Lectures Conclude with Call to 'Rethink' God's Work

Saturday, Sep. 26, 2009 Posted: 11:30:48PM HKT

A scene from the 2008 movie The Warlords with Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro as three blood brothers who joined the 19th century Taiping Rebellion to bring down the corrupt Qing Dynasty.

The Centre for the Study of Christianity in Asia annual lectures drew to a close yesterday with an impassioned call for believers to rethink God's work in the world.

There are "a lot of unique, strange works of God in the world" and believers need to be able to see the presence of His Spirit through them, according to Trinity Theological College Systematic Theology Professor Simon Chan.

He was referring to indigenous Christian movements highlighted during the lectures, many of them theologically unorthodox.

Professor Chan, who was suggesting in his academic response that studying such movements on their own terms was a more 'fruitful' way of approaching the topic because it raises theologically important questions, made his point by giving two examples of the unusual working of God.

In the first case, a pastor he knows had become a minister because God answered a prayer by his brother, who was supporting his studies, to win the lottery.

On another occasion, a non-Christian lady attended a service conducted by a Pentecostal congregation. She challenged Jesus to prove Himself real by giving her four numbers so she could win the lottery.

When she opened her eyes, she saw four digits flashed on the projection screen (Professor Chan believes they are those of a car number plate). She ran out of the church and bought the numbers and won the lottery and started attending church regularly.

"[This is not] the kind of thing to cause us to draw hasty conclusions, but to take into consideration and ask how do these things affect our understanding of God and the workings of His Spirit in the world," Professor Chan said.

CSCA Director Michael Poon reinforced the point in his closing speech.

He expressed that the lectures ‘challenged’ him as a member of a mainline church, with its examples of other believers, less ‘privileged’ than him, who have nevertheless become a “social force that brings hope and regeneration to people and societies”.

“These new movements are not there at the fringe, but the work of God we need to embrace, understand, humble ourselves and repent [before] that we may do greater work today and in the generations beyond,” said the Anglican canon.

The call to research these indigenous movements is not to rank groups in order of superiority, but one to courage.

“[It is] a call for us to be wakened again that the Christian faith will again bring hope to our land where we are born, nourished, buried, and build homes for our future generations,” he said, going on to express his heartfelt gratitude to the speaker for having led the participants in a ‘journey’.

Asked by The Christian Post to clarify if he had been referring equally to groups considered Christian cults, Canon Poon highlighted that God also works outside the orthodox Christian camp and urged an attitude of ‘charity’ toward such fringe groups.

By this he meant that ‘respectable’ believers should be willing to learn from them, support them, embrace them and be forthright with them, criticising them when needed.

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Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com