Three themes come up today at church:
- Prayer and Fasting (Sunday School series on Prayer week 4)
- Sky-Diving (for thrill vs. military operation, during Sermon)
- The Charismatic problem (discussion with Tom during Fellowship meal on my withdrawal from the "praise" team)
After my time spent with American churches, I would say the common issue unaware by many is being on different wavelengths. One question asked, an off topic response answered. Happens all the time. This trains me I supposed, to improve my focus and sharpness on an issue.
Someone mentioned about prayer about hunger during fasting. I would say this is already a false view of fasting in Christianity. Fasting is about full reliance on God. Fasting is not hunger strike nor being destitute of food.
On Sky-Diving, it seems that the preacher had a false dichotomy of extreme sports. Either it's for saving people or it's for selfish thrill. This article as a good take on the subject and even beautifully adapted sky-diving experience as analogous to a person's life and the Gospel (tandem with parachute). I would just comment that when one's living philosophy is a passive kind, one cannot truly breakthrough such rigid false dichotomy of things. I would have to wonder what the pastor think of people going to Six Flags or Disney World, are those sinful, or if it can be considered not sinful from some aspect, how then are they not able to be applied to sky-diving, which can easily be about learning a new way of looking at life, the world, from a carefully laid out thrilling plan.
During the fellowship meal, Tom finally had to sit next to me to ask me: Why. I'm impressed that he would care enough to approach. While with the other few who asked, I merely replied: I'm just taking a break. To see if they had any desire to no more, which is zero. However, I wish I could put it more eloquently. I made it clear that there's "no problem with music being contemporary. But to be always contemporary, that is a problem." To which Tom suggested if some hymns should be included. I couldn't answer with my satisfaction other than that we already have hymns on other time. I should have replied: But it seems that the goal of this "praise" team is geared towards promotion contemporary only music. And I wish I could also bring out the charismatic problem, the root problem with the charismatic/pentacostal churches, which is not really speaking in tongues, gift of healing or even prosperity gospel. But it is the replacement of true substance with superficial matters. The Charismatics do not have credit on anything that is uniquely theirs. If it is good, it is not because the charismatics invented it. All the good, the liveliness, zeal and non-frozen-chosen attitude, were already practised by many non-charismatics. They were just later being promoted by the Charismatics in certain ways and methods that shouldn't be copied, but should be a wake up call for those of us who have idled too long, self justifying ourselves for being "frozen-chosen", in order for us to recall that first love we have for our Lord, but the charismatics have nothing to teach us here methodologically had it been uniquely theirs.