“There’s
no such thing as foreign Mission with God, God’s Missions Belongs to the
World” - Rev Dr Eddie Fox (World Director of Evangelism, the World
Methodist Council )
GO4th 2011 has certainly broadened my perspective of what Missions really is. Especially in recent months where our YMOVE committee has been going for intensive mission training session of deconstruction of preconceives ideas & assumptions of what Missions is to us. Right now as I write this I’m still in the midst of reconciling my thoughts of what missions really is.
Going Beyond Boundaries
Rev Rick Seaward mentioned that reasons why we don’t go for missions is we put boundaries & limitations for ourselves. But God has NO BOUNDARIES. Jesus cross all boundaries & push every boundary. Jesus was one who was move with Compassion! I believe that is what would move us too, perhaps we should pray for God to give us that compassion for His people, and that would move us out of our boundaries.
Diaspora Missions
The overview of missions around the world was certainly an eye opener to me. One of which was Diaspora missions in the world as well as in Singapore. There are 3 main groups of such Diaspora missions, the migrants, the Students and the professionals. It was really encouraging to hear first-hand from people out there who do such missions. One of which is the ministry in Fairfield Methodist church (FMC) where they reached out to the Chinese migrants workers. This all started from just 110 people who attended this one CNY dinner celebration, where 49 received Christ on that day and now it has grown to up to 13 000 of such Chinese migrant workers who has come to FMC, where 5000 has received salvation, 500 baptised and now there’s records of people receiving Christ at almost every service weekly.
Adding to that, there was this Vietnamese girl who shared a heartfelt testimony on how she came to know Christ from this girl she met in school and others who came along the way. Just hearing her story moves one to know that we will never know how our actions & deeds can actually lead one to Christ eventually. This is how I see relational evangelism as well. It all starts with building relationship with one another. It is as simple as just showing that love to one another. “This is my command: Love each other. John 15:17”
Going Deep
We had the privilege to go deep with in-depth Bible Study with Bishop Robert Solomon in the morning sessions. We discussed on the story of Jonah on the first day and on Song of Deborah from Judges on the second day. Below are some of his profound quotes that I noted down.
"Responding to Missions is like Falling in Love with God... "Yes God use me"- Bishop Dr Robert Solomon
"One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it."- Oswald Chambers
“We have too many Christians doing too many calculations, with whatever knowledge we have we just need to make that commitment." - Bishop Dr Robert Solomon
“Why we obey God?
1) Fear of Him
2) Knowing God can be Trusted
3) Knowing that He Bring Joy to your Heart
4) Because we Love God”
Personal highlight
My personal highlight of the whole conference was during the session by Pastor Peter Tsukahira a Japanese American Israeli citizen who shared two insightful sharing’s during the conference. I still remember the powerful testimony of his wife’s ministry in Israel where they reach out to the poorest of the poor by setting up shelter for refugees. One day, the prime minister’s wife heard about this, which later led to the media coming to hear about it as well. When the media asked of them to share of their ministry, they took that chance to tell about their relationship with Jesus and how they were Messianic Jews. This public declaration of their faith and ministry was later on the front page news of which millions of people read after.
Ministry in the market place
He also shared about his marketplace ministry when he was working in the business world and was a pastor at the same time. He shared that we shouldn’t focus on just looking to climb that corporate ladder. Sometimes we get too caught up with the world just looking at climbing that corporate ladder that we may never even be close to God when we reach to the top. In fact we should stop focusing climbing up that corporate ladder but look down to those below you instead. We should look at their needs and ask God how we can meet their needs.
Looking Far
On the final night, Peter Tsukahira shared a heartfelt sharing from his book "God's Tsunami”, the move of the gospel expanding in a westward direction. From the time of the Apostle Paul, Peter shows that God directed Paul to preach the gospel to the west. Peter chronicles how the gospel has moved west into Europe and has been moving steadily westward to this day. Though Paul's ministry only took him as far as Rome, the gospel has continued to spread to Europe, then to America. From there it moved to Asia (the 10/40 window) and will circle back to Israel - where it all started, and there will be the "end of the line" in the western sweep of world evangelization. Jerusalem is God's chosen place for the return of the Messiah. This message is described in Scripture. The passage Peter references is Romans 11:25, where Israel's revival will follow the fullness of God's harvest among all nations and is the chief requirement for Christ's return.
Are you ready to "Catch the Wave of God's Purposes?"- Pastor Peter Tsukahira
What is Missions to me? - Benjamin Lau
A lot of us have our own presuppositions of what missions is, partly from the influences of our own church background or prior exposure to missions. Andrew Kirk who wrote the book titled, “What is Mission”, asserts that we need to start with a proper theological understanding of God, which shaped our theology of Mission. This reminded me of a personal theological framework of God which I once drafted that is based from my understanding of the Kingdom of God in light of ‘Missio Dei’, which is the Latin word for ‘the mission of God’. I formulated this framework in this way, as I believe we first need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and His reign as King in the Kingdom of God as said in Psalms 103:9, "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His Sovereignty rules over all”. With that premise, I believe we need to understand God’s heart for the world. In accordance with Missio Dei, God desires to restore back His creation mandate.
This restoration of the creation mandate is similar to what Chris Wright postulates, “the great plan and purpose of God is to redeem the whole of creation, broken by sin and evil, into the new creation, populated by the redeemed from every culture through the cross and resurrection of Christ.” Andrew Kirk’s expands this with a really good overview of his tentative understanding of the theology of missions, he said, it is “a disciplined study which deals with questions that arises when people of faith seek to understand and fulfil God’s purposes in the world. It is a reflection on attitudes and actions adopted by Christians in pursuit of the missionary mandate. Its task is to validate, correct and establish on better foundations the entire practice of mission.”
So what is missions means to me today?
Firstly, I believe we need to think through the impact we create when we are going for short-mission trips. For example, when we go on short-term mission trips, are we there to just teach English? Would it be beneficial for them in the long term? Or perhaps, when we plan an Easter programme, would it actually help them? Even with good intention, sometimes we may actually be imposing the culture of how we “do” church to a village in another country who “do” church totally differently from us? These are considerations we need to take note of and to be aware about. Sometimes it can be just as simple as going there to encourage the missionaries there or just playing with the kids. Having said that, I still believe there is a purpose for such short term mission trips, as God can always use anyone in His ministry, just that we need to think through the real intentions of why we go for such mission trips in the first place.
Besides this short term mission trips, we also need to see that missions involves the entire church. Imagine if we our entire church members can be Kingdom Minded and see beyond the four-walls of our church who actually actively participate or support any of these ministries in some way! There is so much impact a local church can actively play in God's Kingdom purposes in this nation and in the World!
This is supported by what Chris Wright who have said, “Missions is the mode of existence for every member of the whole church to take the gospel to the whole world.” David Bosch elucidates it beautifully, “Mission takes place where the Church, in her total involvement in the world and the comprehensiveness of her message, bears testimony in the form of a servant, with reference to unbelief, exploitation, discrimination, and violence, but also with reference to salvation, healing, liberation, reconciliation, and righteousness.”
If someone asks me what my theology of mission is now, I would respond, it is playing a part in God’s Mission to reconcile back His Kingdom to all creation and to restore His Creation Mandate. It’s a holistic approach, not just in a spiritual sense by evangelizing to others, but being that true witness of God in our life and meeting the physical, physiological and emotional needs of the marginalized and the people we meet along in our journey in this life. And all this is only possible with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
“We are called to spread the Good News of the Gospel by Word, Deed and Sign in the power of the Holy Spirit so that the world may know Jesus Christ,”...“We, the people called Methodists, are followers of Jesus in the company of the Wesleys. John Wesley made it clear the Wesleyan Way for the Methodist Movement is to be alive, vibrant and growing.” - Rev Dr Eddie Fox (World Director of Evangelism, the World Methodist Council )
GO4th 2011 has certainly broadened my perspective of what Missions really is. Especially in recent months where our YMOVE committee has been going for intensive mission training session of deconstruction of preconceives ideas & assumptions of what Missions is to us. Right now as I write this I’m still in the midst of reconciling my thoughts of what missions really is.
Going Beyond Boundaries
Rev Rick Seaward mentioned that reasons why we don’t go for missions is we put boundaries & limitations for ourselves. But God has NO BOUNDARIES. Jesus cross all boundaries & push every boundary. Jesus was one who was move with Compassion! I believe that is what would move us too, perhaps we should pray for God to give us that compassion for His people, and that would move us out of our boundaries.
Diaspora Missions
The overview of missions around the world was certainly an eye opener to me. One of which was Diaspora missions in the world as well as in Singapore. There are 3 main groups of such Diaspora missions, the migrants, the Students and the professionals. It was really encouraging to hear first-hand from people out there who do such missions. One of which is the ministry in Fairfield Methodist church (FMC) where they reached out to the Chinese migrants workers. This all started from just 110 people who attended this one CNY dinner celebration, where 49 received Christ on that day and now it has grown to up to 13 000 of such Chinese migrant workers who has come to FMC, where 5000 has received salvation, 500 baptised and now there’s records of people receiving Christ at almost every service weekly.
Adding to that, there was this Vietnamese girl who shared a heartfelt testimony on how she came to know Christ from this girl she met in school and others who came along the way. Just hearing her story moves one to know that we will never know how our actions & deeds can actually lead one to Christ eventually. This is how I see relational evangelism as well. It all starts with building relationship with one another. It is as simple as just showing that love to one another. “This is my command: Love each other. John 15:17”
Going Deep
We had the privilege to go deep with in-depth Bible Study with Bishop Robert Solomon in the morning sessions. We discussed on the story of Jonah on the first day and on Song of Deborah from Judges on the second day. Below are some of his profound quotes that I noted down.
"Responding to Missions is like Falling in Love with God... "Yes God use me"- Bishop Dr Robert Solomon
"One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it."- Oswald Chambers
“We have too many Christians doing too many calculations, with whatever knowledge we have we just need to make that commitment." - Bishop Dr Robert Solomon
“Why we obey God?
1) Fear of Him
2) Knowing God can be Trusted
3) Knowing that He Bring Joy to your Heart
4) Because we Love God”
Personal highlight
My personal highlight of the whole conference was during the session by Pastor Peter Tsukahira a Japanese American Israeli citizen who shared two insightful sharing’s during the conference. I still remember the powerful testimony of his wife’s ministry in Israel where they reach out to the poorest of the poor by setting up shelter for refugees. One day, the prime minister’s wife heard about this, which later led to the media coming to hear about it as well. When the media asked of them to share of their ministry, they took that chance to tell about their relationship with Jesus and how they were Messianic Jews. This public declaration of their faith and ministry was later on the front page news of which millions of people read after.
Ministry in the market place
He also shared about his marketplace ministry when he was working in the business world and was a pastor at the same time. He shared that we shouldn’t focus on just looking to climb that corporate ladder. Sometimes we get too caught up with the world just looking at climbing that corporate ladder that we may never even be close to God when we reach to the top. In fact we should stop focusing climbing up that corporate ladder but look down to those below you instead. We should look at their needs and ask God how we can meet their needs.
Looking Far
On the final night, Peter Tsukahira shared a heartfelt sharing from his book "God's Tsunami”, the move of the gospel expanding in a westward direction. From the time of the Apostle Paul, Peter shows that God directed Paul to preach the gospel to the west. Peter chronicles how the gospel has moved west into Europe and has been moving steadily westward to this day. Though Paul's ministry only took him as far as Rome, the gospel has continued to spread to Europe, then to America. From there it moved to Asia (the 10/40 window) and will circle back to Israel - where it all started, and there will be the "end of the line" in the western sweep of world evangelization. Jerusalem is God's chosen place for the return of the Messiah. This message is described in Scripture. The passage Peter references is Romans 11:25, where Israel's revival will follow the fullness of God's harvest among all nations and is the chief requirement for Christ's return.
Are you ready to "Catch the Wave of God's Purposes?"- Pastor Peter Tsukahira
What is Missions to me? - Benjamin Lau
A lot of us have our own presuppositions of what missions is, partly from the influences of our own church background or prior exposure to missions. Andrew Kirk who wrote the book titled, “What is Mission”, asserts that we need to start with a proper theological understanding of God, which shaped our theology of Mission. This reminded me of a personal theological framework of God which I once drafted that is based from my understanding of the Kingdom of God in light of ‘Missio Dei’, which is the Latin word for ‘the mission of God’. I formulated this framework in this way, as I believe we first need to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and His reign as King in the Kingdom of God as said in Psalms 103:9, "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His Sovereignty rules over all”. With that premise, I believe we need to understand God’s heart for the world. In accordance with Missio Dei, God desires to restore back His creation mandate.
This restoration of the creation mandate is similar to what Chris Wright postulates, “the great plan and purpose of God is to redeem the whole of creation, broken by sin and evil, into the new creation, populated by the redeemed from every culture through the cross and resurrection of Christ.” Andrew Kirk’s expands this with a really good overview of his tentative understanding of the theology of missions, he said, it is “a disciplined study which deals with questions that arises when people of faith seek to understand and fulfil God’s purposes in the world. It is a reflection on attitudes and actions adopted by Christians in pursuit of the missionary mandate. Its task is to validate, correct and establish on better foundations the entire practice of mission.”
So what is missions means to me today?
Firstly, I believe we need to think through the impact we create when we are going for short-mission trips. For example, when we go on short-term mission trips, are we there to just teach English? Would it be beneficial for them in the long term? Or perhaps, when we plan an Easter programme, would it actually help them? Even with good intention, sometimes we may actually be imposing the culture of how we “do” church to a village in another country who “do” church totally differently from us? These are considerations we need to take note of and to be aware about. Sometimes it can be just as simple as going there to encourage the missionaries there or just playing with the kids. Having said that, I still believe there is a purpose for such short term mission trips, as God can always use anyone in His ministry, just that we need to think through the real intentions of why we go for such mission trips in the first place.
Besides this short term mission trips, we also need to see that missions involves the entire church. Imagine if we our entire church members can be Kingdom Minded and see beyond the four-walls of our church who actually actively participate or support any of these ministries in some way! There is so much impact a local church can actively play in God's Kingdom purposes in this nation and in the World!
This is supported by what Chris Wright who have said, “Missions is the mode of existence for every member of the whole church to take the gospel to the whole world.” David Bosch elucidates it beautifully, “Mission takes place where the Church, in her total involvement in the world and the comprehensiveness of her message, bears testimony in the form of a servant, with reference to unbelief, exploitation, discrimination, and violence, but also with reference to salvation, healing, liberation, reconciliation, and righteousness.”
If someone asks me what my theology of mission is now, I would respond, it is playing a part in God’s Mission to reconcile back His Kingdom to all creation and to restore His Creation Mandate. It’s a holistic approach, not just in a spiritual sense by evangelizing to others, but being that true witness of God in our life and meeting the physical, physiological and emotional needs of the marginalized and the people we meet along in our journey in this life. And all this is only possible with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
“We are called to spread the Good News of the Gospel by Word, Deed and Sign in the power of the Holy Spirit so that the world may know Jesus Christ,”...“We, the people called Methodists, are followers of Jesus in the company of the Wesleys. John Wesley made it clear the Wesleyan Way for the Methodist Movement is to be alive, vibrant and growing.” - Rev Dr Eddie Fox (World Director of Evangelism, the World Methodist Council )
GO4th Conference 2011
The Wesley YMers who came on the final night of GO4th!
Our YMOVE discussion on one of our many meetings on missions, on "What's the KINGDOM OF GOD?"
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