Reflection - A Holistic Understanding of God's Calling

I was reflecting on the following above when I read Huaqiang's blog posting dated 18 May 09, concerning The Great Commision. Below are my comment in response to his entry.

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Bro,

Thanks for your sharing on our fundamental. A good reminder of what we are actually called to be as children of God. Our ultimate end goal is to build strong and biblical christians who loves God and people wholeheartedly. In order to fulfill this goal, there are many different components involved, planting churches, outreaching, discipleship, etc.

Since we are along this line of reflection and thoughts, I have considered some verses and questions in an attempt for all of us to “consider” a larger and more encompassing worldview of God's will for us.1. How can we as Christians be balanced and move in step with Holy Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission in being urgent but at the same time not being too compulsive and overlook other areas of importance as instructed by the bible? The part of fulfilling the Great Commission in our lifetime - Is it specifically mentioned by the bible or is it advocated by man? There is definitely a difference between desiring to fulfill, willing to fulfill versus “die die” must fulfill in our lifetime.

2. 2 Tim 3:17, Eph 4:12-13 – We as Christians are called to works of service (to do something) so that the body of Christ (church) may be built up until we all reach unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature (essence of discipleship), attaining to the whole measure of fullness of Christ. Essentially, we also have the calling of building the church strongly through discipleship. To me, this shows me a glimpse of how church growth should be like – Not through conversions after conversions of new believers but with no matured Christians to take care of, but with the following:-

i. Effective and efficient system, processes and structure to facilitate containment of growth

ii. Christians with strong character, wisdom and competencies to contain the growth

iii. Wise board strategic direction from leadership to mobilise everyone to serve together

In essence, the church delivered “great performance” in fulfillment of its mission, making deep and heartfelt impacts in changing lives of people and finally one that is “enduring and sustainable” in a long run. Our present church leadership will not be there all the time. Fulfilling the Great Commission means continuity – when the present leaders are gone, there are replacements from people on the ground. Some questions I asked aloud – Who are the new and uprising leaders nowadays in church, district, sub-district, unit and CG? Are they really competent as compared to the old guards? How long on the average does it takes to develop a leader? Given that our church size is about 4000 in congregational size, how many pastors, DLs, SDLs, Uls, CLs are needed for optimal functioning? How many actual leaders do we have now and what is the gap? What are we doing now to plug this gap? Are the leaders and members aware of such gaps? Are there any attempts to help all of us to see the actual gaps?

3. The bible also mentions specifically of:-

i. Jer 29:11, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4 - Specific plans for individual with different giftings and talents to serve differently

ii. Matt 25:14-30, Luke 19:11-27 - The concept of stewardship; The need for us to be faithful to ultilise our talents, giftings which God will call us to be accountable for. How does such different giftings play a part in Great Commission?

iii. Matt 13:8, 23 – Concept of different aptitude given by God (Some bear fruits of thirty, sixty or hundred folds)

From i, ii, and iii, from the interaction of all these factors, how would the picture of a strong and biblical church who is in God’s be like? Does this picture comes naturally or it is achieved through cautious, meticulous, disciplined, and prayerfully planning and following of God’s leading? What’s the balance between responsibility of leaders in chartering directions of growth VS initiatives by members to meet certain gaps in human needs? How should church leadership lead church growth in such a way to facilitate such unity in diversity of service to meet different needs? What are the critical areas confronting us as a church now for us to continue to move towards a glorious church?Further thoughts that I have yet to pen down in details include “Understanding what is meant by Kingdom of God and for us to expand the Kingdom of God”. I welcome further thoughts and inputs to this comment.