Last Sunday (Oct 19), the Youth Gospel Center (YGC) of the Philippines (in Masangkay, Manila) held its annual Full Timer's Fellowship (FTF). You may be wondering to what that fellowship is for... The FTF is for anyone who is considering full time work..or pastoral work. It could be missions, teaching, pastoring, church work...yes, all the clerical work that you can think of...
YGC on the otherhand, is a para-church. A
para-church is like an organization, such CCOWE (Christian Churches Organization of World Evangelism, they are the pioneers of the magazine
CCOWESpondence), or a center. In this case, YGC is a center. Para-churches are usually built by churches to serve a certain ministry need. If the need has been fulfilled, then the para-church's life ends. The only exception is evangelism...if evangelism is the purpose, then the para-church's mission doesn't end. One of those is YGC; YGC has been around for around half a century, it is supported by basically almost all the Chinese churches in the country. Now, you may ask, "
there are many churches around the Masangkay area...aren't all the churches there also responsible for evangelism?" Good question.. the thing is..most non-Christian individuals (especially Chinese) would immediately close their minds if you say,
"Hey, do you want to go to church?". That's an immediate NO to them. However, if you have a place such as YGC, then...their minds are a little bit more open. It's like a mediator between churches... Once evangelism is fulfilled in the non-believer, they are channelled to the different churches that suits them. It's actually very effective, that is why it has been around for half a century. I'll post more about YGC later on...
Moving back to the topic...
The speaker was UECM (United Evangelical Church of Malabon)'s head pastor, Rev. Danny Reyes. [To know more about him, you can check his testimony in one of CCOWEspondence's issues that was published with in a year ago]. The topic, as the title shows is... the Pursuit of God... this is a topic seriously aiming for those who are considering the ministry.
I won't narrate the whole message, just the highlights...
First, whether we are called to go to the seminary or just college... it is both a calling.. we serve and sacrifice in both fields. Anyway, for that day, the focus was those who are considering to go to seminary...
The passage was... 1 Timothy 4:12-16. This passaged was addressed to Timothy, a minister to the Gentiles. The verse goes...
"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, n faith and in purity. Until I (Paul) come, devote yourself to public reading of the Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers."
First of all, if we are in church, many will tell you.. "don't look at people, look at God." Question: can you literally see God? Of course NOT.. So look at people.. that's why God told us to be a light of the world.. Our life must be a reflection of God.
In this verse, Paul is telling Timothy to:
1) Be an example.. in short, his BEING. in speech, in life, in faith and purity.
2) Preach and Teach. or his DOING. teach what? God's word!
Why? because (highlighted in blue) we can SAVE them and ourselves. Them, yes.. knowing that we have a good testimony will let everyone see God in us. It will help them know that we are God's children. But what about ourselves?? Ain't being saved always be saved? YES, once saved, always saved.
It is referring to us being accountable to everyone. God will one day judge us all...and we are accountable to all our actions. This is to save us from trouble. For example.. if a pastor tricked someone for his money.. and that pastor preaches in the pulpit, would you believe him?
....
You probably won't...because he has tricked someone, lied to someone..and he might be lying to you. Then..that pastor is accountable to all the souls that he has stumbled. God will judge him for what he has done.
So what about the majority who are not called to the ministry? The same principle still applies.. the BEING and DOING, except that the DOING is a little different. You may not be preaching and teaching...but what ever field God has led you... you have a role there to DO.
One last thing... only a few went there this year (around 20, more or less)... A few years ago, there would have been around 40 to 50 attendees... But now, each church had an average of 2 or 3 representatives.. Grace has around 1000 church attendees weekly. Ain't it weird that only 2 or 3 have the burden to seek the fulltime ministry? Yes it is...I'm sure there are alot of members in Grace and other churches who are in pursuit of God. They are just not being taken care off.. They are not informed.. It is not being organized properly. This has been a wake up call for me... we need an accountability group, a fellowship, or anything that would let us gather all of those who are seeking to join the full time ministry. We need to be more prepared...
Luke 10:2
"And He was saying to them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseeech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'"
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