[FLUSH]

The Joy Of Being Home

It is certainly a joy to be back home. I feel so relax whenever I'm home. Rest assured. Appetite increased. Hours in front of the tele lenghtened incredibly. It is certainly good to get away from the norm of life and just enjoy the time with my sisters and parents. Sitting together to have a meal has always been a highlight of the weekends. Good food and fellowship.

I had the priviledge to go and visit my grandparents this weekend. Its not all the time that we visit them due to a tight schedule though we are both living in Seremban. Grandparents called us over for high tea. And as usual, I was pretty excited especially when it comes to my Grandma putting up a feast. I have always been a fan of her cooking no matter how simple the dish may seem to be. Grandparents would sometimes call us over for dinner, knowing the fact that my sisters and I do not really have the chance to gobble down home cook food. The array of dishes served before us was my Grandma's famous curry puff, Fried Bee Hoon, Nasi Dagang and Curry Ikan Haji. It was pretty surprising to see Grandma preparing Nasi Dagang, a Kelantanese speciality as I would only be able to have a taste at it once every Chinese New Year. Besides us, Grandparents has some close church friends over the house. Guess its always good to have a crowd in Grandparents place especially when she feels like cooking for a large crowd.

Church Annual Report Meeting

It was one of those rare occasion that I stayed back for a presentation on the church report meeting. Dad didn't want to go due to some personal reason on that matter and as a good son, i accompanied my mom. Attendance wasnt so encouraging comparing to the number of people in our congregation. It wasn't surprising to see that not many who attend Agape were members of the church. Even for myself. Why not become a member of the church? After spending a numerous good years in my church, I have not felt belong completely in the church for that matter. Though I am currently serving in the music ministry which require us to be member of the church, I have put that thought aside as I felt it isnt necessary at this point of time to commit myself to a church on a membership basis.

It's was interesting just to sit back and hear the views of various church members, both new and old, giving their feedback on the minutes that were given out a week earlier to the members to have a look. One of the very interesting concerns was about the mission pledge. It seem an irony and vague to see that breakdown in giving for missions seems not to be given to mission per say entirely. The definition of mission seem to vary a little bit as not all the funds collected would be given to mission totally. There will be some distribution toward other organisations such as AOG and BCM. This was pretty awkward and many question on that breakdown and suggested that mission be given to mission work entirely.

The opportunity to sit down with fellow brother and sister, at the same time listening each of their views and thoughts seem to have caught my attention as to how knowledgeble or matured each of this people. Some were frank and precise while some were unrelevant. Others were trying to keep the peace while there were a few who were trying to rub shoulders with the leaders. It rather interesting to see how a church performs its meeting and looking at the different reaction that people give towards the issues that were being raised up where some were technical and order while some tried to give reference to the bible that seemingly look spiritual.

The Church Today

It has always come to my knowledge that the new millineum churches seem to loose their focus all together why they first exist. Many churches nowadays have began to grow at an enomous rate and naturally turn into an organisation. They have began to generate income that surpases the million dollar mark, acquire million dollar properties that are free from interest and develop a hierachical structure where the pastor of the church sits at the very top. I am not against growth or big churches in all but I queationed at times why churches exist today? Is it to show the world that the church is able to be gather riches and fame that would be on par with other worldy organisation? It seem that the world view has begun to creep into the church system unnoticely. Shouldn't it be the other way round?

World management skills has slowly began to take shape in church organisation today. Planning and restructuring the church in order to maintain a constant growth seem to be a popular strategy to so called "win souls". Is this how it should be? I really do not know. Probably I'm more towards looking at the church as a group of people who believe in Jesus Christ that are geared into reaching to the lost that have yet to hear the Word. Why has the term organisation be associated in the church context?

It's hard at times for me to join a ministry. I sometimes am confuse why to ministry exist in the first place. Is it mainly to bless the peoplein church or help utilise the gift that God has given to us to bless the people out in the world? Where is our target audience? Church members or the unsave? What is our motive? To get more offerings to build a bigger church or to humble ourselves and use whatever we have to reach out to the lost. I may tend to agree at times maybe the problem with the world today isnt what the world lacks but what the church has failed to address at this point of time.

I was certainly humbled when a friend of mine told me what the society that he is currently attached to as a volunteer, Tzu Chi has been effortlessly doing around the world. Initially I would have though that this group were of Buddhist belief. But, I was wrong. Tzu Chi was a foundation that was geared at meeting the 8 different areas of needs in society based on Budddhism. Mind you, Buddhism is not a religion, it is a way of life. I was pretty amazed to hear that Christians were apart of this foundation as well. It was interesting to hear the numerous work that this people were doing volunteerily to meet the needs of the world today. Many of their finances in carrying this kinda of project come from small yet profittable ways such as recycling. I just realise how much the non Christian are doing in meeting the needs of society today. Where have all the Christians gone? We have been so caught up with perfecting our music skills, building a church and organising big events to win the lost when there is a whole big world out there just waiting for us to help them. Besides, I realise that there are many such organisation such as this out there. What is the church respond towards this issue? Put aside our pride and our different and start to make an impact in the life of many by filling in the gaps and joining this people in supporting and addressing social issues. It is time to work together as one and through this we would be able to show effectively what God's love truly is.