William Chong

HBC goes to Impact 2009.

On the lookout for more photos to slot into the video, email me if you have some!

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Monday morning. For those of us in the workforce, this was our last day of the Impact 2009 Conference – for others (including Jono) there was the option of an extra day of leadership and discipleship seminars.

General session 10: Rick completed his series on 1 Peter in expositing verses 10 to 12. By way of introduction, he first brings some questions raised by Old Testament standout Job, who asks: “How can a man be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2) This question can be answered by considering three extraordinary magnifications of salvation: the prophets foretold it (vv.10-12a), the Apostles announced it (v12), and the angels are amazed by it. Rick makes the astute point that even the angels — who have been worshipping God at his throne in an unceasing, almost OCD fashion (compare Isaiah 6 with Rev 4), would still be amazed that a God who’s “Holy holy holy” would save the unholy.

Seminar session: Dr Hugh Rorrison, an anaesthetist at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, gave a very medically and Biblically-informed overview of the myriad of issues in medical ethics, answering the following questions:

1. Where does human life come from? Hugh makes an important statement that “medical ethics is illegitimate if humans have no inherent value”. He explains that if humans have evolved by random chance, there is no right or wrong and our life could (in jest) be summed up as follows: “born a fluke, live life as a farce, and end up as fertilizer”. The Bible affirms that we’re created by God and in His image.
2. When does human life actually begin? After going through the scientific concepts of meiosis and embryogenesis, Hugh gives several varying definitions people use to ascertain the start of human life. Some argue that life begins at viability (when it can survive on its own), some at quickening (when the first movement is felt by the mother), some at implantation. He however notes that the Bible unashamedly notes that human essence of a new life is imparted well before birth (Psalm 139) and we are even given a sin nature at conception (Psalm 51: “Surely I was sinful from the moment my mother conceived me”). Therefore human life according to the Bible begins at conception.
3. When does human life end? Ultimately God knows the exact moment we die, says Hugh – he notes that medically human life ends at “death of the person as a whole, as opposed to the whole of the person”.
4. On abortion – Hugh explains that as a natural conclusion from the previous questions, abortion is equivalent to breaking the 6th commandment. This is achieved today either by drugs or surgery. He points out that the intra-uterine device (IUD), morning-after-pill, and some pill-based contraceptives prevent implantation of the womb and would also be immoral. A birth control method that prevents sperm and egg from uniting is OK, but those that affect the lining of the womb are not.
5. On IVF – Hugh details what the procedure involves, noting that in order to increase the success rate, surplus embryos (up to are fertilized, but then discarded or used for medical research.
6. On stem cell research – Hugh supports research where stem cells are harvested from bone marrow, but objects to when they are taken from surplus embryos.
7. On Euthanasia – the word literally means “to die well”. Despite the seemingly noble aims, the act of euthanasia is still deliberately cutting short a person’s life.
8. On life support – This is not the same as euthanasia – to allow someone to die at the end of their natural life is not the same as a deliberate act of ending it.

The Q&A session following covered even more issues – deciding between the mother or the baby (e.g. ectopic pregnancies), birth control, IVF and God’s sovereignty, organ donation, and prenatal testing. The audio for this seminar is well worth having a listen to.

A couple of closing thoughts:

• The calibre of teaching Impact Conference brings to NZ is phenomenal. I think it’s testament to the strong relationships the folk at Riverbend have with the speakers: Rick, for example, has come to NZ for the past 20 years; Martha Peace has come before.
• Simon and I both noted the mildly uncharitable action of reserving seats prior to speaking sessions. Sometimes we’d walk through the hall an hour before any session and find rows of seats with Bibles and book bags unceremoniously strewn across them! I know everyone becomes amplified eager-beavers during a conference and I can understand the enthusiasm in getting a good seat, but just reserving it with your books and expecting a prime spot feels a little unChristian. It’d be much more adelphous (is that a word?) to even selflessly offer the better seat to a brother or sister in Christ.
• The musicians at Riverbend are extremely gifted: I especially enjoyed the Casting Crown covers as they played songs like “Slow Fade” and “If We are the Body“. Definitely some things I took away to help with my own worship leading.
• It was great to meet so many like-minded people who worship Christ and hold biblical teaching in such high regard.

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Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/wchong
Full write-ups: http://bit.ly/jonomac/

Us out-of-town sojourners had the pleasure of worshipping and learning with the local Riverbend congregation on Sunday morning, day 3 of the Impact Bible Conference. Rick and Russell preached during the morning sessions, while Jerry presented a stirring message during the evening Communion service.

Sandwiched between the plenaries was the continuation of the ladies seminar by Martha Peace, and a spirited Q&A session which offered much insight and learning.

General session 7: Rick continued his exposition of 1 Peter in a message entitled, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” – how does one experience true Christian joy? In verses 6 to 9 the apostle Peter explains to Christians under trial four discoveries for enjoying life-changing joy:

1. Joy is rooted in the thought of heaven – Christians are betrothed to an afterlife with Christ
2. Joy is strengthened through the refinement of suffering – “the happiest days of the Church have been her days of persecution”
3. Joy is centred on the person of Christ – this point included Rick’s most insightful comment of the conference: “The only man-made thing in heaven will be the scars on Jesus’s body.”
4. Joy is _____ the reality of heaven (v9)

General session 9: I was enriched by Jerry’s exposition of the crucifixion narrative from the human perspective in Luke 23:39-43. For those who don’t know, that’s the part where Jesus hangs between the two criminals, who offer two startlingly contrasting responses to the Suffering Servant. I loved seeing this Passion narrative from this uncommon perspective. The proud unrepentant criminal curses And cajoles despite being rightly condemned, utterly helpless, and unable to reverse the consequences. On the other hand, the repentant thief justifies God, vindicates Christ and pleads for mercy which is graciously given: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

As Jerry closed in prayer, the Hawkes Bay was treated with the first sea-level snowfall in over 40 years. Snowfights and merriment served a fitting coda to a Lord’s day to remember.

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Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/wchong
Full write-ups: http://bit.ly/jonomac/

This is a very rough type-up from notes I took during the Q&A session from the Impact Conference (Sunday 30 May, 3.30pm). The panel included Rick Holland, Russell Hohneck, Donald Stevenson and Jerry Wragg. Note that this is written from my notes and not from the audio, so I’m picking there will be inaccuracies and things I’ve misheard/misread until I have the opportunity to revise it according to the session recording.

Q: What books do you read?

Rick: Iain Murray – “The Forgotten Spurgeon”, has impacted John Macarthur’s ministry.
The pastoral letters of Samuel Rutherford, which Spurgeon describes as “the closest thing to Holy Scripture since the closing of the canon.”

Russell: There’s no time to read books if you’re on Joe Fleener’s email list! But should mention Charles Jefferson – “The Minister as Shepherd”.

Donald: “Agape Leadership”, on the life of RC Chapman, and his testimony of being involved with people on a long-term basis. “The Courage to be Protestant” by David Wells. Also refers continually back to C.J. Mahaney’s “The Cross-centred Life“.

Jerry: Feels that David Wells has a keen insight on the Evangelical movement over the past 100 years. Names a number of books: “My Heart for thy cause” by Brian Borgman; “Ministry Exposé” by Albert Martin; “Lectures to my Students” by Charles Spurgeon; “Practical Wisdom for Pastors” by Curtis Thomas. Advises a gradual approach to building up a reading habit, taking the time to gain an appetite for the subject matter.

Q: Why does God command all to be saved, but only elects some?

Rick: The simple answer is we don’t know for sure. This is one of the doctrines we can explore and may not figure out totally. It’s important to note that the Bible affirms human responsibility, but never affirms free will. Note the passage in Romans which contrasts being a “slave to sin” and being a “slave to righteousness”. Those who are spiritually dead don’t have free will – look, Arminianism is not a heretical view. But the burden of proof has been placed on the Calvinists but shouldn’t be… if you think through passages like Ephesians 1, the book of Romans, even Deuteronomy 7. Yes, Israel was elect too. Note that this issue hasn’t been answered fully in 2000 years of Christian history… but the eventual risk is that one says that “man is sovereign, God is not.”

On free will, I haven’t met a honest Arminian – I mean, they will still pray for someone’s salvation. Is that not the same as asking God to save someone? Also, in the Bible, election is always discussed with Christians who need comfort, not a place you begin regarding evangelism. No Calvinist would really evangelise by saying, “This is the gospel. Are you elect?”

Jerry: There’s this concept called a wall of worship, which I think Arminians shy from fully approaching. The other error is where hypercalvinists jump over the wall of worship/revelation and try to resolve all of it, when really we sometimes have to admit that we have hit tension and instead of shying from approaching the wall, or jumping over it, we should bow down before it.

Here’s a question to ask yourself: is God unjust if He saves no one? You would say no (given our depravity). So why do we say He’s unjust if He saves some? Because we’re proud.

Donald: I’d like to add as well, that the doctrine of election is freeing with regards to evangelism. We see in Acts 20 that Paul went from house to house to preach – his “Calvinism” didn’t affect his zeal for evangelism. I think it was Spurgeon who once said, “I believe like a Calvinist, but preach like an Arminian.”

Q: Are infants and young children who die early elect?

Rick: Macarthur has a book on this subject. My theological extrapolation is that babies and toddlers prior to the ability to make a decision would be redeemed. I mean, beyond passages of the Scripture such as 2 Samuel 13 – where King David’s child died as a punishment for his sin, there is not much re: clues on this issue. It’s worth noting though that Rev 20 refers to the final judgement based on deeds. The works reveal your belief or lack of belief in Christ, so if a child/infant is pre-deeds when they die, then he/she is redeemed.

Jerry: (Explained further re: David’s story in 2 Samuel 13). Also in Revelation 20, the people cast into the Lake of Fire are revealed as “unbelievers”, not “unelect”. So the implication is that those without the mind to comprehend it is elect. The Bible also talks about unbelievers without excuse – this implies that for some, there would be one. (Explained further that this was different to an adult not exposed to the gospel)

Q: What are the doctrinal implications of the book “The Shack“?

Russell: It’s a radically different and havoc-inducing presentation of who God is. And it’s also a very engrossing read, offering the reader a glimpse into a fictional intimacy of fellowship with God that is enviable. However, the premise here that God speaks outside the Word is questionable. The book did not draw me to holy living – it’s dangerous theology.

Jerry: It’s an attempt to depreciate revelation about God. It’s an issue when people say “this book changed my life” – what principle did you learn from “The Shack” that you didn’t learn from Scripture? Also, fiction pretending to be theological truth is not a new idea, e.g Frank Paretti’s series.

Rick: When you read fictionalised accounts of a truth, it is hard to bifurcate between the truth and the speculation that clouds it. E.g. “Left Behind” series.

Q: Rick, should I get a tattoo?

Rick: There’s two extremes on this: those who say “I’m free in Christ”, and those who quote Leviticus 19:26-28 – though I’d say this Scripture is not a reason not to get a tattoo. Ultimately it’s between you and God, but from my experience with the youth I work with, most of them hide their tattoos in certain contexts anyways.

Q: Can you give a fair critique of Mark Driscoll?
Donald: He’s referred to by some as “the cussing pastor”, which is a 6-year-old term.

Jerry: Cussing is not the issue. Look, none of us would say that he’s not in Christ. He professes Christ crucified and I commend his understanding of the gospel. I’ve read all his books and listened to his sermons. My concern is that his missiology is presented as this: “If you are going to be intentionally missional to society and be an effective minister of the gospel, you’d engage and advocate filthy speech, raw sensual behaviour, smoking and drinking as a way to remove barriers.

Here’s the problem: the gospel of Jesus Christ is for the atoning. We are covered by the holiness of Christ, and we are then to mortify sin in our lives as a reflection of that. Mark communicates to me a denial that transformation is necessary for his life. Some of his open and frank sermons have blurred this line, and I think he will enslave his generation to carnality – that’s the ultimate danger. (Retold the story of a man in his church who fell into unholy living after missional teaching at college).

When you preach on atonement but don’t do holy living/sanctification, then you’ve got a problem.

Rick: (edit: 4/6/09) (Rick responds to Driscoll’s Scotland sermon)

Donald: 1 Peter sets the standard: “Be holy, for I am holy”.

Russell: I see disaster for MD and his followers and disciples if there is no obedience, no sanctification, no holiness.

Q: Regarding contextualising the gospel, what role does technology, dance, music, drama play in church?

Jerry: The gospel itself is offensive in its basic, biblical dress. Look, the methodology itself is not evil. Technology shouldn’t be about repackaging the gospel. It becomes a problem when the gospel message is marginalised in the process of contextualisation, or we offer entertainment and then do a bait-and-switch for the gospel.

Also the preaching of the Word is a supernatural event. It’s a priority, and has always been since the foundation of Israel, even.

On Sundays, none of us should be here to uphold our preferences – we’re here to lift up our voices, pray, serve, listen to preaching. I mean this is related to the “worship wars” issue as well. Ultimately, if the words are biblical, we look at Hebrews 13:17 – obey your leaders, and put to death your own preferences. Look, the worship music leaders can focus on choosing the songs – I’ll focus on teaching the congregation to put away preferences and self-centredness. Worship wars dishonours Christ.

Rick: You can’t win with music – someone won’t like it. Music ministers are marked men! The higher principle though is this: older and younger are to defer to each other. I like something John Piper’s said: “Don’t compare the best hymn with the worst chorus… and don’t compare the best chorus with the worst hymn.” (e.g. How Great is our God vs The Great White Throne – which is about hell…)

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Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/wchong
Jono’s writeups: http://bit.ly/jonomac/

General session 4: Jerry Wragg started Day 2 of Impact Bible Conference delving into the meaning behind Paul’s word to the Corinthian church (1:30-31). A lengthy sermon where he stressed continuously the sufficiency of Scripture as given: “We have no business changing evangelism from what it is in Scripture.” Also a thorough tracing of justification, sanctification and glorification plainly described in Scripture.

General session 5: ”Heaven is a comforting term,” said Rick Holland as he continued his exposition of 1 Peter, this time focusing on the ways God satisfies three aspirations of the human heart. In writing to persecuted Christians, Peter expounds on how God gives believers hope upon Christ’s grace, provides security in the imperishable certainty of heaven, and the assurance that “this life is the closest a believer will ever come to hell.”

General session 6: Jerry Wragg asks how far we should go regarding the phrase “all things to all men”, tackling the issue of contextualising the gospel. A few provocative statements, such as: “I don’t care how reformed your teaching is, if you’re repackaging the gospel, it’s not sanctified.” Wragg highlighted points from 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 to consider, including:

- preaching is not preeminence: not flaunting brilliance and turn of speech nor dressing the gospel at clarity’s expense
- preaching is not about personal charisma; Paul in particular came “in weakness, fear and much trembling”

Question for the day: Does the next generation of preachers act, dress and speak like Rick Holland, Jerry Wragg etc, and to what extent is this shaped by culture?

Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/wchong
Full write-ups: http://bit.ly/jonomac/

As I’m sitting here at the end of Day 1 of Impact 2009 Bible Conference, Hastings has chilled up like a popsicle and my seat is not heated. But a good 400+ folks have been warming their voices on powerful songs, and listening to powerful preaching through the day.

A brief run-down:

General session 1 - Rick opens the plenaries by outlining the life and character of the Apostle Peter. He’s shown in Scripture to be passionate yet flawed (definitely not infallible Pope material from what the Bible records). Peter was a regular, Christ-exalting, fallible, arrogant, passionate, broken, and eventually restored man.

General session 2 - Jerry Wragg opens his series by listing a multitude of ways evangelical Christians have been affected by the postmodern worldview. Wragg laments the perceived decline of absolutes, depreciation of propositional truth-claims, and the exaltation of human wisdom. He looks forward to delving through 1 Corinthians in addressing issues, including how far should contextualisation and the “all things to all men” principle go.

General session 3 - Rick Holland unpacked the opening two verses of 1 Peter by highlighting three points: the Father elects, the Spirit sanctifies, and the Son redeems. Holland skirted around the election/predestination debate, focusing more on the astute observation that Peter mentions these points to the persecuted church not for theological challenge and controversy, but for pastoral comfort and spiritual security. Definitely a good challenge in getting doctrine turned into practice.

As a side note, the Driscoll contextualisation controversy got a mention by Holland during the first seminar session, titled “what’s wrong with youth ministry today?” I’m picking interesting debates on that issue during the Q&A session on Sunday.

Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/wchong
Jono’s writeups: http://bit.ly/jonomac/

Rick Holland. Jerry Wragg. Martha Peace. Joe Fleener. Hugh Rorrison.

Beautiful weather in the Hawkes Bay, clear skies and over 500 folks from New Zealand, Australia and further afield for the Impact Bible Conference 2009.

Jono and I and about 30 others from Howick Baptist are down here too. Tonnes of good Bible teaching from many great teachers: Jono’s grand idea is that we’ll keep folks updated over the weekend on the talks as they happen.

Rick’s going through 1 Peter 1:1-12, and a seminar series on youth ministry. Martha Peace doing a whole series on Titus 2 teaching – great for the ladies. If you’re interested in keeping up with the talks and seminar sessions, we’ll put notes and main points up as they come:

Jono’s blog updates
William’s Impact blog updates
William’s Twitter updates

Have a great long weekend everyone!

A mostly pleasant weekend, in which:

• I watched a martial-arts movie with paperclip
• Got an unbelievable (read: much much cheaper) panelbeating quote for my pore old car
• I had the unfamiliar experience of meeting people that knew more about me than it’s socially acceptable to let on

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With regards to our epic Fellowship-of-the-Ring quest (Cheryl=Gimli) to find a right church, I think we’ve settled it at Howick Baptist. We could always have flitted between different churches to keep on discovering and finding out more, but it would consequently be more difficult to break those ties when you did leave. Towards the end Cheryl and I were debating trivial points of difference, such as racial demographics, the volume of the worship music, the emphasis on doctrine secondaries (young-earth emphasis, OSAS belligerence, do’s and don’ts for women etc), and even the minutae how we were treated the second time round. Of the final few churches that we’d fit into the most, we were already certain that they were Biblically sound, Christ-centred and a place where we could offer ourselves long-term as believers.

In saying that, I chose to sacrifice two things in making the decision:

• Anonymity. Thanks to combination of Google, word-of-mouth and a church newsletter insert, there’s no hope of “hiding in the back row” anymore. In fact on Sunday, every new conversation I started was essentially: “Oh you’re William Chong.” It remains to be seen how I’ll deal with it in a humble, but less guarded way. And I suppose in heaven, everyone will know your name (or new glorified-body nickname).
• Future church visits. One reason IBC appealed was the greater flexibility in evening and morning services. I actually preferred their evening set-up since it was more Bible-study orientated, and I could then continue to spend my mornings visiting churches, something that I’ve found has been a spiritually-rewarding and humbling exercise. However, I have to remind myself that church-hopping shouldn’t take precedence over church-going.

Things I won’t miss about church-hopping:

• “Virtuous marketing”. While I’m all for providing more information to new visitors and church seekers, I think sometimes we felt that fine line was crossed. Professional 4-colour printed stationery has no real bearing on my home church decision. I remember once, we were almost manhandled into the specially-designated “WELCOME ROOM”, where the “welcomers” seemed nearly as uncomfortable as we were in taking coffee orders. No, barista service isn’t on my church priorities either.
• Leaving it all behind. I have to say that those that vociferously lament the lack of a good church in East Auckland should vociferously shut up – or at least reassess their opinions of what a good church should be. Yes, every church has flaws, being a collective of human beans. And yes, no church has got it nailed perfect. But for the most part (any church with a rating), I really appreciated the strengths each church brought to the effort reaching the Auckland community. It’s hard to choose between apples and apples, and a part of me wanted to stay at each church I went to that I even moderately liked – I felt bad in having to move on each time.

I know I’m blessed to even have to choose a church – for many who live in remote places, the nearest church may be townships away, or even further. Or for many more, even being a Christian is not a viable or peaceful option. As an urbanised generation we take many things for granted, and church choice is one of them.

Anyways, no more church reviews. Maybe I’ll move to pastor interviews, or walking stick reviews, or fish and chip shop critiques. Or wake from songwriting hiatus. Or how about… I get back to work

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Website: http://www.ibcchurch.com; Ph: (09) 273 3349; 2 Dannemora Drive, Dannemora, Auckland; Senior Pastor: Ken Young; Speaker: Mike Huffman; Sermon topic: “Beholding the God of Love” (Ro 8:31, 37-39); 28.6.08; 9.30am.

Rating: AA
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing, AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: want Biblical inerrancy tempered with topical relevance, prefer contemporary worship to praise God with, are more comfortable with saving the in-depth Bible studies for more intimate sessions, want an international place of worship that’s bound to neither Jew nor Greek.

You won’t like this church if you: Don’t feel like worshipping with earplugs on, have had bad experiences with enthusiastic Christian “love-bombing”, want more tough-talking/”fire-and-brimstone” advice from the pulpit, are uncomfortable with a multicultural church demographic.

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In a regular drive-by, the iconic row of national flags as you approach Botany Town Centre, Auckland from either Chapel Rd or Ti Rakau Drive is usually hard to miss. My mother once commented that it’s one of the few places that you’ll ever see the People’s Republic of China and the Taiwanese RoC flags fluttering side by side. I think what she missed at the time was that Christ’s love can do just that: bring people together in unity and fellowship, whether Jew or Greek, Chinese or Taiwanese, Oz or Kiwi, ebony or saffron-skinned.

With rampant globalisation and the melting-pot feel of New Zealand, one of the less contentious (but still relevant) issues that divides congregations today isn’t doctrinal difference, or church politics, or even location. It’s language. Whether you like it or not, New Zealand is now a multicultural Godzone, and this has ramifications that English-speaking pastors have little control of, short of signing up for language classes. The Across Pacific and Asia ministries website lists over 100 churches in New Zealand that cater to non-English Christians, and even more would be existing churches that run separate services for different languages. While we will have to wait until Revelation 7:9 to really be worshipping as a “great multitude … from every nation, tribe, people and language”, in the meantime a church with an international focus is properly comes close – let’s take a look.

Worship: Unashamedly contemporary, loud praise and worship songs are the order of the day at IBC – though I’m happy to report that there’s good substance to the lyrics in most of the songs. I enjoyed singing Stuart Townend’s “In Christ Alone” amongst the 300-odd United Nations-like diaspora, as well as worship numbers like Supertone’s “You are Beautiful Beyond Description“, all backed by a well-rehearsed and polished music team (featuring an electric drum kit). During the offering, a husband-and-wife team sang a self-penned song, “Complete”. I’m aware that with performances during church there’s always a fine line of where you draw your attention to (God or the performer), but it worked pretty well and having the lyrics on the projector meant that the congregation weren’t totally detached from the experience. I should point out that those who find any extraneous music distracting might feel reserved about the background-piano-while-praying approach that IBC also employed during their altar call (though it’s probably not that effective anyways).

Teaching: The first of an ongoing series of “Beholding the God of ___”, the teaching was led by Associate Pastor Mike Huffman, a new addition to the IBC team for 2008 (more on this further on) – senior pastor Ken Young being away in Mansfield, Texas overseeing a church plant there. Focusing primarily on four key verses in Romans chapter 8, Huffman used a methodical but incisive preaching style that came across more like a doting father than a fiery streetcorner evangelist – an apt tone given the sermon topic.

Focusing on God’s love gave a take-home message that’s essentially the Bible’s best self-esteem pick-me-up: “God loves you for who you are, not what you do”. This message may be simple but it’s often missed among the all-to-common misconception that we have to work for our salvation, or that we have to work to earn God’s love. Huffman drew some pretty strong points from both Old and New Testament scriptures to give some relevance to an important characteristic of God that nearly-always gets a vague explanation otherwise.

Church history: IBC started out from small beginnings in 1984 Howick (think the era of the Three Guys and Deka shopping malls) as Bible Baptist Church – founded by John Young, father of current senior pastor Ken Young. A bold move in 1998 to the literally “flagship” location at the entrance gate of residential Dannemora gave IBC the means to reach out to a suburb which would eventually become the “diasporasia”-led stronghold it is today (hence the multicultural focus). It’s noted for retaining its independence from the Baptist Union of NZ that the majority of Baptist churches join, and this may or may not be related to the Young’s US missionary roots and pre-existing support from sending organisations.

At the start of 2008, there was a recent leadership reshuffle from the incorporation of a smaller independent Baptist church, Seven Oaks Baptist Church to the IBC congregation. The Huffmans, under directives from their US-based sending organisation Biblical Ministries Worldwide nurtured the Seven Oaks congregation for a number of years in the Flat Bush area before the join-up with IBC. It’s worth pointing out that the mission field in NZ is considered an especially important one by conservative Baptists, due to their collective misgivings over the influence of the Charismatic movement�in NZ.

Visitor treatment: With handshakers, a welcome lounge and open visitor appeals during the church service, there’s a deliberate attempt to seek out visitors and pamper them at IBC, which will definitely rub some people up the wrong way. For a 300-odd congregation it’s fair to say that if not for the well-mobilised ushers team we’d have been able to slip in and slip out so much easier (see PBC for an example of that). As a reflection of a genuine “love thy neighbour” approach it’s not a bad thing – but I feel there needs to be some moderation in how this is done. What may be genuine hospitality may end up being too uncomfortable for the more stoic and reserved churchgoer (the harshest critics may even be moved to consider this love bombing, though the term itself is a contentious one). I did find the personal chats with members of the leadership team more useful and, more importantly, genuine.

Other faculties: We enjoyed a special presentation of the children’s programme, which follows the popular “Patch the Pirate” Sunday School curriculum. The 15-odd group of primary-aged children [pictured] sang some surprisingly well-crafted songs (plenty of food for thought in them), and were capably conducted by Genia Huffman. Alongside that, there’s all the regular trimmings and ministries of church their size, including piercing discipleship classes, verse-by-verse bible studies, and life groups catering for all ages.

I should point out that I was most impressed with IBC’s Mandarin translation service. Obviously a faculty that’s grown out of need for a sizeable Chinese demographic, it looks to be one small step in reversing Babel-like splits, and if you really want to you can argue that it’s more eco-friendly/family-bonding to not have your Chinese grandparents pulled away to a different service just because of language barriers.

Conclusion: Well-equipped, cosmopolitan family that draws strength and numbers in a Bible-led way – but may need to tone down the treacle smiles.

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(Disclosures: 2 friends are former members of the church. IBC is being considered as our home church.)
Next week: William is taking a sabbatical from church-hopping!

P.S.: The word “diasporasia” is wholly fictional, much like half of Shakespeare’s words when they were first written.

(This review may not be representative of all of the church’s ministries, or their overall teaching. Opinions expressed in this review are that of the author, and may not wholly reflect all aspects of the church or its national body: nevertheless, comments have been humbly made in both truth and love as much as possible. Please contact the church for more detailed enquiries about their services.)

Website: http://www.cession.org.nz; Ph: (09) 279 9332; The Depot, Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga; Senior Pastor/Speaker: Brett Jones; Sermon topic: “Bland Death Auto Pt 1: It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over”; 21.6.08; 5:45pm.

Rating: nearly AA
(A=return worshipper, AA=excellent and growing, AAA=must be my home church lol)

You’ll like this church if you: like new ways of presenting Jesus Christ in a postmodern generation; seek a balance between youth-centered relevance and timeless truth, have an aversion to fake happy clapping and/or sitting amongst the pew masses, are a Christian looking for an open-minded church environment, want a church where it’s easy to get to know everyone.

You won’t like this church if you: are a true-blue emergent dude/dudette, don’t like holding on to early-church traditions such as Lent and the Stations of the Cross, hold to a more conservative/fundamental approach to church services, would be confused in a dark room on a Sunday evening, like to slip in and slip out of church anonymously.

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Dim lighting and roundtable seating. Bible readings in Klingon. Blogging church elders. Re-enactments of Grand Theft Auto 4 cutscenes. Playstation metaphors juxtaposed with James chapter 1. Yes, this is a church, and a surprisingly faithful one at that.

To me, cession|community is much like the TNIV translation of the Bible. They’re both narrative-driven, gender neutral, very easily accessible to young-at-hearts, with more of the legalistics tucked away in a not-worth-the-conflict box or left open-ended. And much like the TNIV, cession would probably be frowned upon by more conservative folks that don’t believe that the church-wheel ever needs revisioning/reinventing.

This was our first evening church service in a long time, and we arrived just as their “chow” session was finishing up. Senior Pastor Brett Jones himself (oooooh) showed us into a room set out like a dinner show: tablecloth-draped round tables with coffee chatter amongst patrons of Jesus Christ. We were feeling a bit shy and uninitiated to this unique set up and Jones was kind enough to “hide us in a corner”. We sat down in eager anticipation and watched the projected countdown clock behind the stage, well, count down to cession|launch.

Worship: Run-of-the-mill CCM, this would probably be the most “mainstream church” aspect of cession. An energetic and lively six-pack of worship bandies worked with a chilled out of about 40-odd worshippers responding with about the same fervour as café patrons would respond to Norah Jones on the muzak tracks. The music was tight and polished, (“mad awesome riffs” etc), but I liked the sincerity of the songs they chose that night. As a personal note, I’m pretty partial to any song set that includes Brooke Fraser-penned praises.

Teaching: An English-subtitled, Cantonese video of a dysfunctional family took me by surprise first (and was a bit tricky to piece together), but I eventually recognised it as an introduction to struggles and trials in life. Senior pastor Brett Jones then took the stage, sharing clear and eloquent thoughts on a 4-part series on the book of James. As per the out-of-the-box creative core presentation ethos, the teaching is presented within the metaphor of video gaming, if you ever wanted teaching notes with Playstation controller configurations on them, this church will appeal.

Digesting the teaching, I felt that analogy between the decision-making in a video game was pretty effective in illustrating points such as:

• considering the gameplay in life’s trials and whether it’s really about the miserable things
• sharpening up our wisdom/hand-eye coordination/anything by asking for God’s help
• our free will in choosing not to repeat our mistakes and challenging our sin-nature programming.

I also appreciated Jones’s willingness to share real stories and real struggles (including a heart-wrenching ancedote of sexual temptation) to illustrate how tough living the Christian life can get and that even when you’ve slipped up horribly, there’s still The Light at the end of the tunnel.

Church history: Their own history page does it best, but I will add that their name comes from the Latin noun “cessio”, which roughly means one who yields or surrenders. Cession seems to pride itself in approaching Christianity with an open mind about those thorny, divisive theological issues that tear many a church apart. Elder Frank Ritchie in a Wesleyanz article termed this the “radical middle”, being neither conservative nor liberal. If it weren’t for the affiliation with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, one could imagine cession joining the “conversation” of emergent churches (of which I have mixed feelings about). But I’m happy that cession’s not emergent enough that they start�questioning the core truths like Jesus being God, salvation being a global necessity and so on.

Visitor treatment: We had the pleasure of chatting with two churchgoers Katie and Sarah (she sang in the worship team earlier) after the service, who shared that they’ve just started a new service at 10.30am. As I mentioned earlier, the pastor was astute enough to stay clear of any overt jump-and-join approaches, and I picked out a genuine servant heart feel from the congregation present (from the media team to the caffeine technicians).

Other faculties: For those who love free food, cession worshippers make great sacrifices in contributing each week to a cession “chow”, basically a shared meal that begins at 5.00pm before the service proper. Unfortunately this review couldn’t extend into the food options afforded and so on, but it’s a unique and encouraging outreach that works pretty well for the church’s community size. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to dig deeper into the rest of the current teaching series or attend one of their regular Plugging-In sessions for those interested in finding out more.

Ultimately, there is a catch-22 in trying to reach out to the transient, postmodern generation that easily slides in and out of church like its a commodity, or a social event and not something as significant as the Bride of Jesus Christ. On the one hand, cession is a tight group of creative, forward-thinking Christians specialising in presenting a relevant gospel to the young in the area (young people reach young people the best). On the other hand, it doesn’t seem “mainstream” enough to appeal to mums and dads and extended families (no SuperGold card holders at this church, guaranteed), and there’s a danger of only being relevant as long as you’re young, and as Suzanne Paul can testify, people age. To stand the test of time eventually cession may need to assess whether they’ll continue to reach out to lost younguns or whether they’ll need to mature into an across-the-spectrum faith community (perhaps when the leadership team hits their 50s or something!).

Conclusion: A young, thinking person’s counterculture church which gets it right in balancing both being relevant and being true.

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(Disclosures: none at the time of visit, though 1 pastoral teamer is now fb friends.)
Next week: International Baptist Church.

(This review may not be representative of all of the church’s ministries, or their overall teaching. Opinions expressed in this review are that of the author, and may not wholly reflect all aspects of the church or its national body: nevertheless, comments have been humbly made in both truth and love as much as possible. Please contact the church for more detailed enquiries about their services.)