Books I Would Write 3

Treat Him as You Would a Pagan

Leadership Guidelines

for the

Deployment of the Gift of Rebuke

"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." Jesus talks about confronting another believer, Matthew 18:17

In a tolerant society where confrontations of spiritual absolutes are frowned upon, how do church leaders begin to foster a community where the truth of God is spoken and received gracefully? What does a culture of sharpening one another look like in a modern day gathering of Christ followers? What are the major leadership pitfalls along the way and how do we avoid them?

Ken Tsang, author of "I Opposed Him to His Face" and "Give Me Here on a Platter His Head", draws up a biblical structure to positively cultivate the Gift of Rebuke in modern day churches. The last in the series, "Treat Him as You Would a Pagan" envisions a community where God's Word can be spoken mercifully and received boldly, outlines the major leadership hurtles in building a grace-filled community of truth, and connects the restorative power of the Gift of Rebuke with the church's calling to restore the world.

Books I Would Write 2

Give Me Here on a Platter His Head

Personal Lessons

in

Developing Your Gift of Rebuke

"Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for John had been saying to him: "It is not lawful for you to have her."" Herod beheads John the Baptist, Matthew 14:3-4

How do you rebuke truthfully without offending others or belittling them? Can the gift of rebuke be developed in such a way as to not build grudges or stir up prejudice? And how do you restore those relationships that get shaken along the way?

Ken Tsang, author of "I Opposed Him to His Face", and a trail-blazer in the gift of rebuke, chronicles his personal journey of developing rebuke as a spiritual language. "Give Me Here on a Platter His Head" shares on his continual inner struggle as a so-called "angry prophet", recalling the many heart-breaking relational lessons that were painfully learnt in retrospect, and uncovers valuable insight into the hidden restorative power of the Gift of Rebuke.

Books I Would Write 1

I Opposed Him to His Face

The Church's Need

to

Discover the Gift of Rebuke

"I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong." Apostle Paul, in regards to Apostle Peter, Galatians 2:11.

Rebuke, at times publicly, was a key component in guiding and refining the theology and practices of the New Testament Christian community. Where has this aspect of teaching and leadership gone in our modern churches? How does it affect the Body's ability to grow and impact the world?

Ken Tsang, a pioneer in developing the gift of rebuke as a spiritual language, unravels how the fear of confrontation stagnates the modern church's impact in truly restoring the world. "I Opposed Him to His Face" details the invasion of tolerance in the modern organized church, and dissects the systemic effects of prevalent concepts such as the "seeker friendly" gospel and "full time" ministry, revealing how the return of the glorious church found in Acts can only be realized when the church commits to a positive, God-abiding discovery of the Gift of Rebuke.

Reflections on Leadership: Empowerment Vs. Delegation

Think of a leader as the captain of a ship, at one of those big steering wheels. What happens when, in total movie-esque form, the ship becomes very hard to steer and now requires more than the leader's own strength?

Some leaders would shout, "Come, help me turn this wheel!". The helpers duly show up, but because the leader is not willing to let go of any the handles, the helpers end up pulling on the arms and legs of the leader instead. The wheel does in fact turn a little more than just the leader by himself, but the leader now experiences more stress with each additional person helping; all the tension is routed through him/her. Worse yet, there can never be any true rest for the leader. The wheel would go flying out of control as soon as he/she lets go, even if they have a million helpers.

That is what delegation looks like without empowerment. The leader is not willing to let others have any control, thus they demand that all of the work of these helpers be routed through them: all decisions, strategy, staffing, and execution. Unfortunately so is all the tension, anxiety and tiredness. Most of the helpers' energies are spent on tugging at the leader, double checking on every move. Only small amounts of the helpers' fervour transfers to the wheel, because they are never given the opportunity to grab hold of the main cause.

An empowering leader would say, "Come, take hold of this part of the wheel, and we'll pull together" The leader lets go of a part of the wheel, the helpers grab on to the handles, and the team pulls the wheel together. The stress of steering is shared amongst the team. The team can give each other moments of rest, knowing that the others will continue to pull in the same direction.

That is empowering leadership, recognizing the people around you that want to pull in the same direction you do, letting go of control, and inviting them to grab hold of the main cause so that they can bear some of that weight with you.

Now to lead this way you need to figure out who wants to pull in the same direction you do. If you're having a hard time finding those people, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Have I communicated this direction thoroughly? Half the time capable, enthusiastic partners do not take the wheel simply because they do not have any clue as to which way they should pull.

Are they afraid of the not being able to bear the responsibility? In reflection of that, am I truly asking to share this burden, or am I throwing my hands up and trying to dump the whole thing on someone else? Do I communicate, and live out a commitment to building their strengths to take hold of a part of the wheel?

Am I wrong? Leaders must learn to ask this question, because trust me, you will be wrong, and probably more often than you would think. If the direction is right, is this the right timing? If you know the team around you want the same things, but they are not hopping on this direction, confide in them for perspectives you might have missed.

Lastly, if you're really finding that after connecting and sharing with people, after committing to building up others, after confirming that this truly is what God called you to steer towards, and you are still not finding a team, the last question to ask is: Am I called to be here? At this point your choices are to stay and continue to try to share/teach/instill this direction, or leave, on good terms, recognizing that they are pulling on a different wheel right now.

Reflections on Leadership 3: Who's leading What, Where?

I have shared already that leading the Body of Christ is about where God want to go with the group, so now the question of leadership comes to: Where is God leading them?

One often overlooked perspective is that where God wants the group to go will not, just because you have been elected a leader, necessarily be where God wants you to go; part of the confirmation of one's calling as a leader is to see that those two things, where God is leading you and where God is leading the group, work together in some way. Therefore, where your group goes, the path that you as a leader is called to clear out, will be directly related to where your group is with God; where you are going is to be their next immediate step.

At all times, your people are learning to be better disciples (I hope that is the case anyways), and your job as a leader is not to be the beacon up front a mile away, having no connection to the group but always signaling "come here" (like pushing for street evangelism, when you have a real inkling that a lot of your group have never truly encountered Jesus, let alone share Him). Neither is it your role to be keep yourself in the middle of the pack, trying to be "humble" and be one of "them", but never answering your call to lead.

Taking myself as an example, as of this writing, I have been out of school for over a year. That does not necessarily mean that my time here at Mac is over though. I know that God has placed on my heart a fiery conviction, an overwhelming zeal, to rediscover church; to realize the glory found in the New Testament Christian community in the here and now. And Mac is the one place where I know lots of people, more than any other place I'm connected to, who want to see exactly that too. Plenty of other people here, believers and non-believers alike, are wondering if there's more to the Body of Christ than two hours worth of emotional music and convincing teaching.

I'm blazing new trails all the time, whether its scrapping the newcomers team so that we could empower our whole community to give our new friends a less scripted welcome, or petitioning the elder board and pastoral staff to allow for more of our lay leaders to speak at service, or throwing a bible lesson out the window for a night because someone really wanted to know if you need to be baptized to be saved. So in that way, leading a student church here at Mac, even though I'm no longer a student, still makes sense for me, because I know my heart is lined up with the yearning here for more than the same old church service, and I know where God is prompting me to go first in that trail is where my guys and girls need to go next.

As a leader your simple task is to be at the front of the pack, to try things first, to fail first (more importantly to admit that you made a mistake first), to inch on forward shouting "FOR THE KINGDOM!!!!!!" first, staying connected to your people all the while, going towards a communal beacon, powered by Jesus Christ. That beacon has a name, it is called vision.

Reflections on Leadership 2: Who's leading What?

As a leader in the body of Christ what are you leading? For so many years I was so confused about this question. My leadership time and effort was spent almost entirely on planning events and programs, hammering out logistics, making sure that meetings went smoothly and according to plan.

This might be the most important point in the effectiveness of a kingdom leader: your job is to lead people. The church of God is people. Your ministry is people. There is no other thing in the kingdom of God here on earth other than people. One quick survey of Jesus' life would reveal that. He never got into government like the Jews thought their Messiah would. He was never into dividing duties to his disciples for programs and events; he just called them together and said "go". He spent most of his time talking, teaching, healing, and loving people as he just so happened to pass by them.

I have seen so many leaders (myself definitely included) simply degenerate into an endless cycle of doing; running events and programs and "ministries". They end up thinking that their primary role is to do things with "excellence", which, while noble, completely negates their calling as a leader.

I often observe a particular question on voting day for campus Christian groups: why do you want to serve in leadership rather than off of it? Most candidates fumble this question because they simply do not perceive a difference. They do not realize that being on the exec, being given a positional leadership role, is a specific calling to lead people. Worse off, most fellowships will vote people in based on their ability to do "ministry", on their competence in organization and administration, rather than on someone's ability to build positive, God-abiding relationships. Many wonder why their fellowship doesn't make as much of a kingdom impact as they'd like, when it really boiled down to the leadership's inability to focus on what the kingdom really is, people, and to instill that focus in others.

Going back to "Who's Leading?", your job as a leader is to help your group follow and realize what God has in store for it, and you simply cannot do that without spending the bulk of your time deeply connecting to people. Leaders are called to be leaders, not just be harder workers.

Reflections on Leadership 1: Who is leading?

As a leader in the body of Christ, what is your job? The (my) typical answers tend to be to shepherd, to teach, to strategize, to organize. All of those things are important, but I believe there is an even greater calling for those of us, who somehow, in one way or another (through no fault of our own sometimes lol) ended up in a position of leading others in the body of Christ. That calling is summed up in a single phrase for me: Leading people into the Promised Land. God has a purpose, a destiny, not just for each follower individually, but for your chunk of the body of Christ as a whole, and your job as a leader is to help them get there.

An even more important question to ask is (somehow I've always failed to ask the simplest questions), who's leading? People think of their answer to that question quickly enough. "God," they say (I don't even know how to start dealing with those people who say "me"). In reality though, in my years of working with other Christian leaders, myself having made the very same blunders, I notice two common manifestations of "Who's leading?".

Some leaders get fixated on convincing, sometimes forcing, other people to come with them, while neglecting to help them see that where the leadership is headed is what God wants. Well, hopefully it's what God wants, I have seen some that just plain try to get people to do what they want.

Other leaders get fixated on following God themselves, often citing that they are leading "by example", and neglect to pass on that God-given vision and direction to the people they are trying to lead. Most are left wondering at the end of their leadership term why no one came with them. John C. Maxwell, a pastor who became famous in the secular business world for his leadership teaching has a wonderful quote that addresses this specific situation,

He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.

John C. Maxwell.

Here's what I've realized about this matter: Leading the body of Christ is not about God leading you, or you leading them. It is about God leading them. That is what a leader is supposed to facilitate.

You see that pattern emerge in Joshua's leadership. As the torch gets passed from Moses to Joshua, God gives Joshua the charge, the vision, of leading His people into the Promised Land of Canaan. First thing Joshua does: tell the people,

And Joshua commanded the officers of the people, "Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, 'Prepare your provisions, for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"

Joshua 1:10-11

On the actual day of their crossing,

Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, "As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before." Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." And Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

Joshua 3:1-6

Joshua is constantly reminding the Israelites, in words and in action, that God Himself is leading them; literally the Ark of the Covenant is leading the way.

Proper biblical leadership begins when the leaders hear where God wants the group to go, and shares/affirm/refines that vision with the group so that everyone will recognize that vision as God's for them.

Transformers

Lately being on elder board my character has been challenged, I really felt like God was making me revisit situations where I had previous massively failed tests of character. And weirdly enough this week we're in TSH-B105, the exact room where I shared my first prayer devotion 2 years ago. I'm thinking, though all this, has my character transformed enough to back up the position that I'm in.

I asked myself, what is character? What is transformation? I know its supposed to be inside out, but there's so much stuff on the inside, so what does inside transformation look like?

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Transformation starts with the mind, and by the mind I do not mean head knowledge; but that the way you perceive the world is different, the way you process the world is different. However, it doesn't stop there, transformation is to invade the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

and as I was having this convo with God, I said "OK, mind to heart, gotcha, but what's supposed to change?"

James 1:15 Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

What God really wants to change are our desires, the things that we want. And as this conversation continued, God showed me my soul.

I saw two sorts of desires in me, desires of my mind, and desires of my hearts; things I know I ought to do, the duties and responsibilities that I've taught myself to obey, to like, to maybe even find joy in, contrasted with the desires that are innate, insatiable, unquenchable, that every fibre of my being yearned for, to the point of hurting when they are denied.

And I realize that second part, THAT is character. The desires of our hearts is our character. The transformation of our mind and thought is really just to clear the way, to clear the garbage, so that God can transform the heart, to get at our true character.

When God put that together in my head He took me past the desire of my mind, took me deeper beyond the things that I have taught myself to do and like doing, and to finally begin to look at my heart, and I did not like what I saw. In my heart I still thirsted for the presence of companions over the presence of God, I still craved praise and acknowledgment from others, I still reveled in my achievments and accomplishments as if they were my own. My mind knows otherwise, and I act otherwise, and I've learned to brush those silly cravings aside, but in the end those things are still what my heart wants

It all scared the living daylights out of me, and what was even scarier is that the things that I thought I was convicted in, so many of them are simply in the realm of my mind and not my heart, there's like a precious few that have gotten into my heart. Honestly seeing believers grow to be more like Jesus is like the only one I can see right now.

Lately I've been really feeling telling me He wants to draw me to a deeper place, and I realize that God's really been trying to get into my heart. That the things I know I ought to do, the things that I've taught myself to obey, the things that I know I should believe in, become an all consuming fire that every fibre of my being yearns for, that I hurt for.

Where are you in all of that? Have you been satisfied with simply acting like Jesus rather than being like Jesus? That's a first step for sure, but would you give God a shot at your heart, and not just your actions?

What do we deserve?

The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Now everyone's read this parable a couple times before, but what struck me this week, and pretty much a continued theme for me and my walk with God these last couple of months, is their attitude towards the Father.

And he said, "There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them.

Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father,I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'

But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.

"Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.'

But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!'

And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

As a church kid who finally met Jesus I realized I've been both sons. I've spent my pre-transformation days being the elder son, and spent the recent years realizing how much I am like the returning prodigal. Pre-tranformation days I've always known myself as a son of God, as if I was born that way. I was arrogant about my tiny knowledge of Him, pompous about my identity, and never realizing really how much I looked nothing like what I self-proclaimed to be. And weirdly enough I ended up with the same frustration as the elder son. "I've been working and working for your Kingdom and yet I don't ever see anything come of it!" I give myself to toil in what I deemed best for God, and when I didn't see the glory and breakthrough that I thought was due my fervour, I complained and grumbled, just like the elder son.

The prodigal one was just happy to be home. He didn't come demanding that he be treated a certain way. He came actually begging to be a servant. He knew he deserved nothing; he knew was the one who left to begin with. He came knowing that whatever the Father gives would be good enough; it'd be better than feeding himself like a pig (pun intended). He came expecting to be a reward-less servant, and would've been thankful just to be that. He came humble and grateful well before he saw a single blessing. And he ended up with everything.

Not so with the elder son. I'm going to guess that it isn't the first time he's complained about his lack of young goats; I really believe he hasn't gotten much for his work. And then I realized why: that the beginning of Father's blessing is humility; and the source of humility, is gratitude.

Only in these last 3 years have I realize that I'm actually the prodigal, a beggar, groveling back to God's feet. The thing I'm convicted of more and more nowadays is that I deserve nothing, God deserves everything; that is the premise of my existence. I am a beggar that God has chosen to call friend, a prodigal He's chosen to call son, but that doesn't make Him any less of a king, any less of my Lord. And to be honest, it doesn't make me any less of a prodigal. I still look like one, I still act like one all the time, because ultimately, until the day of Christ Jesus, I'm in dire need of God. Whatever I get from Him in the mean time is not a matter of my identity, as if being Christian meant that we deserved something from God. My identity itself is a matter of God's grace. The great promises of His word are not due us, they are gifted to us. I know He will be faithful to those promises, and I will learn to expect them, but I don't dare demand them.

Are you just happy to be home? Or have you let your son-ship, your daughter-ship get to your head? You are a beggar. We all are. Is Jesus, though He calls us friends, still Lord to you?