WCC Lessons and Reflections
Every year, I think that I've heard everything I need to hear from World Christian Conference. Having been to the 2003 and 2004 conferences, I've had the opportunity to be both edified and inspired by the speakers and being around people passionate about Christ. It is genuinely refreshing to hear from teachers with excellent insight into God's Word illuminating His heart for all the world (Sjogren in '04, Yih in '03), as well as testimonies of God's power from people who have experienced it firsthand in the field (Lazlo in '03, numerous other missionaries). With all that said, I figured that I had already heard and understood the vision and purpose, the "world Christian" philosophy if you will (living strategically to impact this world for God's Kingdom), and it would be good to let someone else have the blessing of this conference. However, with this year's theme asking the question, "Now What?", I felt myself thinking that it would be a good thing to be equipped with a right perspective while entering into a season of my life over the next few years where I'm supposed to make important decisions. And, so I went. I'm glad that I did.
The primary plenary speaker (4 talks) was Pastor Jimmy Seibert from Antioch Community Church in Texas. His church and ministry have a huge heart for sending out teams of church planters to every corner of the world. Five days after the SE Asia tsunami, they had a team there working to rebuild towns. The American aid workers arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan a while ago? They were from his church. Pastor John Lo of Epicentre in LA intro'd and followed up with talks bringing things back into the big picture.
In my next few posts, I'm gonna post a little bit about some of the lessons I learned at WCC last month, as well as observations, reflections, and responses. I'll do my best not to go all over-wordy as is usually my wont, but I can't make any promises. In the Old Testament, God often tells the Israelites to tell the stories of their deliverance from Egypt to their children and their children's children - why? Because that consistent reminder of God's work and lessons needs to be reinforced so that they are not forgotten and can continue to be lived out in His people. Likewise, this little exercise will hopefully solidify some ideas, visions, and commitments for me from the conference and the days afterward. Hope you're blessed by these memories and reflections. I know I will be.
God's Heart For Us - WCC reflection 1
The God of the universe is madly in love with us, His children. He is glorified in us when we find our ultimate joy and peace in Him, and He loves us sacrificially. A couple of illustrations from Pastor Jimmy that hammered this point home:
- As a little girl was growing up, she could not shake her habit of involuntarily sucking on her thumb. Her parents had tried numerous methods to help her stop, to no avail. Even she wanted to stop because her classmates were beginning to tease her. Finally, the doctor told the parents that unless she stopped, she could cause permanent damage to her teeth as they were growing in. That night, in tears, she asked her daddy to do whatever he could so that she wouldn't suck her thumb anymore. She cried herself to sleep as her father lovingly held her arms down the entire night, gently quieting her struggles. The following night the struggles lessened, and eventually he stopped having to hold her down, and she no longer had to deal with that habit the rest of her life.
God, I can't do this on my own. I can't stop sinning. I can't set my mind on things above without Your help. Hold me when I struggle, when my flesh rebels against Your Spirit. Free me from the evil that I so long to turn from.
- Pastor Jimmy told the story of how one of his sons committed a wrong against his brother. The family has rules, the guilty son is educated about his misdeed, and he is disciplined. As far as the father (who is also the lawgiver, judge, sentence-executor in the household) is concerned, the matter is closed - the child committed a wrong, recognizes his wrong, and has suffered the consequence (spanking, in this case). Yet, when the father approaches his son about playing some catch, he finds the child dwelling on his sin - "I did it, I did it, I'm not worthy to play ball with you, I'm guilty, I'm a horrible person" and so on so forth. This breaks the dad's heart because the child is robbing himself of the joy of being with his father to dwell on a transgression that has already been paid for. Coming from an Asian culture where shame and "face" is an integral part of personal identity, this sounded patently familiar. I think I've lost track of the times where I've missed out on experiencing more of life because I felt like I hadn't "served my time." Look at me. I screwed up. I don't deserve anything good. Don't do what I did. I know I was wrong. See my sackcloth and ashes? In general, I think Asians understand law and the breaking of rules very well. Sometimes though, I think we have problems accepting grace - learning from the consequences of bad decisions and moving on in freedom, rather than dwelling on mistakes.
- Finally, he used the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt to illustrate the depth of a father's love for his son. Rick, having been born with cerebral palsy, could not walk nor talk, but against all odds had been able to grow up and live despite his disability. As a sports lover, he told his dad that he wanted to compete in a triathlon. So, the 60-year old father trained, and on Father's Day 1985, they competed with the father alternately pulling and pushing his son through 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of bicycling, and 26.2 miles of running. As we watched the documentary of that triathlon and saw the father bringing his skin-and-bones son across the finish line with champagne spraying over the two of them, it was a powerful reminder that "God is a lot more powerful than Dick Hoyt, and we are a lot worse off than Rick Hoyt" - and He will bring us to greater triumphs than we can even imagine, if we only let Him love us fully the way that He wants to.
I know that this touched a deep chord with many conferees, since this (my) generation of Asian-Americans have typically grown up with immigrant parents still steeped in the cultural norms that they grew up with, and fathers were not typically supposed to be intimate with their children. Being able to see God as a loving Father as opposed to a stern taskmaster is difficult for a lot of Asian Christians. I've been tremendously blessed to have grown up with parents who have not been shy about laying down the law, but who have also freely offered encouragement and praise when needed and love at all times, so I don't think this is as difficult a lesson to learn for me. But I know that finally touching the face of Abba Father was the most important message a lot of conference attendees needed to hear.
Every year, I think that I've heard everything I need to hear from World Christian Conference. Having been to the 2003 and 2004 conferences, I've had the opportunity to be both edified and inspired by the speakers and being around people passionate about Christ. It is genuinely refreshing to hear from teachers with excellent insight into God's Word illuminating His heart for all the world (Sjogren in '04, Yih in '03), as well as testimonies of God's power from people who have experienced it firsthand in the field (Lazlo in '03, numerous other missionaries). With all that said, I figured that I had already heard and understood the vision and purpose, the "world Christian" philosophy if you will (living strategically to impact this world for God's Kingdom), and it would be good to let someone else have the blessing of this conference. However, with this year's theme asking the question, "Now What?", I felt myself thinking that it would be a good thing to be equipped with a right perspective while entering into a season of my life over the next few years where I'm supposed to make important decisions. And, so I went. I'm glad that I did.
The primary plenary speaker (4 talks) was Pastor Jimmy Seibert from Antioch Community Church in Texas. His church and ministry have a huge heart for sending out teams of church planters to every corner of the world. Five days after the SE Asia tsunami, they had a team there working to rebuild towns. The American aid workers arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan a while ago? They were from his church. Pastor John Lo of Epicentre in LA intro'd and followed up with talks bringing things back into the big picture.
In my next few posts, I'm gonna post a little bit about some of the lessons I learned at WCC last month, as well as observations, reflections, and responses. I'll do my best not to go all over-wordy as is usually my wont, but I can't make any promises. In the Old Testament, God often tells the Israelites to tell the stories of their deliverance from Egypt to their children and their children's children - why? Because that consistent reminder of God's work and lessons needs to be reinforced so that they are not forgotten and can continue to be lived out in His people. Likewise, this little exercise will hopefully solidify some ideas, visions, and commitments for me from the conference and the days afterward. Hope you're blessed by these memories and reflections. I know I will be.
God's Heart For Us - WCC reflection 1
The God of the universe is madly in love with us, His children. He is glorified in us when we find our ultimate joy and peace in Him, and He loves us sacrificially. A couple of illustrations from Pastor Jimmy that hammered this point home:
- As a little girl was growing up, she could not shake her habit of involuntarily sucking on her thumb. Her parents had tried numerous methods to help her stop, to no avail. Even she wanted to stop because her classmates were beginning to tease her. Finally, the doctor told the parents that unless she stopped, she could cause permanent damage to her teeth as they were growing in. That night, in tears, she asked her daddy to do whatever he could so that she wouldn't suck her thumb anymore. She cried herself to sleep as her father lovingly held her arms down the entire night, gently quieting her struggles. The following night the struggles lessened, and eventually he stopped having to hold her down, and she no longer had to deal with that habit the rest of her life.
God, I can't do this on my own. I can't stop sinning. I can't set my mind on things above without Your help. Hold me when I struggle, when my flesh rebels against Your Spirit. Free me from the evil that I so long to turn from.
- Pastor Jimmy told the story of how one of his sons committed a wrong against his brother. The family has rules, the guilty son is educated about his misdeed, and he is disciplined. As far as the father (who is also the lawgiver, judge, sentence-executor in the household) is concerned, the matter is closed - the child committed a wrong, recognizes his wrong, and has suffered the consequence (spanking, in this case). Yet, when the father approaches his son about playing some catch, he finds the child dwelling on his sin - "I did it, I did it, I'm not worthy to play ball with you, I'm guilty, I'm a horrible person" and so on so forth. This breaks the dad's heart because the child is robbing himself of the joy of being with his father to dwell on a transgression that has already been paid for. Coming from an Asian culture where shame and "face" is an integral part of personal identity, this sounded patently familiar. I think I've lost track of the times where I've missed out on experiencing more of life because I felt like I hadn't "served my time." Look at me. I screwed up. I don't deserve anything good. Don't do what I did. I know I was wrong. See my sackcloth and ashes? In general, I think Asians understand law and the breaking of rules very well. Sometimes though, I think we have problems accepting grace - learning from the consequences of bad decisions and moving on in freedom, rather than dwelling on mistakes.
- Finally, he used the story of Dick and Rick Hoyt to illustrate the depth of a father's love for his son. Rick, having been born with cerebral palsy, could not walk nor talk, but against all odds had been able to grow up and live despite his disability. As a sports lover, he told his dad that he wanted to compete in a triathlon. So, the 60-year old father trained, and on Father's Day 1985, they competed with the father alternately pulling and pushing his son through 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of bicycling, and 26.2 miles of running. As we watched the documentary of that triathlon and saw the father bringing his skin-and-bones son across the finish line with champagne spraying over the two of them, it was a powerful reminder that "God is a lot more powerful than Dick Hoyt, and we are a lot worse off than Rick Hoyt" - and He will bring us to greater triumphs than we can even imagine, if we only let Him love us fully the way that He wants to.
I know that this touched a deep chord with many conferees, since this (my) generation of Asian-Americans have typically grown up with immigrant parents still steeped in the cultural norms that they grew up with, and fathers were not typically supposed to be intimate with their children. Being able to see God as a loving Father as opposed to a stern taskmaster is difficult for a lot of Asian Christians. I've been tremendously blessed to have grown up with parents who have not been shy about laying down the law, but who have also freely offered encouragement and praise when needed and love at all times, so I don't think this is as difficult a lesson to learn for me. But I know that finally touching the face of Abba Father was the most important message a lot of conference attendees needed to hear.
posted by Bob at
11:39 PM
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