EFCSB - 2010 主題：「凡事謝恩 各處傳揚」

Dear coworkers:

I have been thinking for some time about having more joint Friday night meetings. I have discussed this with some (but not all) of you.

What I have in mind is that I organize a joint Friday night meeting once a month. We could have speaker to talk about some topics that we normally won’t have on Sunday sermons. We could also have some small group discussion that we have mixed groups to enhance the interactions among three fellowships. I like to see more mingling together among us. Taiwanese congregation doesn’t have Friday night meeting except choir practice. If some of their members like to join, I would welcome them too. However, at this stage, the planning is mainly considering the needs of our own. Let me share with you why I have been thinking about this.

• Normally, people come to the Sunday service and we tend to feel happy because he/she comes to church. However, the relationship tends to be very loose. It is hard to encourage those people to come to every Friday night meeting. However, it is much easier (still hard for some) to encourage them to come once a month. If one develops the “habit” of coming once a month, it is much easier for him/her to come more regularly to other Fellowship meetings. Then, we have chance to build up close relationship with him/her.
• The second purpose is what I mentioned earlier to enhance the mingling among us.

I am planning to have it on a fixed Friday (say, every first Friday of each month). The other Friday nights, the three fellowships still plan the meetings as we are doing now. I would be the one coordinate the efforts. The anticipated frequent trips of my own is a big concern to me and I desperately need support in this area if you agree this is a direction to go.

I like to know your opinions. Please feel free to express any comments and concerns.

Peter

Dear All:

I just returned from a trip to Seattle. I took the chance to drive to Canada to visit a couple that we haven’t met for 20 years. This is the season that leaves change colors. I missed the peak time. Besides, the rain in the previous week had swept many leaves to the ground. Yet, the scenery was beautiful. I enjoyed the driving except the long delay while crossing the border.

I noticed different trees reacted to the whether very differently. Some of them just quietly dry up, turn into brown and fall. The others use the last sip of energy to illuminate with whole tree of rightfulness and colorfulness before saying freeware to the world. Even the same kind of trees may present a very different face to the passing cars. I told myself. If I were a tree I would be the one that shines.

My scientific head told me that a tree actually doesn’t have much choice. The DNA determines what kind of tree it is. The location and the surrounding climate mandate the leave colors. Nonetheless, we are different. Our genes do have important effects on us. However, we do have some control on our destiny. I am entering the autumn season of my personal life. I do have a desire that God use my life for another season that may brighten people around me and bring the true light to this dark world.

On the trip, I finished reading “Rediscovering Church” (By Lynne and Bill Hybels). It brought lots of deep thinkings to me. On coming Sunday, I’ll preach in Mandarin service. I like to share more with you. Some of you probably notice I am changing. I have decided to play a different role in our congregation. I have decided to take a different approach in many different things. I have a prayer that we are not just keep our congregation going. I expect ( and I believe God wants us) to transform our congregation to a different kind. Quite often I feel the church has “addicted to mediocrity“. (This is the word in the book I read) Let’s refuse to be like that. Please pray for me for my Sunday sermon. I have a burden to share with you for what I think God is leading us to. This weekend I have lots of commitments. Tomorrow I need to go to Bread of Life church to lead a meeting. Tomorrow night, leading another fellowship meeting at Emmanuel Fellowship. Sunday morning, I’ll teach a new series of Sunday school lessons at brother Yunn-Tay’s class. As a result, I decided to skip the church Board member orientation on Saturday. I do have a burden to share with you but feel it is so hard to get the message across. Let’s pray together and ask His Spirit to work among us.

Attached is a PowerPoint file I received this morning from Good News Fellowship of Bread of Life Church. The author is unknown to me but lots of things for us to think about.  noah-ark-ppt.ppt

See you Friday night and Sunday.

Peter

hi All:

I just finished a meeting with Korean church (with Dr. Kuo, Elder Paul, and Rev. Hsu). One of the issues discussed was about the service time. The Korean church has requested that we finished earlier to allow them to move up their time. I understand they currently have awkward timing. Technically, they are tenant to our church. However, we should also remember they are body of Christ and we should try to find a resolution that can help them to reach out to their people. The tentative solution (subject to the approval of the board) is like the following:

1. The Taiwanese service will move up 15 minutes earlier starting 9:30 AM (currently 9:45 AM)
2. The Taiwanese service will end by 11:00 AM
3. Mandarin service will begin no later than 11:15 AM ( currently, we usually cannot begin till around 11:25) If we have singspiration for 20 minutes, scripture reading/prayer 5 minutes, it leaves 40 minutes for the sermon.
4. Our service will try to finish by 12:30 PM (it means the sermon should conclude around 12:20-25). We will have about 10 minutes to vacant the sanctuary to allow the Korean church to begin their service at 12:40)

The whole schedule looks kind of tight . I like to suggest we make the following adjustments: (let me know if you feel it is impractical and have too much impact to your part of ministry):

1. The Adult Sunday school finish by 10:50 (10-10:50)
2. refreshment 10:50-11:10
3. Move over to sanctuary at 11:10 and start the service at 11:15
4. singspiration 20 minutes
5. scripture reading/prayer/introducing speaker … 5 minutes
6. sermon starts around 11:40 ends at 12:20 (40 minutes) 
7. responding song, offering, and final announcement  10 minutes (if the sermon takes longer, the service chair person should try to cut the announcement short only make announcements of the critical issues and ask people to read the rest.)
8. We concluded the service by 12;30 and giving people few minutes to greet each other and vacant from the chapel.

The above schedule leaves little room for error and hard to accommodate the special event such as membership meeting, baptism,  and communion. They should be done by (1) cutting the sermon short and/or having the Taiwanese service finish earlier.

I would request you to think about it. May be we can try for a while and make further adjustment after we have tried it for about 2-3 months. This is just a proposal and we won’t start the new schedule until the Board officially approve it.

Peter

Dear All:

Last two days, we drove up to Bay area. I took care some business related things but the main purpose is to visit our daughter and son. They haven’t been home for quite a while. We had short but quality time together. Our conclusion is we should do it more often. When I was at their ages, I didn’t realize how much my parents would have been look forward to receiving my letters or coming home. As a parent, I can sense how much our heavenly father would like us to spend time with Him. I am not talking about coming to the services or prayer meetings. I mean the time meditating. In the modern busy life, this is a lost art and we tend to use many activities to replace the precious relationship we supposed to have with the Lord.

梁潔瓊院長of 中華福音神學院北美分校 will be our quest speaker this week. I have known her for many years and have benefited a lot from her calm and organized preaches before. It’s hard for me to arrange her to come over because she is so much tied up with many things. Leading a seminary is quite challenging. Last month, she was officially became the 院長. Prepare yourself to come to worship.

Peter

Dear All:

I just talked to 梁潔瓊院長 of 中華福音神學院北美分校. 梁老師 (That’s the way I usually called her) will be our speaker on coming Sunday. From her I just learned that their school is offering a class starting on 10/23 for eight Tuesday evenings at LOMITA / 南灣華人基督教會 25420 Narbonne Ave., Lomita, CA 90717.

Class Title:     聖經中的僕人領導學

Instructor:     佘亞弘

10月23~12月11日 週二 7:00~9:30PM

I am interested in the title and particularly in the instructor as well. About couple months ago, I made a phone call to New York area to a pastor and his wife who have influenced me a lot and I respect their opinion. Since we are searching for pastor, I asked for their recommendations. It turned out the above mentioned class instructor, 佘亞弘, was on top of their recommendation. 佘亞弘 himself doesn’t know this story yet. I have been trying to arrange him to come to preach at our service or even to help us with a closer relationship. However, the recent months he has been quite busy. He 於2001年獲得FULLER神學院宣教學博士，主修宣教及領導學。Leadership is the area of his expertise. I am excited he is coming to our area. Regardless what I just mentioned, I like to recommend you to consider taking this class. If we can have a group of people serving in the congregation as faithful servants of the Lord, people will feel the impacts. For those who attended last Saturday’s class would agree we have benefited a lot from Rev. Shia. This is another opportunity. (You will find out, I usually don’t make such recommendation to many classes. Rev. Shia has suggested the church should invest more in education and encourage brothers and sisters to equip ourselves. Thus, for this class, we will provide full financial coverage. Several months ago, a former member has made a special offering to our congregation. He authorized me to use it for special purpose. I think this is one of the occasions that I like to use part of that money. Please pray for it. I myself plan to take it (though I am likely to miss at least two of the 8 classes because of prearranged travel plans.). There is cost to pay for us to expect a breakthrough and further growth in our congregation. The congregation will pay for the financial cost and if your schedule permits, you can pay the cost by setting aside the time.

Peter

Dear Coworkers:

Last week, I had couple phone conversations with some people in Taiwan. It is almost certain I’ll need to travel more often with longer duration to Taiwan in coming year ( much more than I would like to see). It puts me in a difficult situation. I won’t use this as an excuse not to serve in our congregation. As I have shared to you before, I believe next year is crucial in transforming our congregation. I feel we won’t and shouldn’t wait for the new pastor to come start such a task. Timing is important. This is the time and the time is NOW. I am committed to work with you. As the anticipated traveling certainly would put some restrictions on my involvement in our ministry, I would need help in various ways. While talking to various people, I am quite encouraged to see many people willing to stand up. This is very precious assets and is the base for us to move to higher ground.

After last Sunday’s coworker meeting, I talked to Jack Hsieh about the possibility for him to be the chairperson. Few days later, he told me that he is willing to take the challenge. I am thankful to hear that and look forward to working closely together with him. Actually, he is not the only one. Some others show similar love to our Lord and willingness to serve in the congregation. I am deeply moved.

I still see there are many things need to be done. Many unorganized processes. Many more TBD on the list. Somehow those things don’t bother me that much any more. With a group of committed coworkers, those things are just chances for us to experience the wonders of God.

Tonight, I talked to some more people, They show similar willingness to work together. However, they mentioned they don’t know how. I understand that I know they are not giving me excuse not to get involved. Instead they want to join but do not know how to do certain things. Though I am more experience than many of you, I have similar difficulty.  Leading a congregation is a new experience to me. Quite often, I feel I don’t know how to handle. Many things happened this year were not planned at all. Yet, God has His mysterious way to guide us moving ahead. I cannot wait to see more from Him in coming year. Moses did great things not at a time when he felt “I can”. He became an instrument of God was after he sincerely admitted “I can’t” A lesson for us to learn is to abide with Him more closely.

When I say it is a privilege to serve together with you, I really mean that. This year reminds me the time I had at the Ohio church or the UCLA church. Those are the ones I have sweet memory of building Christ’s body together with other brothers and sisters. We are writing our own new chapter of church history that we all would be proud to be part of it.

Jack and I are in the process of forming next year’s team. I have talked to some of you but still haven’t had enough time to reach all of you.I am not forgetting you. You are always in my mind (sounds like a love song.)  Your phone will ring soon. You are welcome to give me a call too.

Peter

Dear All:

My wife and I go out to walk together regularly as our routine exercise. When we walked by some places, she like to tell me she remembered she used to take our kids to play at there. Now even the youngest has gone to college. One of signs of getting old is to become more sensitive about time and like to remember the past. We are no exception. Looking backward actually is not such a bad thing if it can help us to prevent making same mistakes.

I have been reading a book I took back from my last trip. It is written by a former Catholic priest used to be a member of Jesuits (”Society of Jesus”). The book is about how they trained leaders. (”Heroic Leadership” by Chris Lowney) Jesuits was founded by Loyola in the year 1554. Over the past 450 years, it is hard to find another organization having bigger and longer influence in religious, scientific, and even political world. We may think the leaders gave attractive visions to motivate members to do something great. On the contrarily, they didn’t try to do so. In our standard, Loyola and other leaders even didn’t try to lay out the visions. They emphasize in finding right people. They look for people with the following characters:

• People who frequently self-examine themselves （自覺）
• People with talents（才智）
• People who has passion （愛心）
• People with （英雄豪氣）ambition (? hard for me to find proper word)

They simply believe people with above characters would find their own place and own way to make impacts. History indicates they have something for us to think about. The above characters are hardly taught by others but by self-development.

We are facing a smaller scale but quite challenging task in our congregation. Instead of laying out so-called visions for the congregation, I feel it is actually more important to have a group of people with above characters. I feel we tend to go out to learn from the success stories of other fast growing churches and try to copy their models in our church. I am not convinced that’s the way to go. I feel the key is whether we have the “right stuff”. Look to the future, I think we have accumulate enough to dream of a breakthrough in our congregation. I cannot demand you to be a person having the above characters but I like to invite you to prepare yourself to be the one like that. People like them and willing to submit to the cross are what we need.

Rev. Jonathan Chiu (邱志健牧師) is coming back to be our guest speakers on Sunday. I believe he will bring a powerful message like what he did last time. For the past three months, we have achieved our goal of 50 but we just hovering around there. It appears we are satisfied with our achievement and lost the momentum to move even further. Let’s come together to worship Him.

Your brother,

Peter

Dear brothers and sisters:

My wife and I went for a walk. On one end of the park, we noticed the sun was setting. While we strolled across the field, the sun sank little by little and completely disappeared even before we reached to the other end of the soccer field. At that time, we not only felt “time flies”, we actually “saw” the movement of time.

Recently, I got reconnected with some old friends that we haven’t met for more than 20 or even 30 years. It’s quite joyful for me to talk to them. On the other hand, I cannot not help to ask myself how many more 20 years I may have. There are many things I like to accomplish and I had better get started before time runs out.

On coming Sunday, we will have a special speaker, Minister Paul Liu. His sermon will be “如何承受永生？”. This is a question that a rich young man raised to Jesus two thousand years ago and still echoes in the tunnel of time. Minister Liu had worked for many years in the industry after he earned his Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University. Then, he decided to serve the Lord fulltime in the ministry field. Let’s prepare our heart for the coming service.

Sister Lily will move to Atlanta next Monday. Sunday will be the chance for us say farewell to her. How God brought her to us and what she has brought along with her to bless us is an amazing story. We wish her well at the other side of the continent.

Let’s also remember brother Bill Xue. Due to the national holidays in China, he didn’t have chance to have thorough medical checkout until now. Hope the cause of prolonged fever can be diagnosised.

Peter

Peter

Dear All:

Haven’t written to you for quite a while. Many things happened to me between then and now. Life is like a revolving door, many things pop up in front of us and many others disappear. Just like a old song [When tomorrow comes, today will be like a toy balloon that sails away …]

Recently, I had chance to detour from daily routine. I had a business trip with tight schedule. Yet, it gave me some personal quiet time to read books and thought of something and even encountered the edge of a typhoon in Taiwan. I also had some chances to get reconnected with some old friends. Some of them, I haven’t seen for more than twenty years. One of them I didn’t see for more than 30 years. Due to the restriction of my time, I still didn’t have chance to see most of them but talked over the phone. I learned some exciting stories about what God did on them and has used them as instruments to be other’s blessings. By listening to those stories, I have been thinking of a question. “Will God do the same among us?”

Once I serve in a church that the situation was quite depressing. Then, my wife and I met some old friends from a reviving church located at east coast. After listening to their story, we sadly said  “it seems 福音本是　神的大能only occurs at your church not ours” Of course, we know that’s not true. We should have the same high expectation to see something great happens among us.

On coming Sunday, I’ll have chance to preach at Mandarin service. I haven’t done so for quite a while. I have a burden to share with you some of my views. I was hesitate to do so because I think it could be premature. However, I think I have the responsibility to help our congregation to be released from the bondage of tradition. Pleas pray for me and prepare yourself to come to worship Him.

Peter

Dear Mandarin coworkers:

This is the time for the adjustment of church organization.

During the next few weeks, we should do the following:

• Each fellowship should elect the chair for the year of 2008
• We should also form a new congregation core-coworker team
• As the congregation pastor/minister is absent, we also need to have someone to lead and to represent the congregation

It is a privilege to serve with you this year. It is a special experience. This year, we have made some progress together. Yet, there is a long way to go. I can see many faults in our current organization but not sure for all the fixes to them. We also tend to spend too much attention in ministry but not enough on people. I always feel it is very wrong that we spend so much effort in caring things and attending meetings but so little to cultivate lives. As time goes by, I have realized that my views in many things have been very different from some of the other church leaders. I should admit I have been feeling frustrated and like to see some adjustments of my role but not so sure about how yet.

Peter

Dear All:

During the camping trip, we went hiking to Rainbow Fall. Many went down to play in the water. I took off the shoes and put my feet in the cold stream in the hot day. I thought of a Chinese poem by 左思 of Jing (晋)  dynasty. It says

振衣千仞崗  濯足萬里流 (Let me try to translate it. Shed off the dust on top of a thousand feet high hill

Wash the dirty feet on a river that flows for ten thousand miles)

This famous phrases are the end of the following poem:

皓天舒白日。靈景耀神州。列宅紫宮裏。飛宇若雲浮。峨峨高門內。藹藹皆王侯。自非攀龍客。何爲歘來遊。被褐出閶闔。高步追許由。振衣千仞岡。濯足萬里流

By reading that, we know he is not talking about cleaning clothes or washing feet. In the first part, he described

峨峨高門內，藹藹皆王侯

(behind the high gates, there are many high rank officials)

He was tired of the non-sense of the “civilized world”. Thus, he said

被褐出閶闔，高步追許由 (I decided to left the palace with plane clothes to go for my own dream)

振衣千仞崗  濯足萬里流 were symbolic actions. Of course, what he wanted to shed off is not just the dust collected on the trip. Quite often, we need to get back to the nature to clean the dirt that set in on our mind too.

Coming back to the city, I am about to go for another trip (not to the pure nature but to the “murky world”. It seems ironic. We get cleaned just to get dirty again. Hopefully, we can hold on our Christian principles and values in this world. Jesus don’t want us to hide in the mountains to keep ourselves clean. He sent us into the world to be the light to shine for Him.

I won’t be able to worship with you on coming Sunday. Yet’ let’s set aside the time to worship Him no matter where you might be.

Peter

Dear All:

Next Sunday, there will be no service of any language in our church. Originally, a sharing was planned and now it is canceled. For those who are not going to the Mandarin congregation camping or Taiwanese retreat, I would urge you to attend any church that is Christ-center and has Biblical teaching, Following are some options for your consideration:

There is a special musical service performed by Taiwan Naruwan Choir sponsored by Yu-Shan Theological College and Seminary, Taiwan at

Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in South Bay

2079 Lomita Bl, Lomita, CA 90717
(310) 666-4995  Rev. Thomas H. Chen

The sermon will be in Taiwanese. Concert: will uses a  Mixture of Mandarin, Taiwanese and Native Taiwanese languages.

For those who prefer Mandarin service, you may go to Ling-Liang Church (Bread of Life Church) located at 2780 Lomita Blvd. Torrance, CA 90505. This church locates one block east of Torrance Memorial Hospital near Costco. Tel: 310-325-7777. Their Mandarin service starts at 11:00 AM English service starts at 9:00 AM.

Peter

Dear All:

Today, Rev. Lu mentioned the inspiring story of Derek Redmond’s 400 m run (leap?) in 1992 Barcelona Game. You may find it at youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMjWVEO9Jtc (English)

or the other one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STVse8__6Hk (in Japanese with better background cheering sound)

Just like Rev. Lu said, we often didn’t run well in our pilgrim journey. Yet let’s learn to have the same kind of determination to finish the race that we are in.

Peter

Dear All:

This is the time that people taking vacation. We are no exception. Some of our members are traveling. Andrew’s parents are returning to Taiwan tomorrow. Tony Lin went back on Monday. Last night, my wife and my son went to Taiwan for three weeks. Praise the Lord, he watches over us no matter where we might me.

Last week, I mentioned Louis Armstrong’s song “This is a Wonderful Day”. Thanks to Justin’s correction. It should be “This is a Wonderful World”. Somehow I like many songs from that era. For example, another song quickly comes to my mind.

“Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” It says:

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing? …   Gone to young girls, every one!

Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing? … Gone to young men, every one!

Where have all the young men gone, long time passing? …  Gone to soldiers, every one!

And where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing? …  Gone to graveyards, every one!

And where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing? …  Gone to flowers, every one!

When will they ever learn, oh when will they ever learn?

This is an anti-war song. Yet, it reveals the repeat phenomena and points out we don’t learn much from them. Once again, King Solomon said :

”

一 代 過 去 、 一 代 又 來 ． 地 卻 永 遠 長 存 。

日 頭 出 來 、 日 頭 落 下 、 急 歸 所 出 之 地 。

…

萬 事 令 人 厭 煩  人 不 能 說 盡 ． 眼 看 、 看 不 飽 、 耳 聽 、 聽 不 足 。

已 有 的 事 、 後 必 再 有 ． 已 行 的 事 、 後 必 再 行 ． 日 光 之 下 並 無 新 事 。“

and he concluded

“ 你 趁 著 年 幼 、 衰 敗 的 日 子 尚 未 來 到 、

就 是 你 所 說 、 我 毫 無 喜 樂 的 那 些 年 日 未 曾 臨 近 之 先 、

當 記 念 造 你 的 主 ．“

This Sunday, Rev. Jeffery Lu (呂紹昌牧師) will be our speaker. I look forward to listening to his message. He has been with us several times before. His messages have been a good reminder to me. During this summer, he has been quite busy in mission trips and organizing ABC convention. Let’s prepare ourselves. I believe God has some words for you. I was pretty touch by Rev. Chou’s message last Sunday. Seeing role model like her is should encourage us to adjust our direction and follow the Lord closely

Let me finish this email with another song just popped up in my heart

Day by day

Dear Lord, of you Three Things I pray

To see you more clearly

To love you more dearly

To follow you more closely

Day by day

Let’s all have prayer like this

Peter