Honoring Aunties

Proverbs 14:31 “Whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” Every day I pray Proverbs 14:31 over a small group of people including our domestic helpers. One of them asked if she could speak with me yesterday morning. After sitting down in the basement, she started crying and unleashed a long string of frustrations that had been building up over the last week. Now we’ve gone through some traumatic events with our former domestic helpers. (One of them was even pimping a prostitution ring!) So I’m always a bit cautious about intentions and here I felt my defenses go up. But as I listened, I started to pray and God told me clearly to “help her understand the heart of the father.” So when she finished, I apologized, told her she was doing a great job and that God was proud of her. I also told her that I sometimes felt alone in Singapore without my parents around, especially since my dad has cancer now. But still I have my kids and my wife here, so I could only begin to imagine how hard it must be for her to be far from all of her family, including her own children. “You can always come talk to me, but more importantly I feel like God wants you to know that you’re never alone. He loves you, He’s got you covered, and He’s with you. Your family may be far, but you have a Father in Heaven who’s always close.” After I prayed for her, she smiled and thanked me. Lord, sometimes we’re so busy with the people outside our home that we forget to sew into the people inside our home. As Singapore heads into a semi-lockdown, and schools move back to home-based learning tomorrow, I pray that you use this time to help me to get back to the basics. Please give me more opportunities to honor our aunties, who do such a great job. In your son’s name, Amen.

Decentralized Church

Acts 8:1 “A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.”

Over the weekend a friend from our church said something that caught my attention. “I’m starting to realize the benefits of Solomon’s Porch’s decentralized model. Because we focus so much on house churches, if there’s ever any shock to the system, we can continue to thrive.”

I’ve been thinking about decentralization lately in the context of crypto. Storing information on a decentralized blockchain is slower and more expensive than on a centralized repository. But the benefit of decentralization is that you don’t need to trust a central authority.

When you think about churches, there are many reasons why one might not trust a centralized authority. We’ve seen some of the church’s greatest leaders embroiled in scandal in the past months. We’ve seen government authorities in places like China shut down church gatherings. We’ve seen a global pandemic force church communities to find distributed ways of engaging.

Francis Chan has experienced first-hand and written extensively about the issues around centralized megachurches. One of his arguments is that early church looked nothing like the cappuccino serving, concert light consumer-minded church services that many of us have become used to.

In Acts 8:1 we see that persecution from central authority led to an incredible spread of the gospel because the early church could operate in a decentralized way, led directly by the Holy Spirit. I do believe the centralization will continue to have some role to play, but I'm increasingly excited by what God is going to do in the church using decentralized technology. He’s already been doing it through decentralized communities for thousands of years.

Lord, I can’t even begin to imagine what you have in store. But I know it’s gonna be so amazing. Because you are so amazing. I thank you for being such a loving father. In your son’s name, Amen.

Pain's Place

Isaiah 53:5 “He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.” The other night Elaine and I joined a Zoom call on leadership with Pastor Dave Gibbons. One of the most surprising takeaways from the evening was his discussion of pain. He said something to the effect of “In many eastern philosophies, there is a direct and specific understanding of pain’s place in our lives. But the western concept of leadership has traditionally come from a place that glorifies strength and sweeps pain under the rug.” P Dave then went on to recount a horrible childhood encounter and how that shaped who he is today. After the tale, I could feel the atmosphere shift, and my view of him as a leader only elevated. Thumbing through scripture today I felt God leading back to this thought about pain. Probably my most transformative experiences came about because I uncovered traumatic moments in my past. I’ve found that when I uncover these moments, it not only brings healing to me, but also to those around me. And if we look at scripture, the greatest restoration the world has ever known came about from a very public display of pain. Lord, thank you for showing us that victory comes through vulnerability. When I ignore the pain, it has power over me. But when I bring it into the light, I come into line with the truth that you have taken all my pain onto your shoulders. Help me to take spiritual risk today in uncovering those memories the enemy wants to use against me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.