From the Pastor's Desk
Peter Brown
Welcome to the spring quarter at FPC! We have turned the corner on winter, and although it can sometimes be hard to tell the difference here in beautiful Taiwan, we are heading into spring. We have also turned a literal corner, here in Taipei, as we have moved into our new home on Tingzhou Road while structural renovations are made to our former home off Roosevelt Road. Moving is always a challenging process, no matter the scale, but I am happy to say that, with the help of everyone’s time, prayers, and energy, and the grace of our Heavenly Father, we have completed the transition pretty much intact, and are getting more and more settled into our new environment.
It has been a time, like all moves, in which we have focused chiefly on ourselves, that is, on our church family, processes, and resources. But as we become more accustomed to our new setting, we remember that, as God’s church, we only ever focus on ourselves so that we may ultimately focus on our neighbors, ministering to them with the word of God and the witness of lives lived with the gospel at the center.
There are many terms for this, but at FPC we call it being “kingdom-minded.” Being kingdom-minded is one of the four core values that we strive to practice at FPC, both in our individual lives and as a Christian community. It means we understand that the gospel, the news that God in the person of Jesus Christ willingly suffered death to atone for our sin (which separates us from God) so that, through faith in Christ, we could be reunited with God—we understand that this gospel renews us “on the inside,” through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in our sinful hearts. But it also inevitably focuses us on the world outside.
In Galatians 5:13-15, the apostle Paul writes that Christians are “called to be free.” The gospel frees us from the burden (and the dangerous illusion) of trying to earn God’s forgiveness through right living and good deeds. Instead, Christ, with his perfectly lived life, up to and including his sacrificial death on the cross, is, himself, our forgiveness, as we clothe ourselves, through faith, in his absolute righteousness. Paul immediately reminds us, however, that this staggering gift of freedom is not to be used “to indulge our sinful nature,” like a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card in some cosmic Monopoly game. Instead, we are to let this freedom inspire and empower us to “serve one another in love,” and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Our right living and good deeds, therefore, are performed not in the hope of reunion with God, but out of joy in the reunion that has already been made possible through Christ. In a very real sense, to understand the gospel is to be kingdom-minded.
Towards the goal of growing in kingdom-mindedness this spring, several of FPC’s community groups will be engaging in a study on missional thinking in the local context. This simply means learning how to become more comfortable with, and more excited to do, evangelistic outreach with our non-believing family, friends, neighbors, or co-workers. Mission work is traditionally thought of as going to live with some remote people-group who may never have heard of cars, much less the name of Christ. And such work has and continues to be an important part of missions. But equally important is the willingness of all Christians, near and far, to be always on the lookout for someone in their own lives in whose heart God may be at work and figure out how they may assist the Father in helping that person to freedom.
If you are in Taipei at the moment, I encourage you to check the poster in the refreshments area outside our sanctuary on the 6th floor of 101 Tingzhou Road, or simply go to our website (click on the “Connect and Grow” tab, then on “Community Groups”) to find and visit a group doing this study. The study is called Gospel Threads.
