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「道成了肉身,住在我們中間,充充滿滿的有恩典(Charis)有真理(Alethia)。我們也見過他的榮光,正是父獨生子的榮光。」(約翰福音1:14)

「我覺得係咁就係咁」的屬靈經歷

littleho 那邊窗討論到分享屬靈經歷的主觀性,尤其是講到聖靈感召、見異象、機緣巧合的上天安排等,感到有時候人一句「我覺得…」,便立刻堵塞了跟其他人繼續有理性交流和討論的空間,別人也只有無奈地接受那擁有無上權威的「我覺得係咁就係咁」的詮釋。他也說在我們分享文化過盛的教會當中,若要分享,便很容易淪為這種主觀性的分享;若不分享,只將屬靈經歷存在心裏,又會跟主流文化對衝,被標籤成「不肯分享」的怪人。那怎麼辦呢?

我上個學期上了一個 Spiritual Discernment 的課程 (由 Dr. Gordon T. Smith 教)。從教會歷史的傳統裡面,尤其是天主教的靈修傳統,有很多先賢,例如 Ignatius of Loyola, Theresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross,還有 evangelicals 如 John WesleyJonathan Edwards 等,都提供了大量的方法和傳統,讓我們談論屬靈經歷時,能夠用準確的詞彙及文法 (“grammar”) 描述,以至於我們能夠彼此分享那些經歷,並且正確地印證那是否從神而來的。

“A discussion about discernment is a reflection on the nature of religious experience. Experience is inherently pliable and intangible and thus hard to define. We affirm that the Spirit of God communicates inwardly to the consciousness of those who are prepared to listen. Fine and good. But what form does this take? And how is it recognized? How can we talk about it meaningfully? ……

Therefore, we need a language to be able to speak about this experience, not only to make sense of our own encounters with Jesus but also as a way to be in conversation with others about our experience…… that we have a common understanding, with terms of reference, and a grammar that authenticates and strengthens that experience. To find this, we must turn to the Christian spiritual heritage so that our experience and our conversation are informed by the Christian tradition.”

Gordon T. Smith, The Voice of Jesus: Discernment, Prayer, and the Witness of the Spirit, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 34-35.

今日信徒不能夠有建設性地彼此分享屬靈經歷,部份原因是因為我們跟歷史、傳統脫節了,以至我們喪失了很多先賢所聚得的屬靈智慧,幫助我們理解我們的屬靈經歷。正如一間沒有圖書館的大學一樣,那般悲哀。

唯有我們珍重教會歷史,向先賢汲取經驗,齊齊學習怎樣談及和印証屬靈經歷,我們的團契小組聚會才不至於淪為那種「我覺得係咁就係咁」的情況。

讀上面介紹 Gordon Smith 的 The Voice of Jesus,也許是一個好的開始。


Posted in Christian Education, Church, Posts in Chinese, Spirituality.

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Priorities

The embattled scion of Toyota Motor Corp.’s founding family is admitting that the company strayed from its core values in a quest for rapid expansion.

The priorities of the world’s largest auto maker are supposed to be safety, quality and volume, Akio Toyoda says in a prepared statement he will make on Wednesday while testifying to a congressional committee in Washington.

These priorities became confused and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as were able to before …” Mr. Toyoda says in the statement, obtained by The Globe and Mail.

Extracted from The Globe and Mail (Feb 23, 2010)

Some questions we can ask ourselves in light of this:

  • What are my personal priorities?
  • What are my family priorities?
  • What are my vocational priorities?
  • What are the church’s priorities?


Posted in Business, Current News, Leadership, Posts in English, Productivity.

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陳兆焯:道成肉身的牧養

短短的二十分鐘訪問裡面,陳兆焯已經總括了很多牧養上的智慧,尤其是道成肉身的牧養工作 (incarnational pastoral care) 所需的原則。

我可總括為以下十點:

  1. 不以個人成就得失為事奉目標
  2. 清楚自己呼召
  3. 著重建立關係
  4. 拒絕功利主義:不要只懂得問「有甚麼用?」
  5. 全情投入、不離不棄地與人一起同行
  6. 對人常存盼望:今天的失敗,不等如明天沒法改變
  7. 體恤人有個別差異的需要,不以大方向或發展理由壓倒一切
  8. 塑造分別為聖的群體,顛覆 (subvert) 世界的價值觀
  9. 相信團隊的判斷和能力,不由上而下強行改革
  10. 容許人犯錯,從而讓人學習承擔和責任的功課

從陳校長身上真是學到很多。


Posted in Pastoral, People, Posts in Chinese, Spirituality.

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Good is the Enemy of Best

Speaking of complacency and hubris, Tim Cook (Apple COO) said:

We say no to good ideas every day; we say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number, so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose, so that we can deliver the best products in the world.
……
I think that this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris that you talk about, that happens to companies that are successful but then decide that their sole role in life is to get bigger, and they start adding this and that and this and that, I can tell you the management team of Apple would never let that happen. That’s not what we’re about. So, focus on people, and ensuring that it’s a small list of things to work on and putting all of our wood behind those things, that’s the magic behind us.

This is something that many program/event-oriented churches need to learn from.

It also applies to personal development too.


Posted in Business, Church, Leadership, Posts in English, Productivity.

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子女非父母財產

香港又發生慘劇,有一對夫婦為兒女升學爭拗,母親掟女落樓後墮樓身亡

社會福利署 總臨床心理學家劉家祖表示,很多父母有一種錯覺,認為子女是屬於自己,有權打罵或決定他們一切,部分尋死父母恐子女無人照顧,遂帶著孩子陪死,劉指這是錯誤想法。他說,子女是獨立生命,並非財產,父母有責任保護他們成長,但沒有權利奪去他們生命;這種行為屬於謀殺,須面對法律制裁。

子女非父母財產【明報專訊】2010年2月8日

「兒女是耶和華的產業*;所懷的胎是他所給的賞賜。」(詩127:3

我相信唯有上帝透過聖經啟示給我們的價值觀才能保障人的價值,防止這類慘劇發生。


* 中文和合本翻譯加了「所賜」在耶和華之後,但原文直譯卻只是「耶和華的產業」(nachalat yhwh banim)。當然,「產業」一詞是有賜下來的意味,但跟上帝賜給以色列民的地土一樣,產業的擁有權和主權仍屬上帝。正如舊約學者 Bruce Waltke 所說:

“The legal term for God’s and Israel’s relationship to the Land, as mentioned earlier, is ‘usufruct.’ I AM freely gives his land to Israel as a beneficiary to maximize their opportunity to enrich themselves by means of it, but Israel will be held accountable to not abuse their benefactor’s trust; he reserves the right to withdraw his gift if Israel breaks covenant with him. When that relationship is broken, the people suffer first judgment in the Land and, if they persist in unbelief, expulsion from it.”

Bruce Waltke, An Old Testament Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 543.

所以兒女是屬上帝的。父母只是管家而已。


Posted in Biblical, Parenting, Posts in Chinese, Theology.

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Change

“God does not change, but changes…”

(inspired by James 1:17, Hebrew 1:12, 1 Cor 15:51-52)


Posted in Biblical, Inspirational, Posts in English, Theology.

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Lost is proof that we still crave for metanarratives

LOST’s final sixth season is about to begin starting tomorrow at 8pm on ABC.

With so many questions up in the air, will the show be able to answer them all in the end? I am sure millions of fans worldwide are dying to know. But that is not as important as whether the characters can find resolution in their story arcs, for that is where we viewers have most of our emotional investment. Who cares what that smoke monster is, really? What we care about is whether Jin and Sun can reunite, who Kate loves the most, if John has really died in vain, or if Hurley can really break the curse in his life.

I think LOST is proof that Lyotard’s definition of “postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives” is not entirely correct. Yes, we are incredulous about modernistic, overly-optimistic, manipulative, and oppressive metanarratives, but we still crave for metanarratives that can explain the lingering mysteries and tie all the loose ends together. Deep in our human psychic has this craving for resolution. It’s in our DNA. We’d go crazy if LOST just ended with season 5.

LOST perfectly demonstrates that small, local narratives can co-exist with a larger metanarrative that gives meaning, or at least enrich the meaning of our human existence. If we only have local narratives that are radically different and mutually exclusive, I believe we will end up with tribalism and even more antagonism in our humanity. If we only had a single metanarrative that seeks to explain everything but ignores the intricate differences and diversity of our human experience, it will also lead to an ahistorical and inhumanistic structuralist view of life that fails to touch the human soul. Rather than opting for either-or, why can’t we have both?

I believe LOST gained such popularity worldwide because it is able to make each of us resonate with the characters and the experiences that they struggle through, while hinting that there is something larger going on out there that ties all our experiences together, and that there IS a meaning behind all those seemingly improbable coincidences. LOST is only fictional, yet it has already tapped into the deepest needs of our human soul. What if there is a real metanarrative to our common existence? What would that mean to us?

That, is why I have been called to be a story teller…. telling this metanarrative that ties all the threads of our lives together.


Posted in Biblical, Culture, Philosophy, Posts in English, Psychology, Television.

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