I am a Chinese Malaysian. I was born in a town called Muar, a district within the state of Johor (which is situated at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia). From November 1993 to November 2005, I resided in the city of Johor Bahru at the southernmost tip of Johor, which is just separated from Singapore by a one-kilometre bridge. Thereafter, I moved up to Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan (which is less than an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur).

Besides the fact that I am a depraved sinner in total need of God's grace, I am also a lay Christian minister in communion with the Bishop of Rome. I minister in an ecumenical context. The geographical boundary of my ministerial activity has usually been confined to Malaysia and Singapore. Occasionally, there are opportunities to minister beyond local shores (which are to me, more often than not, learning opportunities rather than contributive ones; or maybe both). Prior to this, I taught Systematic Theology and Contextual Theology in a Protestant seminary for two years. I spend most of my time now on theological research whilst I continue to travel around to have conversations with Christians from various traditions and backgrounds on issues of theology, spirituality, and culture. At the level of the local parish, I serve as a Lay Ecclesial Minister (Pastoral Assistant).

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) evaluates my personality configuration as INTJ (Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking and Judging). Whilst this test presents some inherent weaknesses (as do all personality evaluation tests), it provides a very clear idea of my personality inclinations.

The following are some links that describe what an INTJ is like (they are mostly accurate in their typification of my type of people):

• Description of INTJ 1
• Description of INTJ 2
• Description of INTJ 3
• Description of INTJ 4
• Description of INTJ 5
• Description of INTJ 6

People have often asked me if I was "spirit-filled" or "charismatic". The human side of me says "been there, done that". But I suppose it is something that needs further explanation - in a hopefully humble spirit. Underlying such questions is a presupposition that the charismatic spirituality constitutes the pinnacle of all Christian spirituality. This is, of course, a myth. Besides, among Christians of this tradition itself, there is often already a hermeneutical presupposition as to what constitutes a "spirit-filled" Christian.

Hence, whilst I have nothing against charismatic spirituality at its best, the best description of my personal spirituality is the sacramental one. I understand my own life and my daily life situations as being physical or visible representations of spiritual realities. But they are also more than mere representations, for there is a mysterious presence of Christ in the realm of natural visibility. Needless to say, the sacraments of the Church are very important elements to be accentuated in my own spiritual discipline.

In fact, my personal emphasis on the sacramental spirituality is strong to the extent that I have found the Western paradigm of the "instituted sacraments" of the Church to be inadequate. Whilst I do embrace the instituted sacraments to be God's ordained channels of grace, the mysteries of God are infinitely bigger than the instituted sacraments themselves. Hence, I prefer to understand the sacraments from the Eastern position of the mysteries (mysterion) of the faith and life.

The Orthodox tradition, in one of its prayers, confesses that the Spirit of God is "present in all places and filling all things". This confession emphatically affirms the Church's understanding of God and His relationship to the world. We know that God is truly near to us. Whilst being invisible, God is not detached from His creation. Through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, God is present and active in our lives and in all of creation. All of life and creation point to and reveal God.

The two deepest implications of the sacramental spirituality for my own spiritual journey are as follows:

1. I understand God to be present in the most natural situations of life. I see God at work in daily events and routines. I do not crave for supernatural sightings, for I acknowledge God to be as much the God of the natural as he is God of the supernatural. Hence, I cultivate an appreciation of his divine presence and his sovereignty over life situations even during moments when I may not feel him.
    
2. I understand my own life to be a sacrament of Christ. I am not only a representation of Christ to the world, but also, a real presence of the Christ who lives in me. Hence, in a very real sense, those who meet me are supposed to have met Christ, and those who touch me are supposed to have touched Christ. This statement is not advanced in an arrogant spirit, but rather, a reality that obligates me to be conscious of how I choose to live my life and how I choose to relate with my fellow neighbours.

Having said that, the charismatic spirituality and the sacramental spirituality are not mutually exclusive. In the life of Christ on earth, we see the fullness of all spiritualities embodied in the life of a perfect man. He was sacramental, charismatic, contemplative, evangelical, and he expressed concern for holiness and social justice all at once. And because my life must be a sacramental expression of who Christ is, I must seek to be like Christ.

1. Ministry

Ministry is really not about performing a job description in order to emerge with concrete quantitative reports on the empirical results of our work. The old cliché that ministry is "about people" holds true in my life. But beyond that, I seek to have a deeper understanding of this cliché for my own journey as a minister.

When I hold that ministry is about people, it means that I am to be in touch with persons whom I should treat as my neighbours. In coming to embrace a person as my neighbour, I allow him to reveal himself to me as "an other", just as I too desire to be treated as "an other" who thinks, feels, and appreciates both the pleasantries and pains of life.

In allowing "others" to confront me as they are, and likewise by confronting "others" as I truly am, I am deliberately accentuating the reality that I am just another person like "other" people. I am not to be placed on a higher ground by virtue of my being a minister. I am merely one given the opportunity to devote my life to cultivating relationships in this ministry of friendship by living among "others". As I minister in friendship, I desire to also be vulnerable enough to be ministered to by my friends. This, to me, is where ministry takes place at its deepest level of authenticity.

Ministry is about the cultivation of spiritual friendships so that we can journey hand in hand towards our goal as we endeavour to live together faithfully under the reign of God. It is about learning to know others in the way that they desire to be known, learning to honour their limitations, and learning to contribute to the optimisation of their potentials.

2. Church

The modern Church is somewhat stuck in a rut of structural preoccupations. Because of our fixation on order, productivity, effectiveness and efficiency, we are often not able to envisage an ecclesiastical life beyond that which is purely institutional.

If Church is going to be what God has meant for it to be, it should once again recover the paradigm of community. Community is where meaning is shared, life is rendered existentially fulfilling, and faith is authentically expressed. Community is where people are able to see beyond mere programmes, and are instead able to become the programme for one another. It is where the focus does not have to be externalised beyond the personhood of its members and transferred towards other tangible activities that "keep the organisation running". If anything, the tangible activities should be visible manifestations of an internal spiritual reality.

Admittedly, it is innate within human beings to desire a sort of order as their groups increase in quantitative magnitude. However, institutionalisation comes at the price of accompanying structural evils. For this, I have often found some significant segments of the universal Christian Church to have exhibited strong mechanisms for reinvention and renewal of their institutions by providing for the existence of "communities" or "orders" within their structures themselves.

But despite the weaknesses of the Church, the Church remains the Church which the Holy Spirit of God has guided into all truth and preserved throughout the centuries. I will press on as a fellow pilgrim and friend to others by trying my best to live a life that embodies the richness of community. I will do my utmost to embody a life that Jesus would have his disciples be. I am after all a part of the Church, the Body of Christ.