We’ve been attending Island ECC ever since we got here almost 7 years ago. Back then I was a new (maybe 1yr old) Christian and Kings wasn’t. It’s the first church we attended regularly so it never occurred to us a Hong Kong church was news until some out-of-towners we had dinner with were amazed. So here goes (and please blame any “bleah” reactions to this on the writer, not the subject):
1. Up until about 3 years ago, Island ECC was nomadic.
Church goers didn’t have a set place to meet. At risk of stating the blindingly obvious, space is expensive in Hong Kong.
Many working professionals who did long, long hours on the workweek would wake blurry-eyed on Sunday morning and log on to check the church website so they knew where church would be held for that Sunday. (It was also published in weekly carefully recycled handouts, but who can remember where church is going to be next Sunday when the location sometimes changes every single week for more than a month?)
That’s up to ~1500 people doing that every Sunday for up to ~6 years.
You could say these working professionals really wanted to be there, unless you consider waking blurry-eyed and checking the website part of total habit/ autopilot behavior, in the same way driving to the same church location at the same time for 20 years can be.
Fine, you could also say these working professionals really needed people praying for them. If you must.
2. One of their key messages is showing God’s love to his people.
All God’s people. All. People.
When the Tsunami devastated various parts of Southeast Asia, the Island ECC plea to members was less for volunteers to send over, it was to send money. They would create jobs by hiring people in Indonesia who had been rendered jobless by the catastrophe, to do the relief work. They reasoned this was a more practical use of resources because people needed jobs and locals spoke the language/ knew the area better. Hired locals, they felt, would therefore be more productive than church members.
One of the church elders (an architect by profession) gave his testimony shortly after. Villagers in a small town in Indonesia had requested the church also rebuild their mosque. After some debate (would they be insulting God by building a different place of worship?), they did. Why?
The villagers were Muslim, it was their way of life. Island ECC had pledged to return them to their original way of life.
It was a show of God’s love. True love is without strings attached. To rebuild the village without the mosque would have been One Giant String.
I remember being very proud of the church that day.
3. They kept little cash
As a show of faith that God would provide, the church kept just enough cash to pay 2 months’ rent (remember they were nomadic?)
Everything else was deployed out to various charities. I think they didn’t stick to only Christian charities either. If people didn’t believe in their message, didn’t contribute, the church would fold very quickly.
They operated like this for about 6 years (that I know of). One of the reasons they eventually appealed to members to contribute enough for longer building leasing periods was because as they grew, so did their Children’s Ministry.
When they booked venues for the congregation, they had to include more and more classrooms for some 250 (and still growing) kids of all ages. That could mean herding children near busy roads in the Hong Kong city as they moved between classes/ the main congregation room for that Sunday, and much of these activities were run by volunteers.
But for awhile it was a nice illustration/ reminder that “church” is not a building, it’s the people.
4. They’re creative about serving God
One Sunday, one of the pastors said they were going to conduct an experiment, could they have some volunteers please? So I got up and joined (ultimately) 20 others in front of the congregation.
The pastor handed out HKD 1,000 bills to each of us. He spoke of the parable about the man who gives money to each of his servants and trusts them to multiply it. It was a reminder of how we were stewards of God’s blessings. We would eventually be asked to send an email testimony to the church detailing the ways in which we had tried to further God’s work with the money.
I folded the HKD 1,000 bill and slipped it among the Bible note cards that have followed me around at least 6 dealing rooms. They shared prominent positions on my desks in various dealing rooms, right in front of the Bloomberg.
It was a constant reminder that I served the Lord in everything I did, whether I liked it or not. People at work all knew I was Christian so it wasn’t like I could do a spot of backstabbing/ information withholding and then go vegetarian every 15th of the month.
And for the stray reader out there who thinks information-withholding saves your job in a merger, my response nnnnn-ot for long. People don’t leave you in charge of meaty assignments for long, if they realize you are the Black Hole Of Crucial Information.
The few near-sighted organizations/ bosses who don’t value your professionalism in perfect-vacation-handovers-with-the-bow-on-top aren’t likely to be around for much longer either. The attitude that if your cover makes a mistake while you’re on vacation because you scrimped on handover it’s your mistake will be recognized, if not by the crummy organizations, then by far more capable bosses who leave crummy organizations to head something else – and they’ll remember your phone number.
The HKD 1000 bill was enough of a powerful reminder that I couldn’t deliberately withhold information / backstab, for fear it would distance myself from God and I felt I could achieve nothing without him. What I didn’t realize then was that being that team player greatly increased my value to the bosses I respected.
Most of the time you’ll never be the Absolute Top Qualified Person For The Job – but if you are f-airly near the top and a team player, that will make your entire “package” far more valuable than the backstabbing but gifted lone rangers in the office. Your bosses will want you to move up/ head projects if you drag the rest of your team, albeit kicking and screaming, up with you. They’ll even clear the road to give you a head start. It’s a lot less work for them than to keep clearing the way for each and every non-team-playing staff they have.
That was the real blessing of the HKD 1000 bill.
We are often reminded God is not a “good luck charm,” so I won’t say this is why I led a relatively charmed life in the markets. Instead, I’ll offer up the explanation that the belief in God and the humility and sincerity that (hopefully usually) comes with it was what shaped the attitude and character that would help me survive those 3 banking mergers.
I tithed faithfully and as my bonuses grew, so did the (at least) 10% of my salary that I sent back to the church. If I was ever late (say, I forgot to bring my cheque book or hadn’t made it to church at the end of the month) I literally felt a little uncomfortable, like I owed someone money.
Really don’t think God minds. It’s just I kinda did.
As for the teaching pastor who handed out the money, he used to be a doctor in a hospital ER. One of his ER stories that most stuck in the hearts of listening hardworking professionals was when he said accident casualties brought in who knew they had no chance of survival never regretted not working harder. But they often regretted not having spent more time with family and loved ones. Or they wished they had treated someone nicer.
5. They remind us not to go “over-the-top”
We have a lead pastor who reminds the congregation not to be in-your-face-scary-Christian:
“Oh, don’t be (in-your-face-scary-Christian), it makes me want to be a Buddhist. And I’m your pastor.”
Bearing in mind I’m married to someone who resisted Christianity for a long time because past encounters had made him a zealot phobe, this went down extremely well. And fine, I used to be a zealot phobe too. In fact, I still might be.
6. And oh yeah – they believe in doing things well, to the glory of God.
Their website is ranked top 50 church websites worldwide on some sites. To God Be The Glory. There are a lot of working professionals attending this church (n-ot sure they’re particularly proud to have us, but thank God they let us keep attending), and they’re still achieving – and praising the Lord for it.
Island ECC continues to organize many mission trips to Indonesia, Uganda, India, Mongolia, among many, many other projects – some jointly organzied with other organizations worldwide, some their own… I tried to get on a trip to Vietnam a few years ago, to teach English for a couple weeks while I was changing bank jobs – there’s nothing like social work to make you feel really ashamed of all the whining you do about your own job.
The timing was changed and I didn’t go on the mission trip to Vietnam the end. And when I started having kids those plans all went out the window. I continue to learn how God doesn’t put us in situations we cannot handle.
