In this fast and throughout the whole year of 2012, we are going to focus in on 3 specific goals:

With God help and His leading, we believe that we will hear some great testimonies in the near future. God is passionate about His glory and as we align our hearts with His, we are going to experience some awesome things.

If you haven’t signed up for a prayer slot, please do so here (don’t forget to make sure that you sign up from your specific site).

You can check out all the various people from the different HMCC sites who have signed up so far. It is exciting to see that even though we are hundreds and thousands of miles away, we are joined together under a common vision and mission.

Throughout this week, we will have pastors and leaders from each of the HMCC sites share some of their thoughts and expectations for this One Desire Fast. Come check it out every day throughout this week.
 
 
 

For some reason, they listen to a different drum beat.

This is the reason why the early church that we see in the Book of Acts, transformed the world. They thought differently. They acted differently. More or less, they listened not only to a different drum beat, but they listened to a different drummer.

Unless Christ-followers are willing to think differently and do things differently, we will never make an impact in the world.

I have been challenging people in our church with this thought: “In the last 6 to 12 months, if someone has not called you ‘crazy’ or ‘insane,’ then you are probably not living the radical life that Christ is calling you to live.”

Why do we always settle for the status quo or things that are comfortable or safe?

Christ has called us to a life that is different. A life that is full of adventure that requires faith and trust in the One that can lead us. I don’t know about you, but I want to experience this kind of life.

But in order to have this kind of life, Christ bids us to come and die, so that we might truly live (Mk 8:34-35).

One of my favorite commercials by Apple is the one where they show film footage of famous people who literally transformed the world. In the background a voice says,

 
What will the world say about us, as Christ-followers?
 
 

It was in this moment where I got in my car and drove out to a park that was about 40 minutes away from campus. I wanted to get away from everything and just spend some personal time reconnecting with God. Allerton Park was the former estate of Robert Henry Allerton who donated his property and turned it into a beautiful park. There is about 1,500 acres of some incredible landscape and artifacts collected from different parts of the world.

It was in this beautiful scenery, when I came across a reflecting pond. The birds were chirping and there was this sense of peace that came over that pond. In the stillness of the moment, I remember taking a deep breath and asking God to show me that He was still with me. Then I picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it in the calm pond.

As the pebble hit the water, I heard the sound of the waterdrop and then, the ripples started to expand outwardly in an increasing magnitude until it hit the edges of the pond.

This is when the revelation came.

I felt as if God was saying that I was like the pebble and that if I would just trust Him, He would use me to send ripples out to the nations. It was hard to believe what I was experiencing especially because of the emotional state that I was in at that time. But for some reason, there was this incredible sense of peace and trust that filled my heart.

As I pondered upon what just happened, I realized that from one single, seemingly insignificant pebble, there was a powerful rippling effect that literally invaded the whole pond.

Then I thought to myself: What would happen if a life can be transformed with the power of the Gospel in this way? What would happen if a transformed life then can send out ripples to reach the nations?

I remember after this epiphany, I made it my mission to make a different for Christ as long as I lived. I treasured this in my heart and shared it with only a handful of people.

Fast forward six years.

During the summer of 1996, as we were getting ready to plant the church, we had to come up with a logo for publication purposes. It was at this moment, when God brought me back to the experience I had at Allerton Park. From there, I just knew that God wanted our logo to be the water ripple. As lives are experiencing transformation, we were confident that God would use us to transform the world; hence our mission tag line: Transforming Lives. Transforming the World.

Solia Deo Gloria (glory to God alone or for God’s glory alone)!

The reason why these situations are frustrating for me is because I know that we are going to take off, but I just don’t know exactly when. Also, if I have an appointment that I have to make, then it makes the delay and waiting even harder.

Recently, a lot of people have been asking, “What is going on with HMCC of New York City?”

It seems like we are on standby.

Let me first tell you what we do know (try to imagine an airline agent speaking over the intercom):

 
 
Then, what are we waiting for? What should we do in the meantime?

 
 
With the above information, it is still leaving a lot of people confused and apprehensive, especially for the people who are currently in NYC and those who will be heading out there soon.

In particular, several specific questions came up:

 
 
My response:

 
 
I know that this holding pattern or standby position is not the best scenario for some people; especially for those people who need to know every detail before committing to something. All I can say to you is that we will try to give information about the church plant as soon it becomes available. It is hard to give details when even the leadership of HMCC does not have any of the details.

In fact, it is a bit frustrating for me, since I like to look ahead and strategize on how things will turn out. But God has taught me over the years that it is foolish to run ahead of God. Also, it is more fun when things are not so planned out. It teaches us how to trust in Him more.

In the midst of all that God is doing, it is exciting to know that He is bringing people who have experienced and believe in the transformation vision together. All we can say is that this is none other than the work of God; therefore we are just waiting for the time when things will “take off” – please fasten your seatbelts!

I don’t know what it is – maybe it is the instrumentation with the Hammond organ, drums, and bass guitar or the incredible vocals; but either way, the passion in which the choir sings the songs has a powerful way of ministering to people.

This is why when I heard the gospel choir version of Chrysler’s Super Bowl Commercial, it was powerful. When people use their God-given talent, it has an awesome way of moving the spirit of a person. I am praying that many more people within the HMCC churches will be raised up to use their musical gifts to inspire people to know the True and Living God.

We are still praying for Detroit. I would love to see the restoration of Detroit, not only physically and economically, but most importantly, in a spiritual way. It is through the church, the people of God who will need to light the way – a city on a hill cannot be hidden (Mt 5:14).
 
 

In this blog post, I want to lay down the facts and also ask you to join me in prayer as we are trying to discern God’s heart and His will for us as a church.

Back on October 10th, 2010 (10/10/10) I presented HMCC’s 2020 Vision. Part of that vision entails planting ten new churches by the year 2020. As I have been praying for this vision, God placed various cities around the world in my heart. One city that has always been on my heart is New York City.

There are 3 things that stick out for me:

1) It is a city with various NEEDS. NYC is the largest city in the United States and is a significant global city. A lot of what happens around the world has its beginnings in this city. The impact is felt in various sectors of society such as commerce, arts and media, entertainment, fashion, and education. There are close to 8.2 million people who are spread out over a small area of 305 square miles. It is the most densely populated city in the U.S. With so many people, there is an array of needs that has to be met. The most significant need is the need for more life-giving churches. According to an October 2010 Barna report, it shows that New York has one of the highest percentage of unchurched people. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life also gives a similar picture of the religious landscape of NYC. A single church cannot reach out to every unchurched person in NYC. There needs to be many more new churches starting, so that more people can experience transformation through the power of the Gospel. Below is a quick picture of the religious situation according to Gallup:
 

 
 
2) It is a city with many NATIONS. It is just breathtaking when I found out that there are as many as 800 languages spoken in New York, currently making it the most language-diverse city in the world. One particular ethnic group that has a large representation is the Chinese people. The Chinatown in NYC is the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. Also, with a lot of colleges and universities in NYC which are ranked high globally, it attracts students from every nation around the world. The future leaders are coming to NYC to study. With the nations coming to NYC, the opportunities are tremendous to influence the next generation of world shakers and history makers. Even having the United Nations Headquarters in NYC speaks to the importance of being a hub for international affairs.

3) It is a city with our NETWORK. Over the last 14 years of doing college ministry in Ann Arbor, we have seen many students graduate and go to NYC for work and graduate school. Recently, we had the largest freshmen class this past year in the history of our church in Ann Arbor; therefore, we are expecting that many more people will be heading out to NYC in the future. Already, we have been in contact with some graduating seniors who will be heading out to NYC and also with some graduates who now live in NYC. As we are trying to connect the dots with our greater vision to reach the nations, we are seeing more people who want to be a part of what God is doing in the context of HMCC. Many of the freshmen from New York and New Jersey area are back home and we want to still connect with them throughout the summer with what God is doing in HMCC.

 
 
With the 3rd point, I want to elaborate a little bit more because this has been a major factor in the decision to step out in faith to start something in NYC.

In the last 14 years, whenever our members were graduating and getting ready to head out to NYC or NJ, they have asked me if I knew of churches in that area. Since there are some friends who are pastoring churches out there, I would always recommend those churches first. Then, there are some larger well-known churches, which I try to recommend so that they have a variety of choices.

Some of these former members would get plugged in quickly with the recommended churches, which is a huge praise; but others have had a hard time finding a church that fits with the vision and values that God has placed in their hearts. Due to our strong emphasis on the importance of the local church, many of the former members would eventually find a church they can fit into and build community.

As I have been examining the various groups of people who come and go through Ann Arbor, I have realized that there are 5 groups of people that would be interested in being a part of what God is doing NYC:

 
 
In light of these five specific groups, we are in the process of praying and planning for a future church plant in NYC. Honestly, we don’t have all the specifics down. In fact, I think we like it this way because with the last several church plants, it has been exciting to follow God’s lead rather than trying to strategize and plan too much.

When I think about HMCC of Jakarta and HMCC of Singapore, I can truly say that it was really a God thing. The encouraging thing about all that is going on is that when we look at the Book of Acts, we see that when the Spirit of God moved powerfully, God was the One who started different communities of faith to reach that particular city.

As many people have been asking me about our church plant movement philosophy, I wrote some things down in another blog post. You can check it out here.

This is what we know so far:

 
 
This is all we know so far. It is pretty scary at times, but we believe that God is Faithful. If he started the other churches to meet the needs of the community in that particular city, we are confident that God will do the same thing in NYC. We have to remember that things are never boring or routine when we are following God’s leadership. In fact, it is an incredible adventure and I signed up for this when I fully surrendered my life to Christ when I was in high school. I have never been the same – all the glory to God!

Here is a time lapse video of New York City. Let’s continue to pray for God’s will to be done in this great, global city that God is concerned about.

As the generations are changing, I have noticed that there are more people who have never thoroughly studied through one book in the Bible. In many ways, this is fragmenting people’s concept and understanding of who God is. We are only getting bits and pieces from passages that are familiar, rather than examining a whole book and allowing it to lay down a firm foundation for our faith.

The great part of the Book of Colossians is that many of the issues that the Apostle Paul had to address in the book are similar to the issues that we are facing in our society today. This is the power of God’s Word. It is able to speak to various situations in our lives because the Truth is always timeless.

One of the major themes for the Book of Colossians is the “Supremacy of Christ.” It is out of this foundation and perspective that we will be able to live accordingly within our context, whether it is with our family, friends, roommates, classmates or co-worker. This is why we are simply calling the series, “paramount.”

The dictionary defines, “paramount” as:

 
 
As we study the Book of Colossians, it is my prayer that we will capture a bigger vision of who Christ is in His Supremacy. As see and acknowledge Christ being “chief in importance” in our lives and “above others in authority” and “superior in power,” then we will be able to trust and worship His Majesty.

Bring your Bibles, journals and something to write with because for the next four months it is going to be a season of learning and growing. We are going to be released to love and live for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

As I was watching it, I was reminded of several more things:

 
 
Here is a very good video produced by R+I Creative. They are a marketing and advertising company who helps “brands and artists reveal their values and tell their stories through innovative productions.” Thanks to @ericcyee who forwarded this video to me.

R+I Creative did a great job of explaining the “who, what, and how” of an influencers. I liked the fact that they focused on New York City because this city is really one of the hubs for finding innovators, idealists, and influencers. This is one of the reasons why we are praying about this great city.

Here is a brief trailer:
 

 
 
 
 
If you have time, here is the longer version. It is well worth the 14 minute investment.
 

Whether it is a weakness or strength, I am realizing that curiosity often fuels new discoveries and it even helps people to dream and envision things of the future. One of the things that inspire me is when I read about what people in the past have said to visionaries and innovators to some of their ideas.

Here are some of them:

 
 
When we think about our lives without some of the things that we have now, we are thankful that that they were wrong. Can you imagine all the lost opportunities?

The challenge for us today is to look ahead and to make decisions today that will affect our future destiny. This is not an easy process because there are so many factors that hinder people from moving forward. For some people it is the fear of failure. For others, it is a self-imposed skepticism which limits us. For others, it might be their lack of faith. For some, it might be their desire for comfort, security and safety. But whatever the reason, we have to see things through the eyes of Christ.

He believed that through a rag-tag team of disciples that the world will be transformed. Who would have ever thought or imagined?

But as we look into the future and see what God has in store for us, let’s stay ahead of the curve. The possibilities are endless because we have a God, who is the God of the possibilities (Mt 17:20; 19:26). May we stay close to Jesus, as we navigate towards the 2020 Vision.

I think in light of our 2020 Vision, we are trying to come up with some systematic way of implementing our desire to plant churches around the world. But one thing I have learned over the years is that strategies and a well devised “plan” can only go so far. Ultimately, as I look back into the church plants that we have participated in, there is simply no “one way” to do it. A good STRATEGY without God’s SPIRIT will always end up in SHAMBLES. But without any PREPARATION, things can easily be done without a clear PURPOSE.

This is why we are trying to find a good balance between allowing God’s Spirit to lead us, while at the same time doing our part in getting ready for the next step.

When it comes to allowing God’s Spirit to lead us, it is important that we are praying and listening to the Holy Spirit. There is definitely a spiritual element of discerning what God is doing around the world when it comes to church planting. Then, there is also a practical element of coming up with the possibilities of starting up a church in a particular area.

I have been trying to teach people in our church to take it from two different levels – one is from the individual level, and the other from the corporate level. Please keep in mind that this is all contextualized in the HMCC context.

On the individual level, I have communicated to people to remember the PLANT acronym:

 
 
The PLANT principles are more on an individual basis when it comes to determining whether planting churches is something that God is calling you to do. But we also need to look at church planting from a corporate level, which entails not only your particular church site, but also all the HMCC churches.

In order to achieve our 2020 Vision, we have to see how all the pieces are coming together. Simply, we need to “connect the dots” so that everything that we do is tied in with our overall vision of transforming lives and transforming the world.

I will explain the corporate level of planting churches with the acronym SEEDS. It is important that rather than looking at SEEDS as a strategic model or program, we look at it as a process. This means that we have to be flexible, but yet focused.

Here are the five principles of the process:

 
 
Therefore, if we remember the acronym PLANT SEEDS, then we will have a pretty good idea of how to move forward in HMCC’s vision to plant churches in various campuses, cities, countries, and continents.

The most recent example of these principles being lived out is in Singapore. As the church was started in an unconventional way, we are seeing God do some extraordinary things in the lives of the people at HMCC of Singapore.

As we look forward into the future, we are seeing God sovereignly bring people together in different cities in the States, as well as in international cities around the world. With prayer and God’s grace over our lives, I am confident that we will be able to witness more churches being planted by the year 2020.
 
 

“’Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’” (Lk 19:17)