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| Dr A R Bernard |
I attended a meeting with Dr A R Bernard on Tuesday and it was such a revelational message. He spoke differently from the weekend and taught in a more colloquial way on organizational leadership in the Church.
As I reflect back today, a film came to my mind, 'The Lion King'. This was shown last week on ch5 and I somehow stumbled upon it (now I believe it could be God's intention)
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| The Lion King |
He spoke to us about never forgetting who we are in Christ. As in individual, it is about us having a heavenly Father and the authority we have in Jesus. Corporately, this is our DNA as a Church. Our corporate identity, our values, what we do and who we are!
You see Dr Bernard gave a very good illustration about branding. The reason why most of the major companies you see today, such as Mcdonalds or Starbucks, have such success is because of 2 things.
Firstly, they base their businesses on finding ways to serve people ( Greatness speaks of service, John 13:12-17 ) and secondly, they focus on longevity! Dr Bernard termed longevity as having both continuity ( maintaining your values and identity ) and change ( willingness to adapt in order to stay refreshed and relevant to society )
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| Greatness speaks of service |
In order to have effective change, you must have innovation. I particularly like the phrase Dr Bernard used in that 'innovation is a permanent revolution' ! If you are able to be consistently innovative in doing things, then you will always find success no matter how the world, pop culture or trends change. Renewal can always take place and longevity can be achieved. The question is, 'Can we be 'built to last?' .(Obama)
Similarly, as a Church, we have to maintain our values and core identity. For my Church, it is the pillars of the Great Commandment , the Great Commission and the Cultural Mandate. No matter what happens, we have to always trust God and continue doing what we do and know why we do it! Here's 2 verses that Paul mentions.....
Romans 8:38
"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love."
Romans 1:14
14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.
What we can infer here is that Paul believed and was convinced in the message so much that to him, it is an obligation to preach it! Do we believe in our message? are we convinced that we hold the truth to life that can bring salvation, joy, love, blessings and fruitfulness? The answer is a definite 'YES'
Keep trusting God, keep believing in the message you preach!
Now that we got our core identity intact, let's look at some verses on being innovative.
Matt 13:52
52 He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Though our identity is the same, our method of delivery can change with innovation in order to stay relevant! For my Church, in the past, we didn't have the big screen. We didn't have our worship style, we didn't have SOT, we didn't have the crossover project.All of these ideas took innovation, which helped us stay relevant to society and definitely played a part in helping the Church grow. If we just stayed where we were and became contented in just being a small Church to please ourselves, then we'll miss out the whole point of why we started Church in the first place.
We are who we are because we exercise faith despite the circumstances! Just like how Paul was provoked by the spiritual atmosphere in Athens (Acts 17:17) Are we provoked enough to be a blessing to places that need God's love, even though we may face trials and tribulations and attacks from the enemy? Are we faithful to believe there will always be BELIEVERS in the people we reach out to in the midst of the crowd? (Peter : Acts 2:41)
Now how does it relate to the story of the Lion King? Stay tuned for Part 2 ( In the meantime, why not watch the Lion King to get more revelations on the next post! )
God Bless
Daniel Foo
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