What Asian Christians like
What Hip-Couture Asian Christians like
...making fun of other Asians
...indie rock
...emo lifestyle
...developing countries
..."bringing the Kingdom of God to earth"
...Campus for Christ
...IVCF
...anything but CCF
...being "out of the bubble"
...commenting on how they love being around "out of the bubble"
...social gospel
Self-hate is bad. Hate your sin, yes; but arrogance and bitterness towards your own kind will get us nowhere.
What Comfortable Asian Christians like
...mega church
...dimsum/pho after church
...large fellowships
...clubbing after fellowship
...that game where you pitch the ball to your own teammates
...getting passionate over that game where you pitch the ball to your own teammates
...ultimately sinning over that game where you pitch the ball to your own teammates
..."freedom in Christ"
...justifying sin
Lukewarmth is bad. He will spit us out of His mouth if we continue in our reckless, blind ways.
What you see here are two extremes on the man-made spectrum of Churchianity. I mentioned in a previous post, the self-hating Emergent Asians are a swinging rebellion from mega-church Asian Churchianity. Neither are correct, because neither have Jesus at its core. Asian Churchianity may have began with Christ, but the 2nd generation rarely own their faith. So much bad teaching has infiltrated the Toronto Church -- thus, we began poorly, and we rebelled poorly. It is time to stop looking upon the man-made spectrum...the man-made liberal(emergent)-conservative(megachurch) divide, and time to gaze upon the Spotless Lamb who makes propitiation for our sins; that is freedom! Freedom from trying to find the "right way" to be Christian, we don't need to worry about that, Jesus does that for us. The answer to our questions is not found in prayer labyrinths, candles, and dark-rimmed glasses; conversely, the answer is not found in disgusting youth games, body worship and programsprogramsprograms. The "right way" is the narrow way, the only way -- pure submission to our Lord Jesus Christ, who guides and directs us through the infallible word of God, preached to us by faithful pastors. My emergent Asian friends, channel your self-hate to not hate your own kind, but rather to hate your sin! My mega-church Asian friends, may your passion for God eclipse your current passion for that non-sport!


6 Comments:
i'll wear my dark rimmed glasses next time we meet, jon.
in any case, any true revival has always been marked by a turning back to the Biblical truth, not misguided, unbiblical, and humanist look ahead.
"mile wide, inches deep."
Hahaha, I gotta admit, I do like the dark-rimmed glasses; I'm just upset that I can't pull them off.
Jon,
It's probably better for your sanctification that you can't! God opposes the proud, brother.
Hahaha!
HAHA
Thanks for looking out for my humility, Jeff :P
Sup Jon,
It's gUmmI.
I'll just write what's on my mind, you can read it if you want =o.
I think you've made some good observations here of tendencies of certain kinds of Christians (such as myself being the former category). I'm not disagreeing with your observations, I'm just gonna try to explain additional observations I've made in the past years I've been a part of campus ministry in UofT.
For myself, I have to confess that sometimes I get too irritated at "my kind" aka the Christian bubble. I'll openly admit that.
However, in terms of this "spectrum" of Christianity, I think its inevitable (and not necessarily wrong, although it can be). Yes, we all believe in Sola-Scriptura (at least I hope we do). We all hold and cherish the fundamental core Christian doctrines that have been agreed upon by 2000 years of Christian Church history. That's all the theology in the head. ANd yes, in terms of that, there shouldn't be much of a spectrum, cuz yes, as you said the "right" way is the narrow way of submission to Christ Jesus.
However, that's all theology in the head though. In terms of acting it out and contextually implementing that in our daily 21st Century life, there's going to be differences/flexibility/adaptation. This is where the spectrum comes in. Different camps have different focuses/negect/strengths/weakensses in living out our faith as the Body of Christ in our culture.
Speaking for myself, I am very well pleased/impressed/in admiration of Campus for Christ. Reason being is that the fire, the planning of evangelism, the reliance on prayer, the diligent bible study, the discipleship all have captivated me to a level I have personally never experienced in the ways Chinese Christians live out their orthodox faith of (the narrow way of submission to Christ which all Christians do and should agree upon). Once again, the same theology, but the action is totally different. I see the faith with deeds when I was with C4C.
When I observed this wonderful body (with a small "b") of Christ so close to the church of Acts 2, I decided to devote my God-given time/energy to better serve Him with these C4C guys, because they actually lived it out the way it was supposed to be lived out. That's why I chose to spend more time with them in action, because I believe their action walked the way of the Acts 2 church.
A lot of bodies (once again with a small "b") of Christ talk the talk. But few walk the walk in North America.
I have to admit though, at times I have been bitter towards the asian Christian bubble I grew up in though. I just hope that it can better imitate the church of Acts 2 the way C4C does, all in the name of the Great Commission to the glory of God.
-gUmmI-
Thanks for your thoughts gumstar =)
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home