tim liu .org

Bibles for the Olympics

2008-06-24T17:04:00.002-04:00

The Chicago Tribune has an interesting series on the growth of Christianity in China. Included is this slideshow about one of the factories printing 5 million Bibles a year.

At a time when Christianity in Western Europe is dwindling, China's believers are redrawing the world's religious map with a growing community already exceeding all the Christians in Italy. And increasing Christian clout in China has the potential to alter relations with the United States and other nations.
But much about the future of faith in China is uncertain, shaped most vividly in bold new evangelical churches such as Zion, where a soft-spoken preacher and his fervent flock do not yet know just how far the Communist Party is prepared to let them grow.

To the surprise of many, China has even recently sanctioned the distribution of an official Olympics Bible. This reflects the changing view of the government to outside beliefs and ideas as it takes the world stage this summer. Does this signal a permanent change and increasing openness, or just a temporary show of good will? We'll all be watching what happens.

What could the church do with 1 million dollars?

2008-05-06T17:00:00.001-04:00

A few years back, when Francis Chan's church was booming in membership and budget, they were planning on a new $20 million dollar building project for a new sanctuary. However, one of the church's core values was modeling Christ's love for the poor. They came to the conclusion that it would be dishonoring to God to spend so much on a building when people around the world were in need.

They finally decided to build an outdoor amphitheater for much less than a huge worship facility. The reasoning was that in Southern California, the weather is beautiful most of the year, and on days with bad weather, people would be reminded of the suffering of those around the world. Today the church gives upwards of 50% of it's multi-million dollar income to the needy through organizations such as Children's Hunger Fund.

This video was made to explain their decision to the church. I've never been a big fan of mega-churches, but something about this reminds me that this is how church is supposed to be.

More about the building project.

Francis Chan and ethnicity

2008-05-06T16:25:00.005-04:00

I have a feeling that Francis Chan will be one of the most influential leaders of this generation. The interesting thing is that Chan is a Chinese American, serving in a largely non-Asian context (at his church and in Passion Conferences). I think God has used his background to open doors for him as a messenger of grace. Seeing how most Asian American Christians struggle to really understanding God's grace, it is fitting that God would use an Asian American to take that message to the church at large.

Also interesting how being an Asian American has opened up a lot of doors for him to communicate this message of grace:

EN: What are some advantages of being a Chinese American amongst mostly Caucasian Americans?

FC: There really hasn’t been a ton. It really opens the doors to so many different venues like some of the more Caucasian venues are open to me because they want a token Asian. So I think that’s cool. And then at the Asian events I feel at home because I totally understand the youth and their upbringing. I feel like I relate because I get the way some of them were raised because that was me. Because of my nationality, when I work in inner-city ministries, it breaks any prejudices or barriers. I feel like God’s used my ethnicity to open a lot of doors for me.

Full article here. Thanks, DJ for the link.

Meet Francis Chan

2008-04-30T22:38:00.009-04:00

One of the pastors that I have recently grown to admire is Francis Chan, pastor of Cornerstone Simi Church. Chan is probably best known for his video "Just Stop and Think" and his association with Passion Conference. I listen to a lot of pastors who challenge me want to follow God, but Chan has a way of making you want to LOVE God more. His life and teaching has definitely left a mark on how I preach and minister.

If you have a chance, take some time to check him out.

Sermons: Cornerstone Church (also on iTunes)
Also, francischan.org

RSS feed fixed

2008-02-18T17:31:00.004-05:00

In case you've tried subscribing in the past and weren't getting new posts, I've tweaked some things on the timliu.org rss feed so it should be updating correctly now. Now all I have to do is do some actual posting. Haha.

You can subscribe to the post here.

The Irresistible Revolution

2008-02-05T11:34:00.001-05:00

There are a lot of books nowadays that talk about what is wrong with the church, but Claiborne shows and tells how the church really can embrace it's true calling. Claiborne's writing is simple, but beautiful, captivating the heart and mind. Without a doubt, this book has impacted my views on money and possessions, serving the poor, war and peace, and most of all, following Jesus.

Mark Driscoll on American Idolatry

2007-10-17T00:50:00.001-04:00

I would say that American idolatry goes beyond even entertainment, but an entire mentality of self-idolization.

Austin's 'emergent' Christians finding a new path

2007-09-30T23:29:00.001-04:00

I was surprised and encouraged to see this article featuring Vox Veniae Church in Austin, TX about how they are breaking from traditional church expressions and innovating to bring the Gospel to the community. Even more interesting is that the church originally began as a church plant off of a traditional Chinese Baptist church in Austin. It's even more interesting because I started listening to Gideon Tsang on podcast about a year ago, he's a really good preacher, one of my favorites to hear.

The son of a Chinese missionary, Tsang, 33, grew up in Canada, attended an evangelical seminary in Illinois and eventually landed at Austin Chinese Church — a North Austin congregation made up mostly of immigrants from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan — where he led a ministry for college students called Liquid. That grew into Vox Veniae, which formed last year with a core of middle-class students and young professionals who, like Tsang, longed "to be the hands and feet of Christ in Austin."

Vox members have now bought or are renting six homes in the predominantly black and Hispanic neighborhood, driven by a desire to share their resources by living among people who have less. Vox members hope to set up computer training classes, teach kids to build bikes and work as mentors in nearby public schools.

"It's all grace," Tsang said. "What we receive, we now have to give back."

A Quiet Strength

2007-09-04T14:55:00.000-04:00

Tony Dungy's bio, Quiet Strength has become a runaway hit, going into its 8th printing and staying in the New York Times bestsellers list for over 7 weeks. I got this book for my birthday and finished it two days. Its a great read with lots of insights about the unique life of a pro football coach. But the book has a lot more to talk about than football - it details the values, principles and spiritual insights of a great man who has been through all the highs and lows of a full life. Definitely check it out if you are interested at all in football and seeing into the character of a truly remarkable man.

The Power of Encouragment

2007-07-16T17:05:00.001-04:00

Reading this well written post by Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, reminded me of how often as a leader I am more critical than encouraging. How much better would it be if we were continual encouragers as God repeatedly reminds us. There would be a powerful impact on the lives of our fellow co-workers as well as those we minister to. Here Adams reflects on the impact of receiving written encouragements from a class of near strangers.

I remember opening my little package of compliments. Like everything else in the Dale Carnegie course, it seemed silly at first. How much impact would a bunch of mandated compliments from strangers have on me? Surely they would seem insincere to the point of humorous. I started to read them, one by one, and they blew me away. It was a powerful experience, and that was the point of the exercise. When we compared notes later, we all had the same experience. Compliments are powerful things, even from strangers who barely know you.

Asia's growing influence on youth culture

2007-07-16T15:53:00.001-04:00

Mark Oestreicher, the president of Youth Specialties, reflects on the rise of asian youth culture as a world influencer and its implications on the youth ministry in the west.

The west is no longer the primary influencer of youth trends worldwide
Asian youth culture's influence is growing through technology as well as sheer population growth
Western leaders will be challenged to examine their prejudices towards Asians and their lessening role in leading the future of the church

he also points to this video about asian youth trends from MTV asia:

Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back

2007-06-16T11:46:00.001-04:00

I love this new cd from Tim Hughes. While not as well known as his Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin, Hughes has written many songs that are staples of contemporary worship including "Here I Am to Worship" and "Consuming Fire". His songs from this album "Everything", "Clinging to the Cross", and "Highest and Greatest" have already made it into the regular rotation in our worship.

Simply to the cross I cling / Letting go of all earthly things / Clinging to the cross /Mercy's found a way for me / Hope is here as I am free / Jesus You are all I need

Mark Driscoll - "A good soldier"

2007-06-16T11:37:00.000-04:00

I've recently been hooked on reading Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He is definitely not your typical pastor, but is well known for making a huge impact on the city and unreached community of Seattle. His book, "Confessions of a Reformission Rev." is worth reading if for nothing else than it will make you laugh out loud. He's given me a lot to think about with regards to the importance of men in the church and how guys need to be challenged to step it up. He's come under a lot of criticism lately, but I think once you look deeper into his life, you can really see his heart for the church and to challenge men, especially. Here is a short video from him about the costs and the requirements of being a church planter.

Militant atheism on the rise

2007-05-31T16:58:00.001-04:00

A disturbing trend that is permeating across the nation is the concept that religion in any form is responsible for many, if not all, of the evils in this world. Go to any discussion forum on the internet and this viewpoint is quite evident, as is the growing popularity of books denouncing religion, as discussed in this article.

The time for polite debate is over. Militant atheist writers are making an all-out assault on religious faith and reaching the top of the best-seller list, a sign of widespread resentment over the influence of religion in the world among nonbelievers.
Christopher Hitchens' book, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," has sold briskly ever since it was published last month, and his debates with clergy are drawing crowds at every stop.
Sam Harris was a little-known graduate student until he wrote the phenomenally successful "The End of Faith" and its follow-up, "Letter to a Christian Nation." Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" struck similar themes -- and sold.

Link

Practically Speaking Podcast

2007-03-28T16:04:00.001-04:00

Andy Stanley has a great 7-part podcast on practical leadership skills availible for free. I recently took a personal retreat and listened to almost all the episodes in one afternoon. The best thing I took from it was that we all have our ideas of "success" in ministry. Even though we craft carefully vision/mission statements, in reality we all internally judge our ministries by our own criteria. How many people showed up? Are people being engaged? How did we do personally? We may not admit it, but we all have our own standards of whether we are suceeding or not.

By clarifying our real goals and visions, we can unite leadership and focus the energy of our ministries on the things that are really important. You can't do everything, but you can do some things well.

Asian American Christians on Campus

2006-11-08T16:53:00.000-05:00

Article in the Washington Post about campus groups reaching out to Chinese

"Christian missionary fellowships are working hard at Washington area campuses, reaching out to the next generation of China's best and brightest. The missionaries hope to convert the students, or at least to make them comfortable with the Christian faith, which is under the government's close watch in China.

Most Chinese grow up in an atheistic society. Christian fellowships encourage them to contemplate a question they were previously told to avoid: Is there a God?

That makes the work of the campus missionaries difficult. They convert only a small percentage of those they approach, though many more are exposed to Christianity."

Earlier, a mega-article in Christianity Today called "Tiger in the Academy" about Asian American Fellowships, and their spectacular growth on campuses. The article is archived here, so you can only read part, but its worth finding a full copy of it.

At Berkeley, California's premier public university, "evangelical Christian" and "Asian American" are almost interchangeable descriptions. Three trends come together. One is California's demographics: It is 11 percent Asian compared to 4 percent for the nation as a whole. Two is academic prestige: As the oldest and most selective campus of the University of California, Berkeley has an undergraduate population that is 42 percent Asian. (As a general rule, the more selective the school, the higher the percentage of Asian students.) Three is a national fact: Asian students are more likely to show Christian commitment than other ethnic groups, including whites.

Harvard is 17 percent Asian American; mit, 28 percent; Stanford, 24 percent; Princeton and Yale, 13 percent. At each of these schools, Asian students account for an even larger share of the Christian community. Often they meet in ethnically based fellowships, and these may be the schools' largest Christian ministries.

This is so wrong

2006-09-05T23:37:00.000-04:00

(warning: some bad nsfw language toward the end) (via dklee123)

So is this.

faith browser

2006-09-04T17:17:00.000-04:00

I initially installed this firefox extension and theme just to be funny but now i'm kinda hooked on it. Its actually pretty nicely designed.

Another nice little tool i use a lot in firefox is the Biblegateway Search Engine plug-in available here.

greenhouses

2006-09-04T16:20:00.000-04:00

In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life is inside him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.

That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or--if they think there is not--at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.

- c.s. lewis in "mere christianity"

Hillsong United We Stand

2006-08-27T23:48:00.000-04:00

I've never been one to jump on the Hillsongs United bandwagon, but after having this cd for a few weeks, i've listened to it nearly every single day, and don't know if i've ever been so ministered to by one cd. ok, that's a pretty extreme recommendation, but I really love this album.

One thing that United did really well with this one is that every song sounds like you're standing in the middle of a thousand-plus worshippers. For most of the songs, you hardly hear the lead singer, but instead the voices of the crowds worshiping along. I think it really captures the heart of our generation, in a voice that is desperately seeking the work of God to be magnified. It's a beautiful thing.

(the DVD is also quite amazing in itself. I was really challenged in my own ministry just hearing about how United was birthed out of hungry hearts that simply loved the youth around them.)

A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains And should I stumble again
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting, your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high ...

Playlist heard around the world

2006-08-27T23:30:00.000-04:00

In a ritual dating to the Gemini program of the mid-1960s, astronauts awake not to alarms but to music chosen by family or friends... The songs may seem frivolous, but the astronauts welcome them as moments of good cheer during their hectic assignments, says astronaut Mario Runco, who's not part of the Discovery crew. As construction of the International Space Station ramps up and the workload on shuttle flights gets heavier, wake-up songs will serve as a morale booster, says Runco, whose collection has supplied many of the recordings piped up to space... Some spouses choose love songs. Others choose Christian tunes, such as God of Wonders, played last week for Discovery astronaut Michael Fossum.

Imagine waking up, looking at the earth from space and hearing "God of Wonders".

God of wonders
Beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares your majesty
You are holy, holy.

I've been speaking in our church about our lack of awe and wonder of God. How easy it is for God to become routine and stuffed into a small box of our understanding and comprehension of Him. We need to always come back to a sense of greater wonder in him.

"He who can no longer pause to wonder, is as good as dead."

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science."
- Albert Einstein

"One characteristic that marks the average church today is lack of anticipation. Christians when they meet do not expect anything unusual to happen; consequently only the usual happens, and that usual is as predictable as the setting of the sun... We need today a fresh spirit of anticipation that springs out of the promises of God. We must declare war on the mood of nonexpectation, and come together with childlike faith. Only then can we know again the beauty and wonder of the Lord's presence among us." - A.W. Tozier

Hip-Hop Liturgies

2006-08-27T23:25:00.000-04:00

Popular Christian music styles have always paralleled the sound of secular hits, from grunge to techno. Now hip-hop is finding its way into the liturgies of traditional churches. The white, middle-aged Rev. Timothy (Poppa T) Holder doesn't look like someone who would shout "Holla back!" in his priestly blessing. But, noticing the power and ubiquity of rap in his South Bronx neighborhood, Holder created a hip-hop mass in his Trinity Episcopal Church of Morrisania. Now he wants to help other churches get in the act, and has devised a hip-hop service for the more buttoned-up St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity Church.

Don't miss the video. Its kinda funny, but still pretty darn cool. I have nothing but respect for those who are daring enough to break out of long established ways of doing ministry in trying to reach new cultures and communities.

Be a Local Hero - Interview with Aaron Shust

2006-07-26T14:45:00.000-04:00

A good interview with Aaron Shust, who has a great hit single, My Savior, My God.

Your have a huge radio single, topping several different charts, over 50,000 albums sold, numerous tours—were these aspirations you had?

Shust: Maybe. If it were an aspiration, it was subconscious, subliminal. I have a lot of people coming to me with that situation. They ask for advice, "How do I make it in the Christian industry?" "How do you go from being a worship leader to a performing artist?" And well, [my answer is], "I'm still a worship leader. Sometimes I lead worship in Atlanta, and sometimes I'm leading worship in Fargo, North Dakota." The best [advice] I can give them is, "Bloom where you're planted."

Although it's good to be a visionary and dream about what you want to do, God made us all different. And God has you here right now. Maybe you're doing music in your local church—maybe you're not even playing Sunday mornings, but Wednesday nights for the sixth graders. Do the best you can to play great music for the sixth grade group, and to the glory of God. Then maybe God will open doors for you to lead on Sunday morning, or maybe you'll get asked to open for a national act. Or maybe not. Maybe God wants you to be a local hero to the sixth graders for the rest of your time there. Bloom where you're planted.

I think even in ministry its so hard to just be content with where God has put us and to always be looking at bigger things. But I have always had to learn to be faithful with God has given me and leave the rest in His hands.

Be One

2006-07-24T17:24:00.000-04:00

A nice translation of Philippians 2:1-4 from the Message.

"If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand."

I've recently been feeling the hurt of disunity in the Body in working with other Christians. "I'll never serve with Him." "She is so fake." "I can't stand them." Piercing words that speak volumes. Why is it so hard to love each other?

The Whole Bible in 5 Minutes

2006-06-13T17:03:00.000-04:00

This is a neat resource that summarizes all the books of the Bible into short, often clever lessons. Its a great way to get a good overview of the major themes of the entire Bible. Some samples:

The Book of Leviticus
How to approach God is vital
Cleanliness can depict godliness
Holiness is a chief concern to God
God is interested in what people eat
God is concerned with all of life
Celebrating is a wholesome experience
Sin must be removed from our fellowship

The Book of Ruth
Marriages can be made in heaven
God can reroute tragedy
God's long-range purposes may be hidden over the short-term
God is in control despite our desperation

The Book of Jonah
Some people run from God's calling
Evil people aren't beyond hope in God's eyes
Some have a prophetic role
God calls his servants to do some difficult things
God disciplines his disobedient servants
God has a heart as big as the world