One Hope Community Church
Our LPD Church of the Week
At our 2019 LPD Conference, it was a joy to welcome One Hope Community Church into our LPD/EFCC Family!
One Hope Community Church is a church plant that reaches primarily to Korean-Canadians, and meets in the Walnut Grove area of Langley. This church was planted out of Grace Hanin Community Church, where church planter Pastor Daniel (Diane) So served as an associate pastor.
Pastor Daniel seeks to be a bridge between the first and second – and even third generations of Korean immigrants, and pastors both the Korean and English congregations within the church family. He and Diane are joined by a team of pastors, Sean Kim (Youth) Ellen Kang (Children) and a team of volunteers, and together they serve faithfully in building Christ’s Church in Walnut Grove and beyond.
Karen and I look forward to joining One Hope Community Church on September 12, where I will speak at their inaugural services, and we will celebrate the transfer of ordination of Pastor Daniel to the Evangelical Free Church of Canada.
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Does God Want Me to be Happy?
“I know what the Bible says, but I think that God just wants me to be happy.” So said a lady, a professing Christian, who came to me seeking counsel. She wanted to leave her husband for another man, and before doing so, came to me, seeking counsel.
It was a cordial but tough counseling session. She had already made up he mind what she intended to do, and was hoping that I would somehow provide some affirmation for her decision. I didn’t. She took up with the man for a short time. He soon moved on to another partner, and she was left broken and filled with regret.
While this conversation happened before the term was coined, this lady represented the thinking of what has been termed, “Moralistic Theistic Deism.”
Moralistic Theistic Deism (MTD) is a term that was introduced by sociologists Christian Smith and Melina Lundquist Denton in their 2005 book “Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.”
MTD has five core beliefs:
1. A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
2. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
4. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
5. Good people go to heaven when they die.
Does this sound familiar to conversations that you have had or thinking that you have encountered recently? Though the study focused on youth, the beliefs are common to people of all ages today.
Such thinking has no room for a god to whom we are accountable, to sin or to need for a rescuer. God (as one understands him/her) is a distant help. As Smith and Lundquist Denton state, “God is is something like a Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist – he is always on call, takes care of any problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process.”
Such thinking, though prevalent is contrary to all that we believe as followers of Christ.
Smith and Lundquist Denton state,
...we have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of “Christianity” in the United States is actually only tenuously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition,9 but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This has happened in the minds and hearts of many individual believers and, it also appears, within the structures of at least some Christian organizations and institutions. The language—and therefore experience—of Trinity, holiness, sin, grace, justification, sanctification, church, Eucharist, and heaven and hell appear, among most Christian teenagers in the United States at the very least, to be being supplanted by the language of happiness, niceness, and an earned heavenly reward. It is not so much that Christianity in the United States is being secularized. Rather more subtly, either Christianity is at least degenerating into a pathetic version of itself or, more significantly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith (pp. 56-57).
Rather than simply bemoaning this trend, we as Christians are called to speak to this – not in argument or debate so much as to show something better. Many have had “bad” experiences with various misrepresentations of our Faith by those who have identified as Christians. From abuse at residential schools to legalism, there are plenty of examples.
As professor and pastor Brian Crosby suggests, “The question on many youth leaders’ minds is, “How do we get bored teenagers into the church?” The question should be, “How are we to faithfully plant and water the gospel of Jesus Christ for his glory and our joy in him?” mtd-not-just-a-problem-with-youth-ministry
As we speak to our post-modern world, one characterized by “MTD” thinking, Carey Nieuwhof in his article, “Andy Stanley Is Right About Reaching the Post Christian Culture,” suggests that many today are more indifferent to our faith than hostile toward it. He concludes, “So many preachers are still covering the what of Christianity (which is important), but ignoring the so what. If you fail to answer the ‘so what,’ you fail to answer life’s deepest questions.” Here is the link: why-andy-stanley-is-right-about-reaching-post-christians.html
God does not want us to be “happy” – He wants something better. He wants us to be whole and complete in Him. In the end, his way is always the best! As I have prepared to preach from Psalm 37 this weekend, I am reminded anew just how comprehensive God’s love and care is. David writes from his life experience, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:3,4).
“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
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BC COVID-19 Policy Updates:
This week, Dr. Bonnie Henry, our provincial health officer, announced that masks are now required for all indoor gatherings, including not-for-profit organizations. What does this mean for churches?
While it it recommended good practice to wear masks for all indoor gatherings, it is not a legal requirement for churches to do so.
The BC Centre for Disease Control and BC Ministry of Health state:
“Worship services are exempt from both the provincial mask mandate that requires mask use in indoor public spaces and the requirement to provide proof of immunization against COVID-19 to access some events, services and businesses. However, faith leaders are supported to implement these additional measures in their in-person services should they desire to do so.”
Here is the full document: http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/community-settings/faith-based-spiritual-and-worship-practices
In short, we encourage your church to recommend mask wearing, but there is not a legal requirement for people to do so. We will welcome all who attend. Please be both considerate and mindful of those who are either compromised and/or specially cautious regarding COVID. Wearing a mask can be an act of servanthood to brothers and sisters who feel vulnerable to COVID.
In light of this, please also note and utilize the recommendations provided in the document “Guidance for Holding Low Risk Worship Services.”
COVID_public_guidance/COVID-19_Guidance_Faith_Based_Organizations.pdf
Please also check current policy and resources on our LPD Website at: https://www.lpd-efcc.ca/covid-19/ Thanks to Josephine for keeping us up to date!
Important News regarding the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) program. The last period will be Period 20 (September 2021). It has been replaced with the Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP)
