fightforETERNITY: March 2011

HELLO TC PEOPLEZZ,

So all of you guys know me in some way shape or form from being a part of TC! WOOOO
Anyways this past confernece has been my EIGHT STRAIGHT ONE!! LOLLLL

I would like to thank ALL of you for your dedication to the Lord in serving at TC with me for the past few years! It has been AWESOME and I believe you do it because of your love of Christ and your desire to make the gospel known!

Since this is my eight year I have been doing a lot of reflecting over the conference and want to share some things with you!

I actually wasn't going to participate this year but I felt a huge burden to and so started to for this years TC intensely and persistently this past year. Throughout the conference I continued to pray constantly and really felt the Lord revealing some things to me.

I feel strongly the need to express these things . To confirm my convictions, I have taken the time to talk to other youth pastors, coaches, believing participants and mature believers outside of the conference, all of whom share the same convictions I do. Please don't take this in the wrong way. My intent is not to attack the leadership or you, but rather to shed some light from the Word on how TC can be more effective in doing the Lord's work as well as on things that are hindering His work from truly being done. Just want to let you guys know that I prayed for each and every single one of you guys and love you a lot! I really want you guys to grow in your faith and know Him even more whereever you are at in the faith (as long as you ARE growing!).

Being a “product” of TC, as a part of it for eight years, I have come to realize that the altar calls are very unbiblical. We try to use ways to get people to “convert” such as long, drawn out pleas and melodramatic music to appeal to the emotions. For my first few years at TC, I was guilt-tripped into responding. I had no idea what was happening. After going through 15 minutes of a gospel track and saying “Yes” to a set of questions, I was brought in front of the stage and proclaimed a “Child of God” as those around me cheered enthusiastically. When I read the Bible, there were no long altar calls; the gospel would be preached and people would be convicted, as it says in Acts 2:37, “When the people heard this they were cut to the heart.” Paul says to the Thessalonian church that, “our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction” (1 Thess. 1:4). Looking back at my “conversion” experience, I was not convicted of any sin; I just felt bad about things in my life. However, at that time, it felt right to me: I cried and felt very emotional during worship along with many other people.

I recently came across this passage: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter” (2 Cor. 7:10-11). I believe that I had worldly sorrow. I was sorry for the consequence of my sin but not over my sin. I was still chained to the sin in my life. I would still do religious things and pray, but there was no new creation, no change – no fruit! “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation” (Gal. 6:15). Looking back, I can honestly say from my own testimony that I was not a “Child of God.” just a fake. I want to admit now publicly that the testimony I told a few years back was a complete lie. I was the biggest hypocrite ever (and I didn't even know it, I seriously thought I was a good christian) Its crazy cuz I would be sharing about the right stuff and preaching the right stuff and people would be complimenting me about what a great example I was. Straight up I've only been saved for 1 year and 7 months.

I think a large reason for my experience was the result of the way we go about ministry; we rely too much on our own methods, wisdom and power instead of God's. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Zech. 4:6). We need to rely on the power of the gospel itself through the Holy Spirit’s work. As Paul says, “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

It is important to discern the spiritual realms on a day-to-day basis, but so much more so at a large conference such as TC – especially during the response times. I do not mean this in an “over-spiritualized mystical” type of way but rather from the Word of God. All true believers should have some level of spiritual discernment. For His sheep hear His voice and will not follow the voice of another (John 10:3-5). This same apostle who penned this gospel commands all believers to test the spirits (1 John 4:1). Christ Himself says, “And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). That being said, I believe there is another spirit at TC that is not the Holy Spirit but an imposter. It gives people reactions that look good but aren't truly good because there is no fruit (Matt 7:16). We must keep in mind that Satan is a deceiver and masquerades himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). The Bible mentions different spirits: deceiving spirits (1 Tim. 4:1), Hosea 5:4, Zechariah 13:2 and others. I am not saying that the Holy Spirit doesn't work at TC because He definitely does; I am saying that we must be cautious and discerning. We are in the last days and many false teachings will come and have already come (1 John 2:18; 2 Pet. 2; 2 Tim. 4:3)!

Taking this to a practical level, there are a few things that can be modified:

(1) The gospel must be preached to its fullest extent, something that I feel was lacking at this year’s conference. The speaker of the conference is very important (please, don't misunderstand me; I'm not here to bash the speakers at TC this year).

However, in loving honesty, the messages that were spoken by both speakers were watered down. The sermons I heard talked a lot about God's love (which is good and necessary). However, not once in the call to response was sin, the consequence of sin or repentance mentioned explicitly. This made me uneasy, especially when masses of people started responding. The gospel was without its power and its edge which, in short, makes it another gospel that, though is very close to the true gospel, misses the mark!

God warns us through the Apostle Paul, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:6-9). And again through John, “And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book” (Rev. 22:19). Although this passage was referring to the book of revelation specifically, the deeper spiritual meaning can be applied to God's Word in general.

The theme “Answering the Call” was awesome and very necessary! However, the message about evangelizing was lacking. It is not as simple as sharing the gospel message, but living it out! In fact, the way we live and our devotion to the Lord is a large aspect in sharing the gospel (1 Tim. 4:16). We are not only to believe and have people believe, but to make disciples (Matt. 28:19). The cost of the cross, the crucial part to being a disciple, was not mentioned (Matt 16:24). The last essential part that was missing was the power of the Holy Spirit! The sharing of the gospel takes supernatural power because its work is a supernatural thing (Acts 1:8)! He is the one that gives us power and boldness (Acts 4:31).

(2) As I was talking to one of the coaches, he mentioned how the night before, students were answering “The Call” but when asked what “The Call” was, they had no idea. They were just at the altar to “Answer the Call.” After, the coach had to go through the whole gospel with them.

The one TC I remember was TC 2008 Sr. Pastor Arthur Wong was preaching a very convicting message intertwined with his testimony. He asked, “Who is on the throne of your heart?” I immediately knew that Christ wasn't and felt bad, and so responded. When brought to counseling, I asked the coach, “I can't give God my heart, am I still saved?” The coach didn't know and so he just prayed for me and I was brought back up to the sanctuary.

The volunteers, and especially the coaches, need a fuller grasp of the gospel, both in knowledge and heart. The deeper our understanding of the gospel, the more we are transformed by its power and have the power to impact others, as it is a double edged sword (Heb. 4:12). A part of the armor of God is feet prepared with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace – we need people with hearts deeply changed and prepared by the gospel in their inner being and life (Eph 6:15). If there was greater intention to disciple, through solid teachings from the Word and prayer, for all the different teams there would be this deep change. However, I haven't really seen this from my past 5 years as a volunteer.

Perhaps if we had biblical teachings on discipleship, along the lines of basic spiritual disciplines such as living a holy and consecrated life, prayer, evangelism, understanding the Holy Spirit, interpreting Scripture and what the gospel is and isn't it would help us grow as a body!

(3) Back to the topic of the power of God instead of ours: the last thing I see that can be changed is fervent, persistent and desperate prayer. When we truly understand that it all God's power and not ours, we will come to Him in prayer! Yes, we have some prayer (and that’s good), but the attitude we approach it with is not correct, we put all our hope in the conference and come up with a false idea that God only works at the conference. In some ways, we idolize the conference over God. We pray a lot more right before and during TC. It’s as if we put all months of hard work into the conference and, as an afterthought, we ask God, "Please bless all this hard work." It seems that everything is suddenly "more spiritual" at TC and a very spiritualized culture is developed but ceases after the conference. This is dangerous as it can lead many people astray thinking they are "good" when in reality they are not. Effective, biblical ministry should be an overflow from our devotion,worship and prayer to God; as a response to who He is, not the reverse! God looks at the heart not the action, the sacrifices He desires is a broken and contrite heart (Ps. 51). The sign of a body truly broken and dependent on God is constant ferverent prayer throughout the year and an active desire in the sharing of the gospel. We can see this pattern in the book of Acts as the believers constantly devoted themsevles to prayer (Acts 2:42) In fact the apostles would pass on other faucets of ministry to other people to concentrate specifically on prayer (Acts 6:2-4)!

This is vital, as the Lord has been speaking this message in supernatural ways through different believers. More specifically the mesage of praying for revival! The TC sketch "Fix You" was a piece that came from God; literally. The piece was created (quite fittingly) from a solid time of seeking the Lord in prayer. When the piece was first presented in practice, immediately the Spirit manifested itself to me as a confirmation of His will, after speaking to another believer afterward we found that we had both felt the same confirmation. The media team really experienced the full message of the piece when many of us were convicted one night during the conference of sin in our lives, we have never prayed so much in one night. The one line that was imprinted into our minds "Lord there is so much pain, would you send revival."

In fact praying for revival is biblical and a theme that prevails in scripture!

6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the LORD,
give yourselves no rest,
7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth.
Isaiah 62:6-7

Everytime the Lord sends healing to the land it was always after the people would repent and cry out as He promises "if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves then I would hear from heaven and come heal the land." Even after biblical times this theme is apparent, and not surprising as He is the same yesterday today and forever! (Heb. 13:8)

Samuel Mills was a freshman at Williams College in Massachusetts in 1806, when he met with four friends for prayer about revival and world missions. When a rainstorm hit, they took refuge under a haystack and continued to pray (thus becoming known as the "Haystack Five"). "When the rain subsided, Mills stood up, slammed his fist into his hand, and announced, 'We can do this, if we will!'" These five young collegians stepped out in faith and not only initiated the first nationwide student movement, but also began the first six mission agencies from North America.

At the age of 13, Evan Roberts began to seek the Lord in prayer, he would literally pray unceasingly (1 Thess. 5:17). When he was 26, revival came to his hometown in Wales. He taught the people to pray two simple prayers, "Send the Spirit now for Jesus Christ's sake," and, "Send the Spirit now more powerfully for Jesus Christ's sake." God's Spirit came so powerfully that 100,000 people were born again.

One of the biggest revivals ever recorded, the Shantung where 900 000 people got saved occured after the missionaries repented of hidden sin in their lives and started to hunger for the power of the Holy Spirit. "For several years there had been an increasing hunger in the hearts of most of us to see more of the Power of the Holy Spirit in our work. We had been taught in our seminaries that if we ever got any souls saved it would be through the work of the Holy Spirit. We knew the doctrine of the Acts of the Apostles, but we were not experiencing it as we knew we should. After the Chinese Southern Army came in during the year 1928, and so much of our work showed up as “hay and stubble” most of us were willing to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt us in due season"

I feel the need to formally address the issues that came up during last years TC, namely the words that I spoke during the altar call of the junior conference. (since this relates to the theme of prayer) I can testify that it was the Lord who spoke through me. It wasn't anything I planned or anything I would've normally done as I had just recently been born again few months prior to this. I am a very self conscious person and speaking out the way I did was the last thing on my mind. A huge burden to pray was placed on me during the message, so I started to seek the Lord in prayer, its hard to describe my experience as I kept praying the burden kept getting stronger until I felt power coming from my inner being out into my mouth to speak! "You must pray, you must pray the King is coming, the King is coming! (glory to God)

I would like clearify, as the Chinese Christian community is conservative and I don't know where you stand in regards to these matters, that what happened was completely biblical. It is not just in NT but starting with the OT as prophesied by the prophet Joel thousands of years ago "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions, Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days (Joel 2:28-29)

Peter spoke of the fullfillment of these words at pentecost (Acts 2:17), but how much more more true is it now as we are closer to the last days than he was 2000 years ago! God is so amazing He is always faithful to His Words! When it comes to spiritual gifts it can be seen that the gift of the Holy Spirit is sometimes separate from the conversion experience. The disciples had to wait for the Spirit after believing in Jesus as He commanded them to wait for it (Luke 24:49) In other instances some believers did not even know about it and had to be told before receiving it (Acts 19). Paul commands believers to be orderly in worship an as "the spirit of prophets are controlled by them (1 Corinthians 14:31) However in that instance and another when the Spirit was poured out fresh they immediately began to manifest the gifts simultaeously (Acts 10:44). I believe that is what I experienced. When it comes to prophetic utterances Paul says "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said" (1 Corinthians 14:29). Which is important since there are many false spirits.That being said the message the Spirit spoke was one that was completely biblical and exalted His name!

We should take it seriously as He chose to speak it to the whole TC community at that exact time. He indeed is coming soon we must be ready and have oil in our lamps (Matt 25).

What I've come to see is that TC is a small community and we are very much in our own bubble. I fear that we may have produced a generation of TC-Hype-Addicts and not a generation of God lovers who love Him with their whole heart, soul, mind and strength and want to make Him known in their schools and homes. .

God has blessed you guys and given you an awesome responsibility and burden over the souls of many youth! It reminds me of the parable of the talents. "For everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (Luke 12:48b). Again, it is my deepest hope that none of this is taken in the wrong way because I say these things with as much love as possible and through much prayer. My greatest joy and desire is that you will be able to do more to honor the Lord so that we will not be ashamed at His appearing (1 John 2:28).

In Christ,
Evangel Tam