Just Like Heaven

Well here we are in Ottawa...finally. We're still unpacking and jetlagging but we're here. Over some pizza pockets, Micah-el said as only she can, "Canada is just like heaven." How different this new world is. And how different our life is going to be. Even when we were in the airport in Nagoya, I could feel the difference; as if the air seemed lighter. When we were making our final descent into Ottawa from Detroit, I was stunned when I looked out the window to see a snow-covered Ottawa with winter-dead trees and clear and bright cold sky. God, what have you gotten us into?

Two events marked the turning of the page of this new chapter in our lives. After we arrived in Ottawa, PGMA declared a State of Emergency. All classes in all levels were cancelled. The 20th Anniversary Celebration of EDSA 1 (which ousted then President Marcos) was dispersed. All rally gatherings were forbidden. Warantless arrests were made. Gosh! I go away for just one day and the country falls apart! LOL

The second event happened a few hours ago. Over dinner, our house was shaken by an earthquake...in Ottawa! We couldn't believe it. But this must have some kind of significance for us. Unrest followed by an earthquake half a world apart.

Then i remembered Acts 4 where another nation was in a state of emergency and an earthquake jolted them as well. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly (Acts 4:31).

Maybe Mic-mic was right....this is like heaven.

FUEL! (2006.02.19)

This was our first gathering since dissovling the weekly Sunday worship services. We had to hold it at Metropolis Star Mall, Muntinlupa (on the other side of SLEX across from Festival Supermall).

On February 5, 2006, we did something that very few churches have ever tried to do...Instead of meeting as a congregation every week for worship and teaching, we began meeting in simple churches all over Metro Manila. This is what happened on that Sunday:

148 adults...
26 children...
14 new people...met as
10 different simple churches in Laguna, Cavite, Muntinlupa, Paranaque, and Quezon City.

This represented NOT people who sat quietly and passively by as they watched a worship leader and a pastor conduct a “church service.” Rather, this represented a higher than average number of people who were actively engaged in activities which promoted fellowship, participation, learning, and sharing.

I led our congregation down this path because I believe that we must begin to BE the church and not just DO church. A congregation-based church experience does not promote the kind of environment that produces New Testament disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s because New Testament churches are meant to be small, participatory, and connective. These dynamics just don’t exist in a larger worship service.

Our vision is to help disconnected people become fully devoted followers of Christ. We want to see a vast network of simple churches in homes, offices, factories, schools, classrooms, coffee shops, call centers, parking lots, malls and wherever else a small group of people can meet to passionately pursue the mission of Jesus Christ.

This way of being the church is as old as the New Testament. It’s really a return to a more apostolic and ancient way of life. And yet, we must realize that no matter how promising our church structures and way of organizing are, there will never be a substitute for the life found in the passion of loving our Lord Jesus.

We read in Revelation 3:14-20...
 14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
      These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

The church in Laodicea was full of notable deeds. These good things did not escape God’s notice. They were functioning the way a church should by serving society, meeting needs, performing good works. But there was something missing. Jesus says to this well organized and performing church, “I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

What was it that was so repulsive to God? Lukewarmness. This was evident not in their actions but in their attitude. What attitude? It was the thinking that, “ [They] do not need a thing.” When you feel self-sufficient, you don’t need anything...including God. And it was this condition that sent Jesus gagging in spasms. What did the church lack? Passion. In the end, Jesus was pushed outside of the church knocking and waiting to get back inside.

A lack of passion is evidence of the absence of Jesus.

Why is passion so important for us?


Passion energizes. Whether you meet in a cathedral, home, or mall, church can become quite routine. Routine is the archenemy of passion. When we feel that church is routine, it becomes predictable, lifeless, and dull. A passion for Jesus and his mission is our life force.


Passion infects. All it takes is one person in a simple church to share his passion for Jesus and the rest of the group feels the life. If we’re going to make an impact on society, we must become passionately contagious. There are no methods or techniques that can ever compensate for a lack of passion.


Passion attracts. There is something attractive about a woman in love or a man on purpose. They know what they’re about. Their passion makes them transcend the here and now and live on a different level; a level where most people only dream of living.

Without passion, church becomes a lifeless corpse. When the church has lost its passion, it needs artificial life support systems like rules, laws, traditions, and political mechanisms to give it a semblance of life. We become civil but not loving. We may do what’s required of us but we have no joy. In this case, the church may exist but it isn’t alive!

As we move into a new era for our spiritual family, I urge you to keep your passion for Jesus alive. If you find yourself cooling off, here are a few things you can do:

1. Ask God to renew your passion for Him. God wants you to be excited about life. You can turn to Him to get your heart on fire for God again.

2. Search the Bible for fresh revelations that excite your soul. We get excited about things that we discover. Let God speak to you through His Word.

3. Put yourself in an environment of passion. Ignite! Fuel. Aldersgate Conferences. These are all events that create an environment of passion. Don’t miss any of these. Joining these experiences will raise your passion level.

4. Spend time with passionate people. Because passion is contagious, you should spend lots of time hanging around people who are passionate for the Lord. These spiritual friends will make a big impact on you. And who knows, you’ll be surprised that you make a difference in their lives too!

5. Feed on what inspires you. What excites your soul? A certain movie? Song? Show? Art? Book? Whatever it may be, make sure to plug into it regularly. God does not limit His presence to only religious settings. You can find God in that which is noble, beautiful, excellent, and inspiring.

Friends, being passionate is a choice. It is a choice of reckless surrender to Jesus. It is a choice to hunger and thirst and reach out for him. It is a choice to lay aside everything else in pursuit of his presence and his power in the now. It is a choice to realize that you need him more than anything. Choose passion.

Aldersgate 2006:Understanding the Times and Knowing What to Do

Here are some pics from last week's Aldersgate conference where I spoke. It was a powerful 4 days with about 750 people in attendance. Though the numbers aren't confirmed, we had about 250 pastors up in Baguio for this year's spiritual renewal conference. That's the most pastors we've ever had in attendance.

6 Days to Go!

Well, we're very busy trying to get things packed for our trip back to Canada. It's exciting and frightening at the same time! I'm looking forward to walks in the cold, brisk air. Ah....being able to walk outside without fear of an asthma attack. Nice.

Heroic Leadership

I never thought I would be reading a book written by a former Jesuit...and enjoy it! Chris Lowney does a great job surprising me in his inspiring book Heroic Leaderhip: Best Practices from a 450-year-old Company that Changed the World. It gave me a greater appreciation for this Roman Catholic order and the contributions they have made over the centuries. I was surprised by how much I really identified with the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) and their leadership values. Here are a few excperts that stood out for me...

"We're all leaders, and we're leading all the time, well or poorly.
Leadership springs from within. It's about who I am as much as what I do.
Leadership is not an act. It is my life, a way of living.
I never complete the task of becoming a leader. It's an ongoing process."

"Circumstances will present a few people with world-changing, defining-moment opportunities; most will enjoy no such bigtime opportunities in their lifetimes. Still, leadership is defined not by the scale of the opportunity but by the quality of the response."

"A leader's most compelling leadership tool is who he or she is: a person who understands what he or she values and wants, who is anchored by certain principles, and who faces the world with a consistent outlook. Leadership behavior develops naturally once this internal foundation has been laid. If it hasn't been, mere technique can never compensate." (Really think about this one! -Mark)

(4 Guiding Principles of Jesuit Leadership)
Jesuits became leaders by...

1. Understanding their strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview.
2. Confidently innovating and adapting to embrace a changing world.
3. Engaging others with a positive, loving attitude.
4. Energizing themselves and others through geroic ambitions.

"A...leader is not content to go through the motions or settle for status quo but is restlessly inclined to look for something more, something greater."

The greatest contribution this book offers for me is the practice of Examens as a daily tool to integrate these guiding principles into everyday life. Here's my outline on how to do this.

1. There is an inductive phase where for 30 days a person goes through a time of meditation and self-reflection to establish a foundation of self-awareness. We must discover for ourselves what our strengths, weaknesses, values, a worldview are. What do we care about? What do we value? Who are we? And how do I fit in the world?

2. The above will help us establish key goals for our lives; goals birthed out of self-awareness and discovery. These are innate goals that become guiding stars for our lives.

3. Every morning, upon waking, we meditate and remind ourselves of these key goals for our lives. This is the launching pad for the day.

4. Around noon, we take another 5 minutes to reflect and think upon theprevious few hours in light of our key goals. Have we been living up to who we've discovered ourselves to be? Have we contributed the way we know we must contribute?

5. Later in the evening around supper time, we take another 5 minutes to do what we did at noon.

In this way, we are constantly aligning ourselves to what really matters to us and to our role in the world.

Destroy Your Church!

Well, we took the leap of faith. We destroyed NuComm. Last Sunday was our last weekly celebration service. Starting Sunday Feruary 5, 2006 we will be meeting all over Manila (Paranaque, Las Pinas, Cavite, Laguna, Muntinlupa, Quezon City) in the new network of about 20 simple churches. By this weekend we will have also added another group of about 80 people from Bulacan into the network as well.

My feelings are a mixture of faith in the face of fear. The unknown is before us. Where will this take us? I do not know. But I am confident that the Lord is in this and that we shall prevail. People think I am crazy for doing this. We shall prevail. People think that this is the end of NuComm. We shall prevail. Some have violently reacted against this move. But we shall prevail.

What we have seen so far outweighs these potential dangers. People are actually reading their Bibles and hearing God! The disconnected are being found and connected. Groups are already multiplying. Much excitement is in the hearts of most of our people.

"No one is a leader...and everyone is a leader." - it actually works! The Bible and the ministry are back in the hands of the people. Right where they belong.

Welcome 2006!

Happy New Year to all!

This next year promises a whole new adventure for me and my family...

I'll be conducting my first PEAKS Seminar for HIMEX Medical Equipment. I love what this new technology for personality profiling can do for businesses and ministry. My mentor in this, Dr. Shirley Lim, is respected globally for how she developed and applies the Five Factor Model of personality assessment to leadership profiling, corporate benchmarking, and team development. I'm excited as to where this will take us.

Taking a more global outlook, our family is moving back to Ottawa, Canada where we hope to catalyze a simple-church-planting movement. We are also hopeful to do the same in Toronto and, Lord willing, in Vancouver over the next 3-5 years. However, I'll still be leading NuComm Global with our launching pad in Manila, Philippines.

I'm hoping to be able to extend the work we've started with Research Communication International to Canada and even to parts of the world where we will develop leadership for the marketplace and for the church.

I sense a whole new paradigm emerging over the next several years that will somehow integrate both marketplace leadership and church ministry together to catalyze social transformation in the heart of cities. Perhaps, it will be a fresh paradigm of 21st century discipleship?

Before we make our move, I'll also be meeting with some of my spiritual sons to see if we can start a new network for emerging church leadership based on organic church principles. My first meeting will be this week with a son from Bulacan who has a handful of housechurches under his care.

Obviously, the key word for 2006 is CATALYST; CATALYZE.

2006: A New Adventure with No Maps

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Blessed Christmas to you and your beloved ones. May the New Year show you greater possibilities than you ever imagined! Ephesians 3:20

Here we are in Malaysia

Water demo with William...I'll never drink water the same again!



In front of Edmark Industries...



With the Crown Managers in the lobby of Times Square Hotel...great place!

Malaysia II

Our trip to Malaysia was quite an adventure. Fellow travellers' luggage did not arrive at our airport of deprature. That's about 20 pcs.! Beth pulled off her usual magic and got the flight operations manager to agree to send all the luggage to Kuala Lumpur provded someone stays behind. Way to go Jacob! At least it all caught up to us in KL.

The hotel we were in was nothing short of amazing. Times Square Hotel consists of 2 towers of luxurious hotel suites divided by a huge 7+ story mall. Starbucks had a very convenient free WiFi. (Of course.) Borders was a refreshing book stop with it's own Starbucks too! The only thing I missed at TSH was a free breakfast buffet that I would have expected from a place like that.

Roadways in KL were quite nice. Wide and fairly smooth.

This well developed infrastructure made me wonder about Singapore too. Does progress in Asian nations require strong, almost dictatorial, leadership? I think of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and PM Mahathir of Malaysia and Marcos of RP. Does the Philippines need another Marcos to move forward?

Malaysia!

Beth and I will be in Kuala Lumpur this week. I do hope there is internet access!

Thoughts on Spirituality here...

I decided to revive my old blogsite to record my musings on spirituality, ancients, and new apostolics...check it out by clicking the title of this post. Enjoy!

Undesirable Outcome

These days I am constantly reminding myself that there is no such thing as failure. There are only outcomes. When we think in this way, "failures" are opportunities to learn and grow. No one who did anything of significance allowed "failure" to paralyze them. Colonel Sanders was rejected 1009 times. And Thomas Edison...?!?! When you see "failure" as simply an outcome, you can change the outcome by making changes ---small or big--- to your behavior leading to that outcome.

CEO Next Door?

Click the title of this post and check out this article on corporate leaderhship. Really a different look at the big chair! Especially great for you entrepreurial types...

There is no normal. (part 2)

"More rewards go to the person who does what he or she loves." -Harriet Rubin, Soloing

There is no normal.

Just watched the 1995 movie, Angus...actually, I only caught the last half of it on cable. I loved Angus' monologue at the end. Posted it below. Hope it inspires you to be YOU...there is no substitute!

Angus: I'm still here, ASSHOLE! I'll ALWAYS be here!
[Begins to violently push Rick across the dance floor]
Angus: You push me down and I'll get back up again, and Again, and AGAIN, And AGAIN, AND AGAIN!
[Rick falls, hitting his head on the steps to the stage]
Angus: I could beat you RIGHT here, RIGHT now! But I DON'T WANT to be better than you, Rick! I DON'T WANT to be better than ANYBODY! I just want to be who I AM: a FAT kid, who's good at science, and fair at football. That's who I AM! I can LIVE with that. Why can't you?
Rick: Because it's not normal. YOU'RE not normal.
Angus: And who is? You?
Rick: You bet your ass.
Angus: So to be normal, we all have to be like YOU? There are 400 people in this room who are NOTHING like you, Rick! Some of them are fat, some of them are skinny. Some of them are short, some of them are tall. Some of them have braces, some of them have birth marks, or scars, or frizzy hair, or EARS THAT STICK OUT!
[Troy's head pops up out of crowd]
Angus: But most of them walk through these halls EVERY DAY, never telling anybody what they really think, or feel, or believe, because people like you, NORMAL people like YOU, have them TERRIFIED of being who they REALLY are. If YOU'RE normal, what does that make all of them? So which is it, Rick? Are you normal? Or are you just one of us?
Rick: Whatever I am, it's something you're never gonna be.
Angus: Thank God.

Apple does it again!

Apple just launched the new iPod nano. Thinner than a pencil, it can hold up to 1000 songs! They also have a new cell phone loaded with iTunes. But I think this nano is cooler.

The Evolution of Leadership

This was an interesting article from Wired. Click on the title above to go to the link.

I first heard about this concept from reading Howard Schultz' book about Starbucks. As the company grew, he had to reinvent himself as a leader. I think he is now on his 4th evolutionary incarnation as Chief Global Strategist for Starbucks Coffee Company. I think it's one of the best companies to work for.

Katrina!

My heart goes out to the thousands of people who have become refugees in their own country because of hurricane Katrina. The images reported by CNN make that part of the US look like a third world country.

I do have one observation though. These affected Americans complaints about their government's responsiveness to this calamity betrays an ugly sense of entitlement. It's as if they are entitled to demand help in this emergency. Coming from a region of the world where we are constantly hit by typhoons, floods, fires, terrorists etc. and where our government often finds itself helpless in national emergencies, I find USAmericans to be so spoiled.

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, whom am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are we not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
You were born to make manifest the glory of God.
That is within us.
It’s not just some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

Return To Love
Marianne Williamson