Bucket List

Friday, November 6, 2015

Greetings, Canaan English ministries members and friends!

What are some things you want to do before you die? See the world’s sites? Sky dive? What is on your “bucket list”?

Two items on mine are (1) publishing a history of Chinese American Christianity and (2) starting a ministry to support pastors and church leaders who serve in Asian American settings. Ever since I received my call to ministry at Urbana 1981, I’ve always wanted to accomplish these two goals.

Well, I’m getting close. I recently became the volunteer director of the Healthy Church Leaders Initiative with the Asian American Leadership Center (see http://aaleadershipcenter.org/) and am finishing up the last two chapters of my book! I’ll be happy to share more about these two developments – just ask me. Checking these items off my bucket list will help me think more clearly about calling as a local church pastor. So please pray for me as I try to complete these projects during my spare time in the next year.

I confess that having a bucket list isn’t a good thing. It suggest that I’ve procrastinated or have not committed to what I say are my priorities. Unfortunately many Christians hesitate to go public with their faith. We claim to follow Jesus and love God, but for some reason, we wait. Let me be more specific. I’m thinking about baptism and church membership.

There is no biblical evidence that people who decided to follow Jesus hesitated to get baptized or participate in the community of faith. Later in the history of the church, some people got the wrong impression that baptism itself washes away sin. They would then wait until they were on their death bed before getting baptized.

The bottom line is this: unless there is resistance from unchurched family members, one should never wait to get baptized or join a church. Hesitation to make public declarations of faith creates lukewarm Christians (see Revelation 3:14-22). It also reveals that we, not Jesus, are the true masters of our life decisions. The purpose of every church is to form authentic Christians who can be light and salt to the world. So please encourage each other not to place our faith practices and choices into our bucket lists!

See you Sunday!

Tim Tseng
Pastor of English Ministries

P.S. Not to pressure anyone, but applications for baptism and membership are due this Sunday. Let me know!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Youth update:

I hope you all had a good weekend and start to this new week! It was great seeing so many of you on Saturday at our Canaan YES and seeing our youth involved with the OCC Shoebox Packing.

Speaking of which, this Friday, our youth will have our own OCC Shoebox Packing Party! Here is the plan. Please have your child bring a shoebox from home (if they don’t have one, we will provide one for them), $10 (minimum), and wrapping paper. We will meet at church and then go together to Dollar Tree in McCarthy Ranch at 8:15pm so please be on time! We should have enough drivers, but if we don’t, I may ask one or two of you to help drive. We will go to the Dollar Tree, purchase items to put into our shoebox, and then come back to church, pack the shoeboxes, write a note to the child, and wrap the boxes. By doing all of this, it will hopefully make it more meaningful for our youth to pack a personal shoebox.

On Sunday, we will continue our parables of Jesus. This week we will look at The Moneylender and The Lamp on a Stand. Also, every Sunday, we’ve had “People of the Week.” This week we have 2 people, Maggie Wu and Jack Wang.

I have updated our youth calendar for Oct-Dec, so please take a look. Thanks and have a great rest of the week!

in Him,
Chris Liu
Associate Pastor of English Ministries
Canaan Taiwanese Christian Church[email]

2. TGIF is going bowling tonight, 11/6 (7PM, Cloverleaf Bowl in Fremont). Non-TGIF’ers are welcome to join! Contact Mike Ling for details [email Mike].

3. Herald Chorale concert will be held on Saturday, 11/7 (3-6 pm, Emmanuel Korean church next door – 4435 Fortran Drive). Bring elderly friends. Ushers are in needed. Please contact Wendy Huang or visit hcmsf.org.

4. This Sunday
– A Facility Upgrade Report will be shared this Sunday after service.
– At 1:30, members will have an opportunity to review the budget and other proposals to be voted on at the Congregational Meeting. Meet in Worship Hall 2.

5. Our College and Post-College Small Group meets on Thursdays at 8 pm. For more info, contact Chris Su [email]

6. Our Young Adult Small Groups now meet on Thursdays at 7:45 p.m. Contact Ming Su [email] or Eve Wu [email] for more information.

7. Operation Christmas Child (OCC) packing party. Nov 13/Friday Even ing at Canaan. Led by Youth Parents and a Potluck. Bring items for the shoeboxes as well if you have any. Contact Wendy for more details.2015 Congregational meeting (11/15 at 11:30, Worship Hall 1). All are welcome to attend, but only active Canaan members may cast ballots. Please check your membership status which is posted in the Fellowship Hall. Requests for corrections will be accepted through November 8. No changes will be accepted at registration on November 15