Not the Way I’d Do It
This is the phrase that’s been bouncing around my head pretty often in the past few days in Taiwan.
The church we’re with here is a lot more charismatic than both my home church RCCC and Pittsburgh Chinese Church. A lot of things they’ll do and I’ll think “hmm, I’d do that differently.” For example, there was a “summoning of the Holy Spirit” program that they did with elementary to middle school age students. I had never seen that before, and questioned whether that was the best thing to do. I’d have done it differently.
The way the youth ministry is run is quite different. Theire philosophy is to bring different types of activities into the church as a way for people to step church inside church doors. For example, there’s a computer cluster inside the church so that kids don’t have to go to an internet cafe to use the internet. I first heard about that, and their plans to introduce a karaoke machine and coffeeshop as a church expansion, and questioned whether the church was becoming too much like the world.
As I serve alongside my team members from Carnegie Mellon, I notice the way they teach and interact with the kids. There’ve been a lot of times, especially as we finished off the camp today, that I thought that there was a better way to do certain things. In a way I’m used to/expecting the way people minister in my home church’s college and youth group, and when there’s something different I don’t know what to do with it.
But over and over God smashes my expectations to bring light to what’s really important. Just because it’s not the way I’d do it doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. That’s quite a hard lesson to swallow, especially as being confident and sure of what I’m doing has been something I’ve been cultivated to have. Once I let go of this mentality of judging based on what I was used to, comfortable with or thought was good, my eyes were opened to see what God’s truly doing in the lives of the people here. The church may be charismatic, but ultimately isn’t the important thing to worship Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives? Everything else goes along with that, and it’s Jesus’ job to decide whether doing a certain thing is really in His will. I’m in no place to question their specific methods of worship as long as what they believe is based off the Word of God. And for the youth ministry, I realize how different the culture is in Taiwan, and that by letting go of the arguments I make, I can clearly see what God’s doing through the group of devoted, passionate people here that lead the youth ministry. They have a heart for the youth, and it’s no place for me to decide whether what they plan is good or not. That’s God’s job, and it’s completely possible that this is the most effective way to show God’s love to the youth.
And tonight, I’ve truly come to see how my own judging and pride has snuck up on me, slowly breaking down people on our team instead of building them up. Each person here interacts with God and people in different ways, which probably isn’t the way I do it. It’s easy to look and see somebody doing something different in and think “oh, they should be doing what I’m doing instead,” especially when you’ve looked at others and wished you had their gifts and talents before. But their own walk and service to God is between them and God, and our job is to encourage and build them up towards the all-knowing God.
I’m starting to find that many of the things I will do here aren’t “the way I’d do it.” I’m a control freak by nature, and learning that things are so much better in God’s control has been quite difficult. Thank God for the patience He has in teaching us, and for the brothers and sisters to point each other in the right direction.
>> Brendan Kiu
