Personal Retreats

Recently I was reading Dr.Alex Tang's post on Face Book (FB) about a personal retreat he had taken in the middle of August. I asked him on FB where did he go for his retreat. To my surprise he had it at his home. Usually people go away from home for a retreat, but Dr.Tang stayed at home. He said he has done retreats this way several times before.

People from different religions take retreats, and I have read some by Christians like Pastor Kenny Chee of Singapore on his blog called blogpastor.blogspot.com. It is always interesting to read what others did during the retreat. Dr.Tang said he read Gospel of John and Gordon Macdonald's Buiildiing Below the Waterline during his retreat. Beside these reading materials, he sang hymns on each day of the retreat.

Personally, I feel one of the main aim of retreat is to get closer to God because in our daily existence we are usually busy and may neglect our spiritual needs. In retreats we are usually away from home, and we have specific time set a side to communicate and listen to God. Dr.Tang said we take retreats may be to seek God in making an important decision, or we are on a cross-road, seeking Him before entering a certain ministry, also to reflect on what has happened and to enjoy the presence of our Lord.

According to Dr.Tang there are two types of retreat, a) non guided retreat b) guided retreat. In non guided retreat you conduct the retreat yourself and it is advisable to use this method when you have more experiences in retreat. The guided retreat is for novices, here a director guides you in reading the Words, discussion and centering your thoughts on God.

Silent seem to be a key in retreat. As I read some blogs about retreat usually after a initial instruction from the director, one is to keep silent in prayer, meditation, reflection and reading the Words. At the end of the day members may meet up for meals and fellowship.

One day I would like to go to a guided retreat.

There are certainly many retreats all over the world. In Chiangmai, Thailand there is one called Seven Fountains retreat (www.thesevenfountains.org). It is run by the Jesuit.

To read Dr.Alex Tang's blog click on the title of this post.

Seven Fountains Retreat, Chiangmai.


Jesuit Retreat House, Cleveland Ohio.

Prayer Life

I was reading a fellow blogger Szezeng.blogspot.com where he wrote about the importance of a preacher's prayer life. Personally, I think prayer is not only important for preachers but for all Christians. It is through prayers that we communicate with God. Not that He needs to communicate with us, but we mortals need Him, thus we need to communicate with Him. He already knows everything, even before we pray to Him, yet why do we need to pray you may ask. By praying each Christian is having a relationship with Him. He loves us and He wants us to communicate with Him at all times. In the Bible we are instructed to pray unceasingly. For a Christian prayer is like blood in our bodies. Can you imagine if there is no blood in your body? Well,prayer is like that. You may ask, "How am I to pray unceasingly when I have to work and have other responsibilities?". We still can pray to God unceasingly by tuning our thoughts towards Him, praise Him, thank you, ask(pray) to Him in whatever you may be doing at that time. If you ran out of things to pray you can still pray the Jesus Prayer like this, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,have mercy on me, a sinner".

To read Szezeng blog click on the title of this post.

He uploaded an interesting video watch it

Trinity Methodist Church - Alpha Weekend Away

On 20th Aug and 21st Aug 2011, Trinity Methodist Church (TMC), Kuching had their Alpha Weekend Away at Christian Worship Centre (CWC) about 40 minutes drive from Kuching.

Trinity's Alpha organizer, Bro.Vincent had invited Alpha Malaysia Trainers couple, Bro. Lee Kee Huat and Sister Guy to help conduct this week end away. Bro. Tzin Kit and I were invited to help out as well. We from First Baptist Church (FBC) were glad to be able to help out in this Alpha Weekend Away.

This is the second Alpha Classic conducted by TMC and they were very encouraged by the response from the guests. All in about 16 guests attended. They were from varies backgrounds. The course is being assisted by a number of TMC members led by Bro. Vincent.

Praise God that the weekend went well despite the lack of organization as commented by Bro. Vincent. Indeed, the Holy Spirit visited the guests as well as the helpers. During ministry time on Saturday 20th many were overwhelmed by the move of the Holy Spirit. A number of guests and helpers broke down in tears as the Holy Spirit convicted each individual.

On Sunday 21st Aug, Pastor James Chin from TMC anointed each guests with oil on the fore head followed a prayer.

Bro. Ting Meng Choon and Bro.Jonathan Ngu helped to relax the guests by interceding the sessions with hilarious ice-breakers that all of us enjoyed. Many were entertained by the multi-talented Ting Meng Choon and he is well known at TMC from TMC(Trinity Methodist Church)! Bro. Jonathan did well with his "handsaw handsake".

Glory to God that all had a blessed and worshipful weekend away and many were able to witness the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

On behalf of the organizing committee, we thank Bro. Lee Kee Huat and Sis. Guy for making time to help TMC.

Discipling

More on Missional Church

After attending the two-day seminar on Missional Church, I found the concept interesting in the approach to church. In Asia many of us are more familiar with the traditional church, where most churches aimed to attract new members using various means like having engaging praise and worship sessions with nice music and better stage performances. But the missional way is different.

The traditional way is attractional, that is the church use all means to attract members, where as missional applies to the whole life of every believer.

According to Alan Hirsch a missional activist missional is not the same as emerging church which is about renewal to fit with the culture. Missional is not evangelistic or seeker-sensitive, these terms apply to attractional model. Missional is not a new way for church growth, it is more than that.

It appears that missional is more about being out side of the four walls of churches. Every disciple should carry the mission of God to every sphere of life to engage with non believers in their environment.

In the West, the attractional model is less effective now due to changing culture to the post-christian era.

Watch a video of Tim Keller describing the characteristics of missional church.

Missional Church

On 11th and 12th Aug, 2011 Dr.Paul & Carol Alexander from Mattersey Hall, a Bible school in UK were here to speak about missional church. This is not a new way of doing church but a refreshing way of redefining how we should share the Gospel to the larger community. Both Paul and Carol had vase experiences in this area and they were passionate in their work. The audience benefited from their sharing. Their sharing of the missional concept with stories were very interesting and relevant to the understanding of missional church.

What is missional church? A missional church seeks to reveal God in every way possible. It is committed to the community and it is Biblical. It is a God "reflector" to use Dr.Paul Alexander's term. Indeed, this term is most appropriate because as a Christian, we are a reflection of God. We let others see us as a God reflector.

Missional characteristics:

1. More than a Christian, it is being Christ-like. Committed to Jesus 24/7. Not to be worldly but made choices that reflect Jesus.

2. Not just good but you are holy. If you are a missional person your life have been changed. Jesus makes a difference in our lives. People are aware that we are Christians.

3. Not being attractional, but incarnational. Not a church that just attract people to church, but a church that is transformational. People reveal Jesus.

4. Not an individual, but a community. The missional church is a community and does not operate in a individualistic way. It is not our church that is important, the community is top priority too.

5. Not being hierarchical but apostolic. Not operating like a hierarchy like top down management structure, but apostolic like what the Apostle did in the Bible. There was no formal management structure like we know today.

6. Not building a church, but a kingdom. Man focus on building buildings like church, but we are to build the kingdom of God.

The above are just some teaching from Dr.Paul & Dr.Carol. There much more details, if you have the chance attend their seminars.

Over the past two years Pastor Ben Wong from Shepherd Community Church had been coaching our church and it is very much what he is teaching. He may not use the term missional, but his church and work is missional. He is teaching us to go out to the community to "do church", and not to confine ourselves within the four walls of our church.

Alpha Workplace Weekend - KTS Group

After many weeks of Alpha workplace sessions at KTS Group, Kuching the Weekend away was conducted on Saturday 13th Aug 2011 at the company's conference room. This weekend away was for half a day starting at 9.30 am to 2.30 pm.

Praise God that many brothers and sisters from churches like Trinity Methodist Church (TMC), Faith Anglican, Faith Methodist, and First Baptist Church (FBC) were helping with this course and Hosts and Helpers from these churches were there for the Weekend Away to assist KTS. The MC was Bro. Yap Min Su.

The session started with worship leading by Bro. Gordon Low (TMC) supported by guitarist Patrick (Faith Anglican). The songs sang were worshipful that helped participants to anticipate the Holy Spirit. It was a spirit filled worship session. Pastor James Chin from TMC opened with a prayer and thank God for bringing us together to worship Him. Bro.TMC from TMC presented an ice-breaker in the form of video and stories of his failed inventions and some successes that brought laughter to the audience. Next we watched two videos before taking a break. After the break we watched the last video, followed by prayer by Pastor James Chin. Pastor James prayed to ready everyone there to receive the Holy Spirit. After this prayer, Bro. Yap sang a song to get everyone into the posture of prayers and encouraged the Hosts/Helpers to pray for the guests especially in receiving the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst us as the prayers were going on some of us cried. Some of the guests received the Holy Spirit and recommit their lives to Jesus. Hallelujah! Praise God!

God worked in mysterious ways, despite the low number of guest turn out, we had a spirit filled worship session and the knowledge that God has worked in many present.

Our prayers are for those who were not there to receive the Holy Spirit if they have not receive Him yet.