Heart - to – heart: THINKING ABOUT 1Samuel 8

Last Saturday night, I somehow turned to 1Samuel Chapter 8 from my New Revised Standard Version Bible and read through the passage. It was a sad passage and I felt for our brother Samuel of the past. It must be very sad for him and I believe the book 1Samuel might be written by him. In my mind, I was imagining what Samuel (as a father and church leader) would have been thinking when he was writing this passage that would one day come to us as Scripture…


"God, look at my sons, my godless sons! Everybody knows they are hooligans, perverting justice and accepting bribes just like the sons of Eli. LORD, you know, I tried so hard to be a good father. I even named them Jevovah is God (Joel) and the Lord is my father (Abijah). I thought this can help shape their character. Every time, someone called them, Jevovah is God and the Lord is my father, surely, they would be conscious of their behaviors. You know, LORD, my mentor; Eli wasn't a good father either. I learn nothing good from him about parenting. Since young, I was away from home. I seldom see my father (sobbing); I don't have a role model. And now, everybody is rejecting me and asking for a king. (crying)"

"I know you tried very hard to be a good father, and even named your sons after me. That is why I didn't punish them and you like I did to Eli and his sons. Now, listen to the voice of the people (repeated 3 times in verses 7, 9 and 22). What they are asking is reasonable. They have not rejected you, but me. My people are always reluctant to know and obey me, ever since they left Egypt. Since, there is no better judge after you; I will give them a king. But warn them that a king makes more and tougher demands from them than a judge."


Lessons learnt: ·

• A father's concern

Don't know how our children will turn out to be. But we must continue do our best to guide them in the godly path. ·

• As a leader, I should live exemplary life.I must do what I teach and say.

It tough being a leader, always under scrutiny (just feel like quitting) and go to another church ·

• God is gracious, even if I fail in my duties (as parent or leader), God takes the blame.

It's comforting to read how God comfort Samuel. This is the assurance we have from God when we serve Him. So don't quit. ·

• Listen to the voices of the people

The people whom we lead and serve do have their grievances as well. Learn to listen to their voices as well as their unspoken voices. Critics (although not always right) do have their views too.

Mark Lim
20/8/08

Slight Disappointment

We have our Bible Study last Sunday on "Experiencing God" after worship service. Wonder why the Men's adult is not meeting. Pastor again came and joined the group, which is ok. But I wish he could mobilise or at least gather a few men to have some healthy sharing rather than having 2 adult with the youth. I actually wanted to ask him to take over and I moved to the Men's group.

During discussion, Shannen again shared about her problem with her new boss. Then Pastor went into a counseling session: analyzing her situation, giving advices, illustrations, commenting on new bossess syndrome, etc. As a result, we didn't really move into the topics. I can understand his style. He like to talk. I was thinking for the last few days whether to ask him to take over the BS. I can then meet up with Tony and Cheong and start the Men's group again. With the 3 of us, it's OK to continue moving ahead, just like the good old days.

One thing I observe about Pastor is that he didn't know when to let go. He is present in every meetings (I hope I am wrong). It is important to let go and let others grow. There is no need to share your thoughts on every issue, and have the final say. While most of us respect him for his seminary education and leadership, I wish he can raise up more leaders himself instead of just concentrating on forming team for ministries. Then the English Committee would be very different. Right now, any members can be in the Committee and most of the time is by default.

Another dissapointment was preparing BSG material for the youth. I started to prepare the 1Timothy material since February and told him about this. Maybe he has forgotten about it and he also asked Susanto to prepare the adult BSG. As a results, there are 2 sets of material and so it wasn't very pleasant for Susanto. This time round, I have started preparing the Hebrews material without really telling anyone. 2 weeks ago, he told me that he is asking Susanto to prepare the first 3 chapters of Hebrews and wanted the adult and youth to use the same BSG material. As such, I stopped working on Hebrews. I realize that I am doing all this is because I am sort of crazy over studying the Bible. Sometimes, I can be doing thing overboard.


Mark

Church Split - it will happen again!

I had a few emails correspondence with a former church member who came back to visit us during Sunday worship service. After separating from us for almost 2 decades to start a new church by a former elder, many of those who joined this elder in forming a new church have now left him, accusing him of spiritual malpractice. This visitor intends to write a book or journal to expose what the elder did - taking away about more than three hundred thousand of dollars of offering given by the English Service worshippers. It seem to me that he is doing this out of vengence, bitterness but credit it to "doing good for the future generation" by informing them of spiritual malpractice.

I learn a few lessons here. Why did they (mostly teenagers & young adults) choose to follow the elder while the rest of us (most married couples with children and late-twenty working adults) decided to remain in this church. Didn't it occur to them that there was something amiss. The elder encouraged them by saying that they were planting new churches. But, the split was not amicably. There were strife and war of words when the split took place. Many things happened to them, according to this visitor. They were cursed, because their church was in Onan Road. Onan was a son of Judah (Gen 38) killed by God. He spiritualised the whole episode that his church is cursed with the "Onan curse" (whatever that is) and many of their members left. He also claimed that the Elder told "dirty jokes" and cursed some of the members during his sermons. The lesson learnt here is that when they followed the leader who split the church acrimoniously, the same situation of church split will happen in the future also. And so, it happened to them.

The seond lesson is that we should not take vengence in our hand. If it is spiritual malpractice, God will punish him Himself. Who are we to judge the action of others. I disagree with this visitor on the way he is doing but he is adamant in continuing with his book. I have written to him, telling him to sort out the issue personally as according to what the Bible say, "If a brother sin against you, go and tell him alone (Mt 18:15)". It would be interesting to see how the Elder react to his book.

Mark

Church Leadership

There's something bothering me about the leadership of my church that trigger me to consider speaking up. But talking about wrong doing of church leadership is usually unhealthy and seen as taking things in our own hands. Wrong doing of leaderships are supposed to receive punishment from God and not man, as God said, "Vengence is mine, I will repay" (Rom 12:19). So, I decided not to write any Share-A-Thought for the month of July.

However, for personal learning, I just want to add a few lines here about what's wrong with the church leadership. Christian leadership is different from secular leadership. How so? Jesus said," You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mat 20:25-28). Wow! Where in world do you see a leader becoming a servant, except Jesus Christ who washes his disciples feet.

What does this mean practically to us Christians? This mean that Christian leaders should not have special privileges. After all, which servants have special privileges except those who are first? One special privileges is car-parking lots. In fact, the whole church car-parking lots are all reserved for Pastors, Elders and special important people, those who they think are first. Any visitors who walk into the church will not fail to see many parking lots with designated vehicles' numbers. It just doesn't look like a church but a country club. For a Christian leader to be a servant mean that he has no rights to spend the church money like his own, after all, he is a servant and servants can't use the master's money with freedom. Here, we see the church funds being used till it is negative and in deficit. Surely, a servant must give account of how the master money is being used.

But if Christian leaders are servants and has no privileges, then who want to be leaders?
Hands up, all who still do!