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

Happy 2011 and my wish

Its been a long time since i actually logged onto the blog. With each passing year, I really hope that greater things will come out of the HIM movement, which I am still in but have since adopted a more passive observer role

Lets hope the lessons of the past will not be forgotten and we will never make the same mistake again.

Many friends who have left the Hope movement have asked me why i never make the move. I suppose like it or hate it, there are some really good principles that have since been adopted by the HIM movement and I would hate to change for the sake of changing.

There are a couple of churches which I would have considered but there are not in the country i am residing in.

I plan to start blogging again, but this time to share some of my devotion or things i have learned from other teachers and Pastors.

So here's wishing everyone a Happy new year.

A new change

Its been a really long time since i have been on the blog, everything that was meant to be have been done. I think, I will do some clean up of the blog and start out something new. No point dwelling to much on the past.

Hope in Thailand is still very much everywhere. Hope Bangkok by Rubina website no longer exist. Ps Nimit has started a new church. PN still trying to get back the church he lost. HIM is still finding its own identity.

A few Hope International Church has left the HIM movement, and churches are finding back their own voice again.

So I shall leave it here and may those who have found new and better church continue to grow in the Lord.

Money - the true test of your faith

I was pondering about this recently and it just seems so coincidental that God was showing me things i never pondered about in the bible. I was speaking to a number of friends today and it just struck me like a thunder bolt.

Of all the greatest test, the test of wealth has always been the key. Most of Jesus parables were dealing with the issue of money. Jesus even affirmed this fact in the bible, that we cannot serve two masters and the two He spoke were God and Mammon ( God of money).

Why is money such an important indicator -

Money is neither good nor bad. But everything in this world needs money for it to work

When we are hungry, we pray and someone bring us out to eat or cook for us. Guess what, it cost money to buy food

When we are ill and have to see doctor, Guess what we need money to go to hospital. If we have insurance, it is still money that bought the insurance

When we need a church building, we pray God answers prayer and people give, guess what, money to buy the building.

So money is the medium and the test, but one of the greatest problem with money is that it has an awesome power to corrupt, it is like a drug, when you have, you want more. Because money can buy you things you always wanted and you thought you never could have.

It is note worthy to point out that Judas was the treasurer, the one who controlled the money for the group, the one who got corrupted by the desire. The fact remains, when we are in contact with money, there is always a desire to own it and to want it.

Thus we should always treat money with care and especially if the money belongs to the church, we should make sure no one ends up like Judas because there was no accountability.
If you really want to know your pastor, just see how he handles money, you can tell more about a person in the way they handle money, then a thousand explanation.

I thought I should bring this up because my friend from years back who have returned to Singapore spoke recently about a Church in Singapore called City Harvest. where the pastor and 17 church leaders were brought to CAD regarding on some issues about money. I really hope that when the investigation is done, the church will be clean. Some years back, I think even Hillsongs from Australia was queried over some transactions

What i am trying to say is this, Pastors are still human, if you give them unlimited access to church fund without proper accountability, one day they might turn to Judas. There is always a reason why we need check and balance. Remember that for anyone in finance, if we knowingly do things which are not proper and above board. You might end being implicated as well.

Make sure whatever you do, it is well documented and written. Especially loans, financial packages, special or noteworthy transactions. Keep it as transparent as possible, this way you will not have to always watch your back.

Judas took the test and he failed. Lets not become like him.

Free Forum to share

hi everyone,

As promised way back early in my posting days, i did mention that one day I will give people more voice in what is happening around the Hope Movement.

Be it good or bad. Or even sharing of blessing.

I will slowly transition to a more open forum based blog so that people can give their idea and thoughts rather then just me alone.

Of course blessings or encouragement is greatly welcome too.

But this blog will always serve as a voice for the people to allow all Hope and Ex-hope people a common place to share our thoughts.

It is important too to provide a place to find out about our church history. Maybe who knows this will be a place where the history of hope can be found.

Hopefully this way, when leaders try to hide anything, they will think twice.

I will take some time to do a better upgrade to provide a more friendly webpage