Reflections on the Parish

(some comments which I wrote on a friend's blog in regards to the issue of the place of the traditional parish http://tubemantravels.wordpress.com/)

Dear Craig,

I was reflecting more today about the issue and my concern about the parish model is that perhaps the basic unit is too big. By that I mean, in a parish, you usually have one minister looking after say an average of 50 people. I think it is very difficult for the minister to pastor this number of people effectively especially when they have to prepare a sermon or two each week. Also the burden of ministry falls largely on the minister and 90% of the congregation are just spectators (come on Sundays, listen to the sermon, go home - what was the sermon about again?).

The model we are trying to work with here in Thailand is to set up house churches for lack of better word. Groups of 8-12 people meeting as church in a home. In this sized group there is accountability and everyone is forced to serve and participate. So instead of big group of 50 meeting in a church with the minister doing most of the work, you have 5 groups of house churches. The minister/church planter going around to the groups, training them, keeping them on track, encouraging them. But he is not leading these “house churches” - that responsibility lies with an elder/s in each group.

Perhaps these 5 house churches can meet up for one big meeting once a month for a celebration meeting.

Whereas in a parish model the minister is spending up to 50% of his time preparing a wonderful sermon which, if we are honest, goes in one ear and out the other for many people, in the house church model, he is spending more time encouraging and training the people to serve.

Also with 5 house churches instead of one bigger church, you have 5 different areas you are reaching into the community and not just one.

What do you think?

What I’m talking about is not just a glorified biblestudy, but actual church in a home. Remember our T.C Core biblestudies and the bond and fellowship we had there. If we were to tweak it so that we are meeting as a church and not just doing biblestudy, you can imagine something of what we are trying to achieve.

For us, we’re trying to implement this house church model. We don’t know if it will work yet. (We need our first believer first!). However, the traditional model has struggled in Thailand. Part of the reason is that apart from in the major cities, churches can’t afford the rent on buildings and don’t have money to pay a full time minister.

Cheers,

Rich

Reflections on church traditions

One part of me (and my wife and probably a good number of other people) thinks I shouldn't write this post. Being Asian I'm very good at conflict avoidance and not rocking the boat. But some things really need to change.

To be honest, in Australia I never had problems with the ordination services of friends I attended. But since being in Thailand and thinking long and hard about church and church models, I saw the photos above on facebook of a friend's ordination and was quite dismayed at some aspects of church tradition still being practiced today.

Why do bishops need special hats, staff, medallions, fancy robes and candles? Why do we need a procession with incense (?) burning, long stick with a cross, a picture of Jesus? What does that say to the person in the pews? Perhaps it is justifiable in the Roman Catholic tradition where the priesthood of all believers denied, but this was a protestant denomination ordination.

I'm sure my friend who was ordained would have been happy to be ordained without the garb. Unfortunately, it is go along with the tradition and be ordained or protest and be unable to be a minster in that denomination.

It may not be so much of a problem in Australia to just go along with tradition, even if you disagree with it, because what does it matter anyway. But in Thailand, traditions like this get incorporated into church life and causes great problems. In Thailand, ministers are set apart from the ordinary Christian and very much exalted above the laity. At an all church worship meeting I went to in our region, all the minister were ushered to the front 3 rows of the church. After the meeting, they went into a special room at the back of the church to have lunch together while everyone else had lunch outside.

With ministers holding such exalted positions it is very difficult to convince ordinary Christians that they can actually read and interpret the bible for themselves and apply it to their lives. It leads to the thinking so prevalent in Thailand that without a full time paid minister and a church building that you cannot be a real church. It leads to Christians leaving everything to the minister and doing nothing for themselves.

When will the day come when enough people will stop towing the line and say enough is enough. This is wrong. We need to change it. Or as some commentators foresee, will the traditional denominations in the West continue their slow decline and in some distant future the problem will solve itself.

Nice Bruise

I was surprised by the bruise which came up a day or two after I fell off my motorbike. I could lie on my left side last night which was nice (I prefer to lie on this side to sleep).

I went for a Thai massage yesterday on my day off. I nearly died. It was so painful. I was trying to be tough and not scream out in pain, but at one time the masseur had my knee on such an angle that I thought he was going to tear a cruciate ligament in my knee.

Last week I at driving range (golf) with Golf and gave one of our Lighthouse flyers to a couple at there. Today he came to Trish's English class at the Lighthouse. Hurray!

Growing little girl

Our little girl is growing up quickly. She is in the 85th percentile for weight for her age (compared with her middle brother who is only in the 25th percentile).

In other news, I'm getting a nice bruise on my hip where I fell on my motorcycle. I haven't been able to sleep on my left side for two nights (but its getting better!).

First Crash

I was running late this morning for my English class so I was going a bit too fast on my motorbike. I saw the street I had to turn left too late so braked hard and tried to make the turn. Bad decision. I lost control of my motorbike and it slide from underneath me throwing me off. I probably only skid on the road for a couple of meters. I jumped as soon as I'd stopped. The adrenaline was pumping and didn't feel much pain at all. Without thinking I was trying to get the bike upright again and off the road. It wasn't as easy as I thought as the bike is quite heavy. A lady come out of her shop and said something to me which I didn't comprehend. I was soon back on the bike and on my way to teach my English class.

Looking back, it could have been so much worse. I have a scratch on my elbow and a bruised hip, but apart from that not any serious injuries and my bike had only a few scratches. If a car had been following behind me, or if I had landed on a different angle, things could have been very bad indeed. I praise God that he allowed me to only have very minor injuries and that I've been taught a lesson to be much fmore careful. I've been a bit too confident on my motorbike recently, weaving in and out of traffic and overtaking when it might have been safer not too. My neighbor has warned me a couple of times already that she was concerned that I drive and ride too fast. Hopefully I won't forget this lesson too quickly.

Now Legal

Last month I had to go and renew my driver's license and try to obtain a motorcycle license. I had never been to the Transport Office in Lampang so I didn't know what to expect. I had every possible document that they might ask for just in case. It was fairly easy in Lopburi but our friends had lots of difficulties in Pitsanulok.

Renewing our driver's license went well and the office staff were great in helping us out. They filled out all the forms for us (it would have taken us ages if we had to do them ourselves) and took us through each step, which included colour blind, reaction and depth perception tests.

However, getting a motorcycle test was a little harder. With the driver's license I had an international license at the time so I didn't have to sit the written test or driving test. I quickly went through some practice exam questions on a terminal while we were getting our driver's license renewed before I was led to the computer terminal where I was to answer 30 multiple choice questions. Pass mark was 23/30. I wasn't too worried as the practice questions seemed pretty commonsense. Fortunately, I could do the exam in English! Unfortunately I failed with a score of 22/30. I shouldn't have changed 2 answers when I was reviewing the question at the end. Then the official handed me the road rules handbook and said that I could redo the test when I'd finished. Why didn't see give me the handbook before I sat the test! Anyway, the second time around was much easy and I passed with 28/30.

Next was the riding test in the afternoon. The official suggested that I practice on the test course beforehand (great advice!). Even going over the test course, I was still a bit worried about what to do at some road signs. By the time the test began, there were at least 30 people there, 3 for the motorcycle test and the rest for the car driving test. The official explained the test course and what we had to do in Thai. When she had finished she turned to me and asked me in front of everyone whether I understood everything explaining that I was a foreigner. I probably only understood about 25% of what she said. I was praying that I wouldn't have to go first so I could see what the others would do and follow them. Thankful the official put me last in position 3 (we all had to do the test at the same time, but about 10 metres behind the person in front). So the test began and my heart racing. I followed the two Thai guys in front for the first bit of the test. However, the first guys went left at a "no left turn" sign. The second guy thankfully didn't make the same mistake. However, at a later stage in the test, the second guy went off the road and parked his bike on a grassed area. I thought this was very strange, but I did hear the official say something about stopping in this grassed area. But then I thought she mentioned something about 3 "stop signs" and we'd only gone pass 2. So I kept going by myself and completed the rest of the test, trying to stay on a narrow plank of wood and then weaving through some cones.

With the test complete, I parked my bike where the other two guys were waiting and went back to the official having no idea whether I'd passed or failed. The official had a smile on her face and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Pass", "Thai failed, foreigner pass". She congratulated me on being confident enough to not follow the mistakes of the other two guys doing the test.

So now I'm riding my motorcycle legally! Good thing because yesterday I was pulled over on my motorcycle for the first time at a check point and asked for my license! If this had happened early last month it would have cost be a 200 baht fine. But I showed him my new license and he waved me on.

First Lord's Supper

At a recent OMF retreat for current language students and those who had left in the past year, I was asked to lead communion. Not being ordained this was the first time that I've led communion. When I read the accounts of the Lord's Supper in the Gospels of Mark & Matthew and the instructions for the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, it seems clear that the Lord's Supper was celebrate over a meal. However, most churches now only have a small piece of bread (or wafer) and a tiny cup of grape juice. I believe that this is an unhelpful tradition which has developed and been accepted. Some argue that the Lord's supper was orginally a joyful meal which we have now turned into a very somber ritual.

So I suggested to the co-ordinators of the retreat that we celebrate the Lord's Supper over lunch on the final day rather than in the meeting room. They seemed hesitant at first but then agreed.

So on Sunday we celebrated the Lord's Supper during lunch and it was much more meanful in my opinion.

We did have one problem though. We were sharing the camp site with another group within OMF who had Thai Christian workers with them. When they found out that we were going to celebrate the Lord's Supper this way, they said that it would be better if we have separate lunches, because they felt that the Thai worker would not cope with the Lord's Supper being celebrated outside of Church. It is sad that like in Corinth, the Lord's Supper became a cause of division rather than reaffirmation of the unity we have in Christ by his death and resurrection.

Frightening Accident

Our second son is very active and quite a dare devil. He shows no fear at time which is very frightening for a parent. Two nights ago while we were at the OMF guesthouse having left Lampang at just after 5am and arriving in Bangkok some 9 hours laters. We were finally getting our boys to bed when our second son slipped on the edge of the bed and fell head first on to the tiled floor. I rush over and picked him up and he was trying to scream but nothing was coming out. Then he started to have what seemed like a seizure. His limbs stiffened, his eyes rolled back and then he became unconscious. Lisa ran off to get the OMF medical adviser who lived in the same building. As our son lay on the bed unconscious, our eldest son was saying, he's died, he's died. After about 5-10 seconds, I can't be sure of the exact amount of time, our son regained consciousness and started screaming in pain. After a couple of minutes he had settled down. Because he had lost consciousness, the medical advisor said that he needed to go to hospital for observation. At the hospital, X-rays of his skull ruled out any fractures. At this stage there doesn't seem to be any lasting effects on our son.

It was a terrible accident. I am amazed that he did not suffer a traumatic head injury and that he is not in hospital right now. We still have to observe him for the next couple of months or any neurological changes, but right now he seems no worse for wear.

The incident with the pitbull last week and now this accident, we do feel that God is protecting this little guy.

Pitbull escapes again!

Yesterday afternoon, the pitbull which bit our househelp, escaped again from its house while I was out with the children and some friends (and their children) on the street.

Our friend shouted a warning and when I turned around I saw the pitbull charging at me (it may have been chasing our dog who was escaping back home?). I threw a container of chalk which I had in my hand at it, missing the dog but then it served away from me and ran in the direction of Aidan. By God's grace the pitbull got halfway to Aidan before it turned back. By then the owners of the pitbull had come out and managed to call the dog back.

Straight after, I went to owners of the dog and told them in a raised voice that "I was not satisfied with them" and some other things. I knew what I wanted to say to them in English but in Thai it was not very easy. Possibly a good thing because I was so livid that I might have said things which would not have been pleasant.

We are told that this pitbull has bitten at least 10 people, including our neighour's son. This would be scandal in Australia but here people will avoid the problem until something so bad happens that the authorities are forced to act (for example, the recent fire which killed 60 people in a nightclub in Bangkok. The authorities knew about the problems and that the place did not meet safety standards but only when disaster struck and people died did they act).

We praise God that no one was hurt. Please pray that something can be done about this situation. I have talked with our neighhours again and to our landlord this morning. The owner of pitbull said that they would put up a sign saying that there was a dog and to keep the gate shut. However, they did not to put a mask on the dog as I requested when our househelp was bitten last month and again this morning. Our next door neighour who's husband is a policeman, said that her husband had done something at his police station but I didn't really understand all that she was saying.

I had trouble sleeping last night thinking of what might have happened to Aidan.

Please pray for our safety and that of the children. Please pray that something may be done about the dog.

Chinese New Year

Our neighbour (wife) is Chinese we found out yesterday. They had this table set out yesterday morning on Chinese New Year on their driveway. They were waving incense sticks around the table and around the house and letting off fire crackers (to ward off spirits?). It was a stark reminder of our neighbour's belief in other Gods and spirits.

We also found that the wife just closed down the resturant in town and is moving to Bangkok. We are not sure of the reason but we are guessing it might be due to the hard economic times. This week our neighhour next door who is a police man told our househelp to warn us about people who might want to rob us at the park due to the downturn in the economy.