Some thoughts I've had

So I've been thinking about the past few blogs (the ones before the 1 sentence updates) and I realized that a large part of what I've put up has been stuff that's happening... or complaints that I have... both of which, while cool, are slightly shallow.

Therefore, because I'm deep, wise and obviously very humble, I decided that I'd post up some of the amazing pearls of wisdom and knowledge that I have gained since my departure from Melbourne. After all it's been almost 2 months, surely I must have learned SOMETHING.

1. Family is important

Now I know that might strike you as strangely common sense... but I guess it takes a lot for guys to learn some of the things that they'd rather not. Don't get me wrong, I've always respected and loved my family, but honestly, until fairly recently (try the last 4 weeks) I hadn't really noticed how integral (hey that's my name) my family was to my life, even my little brother!

Now to explain, I’m going to use three commonplace examples.

Firstly, without my mum around, there’s no one to tell me if I’m not doing a decent job at looking after myself. See most people think their mums are great for cooking and cleaning the house etc… which is partially true… but after some reflection, I realized that the CORE of their behavior (and why they are so annoyingly over protective all the time) is really their monitoring of how well we’re looking after ourselves. Of course the unhealthy extreme is that they think we’re UNABLE to look after ourselves, which is of course completely untrue. However as their children, we occasionally need some promptings or suggestions (or a flat out “Josh, you need to eat more fruit”), and those prove to be helpful. That and I really suck at buying stuff from the supermarket.

2ndly, without my dad around, there’s no one to tell me what to do in life, and no one with whom I can discuss the deeper workings of Biblical doctrine either. Now that (the first part anyway) might strike you as a good thing… and I would have thought so too, but you know I really miss being able to talk with my dad about the Bible, and about where he thinks I should go. Cause while I normally completely ignore his advice… it actually does help to get more information from a considerable older and potentially wiser source. =)

(See my parents read this… and I can’t let them get a big head… it’s important, trust me)

Lastly, I miss my bro for two main reasons. 1: He’d be an awesome musician in my Youth Group, and it’d be like the biggest blessing if he could be over here and help me work on the worship ministry… cause he knows more about how worship ministries work lol. 2: He keeps me humble… lol jk… I just miss hanging out with him. He’s actually not all THAT bad company (despite how often I complain about his attitude) and I like the competition.

But enough of that… let’s move on to the next thing.

2: Following God’s plan does not equate to +12 Faith

For those of you who aren’t gamers, that pretty much means, just because I’m following God’s plan for my life, doesn’t mean my character and faith automatically rise along with my decision.

Ok, to be completely honest, because I’m trying to have less and less to hide, I believe it’s hard to be 100% super sure about what God’s exact plan for my life is. Which is why I’d have to disagree with certain points made by JB in his sermon (Thanks to M for sending me the leadership series… and I believe MC also posted something in his blog about the issue). However I DO believe that my coming out here was definitely a big part of what he would have me do. Even so, I’m learning that just because I took that step, it doesn’t instantly make me an amazing Christian, or a perfect human, or anything of that sort.

I still have to put in the hard work to ID and work on the flaws in my life, and I still have to go through God’s furnace… or using my favorite illustration… I still need to be pummeled like clay to get all the air bubbles out… before I can begin to be shaped. Otherwise, when I get put into the kiln… the air bubbles will expand and shatter me to pieces. It’s strange how that works huh?

3. Living by yourself is cost-inefficient and slightly dangerous
If you don’t believe me… read my previous posts :P

4. Truly great Churches and Christian movements are grown through vision. (God and the Holy Spirit are obviously givens when I make this statement.)

It’s actually been something I’ve noticed a lot lately, but there are a LOT of churches and Christian groups in HK. Of course maybe I’m just more aware of them… but either way… I see that a lot of them are quite stagnant, indeed not going anyway. The ones that are, those Churches have a clear vision, a clear mission, and leaders dedicated to following that goal.

5. I’ve been very insulated [at CLC]

That might come as a fairly interesting and surprising statement, but it’s quite true. I’m not talking about being sheltered from the sins of the world, and the uglier side of human nature. I’m talking about within the church.

CLC is a HUGE church… and that’s not all. Leading within CLC is comparatively really easy; you have committed coaches, awesome pastors, cutting edge and Spirit inspired strategies. You have over 1000 (or is it 1500) volunteers and a critical mass for just about any ministry. What’s more… there is so little politics… and most of the leaders are really awesome people.

Outside of that… church is different… and I’m not just talking about my church here. ALL the churches I’ve visited… all the youth groups I’ve seen… they all suffer from various issues that I’ve simply never had to deal with as a leader. Politics, gossip, lack of commitment, hypocrisy (yes I realize that’s pretty universal… in fact they all are… but hear me out), leaders with bad character, clichés… See we talk about these things in CLC, we try to deal with them and they do exist… no church is perfect… but let me tell you… outside of that… it can be a lot worse. I thought my old church, which will be unnamed, needed to work on some of this stuff… but let me tell you… it’s not as bad as you’d think… and I’ve only been to the youth and young adults groups of these churches… (thankfully it’s not like this at my own church… and thus I’m very grateful to the eternal grace and wisdom of God).

And you know what?

6. That sucks! [Disunity within the church is bad]

The church is called to be a united body of individuals who truly love one another and who seek to extend that love to all the peoples of the world. It’s called to be holy, perfect and pleasing to God. We’re called to so love one another that the peoples of the world will know that we have something different, special and unique… and they will WANT what we have.

How then has it reached this point?

Now I’m actually exaggerating the situation in HK, I’ll admit that, however I’m also NOT exaggerating it at the same time… because anyone who reads this will agree that it’s true. The church is massively divided, not doing what we’re called to do… and I believe it’s a very bad thing.

7. So what should we do? [Our generation is the answer]

Love God, Love Others, Go and make disciples = )

Our age group truly is one of the most amazing generations that has ever been. We’re more connected, more networked and more online then any past people. We have greater capacity for communication, for outreach and I believe for change, then any generation before.

Simply put, just think about it this way, never before has there been such an opportunity for a few people to make a worldwide impact. Imagine if just one person made a personal decision to work with the Holy Spirit in their life and live according to how we were called to in the Bible. No gossip, no slander, no politics or any of that… just whole hearted and disciplined devotion to God, and a passion for his name. With only six degrees separating that one person from everyone on the planet… what sort of impact could he or she make?

Now I don’t mean to be all hyped up and rhetorical to you guys, especially not the ones who read my blog constantly, cause I’m pretty sure you know all this stuff. I suppose I just wanted to write down what I’ve been thinking about lately, about what I’m called to do… about the impact that our generation should be having… and how time is starting to run out.

I guess this is as much to myself as anyone else. There are always areas in my life that I need to work on…

Hmm… I think I just wrote a sermon without even intending too… I only planned on 3 or 4 points. = S Feel free to disagree with me... reading over it... I'm not sure if I was being 100% coherent :P lol