Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My thoughts on recent post

Its been a long time since i have visited the blog as i believe the issue with Hope Thailand have been fully explained.

I will take this weekend to refresh the blog so we can better read some of the post. I must admit there are many people who have left Hope frustrated and angry. Over the years, i have seen many good friends leave the church but the good thing is many of us are still in touch with one another proving that moving church does not mean burning bridges.

I know many people who have left Hope have in one way or another have been let down by the church in one or another. Lets not be bitter but be better

if you will allow me to say a few words in regards to the Hope Movement.

Firstly, I am in no doubt Hope started out with the full intention of bringing the gospel to the world, which is why many of the pioneer leaders of Hope came from OCS in Australia ad were all previous leaders from other churches . Hope have no evil intention or are a satanic or a cult church, they have good intention but really really bad execution, that have caused some issues along the way.

Putting aside the sinful teachings taught by PN and Dr Joseph in regards to idol worship and the frivolous ways money was used in the Thai Churches . Generally most other overseas pastor have preached in line with the gospel.

I have learned in all my years as a christian both in the traditional and charismatic movement that great principles alone do not make a great church. Marxist ideology is one simple example, in its purest form; its the epitome of a heaven on earth where classless society work for the common good. But human nature is inherently evil and susceptible to greed, lust and power.

Same is true in Hope movement, it had great blue print but bad execution plan no doubt a side-effect from the teaching method of Dr Kreingsak.

Lets look at

1. Shepherding

Its a good mechanism for building the body of christ, I don't disagree that it will be good to have someone to mentor you and build you up. In an ideal world, a strong and well respected christian should mentor and help you grow, but in reality we find due to manpower shortage people are just assign over you sometimes just base on seniority. I have seen new christian less then 3 month shepherding and doing following up. ( Good intention but bad execution)

In all seriousness, is there really a huge difference between a 3 month christian and a new believer ? Young christian have tendency to be over zealous teach the wrong thing or even say the wrong things. In some cases when the group grow too fast, many have become a Care leader or Asst. Care leader in 6 months.

1 Tim 3 says it all

1Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer,a he desires a noble task. 2Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

Personally, we should not force and push people to be shepherd or make shepherding compulsory for all members.

What I think should be the best way forward is

1. Get people to join bible study group or a same gender bible group if they wish to know more about the bible and set a mature christian as a big bro or sister.

2. Make one-to-one mentoring a privilege. If a person wants a personal mentor let him or her seek out the mentor and if the person wants to mentor someone let him or her make the effort. Good example is Elijah and Elisha. If they are ready God will move the heart

If indeed we have been hurt by the Shepherd experience lets all just forgive and move on. Dont let hurt stop you from trusting people.

Amen