lifelong Christian development

due to some unforeseen technical circumstances, the photos just can't seem to be loaded. many apologies! :(

On 21st May afternoon, about 40 young adults came for our YA Hanging Deep talk on "Lifelong Christian Development". We were glad to have new friends visiting and started off with great conversations over a sumptious lunch with the ever-popular lemon chicken and kangkong belacan. There was even a special dessert!

Our speaker Jimmy Yun first introduced us to the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) by giving us a brief description of its history and current projects. He then anchored his talk by defining what a practicing Christian should be, and thereafter highlighted the two key perspectives that we should have to exercise our gifts so as to influence others towards God's purposes.

Using these perspectives, he makes the point that leadership does not only involve Christians who hold leadership positions in church, but also all Christians who can and choose to influence others for Christ. Jimmy's talk raised important issues that challenge us to examine our motives in our actions, as well as to apply our gifts with the right mindsets.

We ended with some time of praying and sharing, and managed even to finish all the remaining food from lunch!

An outline of "Lifelong Christian Development"

A Practicing Christian is a person
- with God given capacity, character and responsibility
- who is influencing people toward God's purposes

God's shaping of our lives includes events and experiences, time, and our responses. God's shaping produces developments in spiritual, ministerial and strategic areas of our lives.

Some principles to remember:
- When Christ calls Christians to ministry, he intends to develop them to their full potential.
- Each of us is responsible to continue developing in accordance with God's processing all our lives.
- Effective leaders view present ministry in terms of a lifetime perspective.

As a Kingdom builder (David vs. Absalom), we should possess two mindsets:
1. Service Mindset: Serving the sheep, Shepherding the flock
- obedience to inner work of the Spirit
- becoming aware of others' needs
- acceptance of assignments even at personal costs
- ownership of the gospel: genuine interest in others' welfare

2. Follower Mindset: Leading is a temporary assignment, following is a lifetime calling.
- we qualify for leadership by first being followers
- "follow" me is the basic command to all of us

Key values: loyalty to another
- serve another's cause
- teach another's truth
- accept another's results
- await another's time
- dream of another's glory

post kindly written by Pak Shun and event organised by his CG.

thank you, folks! :)

chase lemons, anyone?

who would have thought that apart from making lemon tea, lemon pies and lemon juice, lemons can also be rolled across the floor with chopsticks for a telematch game?!

on your left, george demonstrates how one can efficiently use a pair of chopsticks to move 2 lemons from one end of the room to the other.

unfortunately, unlike good ol' george, most of us ended up chasing the lemons as opposed to moving them across the room!

this was only one of the interesting games we played during our Young Adult Hanging Out time in May. apart from using lemons, other interesting items put to good use included....

well, actually, the pails were really meant for...

so as you can see, we had quite a good time chasing lemons, hugging pails and catching balls in pails while standing on chairs.

lastly, just to show you how much some people enjoyed themselves so much that they invited attention they didn't even know about...

tee hee!

Anchoring Deep through Kingdom Discipleship

As part of the Young Adult’s Ministry "Anchoring Deep" program, about 30 of us young adults gathered to hear from Mr David Lee share on "Kingdom’s Discipleship".

David, together with his family, began the session by leading us with a time of worship. As we sang praises to the Lord, we were reminded that worship is a vital part to a disciple of Jesus Christ. David’s insightful sharing and interesting stories were timely and refreshing reminders to us. We were truly blessed by David’s time with us. We ended the session with a time of sharing and praying, and of course, refreshments :)

An outline of "Kingdom Discipleship"
Luke 14: 25-27; 33

Discipleship is intentional.
It also means we must be a follower.
It is what you do to take on the character of Christ. It's also an 'inside' job, not just what we appear outwardly.

Who is God in your life?
Your view of God is very important, and it is the Bible that tells us what is the right view of God.

Requirements to be a disciple
1. Love God above everything else-including self (v26)
2. Die to ourselves; give up our old life to death (v27)
3. Give up everything you have for God

The blessing of God doesn't mean you are well spiritually. It doesn't say anything about you. It's about God who is generous, gracious.

We need to remember that God does not give suggestions but instructions.