Professional Documents
Culture Documents
or are familiar with, indicating its origin, reason for existence, particular emphases, and
the way it relates to the church in your area. State lessons you consider both the Para-
church Organization and the Church can learn from the papers that can enable them to
function more harmoniously together and achieve their objectives more effectively.
organizations that are not tied to a church or denomination.1 Some people find the term
derogatory as it may imply that the ‘true church’ is only found elsewhere in more
traditional ecclesial structures. Others take the other extreme of according them full
‘church’ status in the congregational sense even though such organizations do not
administer the sacraments like baptism or the Holy Communion. Nevertheless, it seems
fitting for our purpose to use the term without its negative connotation but retains the
distinctions that members of the Body of Christ are extending their service within these
non-congregational structures.
1
John G. Stackhouse, Jr., Evangelical Landscape: Facing Critical Issues Of The Day, (Grand Rapids:
Baker Academic, 2002), page 27
1
My spiritual journey as a Christian began in secondary school, where I first heard the
gospel of God’s love and forgiveness shared at an Easter event organized by the student
Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES) and Campus Crusade For Christ (CCC) had a
rich legacy of service amongst students. I consider myself a fruit of their evangelistic
labor and subsequently took active part in the student fellowship at school and later,
college. Upon obtaining my degree and starting on a new job in the city, I naturally
cooperation and mutual respect. However, I could also recognize the existence of
2
George Marsden, “Introduction”, Evangelicalism and Modern America, ed. George Marsden (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), page 14.
2
Origin, Vision And Emphases
committed to reaching university and college students for Christ and nurture them in the
faith. Some of these students continued to gather informally after finishing their studies to
encourage each other to impact the post-campus world. Eventually, in 1969, the informal
fellowship grew into a movement of people committed to make a moral impact in the
graduates and professionals while not restricted to only those who came through the FES
ministry.
3
Soo Inn, Tan, “What is Our Vision?” Graduate Christian Fellowship of Malaysia.
http://gcfmy.org/reflection_vision.php (5 October, 2007).
3
Current specialized emphases of GCF today involve helping graduates to transition into
the marketplace in small, peer accountability groups called “Headstart”, training them to
seize the opportunities afforded by their tertiary education as a responsibility for humble,
servant leadership to others (Matthew 20:26). As the members mature and took up more
influential roles in their respective workplace, the “Beyond Headstart” cohort groups
would equip them in transforming these spheres of life for Christ. The distressing drop
out rate among converts in campus present a great need area for its existence as many do
not eventually survive as disciples in the “working world”. Also, some graduates who
came back from overseas or too accustomed to the campus ministry environment faced
acute ‘reverse culture shock’ or reentry problems into the local church.
Through its peer mentoring groups and annual iBridge camps, GCF sought to provide a
support group for these graduates to work out issues like meaning in work, vocation
4
“If we do not have a theology of vocation we lapse into debilitating alternatives: fatalism (doing what’s
required by ‘the forces’ and ‘the powers’), luck (which denies purposefulness in life and reduces our life to
a bundle of accidents), karma (which ties performace to future rewards), nihilism (which denies that there
is any good end to which the travail of history might lead) and… self-actualization (in which we invent the
meaning and purpose of our lives, making us magicians).” Paul Stevens, The Other Six Days: Vocation,
Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1999), page 72
4
Most active members of GCF also serve and belong to a local church. Indeed, the GCF
committee members are also leaders of good standing in their respective churches. They
consciously do not see the ministry as a church per se. Generally, they have a broader
perspective of the ministry as the extension from Body of Christ actively involved in the
marketplace. Fresh graduates who attend the Headstart groups are also encouraged to
recognize the need for community and accountability, subsequently joining a local church
as part of their discipleship. In the resource material used for Headstart group
gatherings anymore. Seek out and cultivate true Christian fellowship. A Christian life is
to be lived in community, reflecting the truth that in Jesus, we have already been
The GCF also provides an interdenominational context for cross-pollinating ideas and
concerns could be carried out with support from the denominational leaders without
integration of biblical values in the marketplace do not feature prominently on the radar
of many churches.
Given the huge amount of waking hours we spend at work, it seems rather strange that
“secular” work occupies such a vague place amongst Christians.6 By and large, many
5
Marvin K. Y. Wong, Between Friends: Reflections On Christian Discipleship in the ‘Real World’,
(Petaling Jaya: Scripture Union, 2002), page 149
6
Among others, Paul Stevens argued that business could be an arena for individual witness, a means of
church planting, societal service and grappling with the powers. R. Paul Stevens, Doing God’s Business:
5
Christians are still caught up in a ‘sacred-secular’ dualism that regards the workplace as
merely a platform for evangelism but carries little intrinsic spiritual value in itself7.
Robert Banks, Gordon Preece and Paul Stevens, awareness is created amongst local
churches to integrate the sacred and ‘secular’ spaces. With emphasis on developing
integrate biblical worldview into their work and develop strategies for evangelism in their
workplace.8 In these ways, the organization has served the wider network of local
churches in Malaysia.
However, there are also signs of friction from time to time. Some may argue that
parachurch ministries merely prolong and perpetuate the ‘reentry’ problem by providing
missed out the intergenerational interaction available in a local church. As long as they
stay exclusively among people of similar age group or background, their spiritual growth
would not benefit from the wisdom of elders, lessons learnt from believers of different
There are also some church groups who felt that the existence of bodies like GCF is like a
temporary crutch, needed only because the local church was not able to do its job well in
Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2006), pages 78
7
“Dualism blurs the valid duality between obedience and disobedience because dualism identifies
obedience, redemption and the kingdom of God with only one area of life. It sees the rest of life as either
unrelated to redemption (or the sacred), or worse – under the power of disobedience, sin and the kingdom
of darkness”. Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton, The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian
Worldview, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1984), page 95
8
Soo Inn, Tan, “Equipping Christians For The Marketplace” Graduate Christian Fellowship of Malaysia,
http://gcfmy.org/reflection_mission.php, (16 November, 2007).
6
this area. Ideally, if churches were able to develop their own ministry for young adults or
graduates, then there would be no longer any need for their continuance. Indeed, some
larger churches have now developed young adult ministries, which deal with similar
marketplace concerns therefore creating some duplication of efforts and competition for
resources.
“When two groups (one church, one Para-church) want the same people, the same
programmes, the same dollars and the same authority, a clash is inevitable and both
ministries suffer”9. In smaller churches, church leaders may frown upon the divided time
and energy of their young members. The Lausanne document accurately described some
ecclesiastical figures who “in their zeal, deny their flocks the freedom of inter-
attitudes rob others of the opportunity to learn from other traditions and join them in
Another frequently asked question we heard was, “Is GCF an elitist organization since
her membership is open only to Christian graduates? Are non-graduate Christians lesser
in the eyes of God or less effective in transforming the society?”11 Specialized ministry
should not lead to a superior attitude since all Christians are equally valuable in the eyes
9
Co-operating in World Evangelisation: A Handbook on Church/Para-Church Relationships, Lausanne
Committee for World Evangelisation, 1983, page xiiiv. The complete handbook is available at:
http://www.lausanne.org/pattaya-1980/lop-24.html
10
Co-operating in World Evangelisation, LCWE, page xiii.
11
Soo Inn, Tan, “Is GCF Elitist?” Graduate Christian Fellowship of Malaysia,
http://gcfmy.org/reflection_elitist.php (5 October, 2007).
7
Therefore GCF took special effort to clearly communicate their mission to the public in
find out from the official website that “associate membership in GCF is not restricted to
graduates and even the ordinary membership accepts members with any valid tertiary
educational experience, not just those who have gone through the traditional university
system”.12 Being focused is not a sign of elitism. Just as many churches today have age-
groups ministry to cater for different needs of believers at different phrases of their lives,
of a particular group - Christian professionals and graduates. They would then be released
Lausanne Committee, which was ‘rivalry between ministries’ as a result of the growing
Full Gospel Businessman Fellowship and The Agora? From time to time, we also hear
complaints from one campus evangelism organization that the other student ministries
were not doing enough in evangelism. In response, the organization was also accused of
being overzealous in their methods. Sometimes, campus events organized by two or more
image of the Body of Christ. Although some may view that as healthy competition
leading to better efficiency, we also need to heed John Stott’s reminder that “sometimes
12
Ibid.
13
Co-operating in World Evangelisation, LCWE, page xxv.
8
the attempt to glorify the spirit of competition among us thinly disguises a sinful
The Lausanne document gave a helpful overview of some models for understanding the
interdependent tapestry that shows unity in diversity of the Christian movement. The
former has internal diversity, overall objective perspective but lacks mobility and prone
to remain in maintenance mode. The latter has more defined objective and greater
mobility but tends to be myopic and oversell its causes. Both need to learn and
complement each other. Other missiologists reject the term ‘parachurch’ and argued that
both structures together constitute the Church.15 In my view, it would be more helpful to
maintain that some distinctive marks of a church are absent in most parachurch
organizations such as the preaching of the Word, administration of the sacraments and
discipline. Though they are not churches, these agencies are certainly part of the church.
From the Lausanne Commission proposals, organizations like GCF could function more
effectively and harmoniously with the local churches by clearly communicating their
part of the Advisory Board so that they could be aware of decisions made and endorse
14
Ibid., page xx.
15
Ibid., page xiiv
16
Ibid., page xviii.
9
these plans concretely in the churches.17 Concerns by the local churches could also be
Christians have often been urged to “tithe where you are fed (i.e. in the church) and let
the church decide which agency to support” perhaps due to questionable fund-raising
dealings are transparent and responsible, church members would be more assured and
receive guidance from their leaders to choose wisely from the plethora of existing
agencies in need of funding and volunteers. A weakness in the approach is the fact that
decision-making process. It may also result in more bureaucratic red tape if leaders from
multiple denominations are represented, thus slowing down the usually responsive
“horizontal” organization.
ministries, leaders need to strategize and network together how to leverage on strengths
and specialize. For example, Youth For Christ Malaysia noticed that many government
universities and colleges already have ongoing ministries and intentionally chose to focus
their efforts on Chinese-language schools instead. Much duplication of work and waste of
resource could be avoided with humble and strategic ministry specialization. Perhaps in
an overly generalized way, I would suggest that among the marketplace ministries -
17
Ibid., page xv.
18
Ibid., page xxxii
19
Ibid., page xxviii
10
Grace@Work has its forte in teaching, IFC has its strength in marketplace evangelism
and GCF has experience and strategy for mentoring and marketplace transformation.
On the part of local churches, denominational leaders would need to avoid dogmatism
such as the Deity, Incarnation, Atoning death and Bodily Resurrection of Christ.20 It is
possible to stress so much on the ideals of unity and failing to ground it on solid doctrinal
appropriate to suggest as Yoder had done that less unity is needed to tackle dualism than
The sacred-secular divide is pervasive amongst churches and some church leaders may
need to leverage on the skills and experience from GCF in their congregational young
rather than an intrusion into our authority or territory. A defective ecclesiology may lead
to a sense of insecurity and reactions of jealousy that promote “spiritual inbreeding” and
laity and clergy, Paul Stevens wrote, “Clergy must be liberated by laity from having the
impossible task of representing the entire ministry of the church. Laity must be liberated from
becoming clergy assistants to discover and embrace their own ministry. Pastors then become
20
Ibid., page xiii
21
Ibid., page xiv
22
Ibid., page xviii
11
assistants to the rest of the people of God. This mutual liberation must be a ministry of love, not
rebellion.”23
Conclusion
traditions and work together in a harmonious way. Generally, they work well with the
support of local churches in a God-honoring way. However, there is always room for
improvement and certain tensions exist and could potentially be problematic if left to
fester.
The evangelical patriarch John Stott summed up some basic guiding principles when he
wrote, “The tendency of the ‘establishment’ to control individual initiatives runs the risk
independence runs the risk of ignoring the Body. It is the age-old tension between
authority and freedom… It is therefore, basic to our evangelical responsibility that in all
23
Paul Stevens, The Complete Book Of Everyday Christianity: An A-to-Z guide to Following Christ in
Every Aspect Of Life, edited by Robert Banks and Paul Stevens, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997)
24
Ibid., page xvi
12
Bibliography
3. Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace, R. Paul Stevens,
13
5. The Complete Book Of Everyday Christianity: An A-to-Z guide to Following Christ in
Every Aspect Of Life, edited by Robert Banks and Paul Stevens, InterVarsity
6. The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective, R. Paul
7. The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview, Brian Walsh and Richard
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