Rich Kao

With all the great things the Church is doing today - preaching, teaching, counseling, discipling, outreaching, reforming, community building, authenticity seeking, social needs mobilizing, micro-church planting, relationship-deepening and more - may we never forget His presence.  When I survey every notable figure in the bible, one thing is clear, they all humbly understood their need for God's presence.

There is nothing that can move me, change me, motivate me, fill me, renew me and strengthen me like the presence of God.  Every time I touch it, it's like I  never touched it before.  To me that's noteworthy.  His presence is always new, fresh, current, vibrant, never familiar or routine.    I grew up as a new Christian on the tail end of the Jesus people movement, where the presence of God was being poured out in a wholesale way on the church and in the land (from my perspective, it was the last broad-based coast-to-coast move of God we've had).  Out of those formative years came an imprinting, a conviction, an idelible mark upon my heart as to the importance and absolute crucial-ness His presence must have in our lives.  However as that season waned, it's become harder and harder to pass on that ardor for His presence to the new crop of Christians.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about a love for God's presence at the expense of or substituting it for His personhood.  Seeking God will always result in touching His presence.

How can we stimulate a love for his presence to the next generation, our own family and kids, and our churches, in the midst of a new era of busters, seekers, emergent-loving, socially-connected, church disenfranchised masses?

I don't have any magical answers (wish I did), except to stay faithful to the message.  Do what the bible says, do it well and do it wholeheartedly.  Which for me, means the following:

    1. Do worship right.  If worship is not done in such a way as to move people to God's presence,  for me, it's game over.  Shut it all down. (Although people will endure bad worship for great preaching).  One key (insist on this):  never put in a worship leader that is not a "presence leader," i.e. someone who's passion is to touch God's heart, and has the ability to get people there musically.  PS - also create a worship culture / lifestyle.

    2. Get people baptized in the Holy Spirit.  People who are baptized in the Holy Spirit have a much easier time locating, experiencing, and moving into God's presence.  If Jesus and the apostles needed to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, then I do and so do those that look to me for leadership.

    3. Pray in tongues.  Yep, that one pesky controversial teaching that became a signature issue of the charismatic movement.    What does praying in tongues do?   Many things -- and this is not the time for a full blown teaching on it -- but I want to point out one salient point -- speaking in tongues helps us get connected to the mind of God and into the flow of the Holy Spirit.  It takes us out of our default "natural thinking" into God's thinking.  (I Cor. 15:15)

    4. Get saturated in the word.  Basically Col. 3:16.

    5. Love God the person, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

    6. Trust for God to move supernaturally in your midst.  This raises the faith level of the community.

    7. Be a person of consistent prayer.

Here's my prayer:  "Lord your word says if we draw near to you you will draw near to us (Jas 4:8).  As we commit ourselves to faithfully doing that, may you fill us with your immeasurable, priceless, glory-filled presence.  We are hungering and thirsting for you.  Amen."

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In 48 hours, I'll be taking my test to become a Canadian citizen!  I just finished studying the official 47-page "A Look at Canada" publication which prepares immigrants for the citizenship test.  I really enjoyed it (as well as my 7th and 9th grade girls who helped quiz me; "Dad, you should just study our civics notes.")  Got a wonderfully synthesized summary of Canada, it's people, heritage, values, government, and way of life.  While not over challenging, it's fun to have to study for something you're going to get tested on.  I duly took the online practice test, and got a feel for how hard the test will be (the Canadian gov't is very considerate; they want you to pass; no trick questions). 

So if I pass the test, I can be sworn in as a full-fledged Canadian citizen.  I won't be giving up or forfeiting my US citizenship.  I'll be multi-national; both - no need to convert from one citizenship to another. The US gov't allows US citizens to have dual citizenship.  (For those that want some more details from the US Dept of State, click here.)

Why am I doing this?  For several reasons:

Philosophically

1. Being a church planter / missionary, it's another concrete way for me to be missional, incarnational, and identify with those I serve. 

2. There is a dying to self that occurs which I think is healthy.  I have a deep love for my own home country of the United States of America, and yet, I don't want that love to block my even deeper love for the Kingdom, which inspires me to this step.

3. The great apostle Paul was a citizen of Rome and of Israel, and he was able to use it for great purposes.

Practically

1. I'm getting more and more involved with humanitarian work around the world.  Traveling on a US passport, while still the preferred global document,  can sometimes raise unnecessary ambivalent feelings in our post 9/11 world.  With Canada's international reputation as peacekeepers and preference for non-violence, being able to carry a Canadian passport  reduces that kind of sentiment, making things more peaceable.

2. My entire family has dual CN-US citizenship, except me.    So for symmetry sake, it'd be nice to complete the picture!

3. I get to vote in Canadian elections and help determine who gets into office and who doesn't.

So there you have it!  An Asian-Chinese that will have three citizenships - US, Canadian, and the Kingdom.

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I love great presentations, and here's one.  This is a great slide show about a start-up church in Rapid City, SD (state of my birth!).  I think almost every pastor I know could drop this presentation on their laptop and use it next Sunday.  What I so enjoy about this powerpoint is it incorporates the new creativity and visual presentation principles that are being popularized by communication experts like Garr Reynolds and others. Enjoy!

 

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I've always said there are four kinds of church growth, but now I've found a fifth one -- "sideline" growth. What do I mean by this? Having coming to Vancouver, it's amazing the number of Christians that are on the sidelines, not going to church and out of the game. For some of them, they've been unattached to a church for years. Then some thing quickens them and they feel the need to find a church again. So they join a church, but not because they came from another church or just got saved. They're coming in off the bench. They're tired of the sidelines. May more and more get back in the game. Vancouver needs to thin out it's sidelines and pack the field!

1. Transfer Growth - church growth from members moving from one church to another.

2. Conversion Growth - church growth from people getting saved.

3. Renewal Growth - church growth from people shifting to a spirit-filled experience.

4. Biological Growth - church growth due to families having more kids.

5. Sideline Growth - church growth due to re-engagement and reconnection.