Pastor Jonathan’s Weblog

When I get to heaven, I want my room to be right next to Eric Liddell’s — Eric, the “I’m-not-running-on-Sunday-even-if-it’s-the-1924-Olympics” hero, who became famous from the movie Chariots of Fire. He received a gold medal in the 400 m which was not even his race. Actually, the race of his life was not on the track field — it was in the mission field in China. When I recently watched a DVD documentary of Eric Liddell, I immediately felt drawn to him: He was a chemistry major in college, loved to joke around, and joyfully served the Lord in every circumstance (even as he was suffering and dying from brain tumor).

As one of the young lads who was cared for by “Uncle Eric” in Weihsien concentration camp in China during Japanese occupation during the WWII, wrote:

“He was greatly helped by the Oxford Group and their emphasis in Bible study on reading accurately, interpreting honestly and applying drastically. The latter meant living each day by the Four Absolutes: absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, and absolute love. [...] He knew that to attain to such a standard in his own strength was impossible. This led Eric to a personal pursuit of the cleansing, filling and empowering of the Holy Spirit.” (James H. Taylor III, in the Forward of Eric Liddell: Pure Gold by David McCasland)

Now that’s a tough race, but a race worth running to the finish line: Reading the Bible accurately, interpreting honestly, and applying drastically; absolute honesty, absolute purity, absolute unselfishness, absolute love. That’s absolute surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ that I want to emulate.

“Lord, may I run this race as faithfully to the very end! And save me that room next to Eric’s!”

Valentine’s Day is associated with overpriced flowers and overcaloried chocolates. But it’s supposed to be a day of true love and sacrifice, something that the original Saint Valentine (the third century bishop who was martyred for his faith in Jesus) would’ve been pleased to see from heaven. But alas, somehow it’s become a season of sensual longings and hopeless romantics, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year! If Saint Valentine had a blogsite in heaven, he must be ranting over all the muck that’s been made of his name.

For the past three years, we at Waypoint Community Church, have made February 14 a Day of Compassion where we reach out to those who need love the most. This year, over 100 volunteers from our church went in groups to visit homeless shelters, a transition home for fatherless families, and a nursing home where elderly longingly look forward to visitors, just any visitor. We gave them gifts, sang songs with them, played games together, talked with them, prayed for them, and shared Jesus’ love through it all. It was a night that would have made Saint Valentine smile…

As I reflect on this wonderful tradition in the life of our church, I can’t help but to see our mission statement being lived out: To be a community of Christ-followers who honor God passionately, love each other deeply, and engage the world lovingly. This is the way the church should be reclaiming what true love ought to be, transforming today’s culture with the love and truth of Jesus Christ lived out. I’m reminded of what Bill Hybels often says when churches are shining brightly, “There is nothing like the local church when the local church is working right.” Amen to that!

I’ve been listening to this song that our college band played tonight at the Bible study–”You are My Strength” by Hillsong (from their album, Saviour King):

You are my strength
Strength like no other
Strength like no other
Reaches to me

You are my hope
Hope like no other
Hope like no other
Reaches to me

In the fullness of Your grace
In the power of Your Name
You lift me up
You lift me up

Unfailing love
Stronger than mountains
Deeper than oceans
Reaches to me

Your love O Lord
Reaches to the heavens
Your faithfulness
Reaches to the skies

I think I’ll be playing this song for about a good week! (As some of you know, when I get hooked on a song, I play it over and over again, I put it on one-song repeat on all my devices!)

This song expresses exactly what I’m feeling, especially in the midst of ministry burdens: I need strength, strength like no other…and it’s the strength that only God can provide to those who are weak. I need hope, hope like no other…and because of Jesus, I can have hope even in times of despair. This song is really ministering to me (I’m already on my 12th time listening on repeat)… That’s right–God’s strength, hope, and love reaches down to me because He loves me! What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? Nothing! Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God and because of that, I am lifted up once again.

At first, Ken Blanchard’s book, Leading at a Higher Level, read like a corporate management & leadership guidebook. To be sure, there are some good points that can be applicable to leadership in ministry settings (which I will write about later).
But the last section of the book gave me something that I felt I needed to share right away. It was the chapter on Servant Leadership. Some of it read so much like a sermon that I was saying “Amen!” on several occasions (which I finished while waiting in the jury duty room on Monday).

Two notes and a comment:
1) He notes the importance of humility (he also cites Jim Collins’ work Good to Great as well which echoes this). “People with humility don’t think less of themselves; they just think about themselves less” (p.263, quoting another book).

2) Self-serving leaders vs. servant leaders. “Self-serving motivations can’t be hidden for long. Your heart will be exposed” (p.269).

As a leader, I need to remember that my first and foremost calling is to be a follower of Jesus Christ — and Jesus was a servant leader, denying the self to serve others. But the danger of being a leader is in thinking that followers should serve while leaders are busy leading. But we must lead in (and through) serving!

“Lord, please help me to never get tired of serving. After all, the reason why I am in the position of leadership in ministry is because I was called to serve You…”

This is my first blog post ever! Why blog? Why now?

At the early stages of blogs, I (and many others) dismissed weblogs as a fad that would quickly dissipate. However, over the years, I’ve come to realize that blogs are powerful and an effective way to communicate. So, like the cellphone that is attached to my waist, and the mp3 player that’s attached to my ears, I’ve come to accept this technology as an inevitable extension of my fingertips.

This is also a place where I can journal — a practice that I wish to start up in earnest this year. (Sorry, it won’t contain very very personal things.) But it will contain entries that I think might be of use to others out there.

One concern about this whole blog thing is that it might become a time sink for you and me. So let’s agree to not let this blog get the best of our lives. After all, we have to live real life in the real world so that we can have real stuff to write about…

So, “Hello World!” Here it goes!