My Sunday Morning at Charis Christian Centre - Cheras

Charis Christian Centre is an amazing church with an amazing pastor and amazing leaders. I had the privilege of speaking at Charis this morning at both of their English Worship Services at 8.45am and 11.15am. Charis is situated in a predominantly Chinese area of the city of Kuala Lumpur called Cheras. Occupying 5 shop houses in Taman Billion Cheras, Charis is about 22 years old. They have 7 different services every Sunday and have about 1200 people in attendance at these services. Coming to speak at Charis also brought back many memories for me as I grew up in this area. I attended Primary school at La Salle Peel Road and also stayed at Lorong Shahbandar, Peel Road for a couple of years. Later we moved to Taman Cuepacs Cheras, also stayed there for a couple of years.

The community work that Charis does is really something to shout about. I am so encouraged to learn of the good works that they do through:
RUMAH SAYANGAN - A home for underprivileged, abused, abandoned and orphaned children.
CHARIS - NKF DIALYSIS CENTRE - Providing affordable dialysis to the needy.
Started in 1997 currently 129 patients are receiving regular dialysis 3 times per week at the centre.
KID'S KINGDOM - Teaches children to read, write and speak English. Classes are held on Saturday mornings with 150 children in attendance.
S.A.F.E - reaches out to exploited women. (This morning I heard the story of how they rescued a woman from Sichuan China who came to Malaysia to work as a social escort. The woman has since returned to China baptized. Praise the Lord!)

Ps Clarissa Giam their Social Concern Pastor is quite a woman. She would definitely be one of the amazing leaders at Charis. She had a fall recently that fractured her left hand. She says that it has not stopped her in any way but recognizes that she need to slow down a bit. Clarissa's passion in her work is certainly contagious. 2 weeks ago I was in Penang and Mrs Chong from Fettes Park Baptist Church related to me a story of a team of people that came from KL to help them clean up the flats at Rifle Range. They also helped with the repainting of the walls. With much excitement they recounted how they scrubbed the dirt off the walls before painting. As I listened to Mrs Chong I began to see the heart of the team from KL and their spirit of excellence.

Today at Charis I got to meet the team of 11 people that went to Penang for that mission work. Yes they are from Charis Christian Centre. The people at Charis Christian Centre truly live out their mission statement "A heart for God and a hand for man." If you live in the Cheras area and is looking to find a church to serve in I strongly recommend Charis.

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For more information on Charis please check out their website: charis.org.my

Our 1st Externally Focused DLT Meeting

16th October 2008, is historic for us, as we had our first Externally Focused Discipling Life Team meeting. We gathered at my place at 8pm, and we sat down to a meal of beef rendang, and bergadil. Everyone was in very good spirits although it was raining and the conversations were with excitement of what was to unfold for the evening. Immediately after dinner we watched 2 videos; one by Doug Carter (Vice President EQUIP), and the other by Pastor Chris Hodges (sits on the Board of EQUIP).

In the video by Doug, he spoke on "Leadership Begins with an Attitude, and that leaders think and perceive the world differently than followers do." Doug continued by sharing the biblical principles about attitude;
1. My attitude as I begin a task will affect its OUTCOME more than anything else.
2. My attitude towards OTHERS will determine their attitude towards ME.
3. My attitude is the major difference between SUCCESS and FAILURE.
4. My attitude can turn my PROBLEMS into BLESSINGS.
5. My attitude can give me an uncommon PERSPECTIVE on life.
6. My attitude is my best FRIEND or my worst ENEMY.
7. My attitude, not my ACHIEVEMENTS, will give me happiness.
8. My attitude will change when I CHOOSE to change it.
9. My attitude needs continual ADJUSTMENT.
10. My attitude is CONTAGIOUS.

When Doug finished, the living room was in dead silence. Discerning that nothing more was needed to be said about "attitude", we proceeded to watch the 2nd video. Chris Hodges came on to talk about "The Leader's Inner Circle."

Chris stressed on the relationships we all need;

* God (your heavenly Father)
* Family (your spouse and children)
* A Mentor (a Paul)
* An Accountability Partner (a Barnabas)
* An Apprentice Disciple who follows you (a Timothy)

Why are these relationships especially crucial for a leader?

1. Every leader has weaknesses.
2. Leaders are on the front line of the spiritual battle and
__are vulnerable to attack.
3. Leaders are to set a higher standard for themselves than their followers.
4. Leaders can be blended to the temptations of power and popularity.
5. Leaders can get so busy that their spiritual lives suffer more than anything else.
6. Leaders often merely react to needs and forget to train others for the future.

Chris ended with some alarm bells for leaders;

1. Is my personal walk with God up to date?
2. Am I keeping my priorities straight?
3. Am I asking myself the hard questions?
4. Am I accountable to someone in authority?
5. Am I listening to what God is saying to the whole body of Christ?
6. Am I over concerned with building my own image?
7. Am I overly impressed by either criticism or flattery?
8. Am I a "loner" in my ministry?
9. Am I aware of my weaknesses?
10. Is my calling constantly before me?

I proceeded to explain the set up of the new DLT (Discipling Life Team) structure. I could sense the excitement within the room.

The Growth Champion - is responsible for the overall spiritual growth of the team. The Growth Champion is the one asking the questions about how people are growing in their relationship with God. The Growth Champion is aware of the resources available to the team and usually is the one who enjoys and shares some of the teaching element of the DLT.

The Bridge Champion - is the one who desires to lead the DLT in making a difference in the community.

The Connect Champion - leads the team in meeting each other's needs. They also help to make new people feel welcomed and connected.

Then of course there is the Prayer Leader, Men's Leader and Women's Leader.

You can see that now instead of just 1 leader, there are 6 other leaders to help the DLT Leader in his mission of leading the DLT. Then there are the all-important Team Members. Just what do they do? I believe everyone has a role in a DLT. Everyone must be released into the ministry of serving.

Team Members - begin their "DLT journey" together by making a list of 10 friends or relatives who are yet to know Christ, and start to pray for them daily. They also meet up with one member of the team once a week for 1-2 hours to ask character-based questions of each other. These sessions are gender-based. They will also meet with one of their friends and relatives, whom they are praying for, once a week for 1-2 hours, to have "life transforming conversations."

Of course, every single team member is committed to the EFC Leadership Training. On the curriculum is:
Relationship
Leadership
Stewardship
Breaking Strongholds in the Mind
Grace - My grace is sufficient
Ministry Internship

I proceeded with the DLT session by announcing the leaders selected.
Growth Champion - Winifred Chin
Bridge Champion - Chris Lim
Prayer Leader - Sonya Liew (Sonya now has her prayer sessions with the team members every Wednesday at 8.30pm. The location of the prayer sessions will move among the team members' homes)

All were indeed refreshed with the new direction taken to be externally focused.

Praise the Lord!

EFC Leadership Training - Graduation Dinner, Kulai

Saturday morning October 11th 2008 found us on the road again, this time heading south to Kulai, Johore. Kulai is located about a half hour's drive from Johor Bahru (JB) and about a 3hour drive from Kuala Lumpur. Arriving in Kulai at 1pm, Pastor Benedict (Chairman of the Pastor's Fellowship Kluang) met us and immediately took us for lunch. Yes it started to rain very heavily as we commenced our lunch. The conversations during lunch centered on the town of Kulai. In case you did not know here is a brief - population about 200k. Mostly they live in Kulai but work in JB or Singapore. The township also borders the Senai Airport. For work, it seems most people wake up as early as 4am to make their way to Singapore and come back at about 8pm daily. What a life!After lunch we checked into a hotel called RJ Hotel at a "Taman." I am told that Kulai also has the most number of "tamans" in Malaysia. After a quick shower, we were off to the St.Andrews Church, Kulai for the pre-graduation conference. Here at the conference we got to meet the 35 people who are graduating after completing Book 1 of the Leadership Curriculum. There were 18 of them from Pontian, mostly teachers and the rest from Kulai. Pontian is about 40 minutes from Kulai, situated at the western tip of Johore. Pontian is a fishing village and "they" are already saying we must come to Pontian for we have the best seafood at Kukup. So Pastor Benedict declared that the Graduation Dinner for Book 2 will be in Pontian.

Night Prayers - 30th September