What am I reading now? Simple Church

Thom S Rianer & Eric Geiger in their book “Simple Church” discuss the implications of their survey of around 400 evangelical churches, split between those which are growing (at least 5% p.a for 3 consecutive years) and those that are not. They argue that in the growing churches everyone in the church understands and is clear about how each activity of the church contributes to the overall goal of the church. A non-growing church maybe doing the same things as a growing church but are ineffective because there is no clarity about how each activity fits into the overall goal of the church, there is no clear process of moving people to greater areas of commitment. They may not be abandoning things which don’t fit into this process.

In other words two churches may have the same activities but the growing church has a clear process of growing the members in the church in maturity and commitment (movement), whereas a non-growing church maybe doing the same activities but people aren’t moving to increasing maturity and commitment.

One example would be both a growing church and non growing church have small groups. But in the growing church there is a focus on making everyone at church aware of the small groups. There is a clear process of how people can join these groups. In these groups, people join smaller serving teams. There is a set process which people are clear about.

In a non-growing church theses small groups exists but maybe announcements are made once in a while to join a group but not much else.

Simple, but very few churches are doing it.

This is Thailand: Answer

The answer to what this truck is doing parked on the side of the highway:

Up ahead is a police check point. This truck is stopped about 50 metres before the police check. Behind this truck is about another 5 trucks all lined up behind it. The truck has stopped probably because either the truck is overweight, incorrectly registered or the driver doesn't have a driver's license. The truck will wait until the police check point moves on. This could be an hour, several hours, or even the next day. These trucks will wait, presumibly so that they are not fined. The incomprehensible thing is though that this truck is in view of the police at the check point. It is obvious what they are doing, but the police will not walk 50 metres down the road to book them. This is Thailand.

Homesick

We have been in Thailand for over two years now. Our first term is meant to be 4 years but we plan to return to Australia in December 2010 (3 year and 9 months). I haven't really been too homesick in the last two years. Sure, I'd love to be closer to the beach, have a good affordable steak, good friends who I can have fun with without there being significant language barriers etc. etc. but none of that had me longing for home.

But today I read a prayerletter of a friend who is a missionary returning home after 3 years on the field and planning to remain in Australia for 3 years to do further study (and possibly to return to that country in the future) and felt a bit homesick. We get our fair share of prayerletters from friends who are missionaries. In fact about 10 people in my year at college became missionaries and went overseas. All but 1 or 2 of those missionaries have been back to Australia either for home assignment or some other reason (such as having a baby or attending a wedding). So that's been increasing our homesickness as we read of them being at home and enjoying life back home.

It is probably a good thing that our first term is almost 4 years. If we went back to Australia now, we might now come back. It hasn't been easy over the last 2 years, but they say that it gets easier from about this point on (the 2 year mark). I guess we are seeing hints of that recently. Still we do think about home. Don't know whether it is a case of "it's greener on the other side" though.

There’s something terribly wrong

This photo is very blurred. Probably a good thing.

I was invited by a Thai friend last week to go and see a play at a local university. He said it was put on by students about to enter Chiang Mai university. I wasn’t at all expecting what was to come. The play was full of sexual innuendo of a very degrading and debase kind. I couldn’t understand much of what was being said but the dances and the acting was hard to mistake. Guys with bras on (blurred photo above), transvestites, other things which were too gross to mention. There was a American woman who I’d met just before the play started who was invited also by my friend. At one stage she walked out because it was too much. Initially I though it was university students putting on the production. Then I was shocked to find out that they were highschool students performing from the major highschools in Lampang. More Specially those who had just finished highschool a couple of months before and had been accepted into Universities in Chiang Mai. It was beyond belief that 17 and 18 year old would be involved in such a play. Worse still there were many of their highschool friends in the audience, cheering and laughing at the sexually charged scenes. I couldn’t work out whether they were laughing out of embarrassment (which is what Thais do) or because it was funny.

If a play like this was put on in Australia, there would be an uproar. There is no doubt in my mind that the students would be expelled and the event banned. But this has been an annual event for the past 23 years.

There are real and serious problems with sex and sexuality in Thai society. I have no idea how it got this way but it is clear that it starts at a very early age and is rampant throughout the society. It seems very ironic in a “buddhist” nation, because a key tenet of Buddhism is to extinguish “desires”.

What am I reading now? The Rise of Christianity

I borrowed this fascinating book at the OMF Guesthouse in Bangkok while we staying there. It is an attempt by a social scientist to explain the rapid rise of Christianity, as the title suggests, “How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries”.

As far as I can tell the author, Stark is not a Christian. He estimates that there were 1,000 Christians at 40A.D and just over 33 million by 350 A.D (which was 56% of the population of the world at the time). This kind of growth requires 40% growth every decade. Sounds very dramatic but this works out in the following numbers.

No. of Christians
100 A.D. 7,530
200 A.D 217,000
300 A.D 6.3 million
350 A.D 33.9 million

Surprising, Stark reveals that the Mormons have grown at a rate of 43% per decade for the last century!

Stark then introduces social science's explanations for people converting to minority religions such as sects and cults. He and a colleague went and observed people converting to the Moonies, in particular a group started by Yong Oon Kim in 1959 in Oregon, America.

[Miss Kim tried to spread her message by talks to various groups, press releases. radio spots and renting a hall for public meetings. These methods yielded nothing. “the only ones who joined were those who interpersonal attachments to members overbalanced their attachments to nonmembers. In effect, conversion is not about seeking or embracing an ideology; it is about bringing one’s religious behaviour into alignment with that of one’s friends and family members.” (p16-17.)

“attachment lie at the heart of conversion and therefore that conversion tends to proceed along social networks formed by interpersonal attachments”

“Conversion to new, deviant religious groups occurs when, other things being equal, people have or develop stronger attachments to members of the group than they have to nonmembers.” (p.18).

Data based on records kept by a Mormon mission president gives powerful support to this proposition. “When missionaries make cold calls, knock on the doors of strangers, this eventually leads to conversion once out of a thousand calls. However, when missionaries make their first contact with a person in the home of a Mormon friend or relative of that person, this results in conversion 50% of the time.” (p.18).]

What do you think? In your experience is this true? Stark is talking about people making a major religious shift from say Christianity to Hinduism, rather than how life long Christians are born again.

Stark has many other very interesting observations which will follow in future posts.

Stark, Rodney. 1996. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

This is Thailand

Our friends working in China have a "This is China" segment in their newsletters once in a while about the weird and wondrous things about China. Well I'd thought I'd add a "This is Thailand" segment. Now why do you think this truck is parked on the side of a major highway up to Chiang Mai? I'll let people guess for a couple of days before providing the answer (please leave your guesses in the comments section). A correct guess will win you a free ticket from Bangkok to Phuket (just kidding! But Air Asia were providing 1 million free airline tickets to many destinations if you booked this week and travel 5 Jan 2010 to 30 Apr 2010 - you just pay taxes)

Stuck in Bangkok Traffic! Urrrrrhhhh!

We flew down to Bangkok on Wednesday (AirAsia of course) to apply for our daughter's passport and renew our visas and my work permit. It is a trip our whole family has to make once a year. I took our younger son with me to the Australian Embassy after we landed. Unfortunately, I needed my original marriage certificate without which they wouldn't process the application! Doohhh! So the next morning I left the guesthouse at 9:30am to get to the Australian Embassy and then meet the rest of the family at immigration at 11am. The journey takes about 1 hour normally in traffic. However, this day was no normal day. 2 hours and 15 minutes! At one point we went about 200 metres in 20 minutes! In the middle of the journey the taxi driver stopped and got out of the car and went somewhere just after a toll plaza on a huge highway which we were on. I had no idea where he went. I understood when we went past this building.

Yep. Toilet block just after the toll booth in the middle of a 8 lane highway.

Poor Lisa though. She had to go the same route to immigration and she was stuck in the same traffic but with 3 children!

So today, I gave ourselves 2 hours to get to the airport as we were travelling on the same route. What do you know? Only took 50 minutes to the airport (we were travelling in the early afternoon though as opposed to the morning). So an extra hour to kill at the airport.

Anyway, we are back in Lampang now. Very tired. Travelling with 3 young children isn't what I call fun. I don't think we have to travel again until June when we have our OMF Thailand Conference (over 6 hours of driving though!). I'm relieved though. Hopefully in just over 10 days time we will receive our daughter's passport which ends long process of getting her birth certificate translated into English, going to Bangkok to apply for her citzenship by decent, wait for the citzenship papers to arrive. Then going back to Bangkok to apply for her passport. It has taken almost 6 months!

Superhuman powers

Sometimes I wish I could have supernatural powers to tackle the evil forces. Today, it was the driver who wanted more. I went to the biggest hotel in town and organised a driver for our friends to a neighboring province. He said 1500 baht petrol plus 500 baht. 2000 baht all up. It sounded cheap so I was happy with the deal. Turn up in front of our house, Tuesday morning 8:30am. Today (Tuesday) he turns up at 7:40am. "I did say 8:30am didn't I?". "Yes, Yes, I'll wait outside". By then I had to take my son to school. When I rang our friends later in the day, I was shocked to learn that the driver changed his price to 1500 baht, plus petrol costs. He wouldn't say what the petrol price would be before they left. They ended up having to pay 1500 baht in petrol so 3,000 baht all up! I am positive that language was NOT the issue here as we clearly agreed on the total price of 2000 baht. So either the driver was naive and quoted the wrong price and was too ashamed to admit it, or he deliberately quoted a low price so that I'd agree and then force a higher price out of us on the day when it would be too late to organise other transport. Either way not happy (especially for our friends) and it dashed my hopes that I'd found a great driver to call upon to send off our visitors to Chiang Mai or other places.

Around Lampang

Local shop selling shrine down the road from where we live

Taxi! This is the equivalent to a taxi in Lampang (A Song Theew)

I recently bought a new mobile (cell) phone with a camera on it so that I could take snap shots of Lampang without having to remember my camera.

More recently the focus of the blog has changed to more theological thoughts I've been wrestling with rather than a photo blog. I don't know whether you like the change or not. Feel free to comment on where you like the change or you preferred the posts of the past.

Putting Preachers in their place

I've having recently been thinking about and blogging concerning the role of preaching in the church. The issue I’m trying to deal with is “Is preaching as it is done today, a monologue usually by one Senior ministor/pastor week by week to a passive audience, is that what the Bible intended for the Church?”. Recently, someone directed me to a talk by Mark Driscoll title d "Putting Preachers in their place" dealing with this issue. Driscoll argues yes and almost goes as far as to say to think otherwise might put you in the category of being a cult or a sect.

I’m a big fan of Driscoll and I listen to his sermons regularly. However, I must say that I did not find the argument in this talk convincing.

Driscoll supports his argument by referring to numerous passages of preaching by Jesus, Paul and other Apostles, but nearly all these passages are in the context of preaching to Non-believers outside of a church. The context is different so to then argue that preaching is essential part of church from these passages I don't think is right.

Driscoll says that Acts 13 clearly shows that there was a team of preachers at the church in Antioch. But when you look up Acts 13:1 it says “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers”. O.k. it is possible there were a team of preachers at the church in Antioch but is this what the verse is actually saying? Is these passage advocating the current practice of most churches of one pastor preaching every week?

Don't mishear me. I’m not against preaching in church. Not at all. I’m just questioning whether preaching by one pastor every week in church was what the Bible is advocating. I believe that the word of God is central to church. I’m just not sure that preaching by one ordained person though is what the Bible is teaching. It could possibly, but it is not as clear cut as people make out. I think there is room for several teaching elders. Does preaching have to be a monologue? Is the Bible teaching this?

In Driscoll’s argument for preaching being the central part of church he goes to the teaching of the Reformers, Calvin and the like and their definitions on the marks of the church. But he does not show us where from the Bible this is evident.

Looking at preaching today. Almost all of it is done in the church to believers and hardly any to non-believers. In the New Testament most of the preaching is to non-believers. Preaching in the church context and what form it took I don’t think is clearly addressed as opposed to preaching outside of church to non-believers were there are numerous examples.

I'm happy to be corrected or convinced otherwise. Please do. But please take me to the Scriptures. However, if the current model of one pastor/minister preaching a monologue week by week to a passive audience arose through church traditional or practice then we need to recognize that this is what it is and not read back church traditional into the Scriptures.

A new way of evangelism or just a return to past?

I kind of stumbled onto to Chronological Bible Story telling in the last couple of months. I was searching for Mark Driscoll’s last words and assessment of Sydney Evangelicals when he visited last year and came across the Sydney Anglican’s website with a great collection of sermons which you could download for free. In amongst this sermons was a series of 5 talks by Don Carson on evangelism to the post modern, post Christian world (download here). They were eye opening talks which radically changed my view of evangelism. I was left wondering why I hadn’t heard this kind of thinking before of world view evangelism. Don Carson makes the point that to preach the gospel without having explained the Christian world view first makes no sense to someone with a different worldview. So if I tell a Thai Buddhist that Jesus died on the cross for there sins, they don’t see the great sacrificial love of Jesus for mankind but they see a man with obviously bad karma to have died such a terrible death. They can’t understand why you would ever want to follow a man like that.

In addition to this what I’ve been coming across more recently is material from Larry Dinkins, a former OMF missionary to Thailand that oral story telling of the Bible, in his experience is much more effective in reaching Thais (listen here - choose the iphone option). Although Thais are 95% literate, the underlying culture is oral.

So I’m convinced (at the moment anyway) that oral Chronological Bible Story telling is the way forward for evangelism in Thailand. May God use it to bring people to him.

To read more on this go to the God Story website.