JANUARY 8, 2008



Hangzhou, China. The city is known for four things that are awesome: awesome scenery, awesome tea, awesome silk, and awesome women. I kid you not-- Hangzhou supposedly has some of the prettiest Chinese women. As part of my family trip to Shanghai, we stopped by there. I saw awesome scenery (as shown above). I'm sure silk is cool and all. As avid tea connoisseurs, my brother Justin and I ensured we got some of the awesome tea. As for women, no offense, but the only awesome woman I saw there was my mom.







Justin prefers green and jasmine teas. I prefer chrysanthemum. It's a good thing, then, that Hangzhou is particularly well-known for jasmine and chrysanthemum teas! Top quality chrysanthemum tea is nice and light, but tastes minutely creamy. I prefer to prepare my tea in a French press, where the press can be used to circulate the flowers around so their essence penetrates the hot water. Speaking of water, you can prepare teas in both hot or cold water. Hot water works best, but in the summer, you might prefer using cold water. Or, you can use hot water and then cool it in the fridge overnight.







I've never heard of lukewarm tea, and I'm not surprised-- who likes lukewarm tea anyways? Lukewarm tea means one thing-- you left it out too long, and who knows? A stupid fly could've landed and washed its feet in your tea. Best to throw it out and refill with a hot/cold one. Lukewarmness implies undesirability. If your tea is good, you'd drink it up before it got lukewarm! If you left it lukewarm, you should suspect the quality of the tea.







I'm sure Christ is not the type for lukewarm tea either. However, I'm just as sure he wouldn't mind, as long as His Church is not lukewarm. His contempt for a lukewarm Church was evident in Revelation. "I will spit you out!" was all he really needed to say. If you read that chapter of Revelation, you will see. The city of Laodicea relied on a water source far away. By the time the water came to the city, it's lukewarm. Aesthetically, it's icky. Ideally, you'd want your water cold and crisp, like Evian water. No, they got lukewarm tap water. Medically, it's dangerous. Hot water kills bacteria. Cold water retards bacterial growth. But lukewarm? That's dating trouble.







The Church cannot be lukewarm! She should be something refreshing, something nobody in their right mind would want to get rid of. The renaissance of Christian beauty came in different times. There were times in the Church when she supported the flowering of wholesome cultures. Witnesses the concertos and fugues of Johann S. Bach, or the revolutionary paintings of Giotto, or the scientific presentations of Galileo. The Church today must be supportive of wholesome culture. We should encourage the study of art. Thus, Expressing God in the Arts is not just suggested. It's bibilically sanctioned and, dare I say, required!







The Church, likewise, must be a force against unrighteousness and unwholesomeness. She must campaign against terrorism, not because of American security, but so that innocent people on the receiving end will have the chance to fulfill their lifes' purposes. She must also campaign against terrorism so that innocent people on the giving end (i.e. people brainwashed into suicide bombings) can give their lives to improving the human condition, not snuffing them out because of some madman's crooked Islamic theology. She must not turn a blind eye to the plight of unborn babies, but at the same time, not neglect the fact that these babies, once born, need to be raised so they can be positive contributors of society! (btw, that's what being pro-life is all about). She cannot stand by idly watching society rot from the inside out with cultural fads.







Unfortunately, I fear for the American Church. I don't need to pray for the Church in China, Uganda, etc. I need to pray for the American Church. All across the board, church membership is falling. In China, statistics reveal that one person is coming to Christ per day! Why? Is it because we're a comforable church? We're the Church of the Holy Comforter, or Pillow Creek? I was made aware by Ezra Chang of another statistic: that 95% of all trained pastors and missionaries are serving in the United States (5% of world population). The remaining 5% are left to serve the rest of the world's Christians. Indeed, it is twisted.







And you just need to see how churches work in the U.S. to get an idea of the weirdness. Some churches have a "worship pastor". You need a dedicated pastor to just lead the church in worship? Shouldn't any other pastor be able to do that? I see the point for youth pastors, college pastors, missions pastors, etc. But worship pastors? Shouldn't a pastor's job be to lead the congregation in worshipping our God in the first place? That's just the tip of the iceberg. Some churches are believers in the great god of prosperity, that God, for some reason, uses material wealth and prosperity as a gauge for faith.







Prosperity Gospel... if Paul knew this heresy would become so prevalent today, he might've written one extra book in the Bible for it. Prosperity is like the sugar you put in chrysanthemum tea. I like some sugar in tea. If you put too little, you don't taste the chrysanthemum as much (the sugar accentuates the chrysanthemum). But if you put too much, you taste the sugar, not the tea. The Church needs some money to keep its ministries in good order, and maybe to expand it to other places. However, if the Church of God is all about money, it's a Church of Money.







The problem is that too many churches are falling under its sway, and those churches tend to be the influential ones. The most famous example is the Hillsong Church, the Vatican of the Prosperity Gospel. Have you ever noticed that very few (if any) Hillsong songs are about suffering, God's righteous anger and justice? Of course not! They don't make us feel nice and fuzzy on the inside. I refuse to sing any Hillsongs song, and if I do, the reason is that I don't know it's Hillsongs. Just so I don't spoil the party, don't tell me. If any of you in Youth Group or College Group are writing songs, please write a few praise songs. Prosperity Gospel must not be tolerated at all, just like neo-Arianism (as evidenced in the DaVinci Code).







It's pretty much a fact that the Church's center of gravity will soon shift to Asia. Theologians like Prof. Simon Chan, Ajith Fernando and pastors like Anglican Archbishops John Chew and Yong Ping Chong, Cardinal Joseph Ze-Kiun are making their mark. South Korea is a huge sender of missionaries to foreign lands. India has an actual voting bloc in the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals (possibly due to Mother Teresa's ministry). There, Protestant Christianity is working best among the Dalit and is moving its way up the caste system. It will not be long when mainland Chinese Christian leaders follow.







Meanwhile, the Church in America is lukewarm. Christ does not even need to spit us out-- it'll evaporate into near nothingness on its own... just like it did in Europe. We are faced with one question: you cannot worship both God and Money. Which one will it be?