos study – why youth are where they are?
c. Felt needs and real needs
7 The challenging 20s, the restless 30s, the giving 40s, the covering of the 50/60s.
a. Challenging 20s; conflict of values
b. Restless 30s; esp upper 30s because of the need to exercise faith, experimenting ideas, exerting authority
c. Giving 40s; desire to give back to the next generation, need to create an environment for growth for the teens to 20s to 30s. guard the truth and provide foundation. Nurturing
d. Covering of the 50/60s; providing umbrella for the next generation to try new things, Encouraging
8 Parents and Youthworkers – parentsconnnect
The Bigger Picture
9 Evangelising Youth – a Singapore story
10 I HAVE A DREAM!

i will expand on all these in the coming months....please feel free to share your thoughts with me and other fellow youthworkers/stepping stones.

Psa 127:1 A pilgrim song of Solomon. If GOD doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks. If GOD doesn't guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap.
Psa 127:2 It's useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don't you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves?
Psa 127:3 Don't you see that children are GOD's best gift? the fruit of the womb his generous legacy?
Psa 127:4 Like a warrior's fistful of arrows are the children of a vigorous youth.
Psa 127:5 Oh, how blessed are you parents, with your quivers full of children! Your enemies don't stand a chance against you; you'll sweep them right off your doorstep.

Flowing from the sermon from Sunday, I meditated upon the verses again and this is my reflection.
I noticed 2 very key words ie useless and giving.
It is useless to toil apart from God. All our effort would be wasted even if they yield some temporary results.
On the other hand, God gives. He gives rest and protection. There is no need to worry. Worry is a lack of trust in God. We need to learn to look beyond our perspective and see God. Thereby allowing ourselves to do what He does and not what more not less.
Burnout and every other stresses and failure come when we work beyond what God has for us.

Jesus said – I only do what I see My Father is doing in Heaven!

Faith or risk

Pastor Eugene shared an interesting insight about faith and risk. Faith is about God while risk is about us. Thus, if we are risk centred when we exercise faith..we are really focusing on what we would lose if the action failed to produce the outcome. On the other hand, faith in God is about obeying and trusting the outcome to God.
very interesting insight. we need to know and move by faith - because the righteous shall walk by faith.

Obedience

As i reflected more about this season of God's word...i felt that the key word is OBEDIENCE...only in obedience can we truly lived out Jesus as Lord of all in our lives. We need to know that only in obedience to the Truth that we are building our lives on strong foundation. Foundation is not built overnight. it requires true commitment to follow / obey His Word. Have you obeyed today?

Monday Church

I like the term "Monday Church". We are reminded that church is not meant to be only on Sunday. Instead we must live out our faith on Monday to Saturday. I want to encourage all of you to seek out the plans of God for your "Monday Church", the community you are in, and pray for wisdom to establish His will.

You can be another "Daniel" which brought about a change in his high school because he believed and acted with his faith. God can use another vessel who truly believed.

And for those of you who came forward to be commissioned....start praying...i will available together with my 12 to help you discern God's will and start your Monday Church. It is time to Pastor the City!

reflection at pre planning

we are reminded again about the need to pause and reflect on the sermon lest we, pastors, are mere "professional" without authencity. how can we be challenged about the Lordship of Jesus without making some changes in our lives; be it inner life or our manner in speech and action. so often we can justify our actions and speeches but when we come before His Lordship, the appropiate response should be repentance.
questions; who am i when no one is looking? why am i responding the way i am? how is Jesus reflected in my words and actions?
IS HE LORD?

My children, i pray that when u read this entry, that you too will allow the Holy SPirit to shine into the inner recess of your heart. Allow Him to show you where we have "fallen" whereby He is not given the reign in our lives.

Jabez's Prayer

God bless me. Enlarge our territory! Let Your hand be upon me and deliver me from evil!

Where is our territory?
I am asking about your personal territory?
This prayer is meaningless if you are not mindful of what you pray ie where is your territory.
Start asking God and believe Him for that territory!

Miracle Catch and G12

We are thankful to the God for the experience of miracle catch. as a church, we saw 33% increase in total attendence, we saw more salvations than last MOL in december 05, etc.

But i agreed with the poem from our tribe, this is just THE BEGINNING. we need to be good parents to the new converts. we need to go beyond these new converts and continue our sacred tasks of making disciples and not counting decisions.

In fact, i am appreciating more of the call to make disciples and see every harvesting events as ways to increase the pool for discipleship. Thus, leaders and members, if you are reading this blog, return back to lead your group/people to Jesus. Send them to consolidation. Pray real hard that they encounter Jesus. Help them to grow under your care and through the LOS. Fast and lay hold of God till they become leaders/disciples in God.

Don;t waste time, we have only 5 more months to see the growth God desired to bless us. Go and make disciples!!

Life is simple. Life is complex. Life is NOT Complicated

I find myself explain this very often. Thus i decided to blog this for all my readers. Life is not complicated! This means that Life is not so intertwined that we cannot make sense or meaning out of it. Life is complex! This means that life is interrelated to other factors of life. But because Life is interrelated, it can be untangled. Let me illustrate with "body soul and spirit". Our body can influence our soul eg if you are sick, you can feel down and depressed. This can happen the other way around too. Thus, by sleeping, you can untangle depression within. While sleeping (physical) is not directly related to emotion (arena for depression), the physical dimension of our lives can bring wholeness to our emotional dimension of life. Thus, when dealing with life, make sure you are not compromising Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual dimensions of life. They are all interrelated and thus bring complexity to your life. But if you are not developing them systematically, you will be able to live life simply. it is that SIMPLE.

The necessity for reflection

Only the wise reflects!
Since reflection is not natural, the normal canal side of us would choose to flow with the events of life and not make sense out of them. We allow days to flow through our lives only to be awaken occasionally by crisis, supernatural encounters, etc.
The bible called us to live life wisely. Wisdom, as defined in scripture, refers to the art of living well under the hand of God. The Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Why? Fear of God helps us to be conscious of God regularly. Reflection, or biblical reflection, calls us to be conscious of God. Reflecting on daily moments by seeking out God's agenda and lesson for us, helps us to be conscious of God. Thus making one wise.
Fools, on the other hand, said in their own hearts there is no God. They are not stupid people. They are just people who sincerely live lives without any consciousness of God. They may even profess with their mouths that there is God but their lives are lived without such consciousness. Often it is not what we say but how we live in private that truly reflect who we are.
SO are you wise or fool? Reflect about this!

Mt K challenge

We came we saw we conquered. As a family!(italic mine)
It was indeed a faith stretching exercise for me and my tribe to attempt this challenge.
Out of the 39 of us who attempted, 34 summitted (1 summitted at the 8km mark. we counted him because he could have made it to the top if not for the closing timing)
2 sisters chose not to go, apart from some physical conditions, did so to take care of the others. Their actions spoke volume of love to us. Not forgetting Cindy and Nicole who chose to come and stayed at the Park Ranger’s office to pray for the entire team as well.

Lessons learnt;
1 The Pleasure of God was what we sought throughout the trip. We lived out our professed love for one another throughout the challenge. We did so because we wanted His pleasure to be with us. Many carried the load of others to empower them to move one more step literally.
2 The Passion of God kept us going even at the toughest moment. At the final ascend, every step was met with great physical constraint – it remembered us of Jesus on His road to Calvary hill. Ours climb is nothing compared to His.
3 The Plans of God must be what we live for! Beyond Mt K, we need to conquer the rest of mountains He has in store for all of us. Conquering Mt K is only a physical rehearsal to the actual “mountains” in our lives. We need to press on and transfer the learning; the assurances of God, the power of family love, into our daily walk within God’s plan.
4 The Power of God’s love is what we really need! We need to go beyond living out our professed love, we need to strengthen our motivation to love. I realised while we can act on LOVE to one another…but our motivation could be weak or superficial. It is easier to show love by doing something for others, but it takes another level of love to honestly loving someone in our hearts. I believe God is showing me some cracks in the family love and that I need to repent (on their behalf) and return to model genuine love (to my 12 and 144).

DVC - final installation

I think the movie has come and would be gone very soon...based on the reviews i am hearing.
But still i have received feedback that some of our faith have been challenged.
I decided that this would be my last blog on this matter.

DVC has many false claims. Among those is the claims that all the history and facts are real. They were quoted from historians....yet upon further checking, you would find that NO historian was consulted...those he quoted were all authors and conspiracy theoists.

Further, his understanding of Christian history and findings were erratic. He is very novice in his understanding of even basic Christianity and historic finding. And for us to allow our faith to be challenged by man who is not even proper tutored in our faith only get to show how shallow we are in our faith itself.

So if this apply to you, time to enrol yourselves in LOS. Go to church regularly and ask questions to your leaders...they would be stronger in their faith when they are able to find and answer your questions.

Have FUN!

gnostic and gospel of judas

i did my teaching on Christology. And in the process, i did some study on the gnostic bible. i discovered that the gnostic is more interested in the hidden revelation of God than dealing with the fleshly issues of marriage or intimacy with Mary. such revelation or knowledge is for selfish gain. Anyway, the claims by Dan Brown, that Jesus married/had sex with Mary as "mentioned in the gnostic" is really baseless. He, knowingly or unknowingly, was attacking the deity of God through his conspiracy theory. I pray that he would see the Light and repent of his stumbling works.

As for the gosepl of judas, i was told that we should appreciate Judas. The reason was that without him, there would be no betrayal, no cross, no redemption.
This arguement had been around for ages. The truth is with or without Judas, God's plan of redemption would still be done. Jesus had no need to convince Judas to betray Him as opposed to what the Judas Gospel suggested. If we need to appreciate Judas because of the indirect contribution to salvation....we need to thank the devil too.

God is much more power than to need mere human to help Him to complete His redemption.
Actually, Devil was caught off guard, in the redemption plan. And wanted to kill Jesus at all possible cause. as such, even without judas, the devil would still move his armies in the human to capture Jesus. Only to fall into the greatest conspiracy of all....the redemption via the cross.

Sigh...if only we could make effort to know the bible and be impressed with God's surprise move, conspiracy work, wonderful miracles.....we would always find the wordly information interesting.

Personally, i am praying for a time next week to avail myself to handle all enquries about Da Vinc code and judas gospel. i would be flying back from beijing....but i felt the need to do...any comments...,,,,

Are you there?

I have been busy with many projects coming up.....starting with preaching at the baptism service tonight, preparing for my China trip + teaching there, leading PnP next friday, teaching Christology next Sunday, completing my M Ed project, organising GCYC and NCTC...

So i may not be writing anything pastoral over the next few weeks.

However, i am open to response to any questions you may have about our faith....just drop that into "comments". i will then enter my response into this blog. i will wait for 3-4 comments before i make my entry.

Till then, do pray for me.

Are you there?

I have been busy with many projects coming up.....starting with preaching at the baptism service tonight, preparing for my China trip + teaching there, leading PnP next friday, teaching Christology next Sunday, completing my M Ed project, organising GCYC and NCTC...

So i may not be writing anything pastoral over the next few weeks.

However, i am open to response to any questions you may have about our faith....just drop that into "comments". i will then enter my response into this blog. i will wait for 3-4 comments before i make my entry.

Till then, do pray for me.

Gospel according to Judas and Da Vinci Code

I was very amused that National Geographic would make such a big wave about Gospel according to Judas. Upon further thoughts, i was no longer amused. They are all trying to cash in on the waves of the Da Vinci Code and the Easter weekend. But more than that, they were fulfilling the prophesy in Revelation that more false prophets and wrong teaching would abound in the end times.
The more i think of this, the more i looked forward to teaching my people about Christology and Revelation. I want to make sure all my people are informed of the schemes of the devil and thus be able to stay FAITHFUL WITH THE TRUTH till the END.
Gospel according to Judas cannot be taken seriously just as would you take someone, 200years later in the future, who would write about me? or would you take the writing of someone closer to me like my wife or children or even my immediate disciples? the choice is obvious, we would take the writing of those who had been with Jesus and who was closer to Jesus (the 4 Gospels book in the Bible) more seriously than those who wrote 200yrs later (ie Gospel according to Judas; which by the way, was not written by Judas).
Anyway, the Gnostic Bible has been around as a cult-teaching since the 200-300 AD. we should not be surprised that they are back in this End Times. So if you are reading this blog..consider yourself informed!

sydney Uni Blue Mountain Nature


GOH speaking
Opera House


P's mum witnessing to youth

Principal of NICE and wife @ graduation centre.

Beyond mere study

i had time to visit the great ocean road and of course to see the 12 (7) apostles and the London Bridge.

Worldviews - my learning in M Ed

Dualism
This is a view that all of life can be splitted in 2 ways eg Secular and sacred split.
This is promoted by Plato which taught about the body (can be seen) vs soul (cannot be seen). Of course, the further addition was that what could be seen is evil and what could not be seen is good. This kind of worldview crept right into the church father as well. St Augustine classified things as eternal vs temporal. ANd given his past, he condemned sex as always an act of lust; he could be see sex as from God ie a Fall-Redemption mindset. Aquinas added to St Augustine with Nature vs Grace. When this thinking flowed into the Institutional Church, grace was exalted above all of life. Nature was reduced and removed from the church agenda. As a result the church lost touch with the rest of the world and became inward looking.

Rise of Secularism
Interest in Nature (actually a God-given interest) was widespread and soon secularism became more exciting for people. And the institutional church was left into the private domain of one's life. In fact, it was viewed that only the weak need to have faith. But our gospel is a gospel of All things; we should never have left secularism to rob the nature out of the domain of our faith.
Schaeffer – “Nature began to eat out grace”.

Rise of Science
Science came into the forthfront since it was able to explain and empower man to provide "dominance over creation again". only this time, it is done without God's intention.
This god-less movement brought forth Empiricism and Rationalism – science revolution. there is nothing wrong with Science. But when Science beame Scientism (absolute claim over nature) it became a worldviews that set us apart from true worship of God.
(Worldviews are incarnated in our lives. They are more than mere concept.)

Affirmation of Creation
Renaissance – glory of man
Reformation – glory of God

Idols of Modernism
Scientism – omniscience ; There is nothing I cannot know
Technicism – omnipotence; There is nothing I cannot do
Economism – sovereignty; There is nothing I cannot have
We are encouraged to bow down to these “idols”.

Worldview Crisis
Attack from post-modernism
Modernism reduces humanity; that man is only rational
The dream has failed. “Worldview” of despair.
It’s all about power and coercion of people.
No Worldview is true.
Opportunity for Christian
We need to leave reservation ; time to claim that there is absolute
“the world can now put up with Christian so long as we stay in reservation. The moment we step out of reservation and speak, the world benign smile to savage stare.” – RC Sproul

Pastoral reflection

I read the many nice cards given to me since the tabernacle weekend. they are very encouraging indeed. but upon further reflection, i realised that i should be very wise in handling such affirmation and praises.
why?
they can create a false sense of spiritual accomplishments. i have come to know, after 14yrs of serving, that the person who praises you today can curse you tomorrow. thus, cards and notes are good for the moment but they are not representative of effective ministry.
what then is?
The heart of obedience.
The litmus test of an effective ministry is to see if your people truly obey the teaching you gave in the Lord. some can cleverly cover their disobedience with excuses and delay. others can be swamped by personal struggles and preferences. some simply bo-chap.
Thus, as a leader, we need to exercise obedience to the Leaders over us...we must also discern the heart of obedience in the lives of our members. if we have to make verbal demand for obedience, it will only mean that we are not there yet with them relationally and spiritually....The best outcome will be they obey you when you teach/challenge/admonish/correct/inspire in the LORD.
Thus enjoy your cards when you do receive ...especial when your friends or leaders had watched "I not stupid too". But don;t let them get into the head....discern the heart > than the cards...

Multiply us LORD!

Praise God

The Lord is my provider!
I heard about how someone decided to start giving back his tithing that he owed the Lord and how God provided twice the amount back. I was very happy for the member.
But God is a God of humor...he asked if i dare believed Him for that too. i was hesitant..yes hesitant but i trusted and gave. The Lord showed me that He is indeed my provider. within a week, someone surprised me with a gift more than 50times of what i gave. it was an answer to a prayer for family overseas trip. but what blessed me more was that the Lord prepared the person 2mths back to give! Meaning God knew there and then i would be skeptical and i would be giving still....and He would be ready to surprise me. I am very humbled and blessed to know this God...who loves me despite my human weakness and ever so ready to show me His love....do you know Him as such? Ask God for a miracle for your lives and start to give/bless Him. you will be surpised and blessed.
The righteous shall live by faith......stretch your Christian experience....move in faith.

i want to encourage all of you to stretch your faith to believe God for lives to be given to you to disciple. If you are discipling nobody yet, ask God for your 12 by Dec. If you have 2-5, ask for 12 still. But don;t evaluate your goal only at Dec 06. Set a goal by end of March....close enough for personal evaluation and mid course correction if need be.

Meanwhile, we have also establish our tribe blog at www.makeourlivesmanymiracles.blogspot.com.
Go and post your remarks or comments or photos or whatever that is edifying. my blog will be link to this as well.

SO much for now....sow in Faith....

it is February - a time to sow

So quickly we have entered Feb 06. i was blessed to be reminded that we will have a NEW beginning last week at the service.

i was also been reminded separately that God will give us a new anointing ONLY when He is giving us a new assignment. We don’t need a new anointing for an old assignment. We may need a fresh anointing to continue an old assignment. ….. BUT the rhema word is NEW…God is giving us a NEW chapter, a NEW anointing for a NEW assignment….and a NEW YOU! I pray that God will have His ways in your life and that you will be indeed NEW (relative to now) in Christ by Dec 06.

Let's continue to sow in tears before God for both personal and corporate revival. We want to see the EXTRAORDINARY POSSIBILITIES OF GOD BY DEC 2006. BUT the process must start NOW........

So…start sowing….
“Teach me to pray with groanings so that there are earth quakes in hell.
Teach me the groaning of the Spirit until angels stand in awe.
Teach me Spirit-born intercession that changes history.
Teach me the birth pangs of the Holy Spirit until hell shaking revival is born.
Lead me into travail that will hold back divine judgment from the nations for a little season.
Let me be the living sacrifice on the altar of prayer, “bleeding to bless”, until flood tides of mercy sweep the nations.
Lord break my heart in intercession until my eyes, like those of Jeremiah, are a fountain of tears weeping for the slain of an educated, but spiritually dead, people.”
- Leonard Ravenhill”

The biblical principle is that when we sow in tears we will reap with joy. We cannot expect to reap in joy without any sowing; there is no reaping if there is no sowing.

Start S.......O........W.........I.........N..........G! We want to see our tribe reach 2000 Lord!
(picture is from GCYC. a picture to remind us about the nations...about expansion for His kingdom!)

a pastoral concerns - The Da Vinci Code

I did a simple teaching about what was wrong about this book sometime last year. i was surprised by so much interest among our students at LOS. we literally packed the room. Since then, we knew about the production of the movie, more illustrated books, etc to promote this distorted fiction book to the readers.
Do we just sit and let Dan Brown has his "distorted" say about our faith?
Certainly NOT!
I am glad that Campus Crusade for Christ and Covenant Evangelical Free Church have come together with several other concerned agencies to launch the DVC project. We were invited to participate so that the Body of Christ can turn the movie into a time for TRUTH to prevail.
As a stater, i will encourage all of you who are reading this blog to go to www.davincicode.org.sg
to read more for your personal information. We in Youthnet will work out something for all of you soon. Have a Blessed Chinese New Year.

Pastors' Summit 06

Dear family,
You would have heard pieces of news here and there…I thought I will write some for your prayer direction.

Indeed this is a summit of difference….not so much solid teaching but solid call for us back to prayer.
We are reminded to return back to prayer habit of our past ie prayer walking, warfare prayer, personal prayer.

But personally, I was encouraged that the word I released about multiplication and focusing on leadership development for our 12/144 was reaffirmed many times in the summit.
Yes, we need to talk more….essentially, we need to believe that God wants us to be fruitful and that includes bearing fruits through birthing and building of our 12/144. what it means for all of you is that we need to believe God that you can be a leader of 12/144. don’t give discount and make excuses…but ask God for wisdom and His ways to see this Extraordinary Possibilities for everyone of us in SJ tribe.

Go for God’s Glory.