This article discusses the character of my community of faith, and recommendations to the works of Michael Card and Philip Yancey.What characterizes NHF?
In the past year, we have seen everyone at NHF stepping up to take charge of the various roles and ministries of the church: greeters, praise team, Sunday school teachers, AV, bulletin, fellowship snack, website, social, small groups, outreach, facilities, pastoral search, leadership team ... More than any other time in the history of this church, we feel a tremendous sense of liveliness and vibrancy.
Beneath the surface of courtesy and witty conversations, I sense a strong pulse for NHF: whether in discussions during fellowship hours, or sharings at small group studies, or writings at the NHF Forum ( www.newhopefellowship.org/phpbb ), I continue to encounter individuals who have been seriously thinking about and tackling various issues in evangelism, social impact, and how best to follow and serve God.
At the end of a recent small group study on correlating our passions with our niche in the church, I suddenly realize, as if by revelation, that everyone at New Hope serves with a tremendous passion. Everyone who walks through the doors of the church can sense the intensity of their passion, whether in the genuine smiles of the greeters, the laborious preparation of the bulletins, the emotion and excitement generated by the praise team, the supporting roles of the audio-visual team, the sacrifice of the Sunday school teachers, the joyous servers at Fellowship hour, ...
This past year we have been asking: What defines New Hope? What draws us together? For a long time I myself have wondered what exactly continues to attract me so much to New Hope. Neither ethnicity nor culture is the answer, for this is not just a 2nd generation Korean church, nor even simply an Asian church. The leadership team once gave an answer: the people at New Hope. But what is it about the people that makes us so attractive and unique?
The answer for me is this new insight: the people of New Hope are a people of passion: passion for God, passion for people and for each other, passion for ministry, passion for life, ... And as such, NHF will continue to attract other individuals of passion.
Just to make sure, we are not talking about passion in the sense of "strong emotions or feelings". I like the following definition on the web:
"Boundless enthusiasm; deep and positive emotion; fervent expression of hope; belief in the essential connection of individual and community; and love of humanity."
This connotates a sense of personal strength that both a "passionate" as well as a quiet person may possess and display.
Looking at the individuals at NHF, we see overwhelming cases of enthusiasm and dedication to quality and excellence in each ministry, the deep conviction to seize the moment and make our lives meaningful to someone, the continual faith in one another, that we grow together as a Christ-centered community, and the unwavering hope that our efforts will impact society. In methodology, we do not settle for status quo, nor simply conventional wisdom. We dare to investigate issues, be creative, and innovate our own answers. All these point to the succinct description: a people of passion.
Like a gold mine buried only 2 feet deep, waiting to be revealed, so is the tremendous energy of our passion, waiting to be developed, coordinated, and released. We have an exciting journey ahead of us.
Featuring ...
Along these lines, I'd like to feature the works of two individuals of passion.
1. Michael Card
Among the prolific outputs of the artist Michael Card, I find his most inspirational work to be his putting into songs many representative parts throughout the entire bible.
You may already be familiar with his songs that became part of "The Life", a CD trilogy that sings about episodes in the life of Jesus: "The Final Word" on the incarnation, "Scandalon" on Jesus' ministry, and "Known by the scars" on the crucifixion.
For the Old Testament, we find another trilogy titled "Ancient Faith", which includes: "The Beginning" that glimpses into the chapters that fills the 5 Books of Moses, "The way of Wisdom" that samples through the poetic books Proverbs, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs, and "The Word" that put to melody the various prophetic books.
His album on "Present Reality" focuses on the writings found in the epistles, that Christ is present and living. Finally, his more recent work "Unveiled Hope" completes the awesome project with a musical interpretation of the book of Revelations.
Just the mere idea of purposefully paraphrasing the entire bible into a systematic collection of songs is innovative and noteworthy. Done by a masterful musician with passion, this work offers me some of the most memorable melodies and heartfelt lyrics that I will ever find in my lifetime.
2. Philip Yancey
Rebeled against his Southern fundamentalist roots only to rediscover faith in Christ later, Philip Yancey writes with a genuine and passionate voice straight from his heart, on all the issues that he struggles with, as he attempts to integrate his journeys in faith and in life. Furthermore, his training in journalism made his writings a rather pleasurable read.
Before Yancey became a top selling author, I first read his "Disappointment with God", which confronts the reality of suffering and investigates into the book of Job. This was the book that immediately put him onto my favorite authors list. I then found out about his few earlier and lesser known works, all related to the health and medical professions with which he had direct journalistic contact, on issues such as abortion, pain, diseases. The titles are "In His Image", "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made", "Gift of Pain".
He later published several other equally soul searching books that put him in center stage among Christian readers: "The Jesus I never knew" looks at the many aspects of Jesus that had caused Yancey himself to turn his life around, "What's so amazing about Grace" features many real life illustrations of the meaning of God's grace, "Church, why bother?" re-examines the importance of the institution that Yancey once turned his back against, "The bible Jesus read" addesses the significance of the Old Testament that often gets neglected by evangelicals.
I am only half way through his recent "Reaching for the Invisible God", and not yet ordered his latest "Rumors of Another World". But feel free to borrow any of the titles from me or others, as I am sure you will enjoy any of Yancey's writings. Just be ready to have some serious intellectual yet life-relevant exercises. Only registered users can write comments.
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