IDMC Conference 2013 (5 - 7 September)

Just attended my first ever full IDMC Conference 2013 from 5-7 Sep 2013. I have been blessed me it so much that I would want to bless others too who couldn't make it for this conference with the notes that I have taken down from all 7 plenary Sessions & 2 workshops which I've attended.

Also want to take this time to thank Ps Gladwin who first invited me to my first ever IDMC Conference in 2011 when his wife couldn't make it for part of the conference. Although I attended just 2 plenary sessions that day,it actually changed my spiritual life quite a bit, when I actually applied his challenge that day when he talk about the importance of having a Sabbath rest.And ever since 2007, when I first heard Rev Edmund Chan first sermon at thisConnect Conference (Nav/Cru partnership conference), I've been so inspired by him that I started to read all books and heard countless sermons from him over the years. 

PS: Feel free to share this notes! It has blessed me so much so i'm sure you all can bless others with it too! :)  

IDMC 2013, 7-9 September

Starting Over

Rev Edmund Chan

 

Day 1

Starting Over… Breaking Free!

Looking Up… Letting Go!

Drawing Near… Staying True!

Moving On!

Plenary 1

1. Story of Thomas  

• Invented the first phonograph

"All our mistakes are burned up… Thank God we can start anew." 

Starting Over is HARD…

The JUBILEE: 

• Slaves were freed,
• Debts were cancelled
• Forfeited property we're returned to ts original owners
• prisoners were freed

A. Discipleship is A Redemptive Journey

1. Five Radical Disciple making Shifts

a) From Reading to Making

b) From Reaching to Modelling

c) From Attending to Participating

d) From Connecting to Transforming

e) From Attracting to Deploying

2. A Needed Mega-Shift Discipleship today

"Disciple-making is an outflow of Discipleship."

"When you get Discipleship right, you would get Disciple-making Right!"

"To get Discipleship right, we make a paradigm shift Regimental journey to Redemptive Journey!"

B. The Redemptive Love of God (Romans 8:31-39)

Note the 7 Questions- and the most important question of all

Romans 8:31-39

New International Version (NIV)

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[a]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerorsthrough him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Q1.   What, then, shall we say in response to these things? 

Q2.  If God is for us, who can be against us?

Q3.  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Q4.  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?  

Q5. Who then is the one who condemns?

Q6.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 

Q7. Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

"How Many Ways Are There to Heaven ?"

Romans 2:6-7

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

⁶ who will render to each person according to his deeds: ⁷ to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life;

Romans 2:13

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹³ for it is not the hearers ^[a]of the Law who are ^[b]just before God, but the doers ^[c]of the Law will be justified.

Note God's Mercy and Grace!!!

Grace - We don't deserve but they give to us.

Romans

Ch 1-3 - Bad News

Ch 4-5 - Justification

Ch 6-8 Sanctification of the inner man

Ch 9- Theology of election

Ch 10- Human Responsibilty

Ch 11- God's Sovereigntiy with Human Responsibilty

Ch 12- Disciplship is live in the light of the redemption

Regimental

1. Our Performance
2. Our Work
3. What we Must Do
4. Requirements and Law

Redemptive 

1. Our Pilgrimage
2. Our Walk
3. What GOD Has Done
4. Redemption and Grace

We have a complaining spirit today…

We need Gratitude 

Focus: The INCREDIBLE Love of God…!!!

The Eternality of God's Love (Jer 31:3)

• Is the Love of God conditional or unconditional?
• Conditionally unconditional , In Christ is love is completely unconditional. 
• Story of response form girl to guy "Do you love me enough to die for me"… in response he said… I can't bcoz i have an "undying love".

Gethsemane: A Place of…?

• It became a place of Romance… (Realisation from Edmund Chan in Israel)
• The place of the greatest love the world have ever known right there
• "I only live the love you more each day" - God responded because he cannot love like that…
• Love is Complete and Perfect. One cannot add to Perfection. 

Starting Over is all about Coming Home!

• Radical is coming back to its roots
• The love of God redefine everything

Day 2

 

Plenary 2

Introduction

1. Don't confuse the Means with the Ends (e.g. Revival)

• Revival is the Means

• Than what is the end?
• End: Missions Living out of God's mind, like Jesus
• The church will not be perfect in this side of eternity, but it can always be transformed and purified in Christ

    2. Three steps for Breaking Free

• As simple as A- B  C

Isaiah 52:2

Shake yourself from the dust, rise up,
O captive Jerusalem;
Loose yourself from the chains around your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.

A- Acknowledge Your Spiritual Condition

"Shake off the dirt…"

• Examine our heart!

1.  "To shake yourself from the dust" an idiom that speaks of MOURNING.

Divine Initiative, God's divine acts

   2. Implications: God's chosen people can be in CAPTIVITY.

• Zion is a metaphor for liberation.
• "…The pray is if  you don't help me I will always do it again… Lord I need you."
• Acknowledge our desperate need for God.

    3. Application. The greatest challenge is Spiritual COMPLACENCY.

• Discipleship is about following Jesus, it's coming to recognise we need to desperately turn to God
• Sometimes we overly focus on our sins, and we become our sins and guilt. 

• Sin is under the surface. On the surface it looks good, but underneath is slowly eating from the inside out.
• How do you kill a wolf?

B- Believe Your Destiny

"Rise up and sit down…"

1.  Move from your DISAPPOINTMENT and DARKNESS and rise up in glory!
2. Rise up from the DUST- because we have a DESTINY!
3. Implication. You must change! Of WHAT, for WHAT.
4. What kind of change? TOTAL change!

• Don't pray for God change me… but "Lord change me, TOTALLY"… nothing less than Total Change.

C- Choose to be Free

"Free yourself, take off the iron chains around your neck."

1. Why "Free yourself"?  Why not say, "Let God free you"?

• The Principle of CHOICE

• Bondage is a strange and subtle. (e..g elephant in chains tied to a tree from young, it gives up… and in future, even a rope tied can bound an Elephant.)

2. Implication. Our problem is the WILL.

• The Church has a problem with Selective listening.

3.Application. Returning to the Point of DEPARTURE!

• Point of EXPOSURE (vulnerability)
• Point of DEPARTURE (choice)
• Point of SEIZURE (bondage)
• Point of RECOVERY (Repentance)

Conclusion

He's My King!

"Our Victory is in Him!… Our victory is secure in Him!"

Jesus my King! Victory has come! 

IDMC 2013

Plenary 3- Ps Ann Lim

Looking Up-The Art of Forgiving

1 ) Contemporary Challenges to Discipleship

• Isolation
• Seduction
• Prominence
• Driven-ness

2) Four Arenas that Hinder Discipleship and Spirituality

• Primal Wounds of the Heart: "I'm hurt"
• Cynicism of the Mind: "I'm doubtful"
• Paralysis of the Will: "I'm unable, I can't"
• Overcrowding of the Soul: "I'm too busy"

What makes starting over difficult

"Half Done-s"

• Unfinished Business
• Unrequited Love 
• Unrepaired Foundations (Word of God is compromised)
• Unresolved Conflicts 

One man's Journey:

When the New Assignment…

Stir up the Old Wounds

Four Movement in Jonah's life

1. The Painful Assignment (Jonah 1:2)

² “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”

The City of Sin (CF to Nahum's Ministry)

• The Reign of Violence Cruelty
• The Power of courted Wealth
• The Domination of perverted Harlotry
• The Fullness of sin is reached

Nineveh: The Capital of the Great Assyrian Empire

• Probably 100,000 people
• Jonah's Ministry: 780-750 BCE

2.The Stubborn Defiance  (Jonah 1:3)

³ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

a) The Act of Disobedience

• Starts with an unwillingness 
• Fuel by a sense of self rights and will
• We bring our problem wherever we go, we need a change of heart

b) The Failure to Represent God

• The Hebrew among the pagans
• The pagans were more spiritual sensitive & righteous than Jonah 

3.The Glorious Repentance (Jon 3)

a) The City Repented

• Personal and National Repentance (v.5-9)
• God was moved by their sincerity and relented (v.10)

b) The Prophet's Displeasure

• Severe Depression: Suicidal
• Deep Anger

4.The Dark Depression (Jonah 4)

a. What it Unearth from the Depths of the Prophet's Heart

• Embittered by the cruel years
• "How could God forgive them?"

b. That Which Embittered Him Binds His Soul

• The root of bitterness (Heb 12:15)
• ¹⁵ See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
• e.g. Field Bindweed
• The root of bitterness defiles many

1. The Book of Jonah is about FORGIVENESS

• The IMPORTANCE of Forgiveness is Starting Over Cannot Be Overlooked!

Forgiveness…

Is costly: It's prized

It's Substitutionary: It's taking another's place

Is Volitional: It is a choice

Is Emancipation: It releases you

"I can forgive, but I cannot forget - is only another way of saying I will not forgive. Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note-torn in tow, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one." - Henry Beecher

Forgiveness is starting over

Easing the past

A FORGIVENESS Story

LOOKING UP!

IDMC 2013

Plenary 4- Rev Edmund Chan

Letting Go: The Art of Forgetting

• We are forgetful creatures BUT…

(Story of how mom kept his University acceptance letter during his NS days… in the end he got enrolled into a bible college) 

Three things we are to FORGET

A - Forgetting What Lies Behind (Phil 3:13-14)

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹³ Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

(Illustration: To guard his heart he burnt a final year thesis of a SBC seminary student who wrote about his life as a leader… he said he will look back at it had when his older since he know reading it now is not going to help… he came back to that man later and found out that his house was burnt and the original thesis of him was burnt along side with it. Even SBC didn't keep archives at that time)

• Forget past accolades…

"To be a learner for life!"

B- Forgetting the Former Things (Isa 43: 18,19) 

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past."

However it differs from Isaiah 46:9-10 (which talks about remembering the former…) So why the incongruence? See the context.

Story of Joshua 3… how come God parted the waters so far from where they were at. To test and strengthen their faith. 

C- Forgetting Your Shame (Eze 39:26)

²⁶ They shall forget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid,

• God reached in to touch us and embrace us
• There is certain things in our life, we have to forget and let go. (e.g. in Breakthrough weekends)

• God breaks in, break with, break forth…
• Questions asked in Breakthrough weekends…1) Do you really believe breakthrough is possible, 2) Do you really believe breakthrough is possible today, 3) Do you really believe breakthrough is possible for ME today.

Application Principles:

1. Redefining Your PURPOSE

• How to say No to others?… Learnt to Say a big YES to God's leading first, and if anything that goes against to this BIG YES to God, you can say NO to others.

1. Repairing Your PAST

• The past can damage, destroy or define you…

1. Re-Calibrating Your VALUES

• What is important to you?

1. Re-fousing Your PRIORITIES

• Putting first things to first

1. Renewing Your WALK

• A new bible (Remarked it), Starting a Smalll Journal (one page a day will do)
• (e.g. pastor who re-org his priorities, Started his day with a short walk , mediate on a scripture text, a small note book and summarised it)

1. Re-Packing For FUTURE

• God holds the future in His hand.
• Travel light

1. Re-Inventing YOURSELF

• After learning the art of letting go, it's easier to learnt the art of growing
• There must be a new vision, new height… (There's no such thing is Been there, Done that!) 
• As a christian, there's this longing in our heart of "The thrill of an Adventure with God"

Conclusion:

"Forget the past…God is giving you a Great Future!"

IDMC 2013

Day 3

 

Plenary 5- Rev Edmund Chan

"There's a Discipleship Crisis in the Church Today" - (Pg 73, Of a Certain Kind)

"What kid of Christians is the Church Discipling?"

Introduction:

1. Chronic problem in the Church: Extended spiritual infancy
2. Lost the radical-ness of Discipleship… (Paul held on strongly that… Jesus is Lord!)

• The heart desire of God's for the church, is the kind of disciples the church is discipling

Five Truths About Spiritual Maturity:

1. Truth ACKNOWLEDGED and APPLIED leads to Spiritual Maturity.

• (Story of how A helicopter and boat to came by to save this man, but he kept responding that God will save  him… in the end in Heaven, he responded why God didn't save him, but God did sent those means to save him…)

1. Spirituality maturity is not AUTOMATIC.

• One of the key things God used in our lives is Suffering.
• Testing produces perseverance.
• God produce spiritual maturity in our lives.

1. Spiritual maturity is not measured by spiritual OFFICE nor spiritual GIFTEDNESS.

• Our office is not based on the titles that we are given. 
• Spiritual maturity should stand on the Word of God

1. Spiritual maturity precedes spiritual MULTIPLICATION 

1. The defining water-shed of spiritual maturity is CHRISTLIKENESS.

• Humility & Authority married together by Integrity brings about Unity (harmony)

What does that Christ-like Spiritual Maturing look like?

A. Spiritual Maturity Characterized by LOVE

"Love out of a pure heart…"

1 Timothy 1:5

New International Version (NIV)

^" The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."

   

• Love distinguished discipleships
• We are grace receivers and grace releases… 
• Love comes when we forget ourselves, something other than ourselves. 

B. Spiritual Maturity Characterized by a GOOD CONSCIENCE

"A good conscience…"

• It's not a guiltless confession.
• If the compass is functioning it is a good conscience…
• Spiritual Maturity is when we come to nothing to prove, nothing to lose and nothing to hide.

C. Spiritual Maturity Characterized by A SINCERE FAITH

"… A sincere faith" (GK. "anupokritos')

• Our faith cannot exist merely by appearance. 
• Illustration: If we compare the Genuine fake and a Genuine genuine… (this is easy to tell apart)… but (a fake genuine) is hard to tell, If we pretend for too long, we can become a fake genuine (to look spiritually mature)

Concluding Remarks:

The answer to this is DRAWING NEAR…

"Are we just glancing at Jesus or glazing at him?"

Plenary 6- Ps Ann Chan

STAYING TRUE

Depending on God Alone

Introduction:

A Tale of 2 Fathers:

• What they had in common: They died almost the same month, both have 2 young kids, quiet and desperate life

• How they are Different: Father A, greatly disturb and depress. Father B, running out of time, determined to stay true as Father 

Staying True: The Antidote to Nominal Christianity

• An unexpected Hero: Gideon
• Judges 6:11 "Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites."

1. An Unexpected Hero: Gideon

In the Midst of a Troublesome Time

• A Powerful Enemy
• A Great Devastation
• A Depressing Time

• "Sometimes God bring us to places that brings out the worst of us, to call forth the best of us."

1. An Unusual Pronouncement: Mighty! 

• Judges 6:12, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valour.”
• In the place of Obscurity 
• The favour of the Lord: "With you"
• The pronouncement of Greatness "O Mighty man of valour"

• Story of women who have a photo of his husband, she said whenever I looked at that photo I get encouraged… Why? because "Whenever I look at that photo, I'm reminded of what problem can be bigger than this. "

1. An Unusual Assignment

• Judges 6:25,26

²⁵ That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it²⁶ and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 

• In the challenges of Power Encounter
• Tearing Down the False (We have false structures in our lives that we need to tear down)
• Building Up the True

1. An Unorthodox Strategy

• Judges 7:1,2 "… and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley." ² The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

• In the Logic of the Power of Many

• In the logic of the Power of Great Multitude
•  "…lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
• A place of Vulnerability
• A place of utter Dependency

1. Staying True is about ALLEGIANCE

• Hearing only one voice
• Belonging only to one Master
• "How can we love God until we know God, How do we know God until we love God."

ALLEGIANCE

Say no to this 5 other A's

• Addiction
• Affliction
• Achievements
• Affiliation
• Affections

1. Staying true is about BELIEF

• Holding fast to the Unshakeable Foundation: God has spoken
• Responding to His Irresistible Grace: God has Demonstrated

1. Saying True is about COMMITMENT

• "To go to God. We red a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him. To love no one but Him."

COMMITMENT

• An Undivided House
• An Uncontested Love

A Fresh longing to Draw Near 

An Inward Stirring

"I was overwhelmed.. the long inhibition was over, the dry desert lay behind, I was off once more into the land of longing." - CS Lewis

The 3-4 Principle of Isaiah 58:11,12

"And the Lord will continually GUIDE you, And SATISFY your desires in scorched place, 

And GIVE STRENGTH to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters don not fail."

"Those from among you will REBUILD the ancient ruins; You will RAISE up the age-old foundations;

And you will bed called the REPAIRER of the breach, The RESTORER of the streets in which to dwell."

IDMC 2013

Plenary 7 

 

MOVING ON

Aligning with God's Purpose By Rev Edmund Chan

A lot of times we praise God by just lip service only. 

• (Story of stallion who move forward with response to "Praise the Lord", and stops when hear the word "Amen"… and begun riding the horse… when he wanted stallion to stop at the edge of the cliff, he said "Amen." In his joy, he said "Praise the Lord!"

Dilemma: THe Push- Button Doesn't Work!

Question From A Sincere Seeker-

"I have a question. Actually I have been (will also be) doing more in church (leadership, mentoring and preaching) and at work (taking up new roles). I also been doing my QT and journaling daily (at least most of the times). Outwardly. 

But I realised that in my thinking-time and through my actions , I felt I have lost my love for God, people and a compassion for the lost (In comparison to before). Inwardly 

Is it normal to go through this (like wilderness) Or something is wrong in my inner life/Most important of all, what can I do?"

The dissonance between the inward and outward is commonly caused by-

1. The SAUL of TARSUS Syndrome 

a) This is the syndrome of IGNORANCE.

b) This is also the PHARISEE Syndrome in SAUL: The Syndrome of PRIDE.  

It was the focus on outward religion without inward reality. 

Philippians 3:4-6

New International Version (NIV)

⁴ though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

1. The ELIJAH Syndrome

• This is the syndrome of God's WORK IN US

After one threat by Jezebel… (1 Kings 19:3) ^{3 "}Elijah was afraid^[a] and ran for his life…"

What's the PRACTICAL solution?

• There is NONE available. 
• WHY? If there is a prescribed solution (one will try it, might work awhile, but it's not about been there, done that)

Redemptive Journey, at the end of all the bag tricks one can have, no button to push to help you, when things are out of control, the only principle one can hang on too is GOD IS FAITHFUL!

Three important principles for MOVING ON!

• This should not be a push button, but it should bring our focus THEO-CENTRICALLY.

A. Seeing God's MOVEMENT

• One must move back to the past before going to the future.
• However, the past cannot be reverse
• The past cannot be replaced
• How do we redeemed the past? We can't in terms of push buttons. 
• The Solution comes when we realised GOD IS THE REDEEMER OF OUR LIVES, and HE MAGNIFICENTLY REDEEMS US from our past! 
• What Satan intended for evil,God uses it for Good for His redemptive purposes.
• We limit ourselves with obstacles of what God can do. We need a balance when it comes to christian leadership. There is nothing of what God cannot do. 
• God is at work in the wilderness of your life! 
• In the trials of your life, and God holds you. 

B. Seizing God's MOMENT

• Recognised God is at work Everywhere
• (Story of how an Atheist bought food and purposely place it in front of the doorway of this Christian who was praying for God to provide food… The christian saw the food at his door way, and Praise the Lord for the providence when he saw the food at his doorstep, the Atheist saw his reaction and said, HAHAH! I bought it and not God. There is No God! He responded PRAISE THE LORD, that God provides and got the devil to pay for it. )
• Is your PRAISE THE LORD, just "lip-service"?
• Is not just about divine appointments , is also about "divine rested-ness" 
• Why did God tell them to rest in the wilderness? To teach them to rest & depend on God even in the wilderness. 
• To move on, they must rest in the faithfulness and promises of God. 

C. Serving God's MISSION

• The magnificent kingdom must draw us, not push is. 
• Some people move only when we are push! We will burn out!

There will come a day when we have to stand before God and give an account for our lives.

• Do whom are we accountable? 
• For what are we accountable? 

• There will be things we need in life, but there will be things we need for life.
• There is more to life then merely existing. We are not plants. God has created us for a greater redemptive purposes.

Concluding Remarks:

What are the "white elephants" in your life?

• Things that doesn't matter but take up so much time, resources, money, attention and emotions! 

We have to remove them…so that we can place our resources in the right place- rolling God!

Starting Over… Breaking Free!

Looking Up… Letting Go!

Drawing Near… Staying True!

Moving On!

IDMC 2013- W3- Workshop- Redeeming the Young Adults Generation- Discipling a Certain Kind of Young Adults- Ps Barney Lau

•  Young aunts life context, journey and development are unique different an personal.
• We should not and must note simply lump an entire generation together and label them as such.

Introduction and Context

• 2nd generation and onward young adult Christians who grew in church
• 1st generation young adult Christians who grew up or had spent a few years in church 

What you were like when you were in your 20's?

Did you ever felt like dropping out of church?

Barna Group findings about YA Christians:

• 59% had or have dropped out of attending church after going regularly
• 57% are less active in church today than when they were 15 yrs old
• 32% almost rejected their faith

• "You lost me"- David Kinnaman

"The dropout problem is, at its core a faith development problem…"

"If you're going to run a successful organisation in the future, i'll have to learn how to manage the Millennial generation - that thundering herd of young people whose numbers exceed the Baby Boomers. They will push you and frustrate you, but they will help you ail going onward." - Ken Blanchard

Sharing by a Young Adult 

• Doubts
• Not knowing what to do 
• Ownership (Empower one to not only succeed but to fail… )( We are meant to be counter-cultural… cancelling of auditions…just come be accepting)

Defining this Young Adults:

Millennials or Gen y

•  1980 - 2000

Busters or Gen X

• 1965- 2000

Baby Bloomers

• 1946 - 1964

Builder

• 1946 & below

• A ME GENERATION

• A TECH-SAVVY GENERATIONS (we are online natives)

• AN EMPOWERED GENERATION

• They see themselves as very different ("We're open to change & advancement, "We're much more global & connected", "We're critical thinkers… we question the norm, we don't just blindly follow the machine.
• Believe the 'old way', the 'old mentality' is inefficient
• A generation of confident 'empowered' individuals who operate in an intensely communal environment

Young Adult Generation

• Technologically Immersed
• Diverse in Thought
• High Expectations

Realities of the Singapore YA generation (What HR professionals see of the YA)

• Risk Adverse
• Instant results
• Easily discouraged

AN ENTITLED GENERATION

• They want to understand why they are doing what they are doing

An Unhappy Singapore Generation

• Baby boomers were the happiest while Young Adults were the unhappiest

Delayed Adulthood  

"I think this next generation is not just slightly different from the past. I believe they are discontinuity different than anything we have see before."

ACCESS

• Sensing, perceiving & interpreting world, faith & spirituality through screens
• Expectation of constant & unlimited access
• Technology is part of their generational Self Identity

ALIENATION

• Relational alienation one of defining features
• Family - Absentee parents
• Adulthood - Delayed
• Institutions- Skepticism
• Financial burden 

AUTHORITY

• Scripture- Skeptical of reliability of scriptures and read bible through a lens of pluralism
• Culture- Only thing worse than wrong is irrelevance!
• Christian influencers- who will young Christians look to as their voice of Christian persuasion?

Why Dropout?

• Overprotective church
• Shallow Christianity
• Anti-Science
• Repressive church (struggling with how to live meaningful lives in terms of sex and sexuality, how to live up to church's expectations of chastity and sexual purity in this culture & delayed marriage)
• Exclusive Christianity (Shaped by a culture that esteems open mindedness, tolerance and acceptance, Forced to choose between faith & friends)
• Doubtless Church (Church is not a place that allows them to express doubts and that sometimes christnity does not make sense to them, Church response to doubt is trivial)

GET RID OF OUR MYTHS

5 Myths of YA…

• Most lose their faith after high school
• dropping out is natural
• College experiences are the key factor that cause people to drop out
• This generation of young christians is increasingly "biblically illiterate"
• Young people will come back to church like they always do.

A Strategic Perspective

• They are souls that we have to win for Jesus Christ!
• They are part of the church… 
• Issues that relate to the Young Adults
• It takes YA to reach the YA…

A Leadership Will

A Church Culture

• "Stay ahead of the culture by creating the culture"

A Few Good Men

All Sweat & Tears

HOW?

Story of lost young elephants - Tim Elmore

Sharing by a Young Adult

• The Church is "shallow" today
• We are doing bible study, mission trips etc… but we have not really been deep.
• Questions now, Where is God now? Where is the church? 
• The church response : We have been giving you bible study etc… 
• we have been moving from programmes to programmes without looking at the person as a friend
• We should be "Genuinely Deep" … the church needs slightly more mature YA to walk with the YA…

3 Discipleship Strategies to Redeem our Young Adults

• Mentor Them  
• (In the transitions, seasons & stations of life, in their head, heart & hands, in their personal discipleship & godliness, For total life change & growth, for life reproduction)

• Model for them  
• (By a Leadership, By their Leaders, By the Church, By their Peers, Best by their Mentors, Greatest by their parents) 
• (Expressive values (Grace, growth & godliness) 

• Move them
• (Be accepting & extend Grace, Affirm Identity & Build Community, Be Authentic & Be Intentional, Be Present & Be Engaged, Be Consistent & Be Long Term, Challenge Them & Give Them Vision)

To Move Them… Move with Them

"A Certain kind is a Christ mastered kind with depth in grace, growth and godliness who seeks God's empowering to fulfil God's will in God's timing and in God's ways for God's glory." 

IDMC 2013-Wk5 - Towards a Redemptive Journey of  Becoming an IDMC - Rev Tony Yeo

 

State of the Church Today:

Growth Without DEPTH 

- John Stott, 2006 Christianity Today

Largest Church in history but also the SHALLOWEST

• Edmund Chan, Built to Last

The State of the Church Today:

1. The Spirit of our Age: Convenience
2. The Struggle of our Age: Lordship
3. The Stress of our Age: Busyness
4. The Superficiality of our Age: Shallow conversions

Back to the basic:

Matthew 28:18-20

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Great Commission Re-Examined

• Seven Misconceptions

1. Missing the Main FOCUS

• Not on the Church but on Christ

1. Missing the Main ESSENCE

• Not a Message to broadcast but a Life to Live…

 3.  Missing the Main AUDIENCE

• Not just for missionaries and pastors only…
• It's for everyone who calls himself a christian, a committed followers of Christ.

1. Missing the Main COMMAND

• Not "Go" but "Make Disciples"…

 5.  Missing the Main PRODUCT

• Not "Make Converts" but "Make Disciples"…
• When was the last time did you bring someone to Christ?

1. Missing the Main YARDSTICK

• Not baptism or teaching but "to obey"…

1. Missing the Main CONCERN

• Not the task but the scope of the task…

Conviction For Discipleship

Four Fundamental Convictions

• SOURCE of the Great Commission - All Authority 
• SCOPE of the Great Commission - All Nations
• STRATEGY of the Great Commission - All Things
• SEASON  of the Great Commission - All Time

1. It is ABSOLUTELY Biblical

• A commitment to disciple-making is essential to the primary calling of the Church.   

Isaiah 43:10

“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
    “and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
    and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
    nor will there be one after me.

1. Jesus COMMANDED it

• Disciple-making is a non-negotiable command given by our Master Himself

1. Jesus MODELLED it

• Jesus' mission was not merely to die on the cross. It was also to disciple the people whom God had chosen. 

John 17:4,6-8

⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

⁶ “I have revealed you^[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

1. Key to CHURCH Health

• Church health is not measured primary by how many attend a service but "what kind" of people the congregation becomes as a result of the church. 

Eph 4:13

¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

5. Genius of SPIRITUAL MULTIPLICATION

• God intends every believer to be a disciple of christ and to disciple others. Our lives and ministry is not just expanded beyond ourselves but also to disciple others.

1. It is the Heart of A PURPOSE-DRIVEN CHURCH

Gal 4:19

¹⁹ My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

1. EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE

• The most critical need of the church today is leadership. Mentoring is the key to this effective leadership emergence. 

2 Tim 2:2

² And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

1. Power For Christian Living

• Disciple-making grows us in not merely in knowledge but transforms us to engage the world in every arena of life.

Ephesians 3:20

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

1. Powerful VEHICLE for Truth

• Truth is best communicated through the medium of trusted relationships.

Acts 4:13

¹³ When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus

10. FULFILS the Great Commandment

• The Great Commission is the practical outworking of the Great Commandment.

John 21:15

¹⁵ When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

CORE VALUES of IDMC 

Conventional Values

1. Making Converts
2. Successful programs are valued
3. 20% do 80% of the work
4. Laity - Led, Clergy- Driven
5. Disciples are made in the church
6. Church dispenses information
7. Unexaminded church values
8. Asks "How Many" attended church?"
9. Looks for change in outward behaviour 
10. Low expectations of Christians

Core Values

1. Making Disciples
2. Spiritual Maturity is valued
3. 20% equipped 80% to minister
4. Clergy- Led. Laity- Driven
5. Disciples are made in the family/workplace
6. Church values transformation
7. Clear church values
8. Asks "What kind attended church?"
9. Looks for change in inner life/conviction
10. Believes in potential of Christian

A Four Fold Crisis

1. It is a crisis of POST-MODERNITY

• Crisis of Identity in an Age of Narcissism 
• Crisis of Truth in an Age of Pragmatism (What works for you)
• Crisis of Authority in Age of Consumerism (There's not room for sleeping christian in church)
• Crisis of Spirituality in an Age of Fatigue (Are we overloaded in life, stress?)

• 2. It is a crisis of PRODUCT (Matt 5-7)

Five Biblical Marks of an Intentional Disciple:

a. The WORD Agenda (John 15:7, Matt 7)

b. The LORDSHIP Agenda (Luke 9:23, Matt 6:33) (Not Lord just on our lips but of our Lives!)

c. The LOVE Agenda (Jn 13:34-35)

d. The FRUIT-BEARING Agenda  (Jn 15:5)

e. The EQUIPPING Agenda (Eph 4:12)

3. It is a crisis of PROCESS (a Two-fold problem)

a. The Lack of Biblical Discipling Today

1. I Don't Care - Indifference 
2. I Don't Know - Ignorance
3. I Don't Want - Inconvenience

b. Faulty Discipling

1. Elitist- Only
2. Disciplinarian- Checklist approach
3. Dysfunctional- Co-dependent
4. Regimented- Scolding, militant

4. It is a crisis of PASSING ON

There is a lack of leadership Transition.