Success through the Eyes of Faith

Public Domain via Pixabay

My apologies for not blogging for the last four to five months! Major transitions have happened in my life. It has been pretty busy, not to mention stressful, these past months! I am no longer a campus minister serving at York University, a role I served in for the past 15 years. Since August 2016, I am serving as the Editor in Chief of The Banner, the official magazine of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. Hence, a new chapter has begun in my life of following Jesus and serving his church and the world.

I wish to make it clear here that my transition was more about following Christ’s calling rather than finding greener pastures. This “career move” can easily be made to fit into the world’s narrative of success, as in constantly moving on to bigger and better. But I had always said that I go to (and stay) where I believe God is calling me. Success, in my understanding of Scripture, means, above all, faithfulness to Christ’s call, along with the missional kingdom fruitfulness (which includes, but not exclusive to the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5:22-23) born of that.

Becoming a World Changer

My fifth and final teaching video for now, Becoming a World Changer, lists out five major themes for Christians to be a Christ-centred agent of change.

I believe that Christians are called to join in God’s mission to not only “save souls,” so to speak, but also to reconcile “all things” to God, to bring about God’s shalom in the world.

Below the video is a PDF handout for group discussion.

Becoming a World Changer by Shiao Chong

To download an accompanying pdf discussion handouts suitable for a short workshop or a small group, click here: Becoming a World Changer

 

Christian Leadership

Leadership Lane via Wikimedia Commons

This is my first teaching video! I have made six five teaching videos which will be uploaded with accompanying pdf discussion handouts. I will try and roll them out over the next few weeks.

In this video, I reflect on four major principles of Christian Leadership set in an acrostic: L-E-A-D for easy remembering!

Hope you will find this beneficial. PDF download link is below the video. 

Finding Your Self

Public Domain via Pixabay

(This post is a revised version of an article with the same title originally published in The Banner, September 2004, pp. 48-50.)

At York University where I serve as Campus Minister and Director of a Christian student club, I have come across students who struggle with issues of identity. One female student, for instance, struggled with thoughts of worthlessness, feeling stupid and ugly. Another male student struggles with finding significance in his life. These students are essentially struggling with the question, “Who am I?” It is an issue of identity, of seeking to find your selfhood.

I want to explore a biblical, theological answer to this question. A big picture theological answer is important since our specific individual search for self always takes place within a bigger framework. In fact, our big picture framework influences how we carry out our specific individual search. Let me illustrate this with a few examples of how some distorted frameworks can in turn distort our individual search for self.

Helping Teens Keep the Faith

Jakarta Church photo from Wikipedia

Today’s blog post is by a York student, David Ekere. David has been involved in my ministry since the 2013-14 academic year. By his own admission, he wrote a seven page paper on “Why Teens Leave the Church” one night when he was “bored from studying”! We might be seeing a future youth pastor in the making! And he sent it to me for my feedback. Part of my ministry’s mission is to develop the leadership potential in students. Hence, I choose to empower David’s voice and passion by posting a revised version of his paper on my blog. I have to edit the paper down to a more blog-friendly length, and also changed his paper’s tone. So, here is the David-approved edited version with my brief responsive remarks after the paper.

Understanding Biblical Justice

(This is a guest post by Karen Long, a student leader with the Leadership, Culture and Christianity student club at York University)

Book Review: Marshall, Chris. The Little Book of Biblical Justice: A Fresh Approach to the Bible’s Teachings on Justice. Good Books. Intercourse, PA: 2005

In Chris Marshall’s The Little Book of Biblical Justice, Marshall has done an effective job at attempting to explain the complicated and often misunderstood concept of biblical justice. Of course, it goes without saying that the book is not exhaustive, but it allows to whet the reader’s appetite to explore biblical justice further.

Many Christians consider the Bible a source of revelation about social and criminal justice. The Bible helped to shape Western civilization, so it is helpful to explore biblical notions of justice to understand modern day socio-political and judicial thought.