A Call for Fresh Imaginations and New Stories In JECPP

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Imagine a visual and hearing impaired child. Do you envision remarkable and unique abilities? Or you only see specific needs and limitations? For most people, the special child compared to the typical kid, is obviously the inferior one.

Now imagine again. This time, dream of better things. Can you see lively colors dancing away in the shadows in his eyes? Can you hear laughter and music streaming in to the silent void of his mind? Can you see and hear the call for a brand new world? Jesus said, “I am making all things new”.

The challenge for fresh imaginations in the Philippine cities and villages marks JECPP’s National Church Planters Convention this June 2013. Conference speakers Rev Dale Lim, senior pastor of Evangel Family Church – Singapore and Rev Dave Gibbons, founding pastor of New Song Church in Los Angeles, courageously echoed the call of Jesus to renew His church.

This year is JECPP’s 20th in the Philippines. Many years ago, JECPP imagined to plant 100 churches before the year 2000. In December 1999, the vision was fully realized. Looking back and now realizing the fruits of its labor, this ministry has built more than 700 churches all over the nation and deployed 18 batches of bible school graduates to the field. The small team of Singaporean missionaries from Singapore has now multiplied to more than 600 JECPP pastors and volunteer church planters laboring in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Pastor Dale especially took note of all the minister’s grown children, representing the past years their parents have dedicated to the ministry. “I look at our missionaries’ beautiful sons and daughters, and I wonder what God has in store for them. Humans long for a better world. What do you imagine God can do for your children and your community?” Pastor Dale threw the question to the more than 200 JECPP ministers from Luzon, Central and Eastern Visayas, Western Visayas, and Northern and Southern Mindanao regions during the three-day convention held at Cebu Parklane International Hotel, Cebu City.

For the church to “re-imagine” means it must constantly find its relevance to the society instead of clinging to sluggish practices inside church buildings, he said. Pastor Dale pointed out that we are called to participate in God’s imagination of a new heaven and a new earth in Revelations 21:1-5. Since Genesis, we are part of God’s story in creating a new world. Just like Adam, we are also tasked to till the ground to make it fruitful. It’s not a perfect world yet, he said.

For JECPP to be able to discern the needs of the cities and small communities, Pastor Gibbons, on the other hand, emphasized the prayer of Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:16 where he asked for strength to the “inner man”. The church can become a new man of understanding and power and love to be able to experience God’s immeasurable ability to transform societies, he said.

JECPP plays a special part of God’s geographic revolution. JECPP’s churches are mainly concentrated on rural and tribal communities which are very precious to God. Jesus was a carpenter from an insignificant village. “That’s why he loves the villages”, he said.

To emphasize that “big things” can happen in small communities, Pastor Gibbons shared about a community in California called Sta. Ana. Recently, a young man with his group went out to the streets to share Jesus. He chanced upon an elderly woman who was being revived by the paramedics due to heart attack. He accompanied her in the ambulance. On the way to the hospital, however, her heart stopped. After the woman was declared dead, the young man asked the medical team if he could pray for her. Five minutes after the prayer, the dead woman sneezed and woke up. The paramedics were shocked. “Do you believe in God,” the young man asked one of them. “How could I not?” came the reply.

After the message of Pastor Gibbons, Rev. Andrew Kwong led the closing prayer. “We have to reimagine our ministries,” he continued to stress. “Our church attendance and prayer meetings are not picking up. We can’t rely on what we know and want. We’ve got to ask what the Holy Spirit wants.”

Pastor Dale also continued to challenge the pastors to imagine new places. By the prompting of the Holy Spirit, the burden for Philippines a decade ago has now expanded to new ministries in Japan, China and South Africa. He also cited examples of how church growth in EFC-Singapore is manifested on helpless communities of children. In Cape Town, South Africa, EFC-Singapore has opened a ministry for children afflicted with HIV. In Singapore, the church supports a non-government organization, called “the Lighthouse” that cares for and educates visual and hearing impaired children. Because the Lighthouse population is relatively small, it has not met the government’s
criteria for funding.

But seeing the need, EFC-Singapore donated computers and other technological facilities that would give way to the Braille Refresher, a breakthrough of the traditional Braille system. Through this technology, these special children’s learning and recreation are now enhanced.

God must have done lots of imagining when he built the heavens and the earth, but human kind is the ultimate point of God’s imagination because we are His highest creation, Pastor Dale said. He encouraged the JECPP pastors to keep on despite failures and disappointments. He said God continues our stories even though there are dead ends in our lives. “With Jesus, we can imagine again,” he added.

“We came to Lighthouse without any religious agenda. Jesus did not tell us to go there and let them say the ‘sinner’s prayer’. We went there to help. We dare to re-imagine ourselves.”

Free to Roam The Earth

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Why did God confuse the ancient builders so they could not congregate in a tower that reaches the sky?

Big is good, but it is not the definitive calling for the church, said conference speaker Rev. Dave Gibbons in JECPP’s National Church Planting Convention this June 2013 at Cebu City. Pastor Dave has just confirmed JECPP’s God-given direction of birthing “rabbit churches”. Compared to a mega elephant church, a rabbit is a fairly small but lithe and fertile creature that produces many young. These little agile ones can swiftly roam the land and reach nook and cranny of the harvest fields.

Pastor Dave cautioned the church to remember the Tower of Babel where God’s people thought they could dominate the earth through a massive structure. God’s calling, he said, is not for the church to go up and reach the sky. “We are called to spread and fill the whole earth. We are called to be free.”

The stark imposing tower represents man’s prideful idea of what a great and successful ministry is. One problem of this belief is when it reduces the minister’s focus to activities inside the church building, putting too much emphasis on control, structure and numbers.

“Man’s direction is to be famous. We thought the bigger the buildings, the more people attending the services, the better. We thought that if we have to reach the city, the church has to be in a prime location. But what would the church look like if it’s not placed on a piece of land?” said Pastor Dave, referring to the misplaced importance on established order instead of people.

Another Tower of Babel mentality, according to Pastor Dave, is when the minister has become oblivious to unique God-given dreams to individuals in the church. “We believe that people in our church are there to carry out our vision? Where is that in the Bible?”

When the church does not welcome individuality and differences, people are placed in a box. “When we are kept in a box, we start to act weird. We look and sound the same,” he remarked. “We think we are so cool, yet we are just one box.”

He challenged pastors to release people and affirm the destinies and dreams God has placed in their hearts in their own communities. “Our job is to empower people to follow their own calling so they can have an impact right where they are. Why are we taking much of their time coming to a building?”

Pastor Dave said that the church must recognize every member as an ambassador, and believe that God gives each believer wisdom to reach his or her world. He cited a “borderless” church called “The Legends” made up of more than a hundred fashion icons, business executives and artists who meet every Thursday night in their own offices to pray for New York City. “They are not meeting in a church building, but they are a congregation too,” he explained. Two years ago, three individuals from the top fashion industry decided to meet weekly to pray for the city. This calling is now catching fire.

Aside from the calling of the church to free people, another key point shared by Pastor Dave is for the church to bless the whole earth. “When you face your congregation, do you see a crowd or you see faces? Blessing is seeing them and knowing their stories.”

When God disrupted men’s massive masterpiece, there was disorder and misunderstanding. Eventually, however, the people were forced to scatter on the face of the earth as how God intended them to be. “Chaos, criticism and confusion are context for creativity,” was Pastor Dave’s encouragement to the JECPP spiritual leaders and pastors. Recently emerging from last year’s turbulent organization crisis, JECPP is now at the crucial juncture of healing and restoration.

“If you’re not being criticized, then something must be wrong with you,” was Pastor Dave’s straightforward cheer to the more than 200 JECPP workers who responded with laughter. “It’s normal for warriors to feel hurt,” he said.

Again, God’s boundless re-imagination for JECPP continues this year and for years to come ‘til His return.

FIRE FELL FROM ON HIGH

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“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” – Joel 2:28

Compelled by the desire to see transformation in the lives of young people, Evangel Family Church Cebu held a 2-day youth camp with the theme “TRANSFORMAKERS – Choose Not To Live An Ordinary Life” in Loboc, Bohol last April 2-3 followed by an outing in Panglao Beach on April 4, 2012. The main objective was to see the young people filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped for the greater task of spreading God’s gift of salvation and bringing transformation to others.

Around 60 campers set out excitedly on their sea journey to Bohol on a Sunday evening. Behind their smiling faces and   cheery chatting was a great sense of hunger and expectation of what God was going to do in the camp.

After several hours of sailing and another hour of land journey the campers finally arrived at the campsite, a picturesque place replete with natural beauty. God stirred the hearts of the young people that very afternoon in the two opening sessions with Pastora Jocelyn and Pastor Jay speaking. That same night Pastor Chuck Chua shared a wonderful message on Gideon being transformed from a coward into a conqueror. Indeed, it was a timely message for the campers to experience God’s touch and to hunger for more.

The campers welcomed the second day with personal devotion and time with God. God’s Spirit again was evidently at work in both the morning sessions as His Word was shared. In the afternoon, the campers enjoyed a thrilling time of games and fellowship. Some were already sharing the things done in their hearts and God’s refreshing touch as they received His words in the different sessions.

 

A marvelous move of the Holy Spirit took place among the campers on the final night. Following Pastor Chuck’s wonderful message on the Spirit of Transformation, the campers were challenged to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. God’s gift was freely granted to those who sincerely asked. The Spirit fell and filled each of them and they began to speak in other tongues. Different manifestations were unveiled as God’s Spirit flowed freely. A total of 14 campers were baptized in the Spirit for the first time!

In behalf of the Hearts On Fire youth in Cebu, we would like to thank Pastors Chuck and Jocelyn Chua for believing in the young people, for their love and desire to see them empowered and used by God. Our gratitude goes to them for spearheading such a fruitful undertaking. Special thanks also to Pastors Jay and Em Em Bautista for their undying love and support to the young people and for their hard work in making the camp a fruitful and successful one. And most of all, praises and thanks to the Holy Spirit who never failed to manifest Himself throughout the camp. All glory, honor and praises be to God!