Local Church is the Hope of the World

2014/3/19-21, 3 days in Hong Kong. Main theme is Grace to City. Rev. Timothy Keller spoke on 4 topics with Mandarin translation. Grace Dynamics - 恩典的動力 ( my notes ) Contextualization - 福音的處境化 ( my notes ) Integrative Ministry - 事工的整合 ( my notes ) Movement Dynamics - 福音運動的活力 ( my notes ) Q & A ( my notes )

Tim did a Q & A with church planters, pastors, and core members. Just quick notes but from my perspective, it's extremely helping because of these customized questions. (Spending time to a person) - We can't not spend too much time to a needy sheep and ignore the other 99 sheep (not preparing sermon well feeding them). Distinguish a lost person, a potential christian leader, and a needy person. (Church model) - prefer doing church planting rather than an multi-site church Recommend St. Gregory the Great's book:  The Book of Pastoral Rule: St. Gregory the Great (Popular Patristics Series) (Confidence or calling to doing ministry in NT city) - He didn't have one. He didn't have any confidence or arrogance. He went because no one wanted to go after his asking. He went because there was an opportunity over there. "It's a duty," Tim said. Why not for out of "duty" and "should?" For almost beginning 2 years in NT city, he was a...

Personal revival, church renewal, to the whole city movement. Let't dive into the last speech by seeing what is movement, what is gospel movement, and how to promote the movement. What is movement? There are 2 different organizations (not 2 entirely different, like an spectrum) Movement Institution Core Common Visions Hold by rules and traditions New ideas From all over (collaboratively) From top to down Format Constantly changed (innovated, creative, always moving) Hard to change, resist to change, Job to conserve things, refuse to change, rules and bylaws Power Willing to share Is guarded Question: a church is a movement or an institution? Both! Acts 7, a great persecution, Steven murdered. Acts 8, apostles stayed, else scattered. All results are not planned. It's a movement. At the same time, in Samaria, they called the apostles from Jerusalem. Why approval from them needed? They have authorities give by Churc...

God blessed Abraham, so that he may become a blessing to others. God brought him in, then sent him out. God will never call you in without sending you out. We are all in mission. The 2nd night, on the topic of Integrative ministry, Timothy Keller is going to walk through Luke 5 and show us 3 aspects of mission: out into work, out into margin of society, out so that people may return to Jesus. 1st: Take faith out and into our work (Luke 5:1-11) Meeting Jesus means change your identity and then change your view of work. Change your identity If God is infinitely good (beautiful), don't you fell bad (ugly) in front of him. See Isa 6:1-5 and Job 42:5-6. This is exactly what happened to Peter. He feels more truly than he is. His greatness destroys Peter's self-image. So Peter said in Luke 5:8, "Depart from me, for dI am a sinful man, O Lord.” In stead of throwing him away (remember the good vs. bad, beautiful vs. ugly contrast), Jesus included him. Now the true Peter bec...

Introduction "If what we have learned yesterday could be summarized as gospel into personal motivation ( see Gospel Dynamics ), today we're going to see how the gospel goes into the community," Keller spoke. If a person is greedy, we can tell. What if the whole society becomes greedy, it will be invisible. Don't ask a fish about water, because it doesn't know. Most of the time, culture is invisible. If a foreigner goes to a new country, the culture becomes more visible. Each culture has it's particular sin, and the gospel provides the particular redemptive hope. More people move into a city, the city culture becomes more complicated. For example, to the same church, the its neighborhood with Hindu and Pakistan background thinks the Christianity not conservative enough, while with Caucasian background views the Christianity way to conservative. If you want to address to them, contextualization is a skill. Tim Keller will presents this topic: Definition Ca...

Opening Timothy Keller goes back to Luke 15:11-32, traditionally called "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" but titled "The Prodigal God" by Keller, as the foundation of this 3-days conference. This is the focal points of the spiritual renewal. He believed. And Keller tries to show the concept , the problems, and the remedies from the text. We must carefully notice the audience of the original text. It's Pharisees and the scribes (Luke 15:2) Jesus was address to. Besides, at the end of the text, the father is talking the elder brother, not the younger. It gives us confidence that it's the elder brother we should think and address more deeply Concept: two ways of controlling God Controlling God means being you own savior. Either being very bad or being very good could be ways of controlling Him. Being very bad is obvious and easily understood. Being very good, acting morally and perfectly, still could be a form of selfishness inside you heart. Whatever ...

圖片出自：http://leadselfleadotherspink.com/ 近日的韓國大教會事件，與新加坡的大教會，都出現了在財務上的狀況。似乎兩案中，其中注目的不是財務是否合乎該國法規，而是公私不分加上因其職務之便，有圖利之可能性，或是在道德上站不住腳。 這不是我要談的，而是 教會的回應 ！ 我看到許多回應，都是優先肯定某某牧師多年來服事的辛苦，以及對於台灣教會的影響與貢獻。但我沒有看到的，是一種對於牧師傳道人需要忠心、小心、且用心的跑完服事全程的期待。讓我懷疑，似乎「有貢獻」是重要的，而「Finish Well」不重要！這是一種很可怕的苟且與神學上的漏洞。 對於不是台灣基督教會圈的人，去重申那些過去的功勞是沒有意義的。 對於不是台灣基督教會圈的人，誰沒有過去、誰沒有貢獻，但就是硬生生地看見「教會」被國家裡的法治單位給狠狠地修理。 對於台灣教會圈的我，往往不知許多人的發言，到底是為了自己、為了教會名稱、還是忠於聖經在發言？ 對於台灣教會圈的我，看見人家新加坡與韓國教會都在承認的錯誤，為什麼連根本不在我們國家發生的事，教會似乎都不敢面對？ 對於台灣教會圈的我，看見神學的應用與堅持消失殆盡（沒錯，我就是請華神對號入座），即使不傳講成功神學的教會卻早已用人數、策略、增長等成功指標來橫量自己與別人！ 對於台灣教會圈的我，渴望看見一個榜樣，無柰檯面上盡是陳腔濫調！ 至於我，也不是什麼好東西，也是爛人一個，只在學習跟別人講實話，也在等待有人敢跟我說實話！ Go deeper, keep going, and finish well.

 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more that something personal – it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you first gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the ...