CityFellowship | Union Square NYC

A Good Start…

ljkim — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:10:49 +0000

Once again I’m a little late with this post (but hopefully not too late)! We want to get off to a good start in 2009 by beginning the year with prayer. I’ll be giving a short “sermonette”, and hopefully that brings something good, but what makes CityFellowship really shine is that we’re people who pray. I want us to be people who know how to confess our sins, and the sins of our people, who clearly address the wrongs not in order to condemn people (or ourselves) but to seek God’s forgiveness and power to change. I want us to be a church that really knows how to pray meaningfully, without boring people, instead leading one another into God’s presence in spirit and truth.

So I hope you can pray with us… Sunday and througout the week!

Who Are You Working For?

ljkim — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:38:44 +0000

A few weeks back we talked about the Gospel and Work: and we said it’s all about “who” we work for. We’re always working for someone (or some thing), and what God wants is that we should work for Him; directing our work toward Him the way we direct our prayers or songs in worship… Sometimes this changes how we work in obvious ways, sometimes it doesn’t; nevertheless it’s radically different from working for any other reason.

Anyway, Grace and I just watched a French romantic comedy (with the English title) Priceless. It’s French so the subject matter is a little racy even though the movie is lighthearted. Audrey Tautou plays Irene, a gold digger dating rich older men for their money; but late one night she accidentally seduces a shy waiter, Jean, at a hotel bar because she thinks he’s a wealthy patron. Jean falls in love with her and follows her to a French resort but Irene is not interested. While he’s there, Jean is “befriended” by a rich widow who settles his hotel bill in return for his company. He continues his own gold digger relationship (I told you the plot was racy), and learns the tricks of the trade from Irene as they steal private time with each other and deepen their friendship. Along the way he risks his own “relationship” to help Irene with hers. And in the end, when Irene asks for one last favor, he walks away from his sugar-mama (to seduce some other gold-digger) so that Irene can have one last chance at marrying an old rich guy. It’s a romantic comedy so you can guess how it ends…Irene figures out that what she really wants is…(I won’t say it, but it’s the title of the movie).

Both Irene and Jean were doing the same thing, but while Irene was doing it for the stuff, Jean was really doing it to be close to Irene… Now you’re not a gold digger (hopefully), or maybe you are, figuratively…but the question is “who are you really doing this for?”

People who work for something greater than work get the best of both worlds. They get the benefits of their careers (in Jean’s case nice clothes, free room and board, and a 30,000 euro watch), but they’re not controlled by it. They’re free in a way whole hearted gold diggers have trouble understanding.

What are you getting God for Christmas?

ljkim — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:08:49 +0000

The good news is God doesn’t actually need anything from you. But hypothetically, if you were to get God something what would you get Him?

In coming up with a gift it’s usually a good idea to keep in mind who the person/God is, so let’s think of some attributes, things He’s into, things He’s done… What would a savior God actually want and be pleased with? Whatever THAT is, why don’t you go and do it? Do it secretly, do it for Him… Then come on Sunday and hear what he has to say.

What we can learn from Wall Street

ljkim — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:53:39 +0000

Here are some surprisingly spiritual lessons from the world of finance:

We don’t learn from our mistakes. After the collapse of Enron, the financial gurus in the nation took up the mantra “never again.” Well it happened again. And as more news comes out, “again and again…”
Everyone CAN be wrong. Just because “everyone” seems to think ’something is true’ doesn’t mean that they must be right. At the heart of any kind of bubble economy is a massive number of people believing the same ‘illusion of values.’
After the bubble pops everyone will say they saw it coming. Everyone seems to think they saw it coming. They probably saw some signs, there are always signs, but few really think them through.

Getting Ready for Christmas (a little, but not too late)

ljkim — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:32:15 +0000

Courtney sent me a link to this a while back. You might have seen it already. Towards the end you’ll find that it’s promoting a particular worthwhile non-profit (click to go there), but what I like about the presentation is that it’s really promoting much more than that. That’s kind of our goal for CityFellowship too, we may sometimes promote our particular church, but when we do so, at the same time, we want to promote something much more important.

How to Grow

ljkim — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:05:34 +0000

So we said there are things we can change, and things we can grow. You can’t “change” and become more patient, you have to grow more patient; you can’t “change” and become deeper and more thoughtful, you have to grow deeper. So how do you do it?

When you grow a plant, you take good seed + good soil + sunlight + right amount of water, and if all goes well the plant will grow. Once you get the hang of it, even though organic growth is not something we can make happen: you can put the right combination of seed and soil and stuff together and pretty much KNOW that it will grow…as long as the seed is good and soil is good, etc.

In the same way spiritual growth is not something we “do” but it’s something we can bring about. How? You look at the Bible and use it to [a] humble yourself, [b] confess, and [c] rely on God’s mercy to forgive you and change you. Genuine humility + genuine confession + genuine reliance on God = x[spiritual growth]

So a person who needs patience can humble himself, confess how wrong it is to be impatient with people (given God’s amazing patience with him), and rely on God’s work to both forgive you completely and change you fro the inside out. Maybe you won’t see a difference in a day, or two days, or three, but you WILL see a difference soon. And if you’re honest about it, you will see that it wasn’t through will power, but God-power; it will almost seem easy. Jesus taught about prayer: Seek and you will find, ask and you will receive, knock (and keep knocking) and the door will be opened… So what are you waiting for?

Here are some examples of things that need to come through “growth”:

Wisdom - “smart” can come about through decisions, but wisdom (knowing how to use your intellect) needs to grow…
Neighborly love/compassion - anyone can choose to “act nice”, but genuine care (amidst daily annoyances) for people who are in your life is a matter of spiritual growth
Humility - real humility needs to be grown…
Boldness - the deep rooted confidence (not arrogance) that comes from loving God
Joy - a deep rooted gladness of heart that comes from loving God
Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control…

Growing vs. Changing

ljkim — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:16:07 +0000

There’s a big difference between “growth” and “change” (even when we’re talking about good growth and good kinds of change). The baby trees that the city planted in front of my apartment building this summer will probably look different in a couple of years because they will *grow.* The house on the next block, on the other hand, that looks abandoned will probably look different once it gets a new owner because it will be *changed.* A young person may grow a few inches in height, but it’s growth, not a change of height. I guess it’s possible to also change one’s height (through surgery) like Ethan Hawke’s character in the movie Gattaca, but that’s really different from growing in height.

Some things just need to grow: an eight year old who’s kind of scrawny for her age doesn’t need cosmetic surgery, she needs to grow. Other things need to be changed: a bridge design that will crumble under the weight of trucks needs to be changed, it can’t be nurtured into becoming a stronger bridge… But bad things happen when we confuse the two.

Sometimes we need to grow, and other times we need to change… You can’t just “change” spiritually and become happy or holy or loving, it takes growth… And you can’t just grow bad priorities into good ones, they need to be changed. It’s a sad farmer who waters his tractor and tries to fix his crops.

[About the photo: David, who's grown many inches in the time I've known him, on his throne in the Columbia subway station ]

Believing in…Church

ljkim — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:21:57 +0000

The hardest part of the Apostle’s Creed to really believe in is the part where it says “I believe in…the church.” This is also one of the main things we “fake” (see previous post on faking). Medieval Christians convinced themselves that the church was a building. If you told them that Jesus said it was NOT a building, I’m sure they’d agree with you, brush off the point, and then return to how important it was for the church to be a magnificent building. And they were magnificent! Today evangelicals think of the church as a “Worship Service” or an organization. Going to church means going to a “worship service.” And as a result I think typical worship services are more enlightening and entertaining than ever! Now just the way churches might need buildings at some point, I think churches need worship services, but the Church is NOT a service, or an organization. It is a radical family of Jesus. Radical because it’s a family not based on human blood relation, but Jesus’ blood. A shared identity in Him. They shared time and possessions and lives… A second century philosopher (called Aristedes) described the church in this way:”They do not call brothers those who are after the flesh, but those who are in the spirit and in God“; he went on to describe how the people of the church looked after widows and orphans and those in need as though they were family.

Anyway, a point from last Sunday’s talk was that we need to believe in the church. We’ve actually become quite cynical that real church can happen. We settle for “more realistic” versions of churchbecause we can’t accept the radically loving community that embraces sinners and yet trusts in God’s power to change us. A radical community that resembles God, that takes the idea of justice and mercy and steadfast love and acts it out in real life…daily. But unless we believe in God’s power to make the church after His own heart and character, we wind up losing faith in God’s heart and character altogether…relegating it piece by piece into the realm of abstraction.

So here’s the lesson in a nutshell: Don’t fake church. Take the things we’re bad at and let’s confess them (articulate what’s really wrong with it) to one another and to God, asking forgiveness, and relying on God’s power to make us grow and change… I’ll take that over a fake church any day.

[About the photo: I lifted this off Google Images, but I used to live right down the street from St. Johns... On nice days I'd take my Hungarian Iced coffee and go sit by the garden where the peacocks roam.]

Dating Strategies 101

ljkim — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:58:15 +0000

This is the sequel to “How to Find the Man/Woman of your Dreams” post… I thought I’d add to it a little:

I think there’s a way to date and get involved and (even if the relationship doesn’t work out) still be glad for it… You don’t have to have painful breakups. Bad relationships don’t really teach us much of anything. They don’t make it easier to love in the future, they actually make it a little harder. What you need is to learn to love and date and have fun in a way that makes you richer and richer as time goes on… So here are some tips to how to do this… How can you date without getting all beat up emotionally, and actually have fun until your version of happily-ever-after comes along?

#1 Focus on “Fun & Friendly”

Instead of looking for “romance” you should be looking for fun and friendly “dates.” Go have lunch with someone or go rollerblading or grab dinner and a movie with anyone who wants good conversation and friendly company. Organize group events. But if it’s one on one, let the person know you’re interested in being friends before anything else. Get to know about him/her. I’ve mentioned this before…you get the idea.

#2 Be a Player

Yes you heard me right. Have fun friendly “dates” with as many people as are willing and your schedule allows. Even if it’s someone you’d have no interest in having a “relationship” with, be open to having a friendship. Make it easy for people to ask you to do things… And get good at asking people to do things too. In the old days, the rule was never say “no” when someone asks you to dance. Because if you say “no” to one person, not only does it break someone’s ego getting shot down, it makes it harder for the next person to ask you to dance… So be open to lots of different people as long as they know you’re interested in friendship.

#3 Don’t Give it Away

When you do start getting more deeply involved, one of the keys to keeping it healthy is don’t sleep together until you’re married. I know, I know, it’s not always easy or simple. But it’s also not that complicated. You want to date in a way that creates an incentive for not-faking in the relationship…and sex before marriage is a strong a short-term incentive to make people say things and behave in ways that aren’t real to them. You don’t get to know a person by sleeping with them; it actually makes it harder to get to know the real person. But taking sex out of the equation makes dating a lot more fun and simple and leaves you with fewer regrets…

#4 Stop the Arms Race

People are often in a rush to get into a serious relationship, then in a rush to get married, then to have children… But it shouldn’t be a race… the goal is not to get to the finish line, but to honor God and have fun through the process. Take your time in your relationships. Let it grow naturally. When you’re “dating” enjoy dating. When it grows into a more serious relationship, enjoy the serious dating relationship. When you’re engaged, enjoy the engagement… Each part of life is different, and you only get to be there once, so make the most of it.

#5 Get Spiritual

If you’re a woman, you should know that you do NOT need a man to complete you. And if you’re a guy, you don’t need a woman to make you a man. You can’t lay that burden on the person you’re dating…it’s too heavy a load for anyone to “complete you.” You’re going to have to get in touch with the part of you made for God; too often people make the romance a ‘god’, unfortunately it’s self-defeating. Nothing is more “off-put-ing” than a person who is desperate for a relationship. And few things are more attractive than a person who is secure in their own skin. Get spiritual. Don’t sell out your soul to our culture’s idea of romance…

Anyway take this for what it’s worth. It’s only a slight step forward from the other post, but I wanted to clarify and emphasize some things… if you haven’t read the other one you can read it here…

[About the photo: Yes Grace and I do watch Gossip Girl, but I can't stand half the characters this season.]

The Business of Poverty

ljkim — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:14:47 +0000

Perhaps the news lately should encourage us to think about the church’s (that is, “OUR”) role in blessing the poor. Say “church” and “poverty” and the first thing that comes into people’s minds is “charity.” That’s not a bad thing, sharing resources is one way of loving people and it acts as a safety net for society; but it leaves out a whole lot. The problem with poverty, whether it’s poverty in the outer boroughs (we don’t have inner-cities in NY) or abroad, is a lack of *power* to change one’s circumstances. Being poor is not just a lack of money and things, it’s lacking the opportunity to better one’s situation. It’s not just a lack of work or lack of education, it is the lack of the ability to change that lack. Most middle class people have trouble understanding this, but the current economic situation makes it a little easier to imagine.

The role of any business in God’s economy is to love your neighbor. To “love” the customer by providing a valuable resource (giving people more value than they pay for), and to “love” the employees by giving them opportunities to provide for themselves, opportunities to serve, and opportunities to move up and change their current economic situation. Bad businesses do the opposite: they exploit customers by giving low value at high prices, exploit workers by allowing management to profit off the labors of others, and by keeping people down in powerless situations while the top executives benefit.

One of the best things we can do for poor communities and poor countries is to establish “good” businesses in or near them. But this isn’t just something for presidents and CEOs to consider, it’s something we need to think about as we rise in our careers and have opportunities to impact our businesses. So the question is, will it just be (bad) business as usual? Bad business can be profitable in the short and medium term, but will eventually lose (Ayn Rand was wrong in that respect)… Or will you bless people with great products, and love-your-neighbor business practices?

[Nicholas Kristof wrote a note on this topic in the NYTimes Blog.]