Happenings in Lausanne
Having a desire to blog and capture some of the wonderful things happening at YLG06...
What is Lausanne? simply put:
The Whole Church
Bringing the Whole Gospel
To the Whole World
Lausanne is the effort of a generation of godly leaders to not let us, the twenty and thirty somethings, reinvent the wheel and cover ground defining the church that they had laboured over... and what fruitful labour it has been!
Even if we were not Christians, the blueprint of God for us - human beings living in a fallen world - is so complete.. nurturing our body, souls and spirit, learning how to live in community, sharing eternal hope, social responsibility, good stewardship beyond the rigidness of 'give your 10%', reaching the lost without imposing on their culture, human freedom and persecution, the power of the Holy Spirit and so much more.
...Hearing it articulated from different continents as events unfold day by day, I'm gripped by a great hope for the church and the world :) What an elusive and treasured thing it is!
Thoughts and highlights thus far from one singaporean worshipper who really doesn't deserve to be here:
- Simply receiving Billy Graham sending his greetings from the US, and John Stott(!) from a nursing home in the UK... it a most humbling and awesome experience that hasn't really sunk in.
- Working with Marcell, a brazilian worship leader whos at once a professional classically trained conductor as well as eye-pierced rock band vocalist - Within 5 minutes of talking and playing with him, i felt like a primary school kid with a recorder trying to work with Beethoven. (Pride would never be an issue here ;) Nonetheless, we'll give it our all, because *He* is worthy.
- The Lebanese man leading in prayer. I didn't understand a word, but I felt the presence of God. Whoa.
- Egyptian speaker Ramez Atollah sharing an event years before that still makes him emotional when he shares it. At this earlier gathering people introduced themselves as pastor of so-and-so church, congregation of 2 thousand pple, leader of this ministry, director of that organisation, yada yada... but he remembered one kenyan man who simply introduced himself as a pastor and how he (Ramez) didn't talk much to him but wanted to hang around that 'important people'. It was only after the trip, with a pack of name cards in hand did Ramez notice that Kenyan's worn and badly printed name card tt read... "ARCHBISHOP, Kenya"
Ramez:"...and *thats* the kind of leader I want to be."
- The sheer diversity in the room. Looking around the room, I see africans, a chinese, a couple of south asians (maybe cambodia/vietnam), bunch of americans, malaysian helpers from the navigators, latinos, russians... and yet by the end of today (only day 2!) there are people talking to each other like long lost friends. Truly, the commonality of Christ and the unity of the Spirit at work.
- Meeting in person a familiar name oft heard on Ps P's lips... Jim Chew. Together with dear Bernard from NUS Nav, the two joined a host of mentors to input into the leaders here. Its a bit of a shame I will be spending little time with the small groups, but just glad at the sheer potential of things happening here.
- Playing with the ForeRunner band again.. really enjoy having a percussionist in the band (if u read this u're sounding good sy!), the super-kilat marcell playing dunno-whatever-but-it-sounds-terrific on the guitar, sis E(perhaps one e is insufficient) living a bit of her dream as she leads worship, and the rest of the team. Again, I wish I had a bit more time to prepare, a bit more skill to offer... but I guess that'll come with time and grace as i continue my lessons... for now, just give it all i've got, extended a bit by God's grace ;)
- So many more... perhaps i'll have a chance to blog more, but likely the events of the days ahead will overtake me and provide fresh blogging material :)
Thank You Lord, for bringing me here.
On a personal note, being away from the 'constant dripping' at home is so freeing. I love my family, but I must admit, it can't be that good for your faith to have people asking you just about every other day to stop going to church :p Thankful for the space to process things, life... normalise feelings and all that. Progressing well, by the grace of God. Gd stuff :) Heh... more on that next time.
But for tomorrow, the nations worship! :)
What is Lausanne? simply put:
The Whole Church
Bringing the Whole Gospel
To the Whole World
Lausanne is the effort of a generation of godly leaders to not let us, the twenty and thirty somethings, reinvent the wheel and cover ground defining the church that they had laboured over... and what fruitful labour it has been!
Even if we were not Christians, the blueprint of God for us - human beings living in a fallen world - is so complete.. nurturing our body, souls and spirit, learning how to live in community, sharing eternal hope, social responsibility, good stewardship beyond the rigidness of 'give your 10%', reaching the lost without imposing on their culture, human freedom and persecution, the power of the Holy Spirit and so much more.
...Hearing it articulated from different continents as events unfold day by day, I'm gripped by a great hope for the church and the world :) What an elusive and treasured thing it is!
Thoughts and highlights thus far from one singaporean worshipper who really doesn't deserve to be here:
- Simply receiving Billy Graham sending his greetings from the US, and John Stott(!) from a nursing home in the UK... it a most humbling and awesome experience that hasn't really sunk in.
- Working with Marcell, a brazilian worship leader whos at once a professional classically trained conductor as well as eye-pierced rock band vocalist - Within 5 minutes of talking and playing with him, i felt like a primary school kid with a recorder trying to work with Beethoven. (Pride would never be an issue here ;) Nonetheless, we'll give it our all, because *He* is worthy.
- The Lebanese man leading in prayer. I didn't understand a word, but I felt the presence of God. Whoa.
- Egyptian speaker Ramez Atollah sharing an event years before that still makes him emotional when he shares it. At this earlier gathering people introduced themselves as pastor of so-and-so church, congregation of 2 thousand pple, leader of this ministry, director of that organisation, yada yada... but he remembered one kenyan man who simply introduced himself as a pastor and how he (Ramez) didn't talk much to him but wanted to hang around that 'important people'. It was only after the trip, with a pack of name cards in hand did Ramez notice that Kenyan's worn and badly printed name card tt read... "ARCHBISHOP, Kenya"
Ramez:"...and *thats* the kind of leader I want to be."
- The sheer diversity in the room. Looking around the room, I see africans, a chinese, a couple of south asians (maybe cambodia/vietnam), bunch of americans, malaysian helpers from the navigators, latinos, russians... and yet by the end of today (only day 2!) there are people talking to each other like long lost friends. Truly, the commonality of Christ and the unity of the Spirit at work.
- Meeting in person a familiar name oft heard on Ps P's lips... Jim Chew. Together with dear Bernard from NUS Nav, the two joined a host of mentors to input into the leaders here. Its a bit of a shame I will be spending little time with the small groups, but just glad at the sheer potential of things happening here.
- Playing with the ForeRunner band again.. really enjoy having a percussionist in the band (if u read this u're sounding good sy!), the super-kilat marcell playing dunno-whatever-but-it-sounds-terrific on the guitar, sis E(perhaps one e is insufficient) living a bit of her dream as she leads worship, and the rest of the team. Again, I wish I had a bit more time to prepare, a bit more skill to offer... but I guess that'll come with time and grace as i continue my lessons... for now, just give it all i've got, extended a bit by God's grace ;)
- So many more... perhaps i'll have a chance to blog more, but likely the events of the days ahead will overtake me and provide fresh blogging material :)
Thank You Lord, for bringing me here.
On a personal note, being away from the 'constant dripping' at home is so freeing. I love my family, but I must admit, it can't be that good for your faith to have people asking you just about every other day to stop going to church :p Thankful for the space to process things, life... normalise feelings and all that. Progressing well, by the grace of God. Gd stuff :) Heh... more on that next time.
But for tomorrow, the nations worship! :)
posted by DarkRed at 12:22 pm
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