becoming

ANGLICANS in the Diocese of New Westminster are scheduled to go to court May 23 in a case that could determine the shape of Canadian Anglicanism.

At stake is the ownership of four church buildings, but the case could set a precedent that would affect the ownership of other church buildings across Canada, Anglican and otherwise.

Please remember them in your prayers.

[read the full story here]

Raymond, I am so proud of you.

Over the years, I have heard so many dreams and wishes from so many people — wanting to do this, hoping to do that.

But not you.

From the day I heard about your plan to become a police officer, I know you are going to put 200% into it.

And you did.

That’s why I feel so honor to see my friend graduated today. Now go, serve and protect the city of Toronto —

With the love of Christ and the power from our God.

[link:現代日報|pdf]

現在的基督徒大學生與高中生，他們就像跳蚤一樣。大一信主，經過三年的造就，到了大四，不能當中學輔導，是因為沒能力嗎？不是！有些基督徒學生，更是從小 就在教會裡受到各樣的裝備，到了高中，還不能當主日學老師，是因為沒能力嗎？不是！至於，大學老師、畢業生，慕道友除外，若是大學時代就參加過學生團契， 還得要繼續受造就，是因為沒能力嗎？不是！

跳不高，不是因為它們沒有能力，而是上面被蓋上一片透明玻璃…

[陳鳳翔：溺愛病毒，入侵教會]

這篇文章勾起了我過去的體會。值得一讀噢！

Some goodies from bookcloseouts.com. Yes, it will take you a long time to go over all those bargain books. But don’t forget you can also get annother saving of $5 or 10, for orders over $35 or $65 from redflagdeals.com!! Boy, that’s tempting…

1. Romans 1-8 (Word Biblical Commentary Vol.38A) $16.99
2. The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth That Could Change Everything $5.99
3. Christian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology) $5.99
4. The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World $5.99
5. The Christian Handbook: An Indispensable Guide to All Things Christian $2.99
6. Let Me Tell You a Story $5.49
7. In Constant Prayer (The Ancient Practices) $6.99
8. Conversations with Poppi about God: An Eight-Year-Old and Her Theologian Grandfather Trade Questions $4.99
9. The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America $5.99

A thought-provoking sharing from Roger over at simplechurchjournal.com:

… As mentioned, starting house churches and discipling viral disciplers (who gather in house churches) might look very similar on the outside.  But the process is very different!  When we start house churches, our focus tends to be on the gathering—what to do, how to do it, what it looks like, etc.  We say to ourselves that we are learning to “be” the church 24/7 (and we may even go do missional things), but often our priority remains on developing the structure/form of simple house church gatherings.  When following Jesus and inviting others to follow him becomes our focus (discipling viral disciples), we will have to shift from the “gathering” mentality to the “lifestyle-going” mentality.  This shift changes the processes we walk out from top to bottom.  And, this shift will propel us from being church-starters to movement starters (where churches spring up along the way).

There is much more to share about the process of discipling viral disciplers, but suffice it to say that it does ask us to examine our own “followership” as a starting point.  Jesus, the adventurous, undomesticated, on-the-move God invites us to join him daily where He is working.  What does that look like for me today?  What does it really mean for me, today, to be the church (Jesus’ follower) in the world?  From that starting point, we can begin to look at and grasp a process that will “infect” others who will then “infect” others to fully follow Jesus.  Ah… a movement!

Read it all here.

If being gospel-centered and being gospel community-centered are the two overarching principles to govern the practice of church and mission, I guess what we need to ask is this: where should the gospel community be found today? Should they be found or confined to a building, or should they be going (individually and communally) out, making disciples of Christ? Is the community of faith formed through gatherings, or with practices and actions? Or both?

All those talks about being Missional, yet have no idea where to start? Jonathan Dodson encourages you to consider these:

• Eat with Non-Christians
• Walk, Don’t Drive
• Be a Regular
• Hobby with Non-Christians
• Talk to Your Co-workers.
• Volunteer with Non-Profits.
• Participate in City Events
• Serve Your Neighbors.

Read them in more details here.

Wright’s 16-page interview on why he wrote JUSTIFICATION: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.

[link: ivpress]

We are so out of sync with this world.

I mean, we, Christians.

Make it Chinese Christians.

Have you ever run into a situation when you suddenly (and finally) realized that the world you lived in, is nothing like you at all? That the world is much more messy than you can imagine or dare to admit? Did you notice that people outside your Christian “la-la-land” are way more complicated that you expected?

That, my friend, is called the REAL world.

Look around — look beyond those “happy faces” who show up on Sundays; look into the reality of what this world has become.

Look.

Don’t just make casual comments like “O my, this is such a twisted world”, “This country is so morally corrupted”, or “How can they do that”…

Stop that.

Look.

Look, for example, at what are on the selves as gifts for Mother’s day:

Household Guide for Dying
Surviving Divorce

… and many more.

You know what I mean? No, these are not your regular electronic-massage-chair gifts; not your average coffeemaker or juice-maker gifts.

Look.

Look how disconnected we are. How disconnected we have become.

And you tell me our archaic way of evangelism is still effective?