Rant of the Exiles

Family. That's it. The Chinese immigrant church attempts to replicate the extended nuclear family of one's ancestry. It is the most redeeming aspect of the Chinese church in a nutshell.  It is best because of the unity, harmony, devotion, and respect inherent to the family unit. Nothing I have observed in mainstream evangelical culture rivals the Chinese church's ability to cultivate a family atmosphere. Chinese churches place tremendous value on unity, harmony, and conflict avoidance. There are five aspects to how a Chinese church builds a family: food, communal worship, caring, size, and resistance to change. As one woman put it, coming into a Chinese church/fellowship group has a "homey" feel - it's like returning home. The family that eats together stays together:  Like many immigrant churches, Chinese churches host lunch immediately after worship service and everyone dines together as a family. Food is pivotal in Chinese culture and a spec

Dedicated to all the men who have shaped and formed me over the years Only steel forges steel in the smithy's store               Where bellows blow and fan                     The hammer strikes where iron burns bright give          Glory when man makes man               Father's bond with son is fire-forged not By blood but force and heat Discipline fans flame and wisdom's thunder Pounds sound in measured beat A boy may declare himself fully grown Thinks he's great, thinks he can Yet boy needs furnace to mold his heart since Only man can brand man  Shall a tender flower wield the hammer That batters steel to form? Can a willow withstand the withering heat Of the forge's scorching storm? A woman's birth pain ends but a man's true Labor is forging soul The contours, the hewed lines of character To shape is mentors' role No man forms another on his own but Each smith serves his desig