So it has come to pass that time ticked past these three weeks. Another three weeks of my life consumed by the relentless march of time. But that shall not be the attitude. It was three weeks well spent.
This past week was namely missions. What is missions, why missions, how to do missions, who to do missions so on and so forth. I felt that the topic was well covered by the various speakers in that it was very hard hitting on the individual participants, challenging them on action (with the right rationale of course) instead of merely talk and head knowledge.
The underlying point was that missions were part of God’s mission that all believers have a responsibility to participate in. Well is like taken as a given by me and perhaps many second generation Christians. If someone were to tell me that I would go like “uh, and then?” Understanding something to be true is not enough if we do not act on it, I guess. I keep harping on this point because it is the main struggle I face. This can actually be traced back to the whole Christians not being Christians (possibly due to the lack of persecution). When Timothy and HealthServe said that he did not like the term Christians and instead preferred to call himself a follower of Christ I do empathise (I have wrote about the baggage that comes with the term Christians before). Except that perhaps I am not acting like a follower of Christ yet.
Ok, enough of that. Another poignant point was raised in response to one of the questions; when churches fail to do what they are supposed to do, there comes a rise of para-church organisations. It is sad that churches fail even though it is a given that they are not perfect. That was my initial thought. Upon further reflection, I thought that it was perhaps God’s provision that these organisations were springing up to plug in the gaps left by the church. Even though it is not the church’s work, it is at least the work of members of the church. After all, in response to my question on global government, the invited politician-speaker answered that it was not feasible for such a large government to be effective (loosely paraphrased). Obviously a church faces such practical limitations as well, in administration and all that load of economic theory. But a church is different from a global government, while those in a collective government would share the identity of humanity, the church is united in Christ called by God. We have an infallible divine leadership that will someday lead us directly in heaven! I guess the conclusion here is to keep striving and praying despite the imperfections with the hope of a better age (what what).
The talk by Prof. Roland Chia was decent, good for practical Christian living in the public sphere though it should not be taken as the gospel truth. I think he gives very sound suggestions and reasons. For example, I think a place where we should all work on is to purge individualist thinking and the secular humanist viewpoint from our own thinking and then perhaps we will be able to live more like what we profess. I found Bishop Emeritus Robert Solomon’s usage of the 10 commandments refreshing. It helps in some sense to show this ancient document’s relevance to today. Several points that stood out: Do not think of yourself as a leader of men, rather a follower of God. God can speak more to others than to us. All the points about idolatry.
So to conclude the whole program, I am affirmed that I should sort out my theology and then everything else will fall into place naturally. Stemming forth from the vine.
I find it really hard to just reflect on one item. I usually do it as a whole life experience. If any of my reflections thus far have been confusing and you would like to know more I guess you could drop me a text or something.
Nicholas Khaw
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