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Andrew spaceOn life and ministry in Chinese churches! 2009/11/30 List of postings: September '09 to November '09 Here is an index of this quarter's postings (September '09 to November '09). Clicking on the titles will take you to that post.During this quarter the blog somehow clocked up over 14,000 page views - thanks everyone for reading! If you are on Twitter, you can follow me (hongus) to get notified when I post an article.
Last quarter I found a way to get more detailed stats from the Australian Bureau of Statistics - and this quarter features several more posts with insights into where the Chinese are, and how they may be reached (see particularly the posts in September, and the second half of November). A huge area that we have yet to do a lot of work on is the huge group of ABCs who are in schools!
However most importantly, this quarter also featured a series of posts in early November (Nov 4, 5 and 6) in which I try to demonstrate the difference between, on the one hand a Christiantiy of duty and obedience, and on the other Christianity captivated by the glory of God - and the difference is profound. These are perhaps three of the most significant posts to date. If you're looking for something to talk through with your team of leaders, I highly recommend thinking through those three posts!
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
[ PS: on a more personal note, yesterday I signed a contract to become an Associate Pastor at North Side Chinese Alliance Church (on Carlingford Road, in Epping). I begin with them in the new year! ] 2009/11/29 The background of kids in NSW public schools - part 3Over the past couple of days we've looked at some stats on other language background kids in NSW schools. But what about selective schools? how popular are they with kids from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB)? The following graph shows you the growing percentage of year 7 places taken up by NESB students from 1995 to 2009.  And what we discover is that the proportion of places taken up by NESB kids has been steadily increasing! Which is probably what some of us expect, knowing where parents in our churches like to send their kids. In previous posts we've seen how certain regions have significant numbers of students from langauge backgrounds other than English (LBOTE) - and how strategic it is to do ministry in those churches. Today's graph highlights how selective schools are increasingly also becoming strategic places for doing ethnic ministry! [ PS: which selective schools do kids from your church tend to go? ] 2009/11/28 The background of kids in NSW public schools - part 2In the last post we looked at the increasing numbers of kids from Language Backgrounds Other Than English (LBOTE) in NSW government schools. We also saw how you could go and get stats on that school down the road. 1. Languages spoken by LBOTE students So who are these LBOTE students? where do they come from? Here is a graph showing the main language spoken by these LBOTE students state-wide - and from this you can see how kids from Chinese langage background is leading the way...  In their annual report, the DET gives us a bit of historical context, commenting that: "The major language backgrounds of students have also changed over time, reflecting changes in immigration patterns. In 2009, Chinese is the most common language background with 18.2 % of all LBOTE enrolments. Chinese (including Cantonese, Mandarin and other Chinese languages) has been the most common language background since 1997. Arabic was the most common language background from 1988 to 1996 and is now the second most common language at 12.8%.
Unfortunately we can't drill down to to find out how many kids from Chinese language backgrounds there are in a particular school! But it's an indication of how significant schools are for reaching the Chinese. 2. LBOTE students by region This next graph shows you the different school regions in NSW. The green bars show you all students, and the red bar shows you LBOTE students. In this graph I've moved all the Sydney metro regions to the right hand side.  This shows how it's particularly in schools to the South West and also the centre of Sydney that are strategic places for school ministries to reach kids from language backgrounds other than English! [ PS: and yes I know, I forgot to move Riverina... ] 2009/11/27 The background of kids in NSW public schools - part 1From previous posts we saw how significant the primary and high school age group was for reaching the Chinese - and especially the next generation of ABCs (see here and here for example). Today we have a look at some stats put out by the NSW Department of Education and Training (DET)... 1. Increasing numbers of LBOTE kids Here is a graph covering the 2003-2008 period for NSW government schools. The red line shows the number of students from language background other than English (LBOTE) and maps to the left-hand scale. And the green line shows you all enrolments for primary and secondary NSW government schools and maps to the right-hand scale.  You can see that over the 2003-2008 period, the number of total enrolments has fallen - yet during this same period the number of LBOTE students has actually increased! Highlighting how our schools are increasingly becoming mission fields. 2. Stats for that school down the road It's nice to get a state-wide perspective. But what about schools in your immediate area? A very long PDF document here lists NSW government schools and the percentage of LBOTE students in each of them. From that document (and this is just a sampling) you can discover that:
School Scripture has traditionally been the domain of denominations, and smaller ethnic churches have generally excused themselves from this ministry. However from these stats you can see that Chinese churches (say) may have quite a significant role to play in School Scripture, in reaching school kids with the gospel... If you're in a Chinese church, the stats in that PDF file may be useful in making the case for greater involvement of your church in local schools. And if you're the Scripture coordinator for your local school, it may encourage you to invite (and even urge) participation from churches other than your own... Download it yourself to find out what it's like at schools near your church! [ PS: what part does your church play in reaching kids in the local schools? ] 2009/11/26 How denominations are going at reaching the Chinese in SydneyI recently prepared some stats on the Chinese in Sydney, to share with some Anglican ministers. Which raises the question: how are denominations going at reaching the Chinese in Sydney? What I've done today is prepare a graph with the age profile of the Chinese in Sydney (the red line). This maps to the scale on the left hand side. And then I've worked out the number of Chinese in Sydney who identify themselves as Anglicans, Presbyterian / Reformed, Baptist, and Uniting Church (green, blue, brown, cyan respectively). These map to the scale on the right hand side. Click the image for a larger version stored at Photobucket.  I've arranged it like this so you can compare the shape of the denominational age profiles, to the shape of the Chinese age profile (red). This is useful in highlighting segments of the Chinese population that may be being reached by the Anglicans (say) - but nowhere close to the numbers that we should expect from that segment of the Chinese population... A good example of this is the 20-24 age bracket, which all four of these denominations seem to have trouble reaching! By comparison, here is another graph showing the age profile for Roman Catholics... again, clicking on the image will get you a larger version from Photobucket.  [ PS: what is your denomination doing to reach the Chinese of Sydney? ] 2009/11/7 The Glory of God - a Bible study series Over the last week we've been looking at the centrality of the glory of God - and we've been tracing through how this gives shape to a whole range of different areas of Christian life. See parts one, two and three of the table.And the importance of the glory of God is one of those things that people will gladly affirm at an intellectual level ("oh yes, of course we should do all things for the glory of God"). Organisations may also affirm this in their vision / mission statements ("this church exists to blah blah blah ... for the glory of God"). However there is a huge difference between such affirmations - and hearts that see, and love, and are jealous for, the glory of God. How do we get people to that point? I think it is by showing people something of the glory of God - and praying that they might see it and love it. It is, in the end, God who reveals his glory to people, shining the knowledge of his glory into our hearts. And they see his glory primarily in the face of Christ. Paul says, For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And so here is a link to a seven-week topical Bible study series I wrote for MSG (My Small Group) over the last few months. What these studies try to do is show something of the importance of God's glory to himself, its centrality to everything God has been doing, and the loveliness and terror of God's glory. These are topical Bible studies, and generally they aim at breadth and depth by firstly doing a quick overview of a range of Bible passages, before drilling down into one passage. Towards the end of each study discussion questions allow people can explore the implications of what they've seen. But most importantly, the studies have a front and a back - the back being a table that builds from week to week, helping the group trace out the implications of the glory of God for the Christian life. There are seven studies:
If I had more time, I would have written more... there are definitely other areas worth exploring. But as they stand, I hope you find these studies as life changing as we found it! [ PS: last day at ND today... ] 2009/11/6 Two visions of the Christian life - part 3 This is part three of a series - see the first two parts here and here.
Some of you might think that 'reformed theology' is as far away from a vibrant spiritual life as you can get. Because for many people 'reformed theology' does conjure up images of serious, unsmiling people with thick books of dusty theology under their arms. It makes us think of tiresome people endlessly discussing about predestination... not very attractive! One of the major ways that reformed theology has been misunderstood is that people think it is primarily about predestination and TULIP. But that's actually wrong: reformed theology has always been about the glory of God first and foremost - and God's sovereignty in salvation was only ever a stepping stone towards the end point - of the glory of God.
In fact I have even come across books about reformed theology written by major scholars where they talk a lot about predestination - but who don't mention the glory of God at all! In contrast, here is what AN Martin writes about Calvinism:
The so-called Five Points of Calvinism are cast in a negative form and can in some ways be misleading. Nonetheless we cannot change the course of history, and so the Five Points have come down to us and we must learn to live with them. Take the last four points - unconditional election, particular redemption, the efficacious call of God and the persevering work of God in all whom he has called and joined to his Son: What is the focal point in all of these? The ultimate focal point, of course, is the display of the glory of God's grace, as we read in Ephesians 1; but as the immediate focal point, how is that glory displayed? By what means? By the taking of totally depraved creatures and making them wholly men and women in whom the very likeness of God's Son can be seen. You might be surprised, but John Calvin himself affirms the centrality of the glory of God in all his thinking and practice:
Assuredly, the thing at which I chiefly aimed, and for which I most diligently laboured, was, that the glory of thy goodness and justice, after dispersing the mists by which it was formerly obscured, might shine forth conspicuous, that the virtue and blessings of thy Christ (all glosses being wiped away) might be fully displayed. For I thought it impious to leave in obscurity things which we were born to ponder and meditate. For all its bad press, reformed theology is actually all about being captivated by the glory of God! And the centrality of this in the life of the Christian is not merely a meaningless theological affirmation - from these tables you can see that it comes out in intensely practical ways.
In contrast, other theologies may promise much and have a strong and exciting focus on being serious about doing God's things - but they draw people's attention away from the glory of God to their obedience - and over time they wear people down. The focus of today's table shifts to theology - and as you read across the rows, you'll probably start to pick up how much of our theology - and even our favourite gospel outlines! are not actually centred on the glory of God... And that's because I think that many people who claim to be reformed, are "but halfly reformed." They may be reformed - but only in their doctrine. In terms of their heart, and their ministry practice, they betray how their Christianity has really centred on humans all along. Oh of course, they are committed to God! But they have not seen, nor are they captivated by, nor are they filled with love and jealousy for ... the glory of God.
For more on reformed theology, read talk #1 from SCCCA's SALT retreat earlier this year!
[ PS: stay tuned: the next post will feature a Bible study series on the Glory of God that you can try out... ] 2009/11/5 Two visions of the Christian life - part 2 Last time we looked at the first part of the table outlining two vastly different visions of the Christian life (see previous post).
For many Christians, the battle they are fighting is between selfishness on the one hand, and Christianity on the other.
And in the face of worldly selfishness that elevates my own desires and my own interests, it's probably natural that Christianity is cast in terms of its antithesis: suppression ofmy own desires, and in its place doing God's things.
 And I think, for some Christians, this is how we end up with a Christianity driven by duty and obedience. Instead of selfishly doing our own thing, we should dutifully submit ourselves to doing the things God wants us to do. Because after all, God is God, right? we should let him call the shots, right?
The problem is that this puts the focus on outward obedience and conformance - and not on the inner affections of the heart. Yes, we may be performing the actions of church attendance and prayer - but our hearts may actually be very far away from God. We may have the outward form of Christianity, and even be 'into ministry'! But the inner reality of what we truly love - and fear - is not centred on the glory of God.
 For those of us from Confucian backgrounds however, there is something else... Our culture also strongly predisposes us towards a Christianity of duty and obedience in a way that is unknown to those from Western cultures. I've written more on that here!
In the Gospels, there was in fact a group of people who excelled at outward obedience. They were faultless in their conformance. However when Jesus came across them, this is what he says to them:
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: Here is more of that table. As before, read down one column, and then the down the other. And as you do so, ask yourself: what is the focus of this vision of the Christian life?
[ PS: stay tuned for more of the table... ] 2009/11/4 Two visions of the Christian life - part 1 I think there is something seriously wrong with a lot of our Christianity. And this is even true of many evangelicals...Over the last short while I've been working on a table and sharing it with some of our leaders at ND, and our Bible study group too. One column is entitled, "Christianity of duty and obedience", while the other is entitled, "Christianity captivated by the glory of God." And what I've done is I've created rows of all different aspects of the Christian life - how we pray, how we think of evangelism, how we conceive of Christian growth - and mapped what it would look like under both of these visions of the Christian life.
While the left-hand column has the form of Christianity, you can probably start to see that the right hand column actually makes absolute sense of that form of Christianity. Under this vision of the Christian life, it makes sense of why Christians are to do the things we do. It gives the practice the meaning and life and colour it was always meant to have!
There are more rows to the table ... stay tuned (but you can read more from talk #2 at SCCCA's SALT retreat earlier this year - download the PDF here).
[ PS: which column represents that kind of reasons you would give for reading the Bible? for prayer? for giving? ] 2009/10/27 Pornography - and what people search for on Google This Sunday night I'm doing a talk on pornography at the evening fellowship at ND. In preparation I've been looking around for some stats on pornography - and quite a lot of the stats available are somewhat old. However one way to get up-to-date data on people's interest in pornography (say) is to check how often it's searched for through Google. And Google Insights allows you to see what people are searching for over the past several years... Just type in the search terms you're interested in, and you get a graph showing you the relative ranking of those search terms over time! Unfortunately Windows Live Spaces won't let me embed the chart. So instead here is a screen grab of the graph where I'm tracking searches for 'sex', 'porn', 'Jesus' and 'Olympics' over the 2004-2009 period (click on the images for a larger version).  You can also isolate a particular country or even state - here for instance are the searches for those terms from Australia. Clearly Australians have an inordinate interest in sports!  Potentially a useful tool if you're looking for a quick graphic to introduce a topic! [ PS: any other search terms you can think of comparing? ] |
My take on Chinese churches!
Encouragement for those who serve!
Posts on the parent-child relationship for Chinese people!
Posts on going into full time ministry!
Bible studies I've written, that you can download and try out with your group! PDF format.
Recommended reading that doesn't fit elsewhere!
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