Culture

Where we live in New Jersey there are many different cultures around. We have people represented in New Jersey from practically every nation. With culture comes many different forms of religious backgrounds. What is your knowledge of the religious backgrounds of those around you? It could go a long way to developing a solid relationship with them. Our church is offering a 4 week class in January on different religions. This could be an incredible opportunity for you to start your journey on learning about different cultures. If you would like more info on the classes email me at: mmurphy@princetonalliance.org. If we look at scripture we see Peter in Acts 3 knowing exactly where the Jewish people were coming from. When you look at Paul on Mars Hill in Acts 17 he knew exactly where the Greeks were coming from. Do you know where your next door neighbor is coming from religiously?

Barriers to Team

Before I became a full-time pastor I was a college basketball coach for 5 years. During that time I learned a lot about building a team. I feel like building a team is one of my strengths and I have built many teams in ministry successfully based on principles I learned coaching. Here are 5 barriers I think that hinder growth as a team.

1. Unclear Expectations- If everyone on the team does not know their role then it will hinder growth as a team.

2. Selfishness- If there are people on the team who are out on their own agenda then it will hinder the whole team. If people want to be in a different role than what is beneficial for the team, want to take all the credit, or become egotistical that the team is there to serve them then the team will not grow.

3. Harboring Conflict- If someone has a problem with someone else on the team then they should deal with it and not hold it in. If there is unresolved conflict then it will hinder the growth of the team. Healthy conflict is good for the team.

4. Mentally Weak- A team needs to be mentally tough. If every time there is a setback people fall apart emotionally or if every time there is a success people get too excited then there is a problem. Being mentally tough is not letting yourself get too high or too low. Many times when a team is mentally weak they take small things and make them big and it affects your outcome as a team.

5. Bad Apples- Many times you can have someone extremely talented but they become a cancer that infects the whole team. When that happens the bad apple needs to be cut out. To me building the right team is having the right people on the team. It all starts with the right person. In basketball there were many times that the right decision was to bench our best player because he was a cancer for the rest of the team. In ministry dealing with this person is even harder because many times they are a volunteer or getting paid to do ministry which many times isn't very much. It is hard to do that because they are so talented but in the end the team is better because the cancer is gone. You know if there is a bad apple in the team. If there is they need to be dealt with. No matter how talented they are. NO ONE is bigger than your team. As soon as someone thinks that they are then the cancer has set in and needs to be dealt with. This barrier to building an effective team is the hardest one to overcome.


If you have an effective team, a cohesive unit, you can accomplish anything you dream about. In basketball I saw many times a better team go farther and accomplish more than the more talented one. Same with ministry. I have seen a cohesive team of middle schoolers accomplish more than a disfunctional team of adults. I have seen a cohesive team of adult ministry volunteers accomplish more than a disfunctional team of paid ministry leaders. It is all about team.

Serving

This week at Immerse we talked about missions. We asked people to sign up to serve in different areas that our church is doing over the next month or so. We asked people to pray for many of the missionaries that our church supports. It is good to always be reminded that we are to love and impact those around us.

On Wednesday I was made aware that someone hurt themself and could not rake their yard so that night at our community group I asked our guys to step up. They stepped up. We served the Plainsboro community by raking someone's yard that needed it. At 9am on a wet Saturday morning when you could have been watching College Gameday or sleeping people got up to serve. It was a cool thing to see and experience. It felt good to know we were helping someone out. For our community group it wasn't about being recognized as the lady wasn't even home to see who did it. It was all about impacting our community with love. I know 6 people who have caught that love. What would it be like if everyone in our ministry caught the love?

Last Day

Today was our last day in Taiwan. We exchanged phone number and email addresses with some of the close contacts in Taiwan that we made. We said good-bye which was sad but we will be back soon. Today we did a lot of hanging out in Ximen. We shot a vision video with Jason that he is going to edit for us to use when we get back to the states to show people about what is going on here in Ximen. We hung out for a while playing trick card games in front of the store here in Ximen and we started to attract a crowd which was cool. Then the president of Taiwan attended a movie right next door to the store we were at and we were able to see him. But right before that we got to walk the red carpet for the first time. We saw a really tall looking guy get out of a limo type car and dressed in a suit so we decided to follow him and act like we belonged. While doing this all the asian security guys kept waving us to keep going and we walked the red carpet, had our pictures taken by the media, and we will probably be on the Taiwanese news:) A lot of fun. We closed out the night by going to an arcade with Apow and Chris then we played pool with Kenji and his friends. After playing pool we took Kenji and his friends to Friday's where we got them American food. It was a lot of fun. Now it is time to get ready to leave at 6am in the morning. America here I come!

Agent

Cool Shots in Taiwan:




Today we hung out with Patricia for lunch and she helped us do some souvenir shopping. Patricia is a Taiwanese pastor working in the suburbs of Taipei. She was very excited to meet us. We then went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. He was the guy who came to Taiwan and turned it into a Democratic nation when China was going to communism. It was very interesting to see what he did. We then went to meet up with Kenji again and we went to his college class. During class it was very odd. The whole time the teacher was talking the students were just conversing among themselves. The class was English so at the break a lot of the students were eager to try their English on us. One guy came up to us and said he was an agent, Jason then commented "Secret"? Then he replied, "No. Chemical." We met a Chemical Agent. Funny. We then met many students and hung out during their break. Then the teacher asked us to share why we were in Taipei. Jason told the class we were here to see how we could minister to students in Ximen and asked them to help translate in the Summer. Then Kenji got up in front of the class and told them that we were there to help people find Jesus. It was cool. We then went back to the Loft and talked to the college students and prayed for them. That was a cool experience to be able to minister to them in a real way. We moved into the Rainbow Hotel for the last two nights which will be good to get into a bed and air conditioning. We then headed to Mcdonalds for a late night snack. Taiwan has been an awesome experience. There is only one day left. Looking forward to coming home and seeing Joshua and Kelly. I love them so much. Can't wait to see them.


Here are some pics:

Patricia


Memorial
Rainbow Hotel

Me with Kenji and his classmates

Balls

Above is Erik, Me, Ryan, and Jason (the crew visiting from America and the people I have been hanging with most of the week)

Today we hung out with Kenji who is one of the first people at this mission that has come to Christ. He is a 21 year old college student who is really awesome. He came with us to a large Temple in Taipei called the Longshui temple. He explained a lot of what goes on with the temple. They have so many gods. It is interesting as it seems like they take Jesus and they take his aspects and break him down into hundreds of little gods. They have a god of love, loyalty, money, that sees all, hears all, etc. Very intersting that the god of love was the one most worshiped in the temple we visited. We then took the High Speed Train down to the southern end of Taiwan to meet up with a couple of CMA missionaries. It was cool meeting with them. While meeting with them I tried a testicle from some unknown animal. It didn't taste too bad. Tonight we hung out with Kenji again and went to McDonalds for some ice cream and then we capped the night by riding Kenji's scooter down the street. It was a lot of fun.

Here are some pics from the day:

Testicle

Me on scooter sideways

High Speed Rail

Kenji

Me in Front of the Temple

Touring Day

Today we toured some of the country regions. We went to a couple of markets. Saw a Taiwanese traditional parade. It was really hot and humid today. I am pretty sure I got dehydration as I felt sick later in the afternoon but I got a ton of water in me and felt a lot better. Last night I had a lot of trouble sleeping so hopefully when I go to bed tonight I can sleep better. When we got back in the evening we toured a couple of spots where they are dreaming about putting their future church. A couple of the buildings were outside of this park where a missions team hosted an outreach party. Inside the park there were a bunch of teenagers tripping on drugs. It was really sad to see them that way but gave me a passion to see this church planted and these people redeemed.

Here are some pictures from today:

Me walking a parade at one of the markets we visited:


Beggar laying in the middle of a market
One of the buildings they would put the church in:

The 101

Today we walked the Ximen Ding district in Taipei. It was an awesome experience seeing all the different things. We visited to Dao temples and they were very depressing. Basically people offer up prayers to the "gods" that their dead ancestors will have a good day. If they don't then they think they will have a bad day. Kind of simplified but the basic concept is it is a religion run on fear and sadness. There really is no hope. It is great that there is a group of people that are living here looking to bring hope to these people. The primary "in" to people's lives here is teaching them English. I met a few different people here who were learning English and their text was the Bible. Cool Stuff. In fact we hung out with about 5-6 different people today just because they wanted to try and speak English to us. What a great opportunity of influence that American's can have in this culture. There is immediate respect and honor given to those who speak English.

The Ximen Ding district is actually built over an ancient burial ground so by the older generation the district is looked down upon. But there are thousands and thousands of young people who hang out there. Everyone is friendly and willing to carry on a conversation with you. This will be a great place to take a team to help them start a church here. It is very relational ministry here and very powerful.


We visited the 101 which was the tallest building in the world until Dubai built one taller in September. We walked out on the observatory deck which was awesome. We had great food at the base of the building and even took home the chop sticks:)


Here are some pics:

Some people who are on the trip: Chris (live in missionary), Erik (colorado), ryan (portland), Me, Jason (National Office), Epong (works the store)



The 101 Building
Some people we hung out with in the Ximen Ding(Eric, Ryan, Dave, girl, Jason, Eric, Me)


Ximen Ding at Night(Somewhat similar to Times Square though not as big)

Me In Front of the Ximen Ding