I think I need to mention that, while everything seems really depressing and crappy, it's not really that at all. In my opinion, the great things in life are the ones that are really tough to put into words, tough to describe. From what I've experienced in my time, most positive happenings are often the ones that leave people speechless; whereas on the contrary, when you mention something that draws a negative response, people can ramble on and on about them.
In that case, this is partly why I've been writing the things that I have. My life is fantastic. And I'm someone that has such high standards, that I'll pry open every weakness and every minor detail in order to get to where I think things need to go. I really do think that a large majority of people are just content with 'okay'. There is nothing wrong with just getting by or just being okay, it's a Gen Y thing. People are encouraged to live life to the fullest because we don't really have much time to be worrying about all the things we can't control - I am a believer in this as well.
And so, that is why a lot of these things I'm writing do seem pretty negative. I'm really just getting to the core of how everything works and trying to improve and get better. Perfection is unattainable on earth, but excellence is.
This one will be worth the read.
-= Part 3 =- The Good and The Bad
First of all, I have to mention that I am very proud to have grown up in NEAC. This church has largely made me into the person that I am today. I'm very grateful for all the people I've met, all the opportunities I've had, and all the experiences I've been fortunate enough to see.
A lot of people in this church are incredibly gifted in all areas of life. If I kind of geographically sort out all the people I've met and know, there are many that are fantastic at certain tasks. Few are good at many things. The people who are just amazing at everything are rather spread out all over the place. In NEAC, I would definitely label multiple people in that "multi-talented" category.
Unfortunately, or fortunately (depending on how you look at it), God is a very fair god. A lot of people that are really good at life will find that needing to try at something is rare. I am someone that is a prime example of this; and because I am, I'll use myself as an example.
I'm not world class in any one task/skill, nor do I have any world class traits as a person. But God's given me the ability to learn, and be driven to learn. As a result, I can do anything I set my mind to. So just by looking at my life, the only reason I'm known to be a good musician or a semi-decent soccer player is because I've spent a lot of time refining my abilities and honing my skills. There's a ton of other things where I may have tried it, got okay at it, but just didn't really feel for it, so I dumped it.
This is the number one problem I see with NEAC. We have a lot of skills at the church, but people just don't give a damn; and the ones that do, they're forced to do everything. It just doesn't work like that. So when the pastor comes up one Sunday morning to preach the guilt trip sermon into getting people to serve, they do it begrudgingly and out of obligation. There's no heart in that, so that's why it never lasts.
There's also people I know in NEAC that may not be as skilled, but they have all the heart and all the willingness to serve. But because there's a rift, a lot of the people that do have the ability will look at these select few and laugh at them for their silliness.
I've already written quite a bit, and I feel that I spent way too much time talking about things that we already know. So I guess I'll move on.
Here's the part where I feel like I could get in trouble for saying. When you look at any organization in the world, whether the church or some huge corporate company, the biggest and usually the main reason for why it succeeds is because of the people up top - the big guns, so to speak. So I'm not sure how much more I have to say for you to see where I'm going to be going with this.
I know at least one person who is currently in the leadership of the church that thinks the same things I do about our church. I now know that this person, a few years ago, pushed for things to go in a certain direction, but it never worked out. So when I look at it now, it's almost never going to happen.
If we just analyze the current state of our church, it's quite plain to see. As of now, our Cantonese congregation is by far the largest group in our church. They probably make up two-thirds of the population. The English side is the smaller side, and there are the kids. On first look, you'd put most of the resources in developing the Cantonese ministry just based on its size.
And when you look at the demographics, you'll see that much of the Cantonese side is aging. This is to be expected because most of these Cantonese speaking members are the parents and grandparents of the English congregation's members. So as progression naturally happens, you would think that there should be a passing of the torch at some point in time, where the English side will eventually yield the leaders of the church.
So depending on who the people among leadership are, some may want to focus on the now, while others will want to invest in where the church is going to be. I think it's always smart to do everything possible to ensure that you get where you should go properly. While others may disagree, which is totally fine, it's hard to argue because it just makes no sense to satisfy the now and then have those in the future correct all the stupid mistakes you made with little or no help at all.
Therefore, if I was in a position, I would do everything in my power to make sure that most of the resources are invested into the English congregation here at NEAC. It's a growing congregation that will eventually be the one that leads this church. The simple notion of having elder board meetings done in English instead of Cantonese is a way of seeing that transition already taking place.
But wait, here's where it gets tricky. Already having mentioned that the English congregation is the one thats on the rise and growing, I have another question. Is it really growing? In what ways? Quantity? Quality? I don't see any of it. What I see is a congregation stuck in a rut, becoming stale and complacent. There's no desire for this congregation to go anywhere. We're fine with being content. We don't care about making our church a better place. Okay, so we're definitely not getting stronger spiritually, how about in numbers? I'd actually argue that we're shrinking.
If you think everything I say is a load of crap, think twice on what I'm about to ask. Have you noticed that we've lost some of our members recently? Do you even know who they are and why they left? I'm not talking about people that usually only came once in a while and then decided to leave; I'm talking about ones that have grown up in the church, ones that have helped in a ton of different ministries. Yeah, those people are leaving. Leaving the church? Leaving Christianity? I don't know. Why don't you find out?
Holy crap, that makes me so mad. And before I throw myself into the guilty corner of not caring for our people enough, I have to make a couple claims. NEAC is not the church I attend most anymore. So every time I've been back, I've been a visitor, a spectator, a guest. And you know what? I wouldn't want to stay here either based on what I'm seeing now.
Having come back during certain times over the last two years, I've seen attempts at being different, attempts at going back to the way things used to be done, attempts at trying to make something work. It just ain't happening so far. Because all we're doing is that we're over complicating everything making it a blurry mess. Simplicity is often the key to creating a harmonious worship; and isn't that what we strive for? Something that's easy, simple, and works efficiently and effectively. Why do we have to go through all the trouble of trying to come up with all these different ways to please and attract people? Did Jesus ever do that?
Going into more details about is going to take up much more time, so I'm either going to have to leave the rest of it out or talk about it a different time: on people leaving, and how our worship works etc.
Again, and unfortunately, it's easy to blame the people high up; but you really have to look there and look to them to be guiding appropriately. It's not a quick and easy fix. In fact, I want to say that it's not something that's just fixable; it needs an overhaul. Keep your core, throw out the rest. I'm not suggesting NEAC should do that, but in order to become a church for Christ, it needs to be considered as a legit option.
What we lack and need is something fresh, some pop. Rather than hiring and putting your own congregational members into positions of leadership, find something new. Find something fresh that will come in and spark the people of the church. It's happened once within the last decade, and it can happen again. It's proven to work, so why do we have to keep with the same old rather than bring in what is truly needed?
So, I hope that this sheds a little light on what I originally said could be disastrous for the church. And it still can be, if not addressed properly. These are the sorts of things that not only split churches, but blow them up as well.
If only it were that easy. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
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