Dear prayer partners,
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and your mails that help us to move forward.
Missions Sunday in SecunderabadSecunderabad Bible Fellowship is a dynamic congregation with great potential for missions. Caleb, Harvest Ministries one of the leaders in the Fellowship invited me to give a special message on urban missions on 2 August. The Congregation has dedicated the month of August for Missions. It was good to meet several friends in the congregation including: S. Fullonton, Krishnaiah, Pranay Mukerjee, Calvin and others. On 1st evening there was a special prayer meeting in N.K. Sanghi’s home (who were my hosts) where I shared from the Acts of Apostles. It was good to meet J. Joshua, who is presently executive director of People Builders Trust that sponsors higher education needs of Missionary Kids.
Writers’ WorkshopOn 9th Ramanathan and I spoke in the Writers’ Vision Workshop in Hyderabad. Rishi Paul, of Mahalife.Com had organized this programme. Rishi and his wife Prasanthi made our stay comfortable and meaningful.
US TripRosy and I travelled to New Jersey, US. We stayed with Vineta Livingstone. God opened door to preach in the English service of Jesus Family Church on 16th August. Pastor Oswin Michael invited us to share the word.
Christ Church of India, San JoseThen we travelled to San Jose, California. God opened us door to speak in the Christ Church of India annual retreat. The Founding Pastor of the Church, Rev. Ranjan Samuel is a great man of God with wonderful set of leaders he has trained from his church. God enabled me to take 5 sessions on Spiritual Disciplines for Abundant Life. About 170 people had registered. The sessions were highly appreciated. Satyadev and Sridevi (children Sathvik and Sakshi) hosted us in their home. Pastor Ranjan Samuel took us for San Franciso tour to see the bridge, fishermen wrap, crooked street and other places. Hours of discussion with him about Diaspora ministries, partnership, leadership development and training was refreshing. Dr. Rajkumar Gel, who studied in Virdhunagar when I had just finished my course is in San Jose with his wife and two children and invited us for dinner on 24 August.
God enabled to speak to few students in Stanford University that was organized by Dr. Jeyakumar on 25 August.
Kansas CityOn 26 we travelled to Kansas City and stayed with Randy and Cindy family. They had organized for me to speak in a fellowship on 27th night; men’s breakfast fellowship and lunch meeting with few Christian business people (28 August).
St. Joseph, MissouriWe travelled from Kansas to St. Joseph on 28 evening and stayed with Sudhir & Rachael family. Visited few Indian families for evangelism and strengthening of their faith.
God enabled to speak in the Representatives of Christ Fellowship on 30 August. Pastor Diamond is the founding pastor of this church.
Please visit the website: http://glocalleadersnetwork.com/main/
Yours in His Vineyard,
J.N. Manokaran
Upcoming scheduleUS & Canada Ministries
1 Sept North Park Seminary, Chicago
2 Reaching Indians Ministries International, Chicago
4 Bible Study, Princeton
7 New York – 4/14 Consultations
8-11 Global Cities Initiative, Breakout Sessions – Urban Trends
13-14 Boston?
15 Global Urban Strategists meet, New York
17 Newark – Toronto
19 Kerala Assembly
20-27 Mission Week, Richmond Hill (Chinese) Baptist Church
22 Ministry among Diaspora Peoples, Tyndale Intercultural Mission Centre (Tyndale University College and Seminary)
28 Toronto-Chennai
October3 Oct Operation Harvest, Chennai
10 Oct Release of “Chennai Insights” magazine
13-16 Oct All India Congress on Church and Mission, Hyderabad
20-22 Oct Mission Maharastra, Kolhapur
23 Oct Mission India Board Meeting, Nagpur
1-4 Nov Ethne Consultation????
7-12 Nov BGU, Urban Consultation, Chennai
9-13 Nov School of Leadership, Oddanchatram
17-21 Nov Akola transformation seminars
26-27 Nov Allahabad Bible Seminary, Allahabad
3-5 Dec Mission Educational Books, 20 years anniversary
6-8 Dec Chennai Pastors’s Mission Conference
201012-15 January SEANET, Thailand
18-22 January School of Leadership, Bangkok, Thailand
24-26 January Cochin
1-3 February TOPIC Trainers, Mentors and Coaches conference, Dimapur
2-6 March APCOD 2010 – Chennai/Delhi
15-21 March Chicago
10-13 April CFCC, Bangalore, Contemporary Missions
5-7 May Colombo, GLOMOS
13-15 May Kolkata, GLOMOS
17-19 May Kalimpong, GLOMOS
24-28 May Summer School of Leadership, Chennai
12-14 August CFCC, Bangalore
16-25 Oct Third Lausanne Congress, Cape Town, South Africa
29 Nov-
5 December Centre For Contemporary Christianity, M.Th. Classes
Worship Without Word?J.N. ManokaranWorship in Christendom is expressed in several ways. There are several traditions that are followed. The pattern and style keeps changing with every generation. It has particular cultural expression in certain cultures also. But the basic elements in worship are same beyond time and geography as taught in the scripture. But, there has been emphasis on certain elements of worship and neglect of some. It is essential to have an integration of all elements of congregational worship. These are the elements that are found in the Scripture: Word, Holy Communion (Breaking of Bread), Praises, and Prayers. And all these are done in an attitude of reverence but with a mood of joy and celebration. The first century church had all these elements interwoven and integrated. “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42) The purpose of such gathering is edification or strengthening of believers so that the Church is strengthened. “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” (I Cor 14: 26) Historical developments When we look to history the worship practice has evolved in three stages, in each stage the emphasis was different. This is the time to have integration of all elements. First Century to Reformation The Church traditions: Catholic and Orthodox had worship that had Holy Communion as the focus. It was considered as central for the worship. The priest had the celebration of the mass as important sacred duty. It was and is a daily practice in the Roman Catholic Church. Praise and prayers were also considered important by Eucharist was the central aspect of worship. A Scripture portion was read but, in the olden times in Latin language; a vast majority of the people were not able to comprehend. The intellectual climate was ‘pre-modern’ with the Priest controlling the religious life with unquestioned authority. The priests were generally more learned and had absolute authority over the laity with regards to spiritual matters. Reformation Martin Luther reformation brought a great change in Christian history. The Bible was being translated into languages of common people. The invention of printing press facilitated the availability of Bible for the common people. Education also became more democratic, that is more people started having access to education. Science and Technology made great strides. The intellectual climate was ‘rationalism’ or ‘modernism’ where science and technology was seen as supreme. The truth is not what the religious authorities dictated, but it could be discovered by science. In this context, the ‘pulpit’ became the centre of worship. Preaching was prominent place in the protestant churches. The mass or Eucharist was there but not as prominent in Roman Catholic churches. It was not a daily practice to celebrate mass, but weekly and some places it became monthly. The choir occupied a place that was not prominent but in the background. There were structured prayers and liturgy. To appeal to the people influenced by renaissance, pulpit was a wonderful platform to provide spiritual nurture. With the quest of knowledge in the rational intellectual climate, pulpit was the answer. Proclamation of the Word was the mark of Protestant movement. Winds of Postmodernism Post modernism was skeptic about intellectual capacities of humanity and gave emphasis to feeling or emotions. The modernism vocabulary of “I think” was effectively replaced by “I feel” in day to day conversations. Objectivism of Modernism was replaced by subjectivism of Post modernism. Obviously, mysticism became the defining matter for spirituality. So, praises and prayer became more central in spiritual experience. Naturally, as seen in the contemporary congregations, worship team occupies the central place. The Eucharist and Pulpit are marginalized. The time given for worship teams exceeds the time provided for preaching of the Word. WarningThe history of Israel provides lot of examples and warnings. One of their congregational worship went haywire because the elements were not integrated. Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights in Mount Sinai to receive the Law from the Lord. The Word, Ten Commandments was being received by Moses, in the attitude of humility and reverence. But, the children of Israel did not wait for Moses to return. They went to Aaron and demanded for new gods. If the leader is missing, they should have asked for a new leader, but strangely, they demanded for new gods. “When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."” (Exodus 32:1)
Worship without Law Unfortunately Aaron obliged them to please them and collected gold and silver from the people. It was shaped as calf. “When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. “(Exodus 32:5-6) There was celebration, prayers, singing, dancing, sacrifices but there was no Word. Worship without Word leads to paganism The worship that was supposed to have Jehovah as the object had a false object – creation of human beings, idols. The whole congregation failed to see this error. Aaron as a leader failed to give right guidance to the people. Moses was angry seeing people indulge in revelry in the name of spirituality. In anger, Moses broke the tablets containing the Law. The children of Israel and Aaron were rebuked, punished. God’s Word is the truth. Lord Jesus Christ said, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24) When there is no patience to receive the Word or regard for His Word, paganism sets in. When the Word is neglected or relegated to subordinate place in congregational worship, there is a danger of diving deep in disaster of idol worship. Let us examine and evaluate It is high time for each congregation to examine and evaluate their worship practices. Is postmodernism life style in the world harming worship in the church and pulling it down to the level of paganism? Is there a robust integration of Word, Praises, and Eucharist? Is the whole congregation are together to exalt the Name of Lord Jesus Christ?
