'Feliz Navidad' or 'Merry Christmas in Malaysia'

Hey, check out this video of PASSION-PRAISE's church's Caroling Team that shared the Joy of Christmas to many homes and touched the lives of many: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTNDnxquA0E. Thanks Peter for the video! It's awesome!

Ancient Practices 4 New Hearts

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Review the slides and ask yourself:

• what skill have I spent (or will spend) 10,000 hours on?
• how can I make the Christian faith a 'way of life' for me?

Do a brief "spiritual check-up" by scoring yourself against a list of 10 spiritual practices. Remember : Commit yourself to working on one practice within each category (of Burn, Build & Eat). If this is too difficult, then at the very least commit yourself to attending to at least one practice out of the ten.

Spending Time in Church: From Enforcement to De-Relativisation (Jason Clark)

See the full post here:

I know on the one hand I don’t want a church life where everyone is in church meetings, but on the other, as a bunch of missional activists we do expect we do ask a great deal of people. Our community is not a comfortable place to just hang out in, with no demands on your time, energy and money. (NOTICE: This post is not an argument or apologetic for church as sunday services and endless committee meetings. It’s about the challenge of ordering life around faith with others in a liberal secular society).

As I began mulling that over, the main thing that strikes me with regards to time demands in a time poor society, is how we can give ourselves to almost anything, be that sport, music, motorbike riding (my current favourite hobby), any interest at great length and at great cost, with no question.

But when it comes to church, somehow there is something almost obscene and abusive about the giving anywhere near the same commitment, or even the slightest commitments. So how did we get here, and what might be a way to respond?

One of the things that has happened is that church life not just been relativised, it has been demeaned, through a process over time something like this (perhaps):

1. Enforced: Church life at one time was a question of Christendom, with political and cultural participation. By being English you were a Christian, and Christians fought to discover personal faith beyond and within cultural structures. Choosing the nature of your faith was unusual, and difficult.

2. Voluntarism: Then in the 19th century voluntarism explodes on the scene. With the emergence of nation states, capitalist markets, huge increases in income and leisure, the freedom to choose faith arose.

And for many Christians the ability to choose faith, and it’s shape and form was liberating. But by and large these formulations of faith, still ordered the rest of life and leisure.

3. Relativisation: But the freedom to choose soon becomes the freedom to choose anything other than participation in Christian community and mission. There is a direct correlation in the UK with increases in income, leisure and decline of church involvement (things get very different compared to the US with factors of lack of state church, welfare state and republican democracy)

4. De-relativised: Then we arrive where things seem today. Church is not just one choice among many, it is a lesser choice. It’s not even a valid hobby for people. To give time to church is to invite criticism in public by anyone who wants in ways that would never happen about other personal interests.

So how might I respond to this? Perhaps one way would to at least expect that our Christian commitments have the same status of any personal interest, hobby, club and society, and to have at least the same demands on our time as all the other things we organise our lives around.

And maybe we might even get to the place where our faith orders all our other commitments rather than fits around anything that is left over. And of course all this reveals that I think the giving of the best of who we are to our faith, first, best and not the last and for that to take place with others and order every other interest we have is what Christian community is about.

So do Christians spend too much time in Church? Well whose business is it if they do, and who is anyone to question what people give their interests to? Perhaps the problem is not that we give too much, but that we give too little.

If my sons rugby club demands that, surely my faith must demand at least the same. My kids sports and performing arts, demand far more than their church discipleship.Traditioned activities, done with others, at great cost of time, energy and money, that requires the organising of other interests around them.

New Kind of Stained Glass

Churced - DeChurched - UnChurched

This church in North-East London developed a post-card with three designs to introduce itself to people:

• Churched - welcome to St. Luke’s on the high street, your local Anglican church.
• Dechurched - disillusioned with church? You’re not alone
• Unchurched - not interested in church? Neither are we in the ways you are probably thinking about church…”

Read the full post here and how do you think it applies to the Malaysian community?

Divine Light & Love - an Advent Reflection by Chuck Smith

Some excerpts below (read the full post here):

The dot of light in the sky that the magi followed from the east to Bethlehem was the dim light of a lamp compared to the greater Light. The arrival of Christ broke through the gloom and dispelled the darkness.

In the high church tradition, four candles are set out the first Sunday of Advent, but only one is lit. Then, each consecutive Sunday, another candle is lit until on Christmas Sunday all four flames shimmer in the front of the church. This is to remember and celebrate the dawning light of Jesus when he entered our world.

Light illuminates and reveals. People who walk in the light can see where they are going (1 Jn. 2:10-11). Light enables us to see things for what they are and enables us to recognize the truth (1 Jn. 1:6-7). Maybe John wanted to leave the door wide open, so that whenever we stood in the sunlight or enjoyed firelight or lamplight, we would be reminded of God. I am sure that John did not have physics in mind, nevertheless, the physical light that shines in our world is not unrelated to God, “for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good” (Mt. 5:45).

If God is Light and God is love, then we can never turn away from light or love, because that would be a turning away from God. Light and love are combined in our life with God, “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light (2:10). That is why belief and a religiously moral life are not the essence of Christianity. The active and external part of our life with God is always about “faith working through love” (Ga. 5:6).

Jesus enters our world at Christmas to tell us we are not alone. He tells us of his Father in heaven, and then in the light of his teaching and the love of his actions, he shows us the Father. In Jesus, we get a taste of the world to come.

6/12 pics!

H2O, Baptism and New Creation

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Music From Heaven: The DUMC Experience

Last month, my mum-in-law shared an incredible experience she had at DUMC.

It was a choral session after the Chinese worship service on Sunday. The instructor was teaching my mum-in-law (together with about 50 other people) how to sing 'spiritual songs', which took the form of chanting "Hallelujah-Hallelujah-Hallelujah" over and over again in a melodious manner. Not quite a mantra but not exactly a hymn either.

(Nothing particularly bizarre about this practice, IMO, as one could see it meditatively focusing on God, with the quasi-chant as a kind of psychological 'cursor'; it helps to channel the mind.)

Then something strange happened. According to my mum-in-law, they were singing, humming and crooning until at one point they stopped - but the sound of singing continued!

It was sense-surround, everywhere. My mum-in-law said it was the most beautiful singing (sans words) she had ever heard. Everyone else in the room heard it.

After a few minutes, the instructor explained that it was the singing of angels (see Rev 5:9-11, 14:2-3). Two words: Awe-Some!

No, I'm sure it wasn't a hoax (I know there'd be more than a few DUMC-ers who would've exposed it by now). This wasn't a pre-recorded CD somewhere (but even if it was, I reckon my mum-in-law wouldn't mind purchasing the track!).

No, this wouldn't count as a hallucination because - as Christian apologists are fond of pointing out apropos the Resurrection - mass hallucinations are non-existent unless all of them have been given a certain drug (in which case it'd be mass-drugging).

No, it isn't a (gimme a break) "natural phenomenon of sound" which results from a group of senior (non-professional singers!) singing a single word.

So what was it? Was it really angels?

Frankly, until I hear it myself, I can't be sure if angels were actually singing in the 'vicinity' of my mum-in-law. But I can be sure that the sound brought joy to my mum-in-law; I can be sure there was no strong/direct contradiction with Scripture (I mean, it's not as if the angelic choir began telling the group to buy Genting shares...); I can be sure that the hearts of the people in the session were in the right place (or rather, I have no reason to suspect otherwise).

So as far as I'm concerned, I have little reason to doubt that it was an angelic cum kingdom effect the group experienced. A touch of God in a special way. A group of people were blessed deeply by a Biblical-oriented spiritual experience of some kind. And if we can't live with that, what can we live with, right? (smile)

HopenHagen - I'm a HOPE-timist!

Top 10 Reasons to celebrate Advent!

10. You get to start celebrating New Year’s early.

Advent is the beginning of the liturgical year for Christians. [Liturgical -- from liturgy, which means the forms and functions of public worship.] The dates of Advent vary each year, but it always contains the four Sundays before Christmas Day. This year Advent starts on November 29.

9. Christmas Procrastinators Rule!

If you observe Advent, you have a legitimate reason for putting off all sorts of things — decorating, putting up your Christmas tree, buying presents. (Be sure to get your Mom’s present, though …) In the Christian realm, Christmas-celebrating doesn’t start until Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But then you have 12 whole days of Christmas afterward! Christmas ends with Epiphany (January 6), the day when we remember the Wise Men arriving to worship the Christ child.

8. Go ahead, all the other Christians are doing it!

Well, OK, not all Christians are observing Advent. (One Christian even asked me if Advent was a Jewish holiday.) But Advent’s been around since the early centuries of Christianity. In recent years, more denominations are starting to observe Advent — kind of recapturing our history.

7. Offers an excellent alternative to decorating with red and green.

The colors of Advent are purple or blue. You may see these colors in your church vestments (the cloths on the altar or podium), in the stoles worn by your pastor or choir, in the color of the candles on the Advent wreath. These are royal colors, calling to mind the Coming of the Son of God.

6. If you LOVE candles, you’ll LOVE Advent!

Lots of folks celebrate Advent by using an Advent wreath. It’s often four candles on a circular wreath signifying the four weeks of Advent. A candle in the center is the Christ candle, lit on Christmas Day and Epiphany. Usually the four candles are purple or blue. If you celebrate Gaudete Sunday on the third week, that candle is pink. (Gaudete means “rejoice” in Latin.) The Christ candle is white.

5. Learn new words to impress your friends.

What more could you ask for? Advent, liturgy, Gaudete, Advent wreath, liturgical season, vestments. You rock, linguistically speaking.

4. Learn new seasonal songs.

When you celebrate Advent, wait until Christmas to sing all those Christmas songs (”Silent Night,” “Jingle Bells,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” and other liturgical favorites). There are TONS of great Advent songs that most people don’t know so well. … Like, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light,” and “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” You can even sing some Advent texts to Christmas tunes (if you can’t wait to hear them).

3. Because I wrote 2 cool Advent books.

I really wanted this to be the number one reason, but I’m trying to work on my humility. But I DID write a couple of cool Advent books. The new one isThe Uncluttered Heart: Making Room for God during Advent and Christmas. The first one was called Child of the Light: Walking Through Advent and Christmas …

2. Gets you in touch with Jesus’ story.

The whole reason for observing the liturgical seasons is that we get to hear Jesus’ entire life story every year. For those of us humans who tend to forget important things like Love and God and Christ, this is definitely a good idea. During Advent, we remember the events leading up to Jesus’ birth.

1. Great remedy for pre-Christmas stress.

Advent’s primary message is to wait, listen, get in touch with God, and prepare our lives and hearts for Jesus’ coming. For speeded up, stressed out people (that would be most of us), this is an intriguing invitation. Observe Advent — and get more in touch with God.

You’re invited to observe Advent this year. Light the first Advent Candle — and lower your stress — starting November 29, 2009.

Read more from Beth Richardson. What other reasons can you think of? :)