Read Lydia Lim's article in yesterday's Straits Time. On about the danger of closed-minded communities.

And she voiced her concerns about the growth of religious communities that are becoming increasingly closed. Valid concerns such as, say, a Christian business with Christian and non-Christian employees. The non-Christian employees voice their concern about the possibility of preferential treatment for the Christians.

Or the insularity of Christian groups with regards to inter-faith dialogues and so on.

Thought about it. Think yes, it's true - Christianity IS an exclusivistic faith in the sense that we believe Jesus' own words: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." And the apostles voiced out in public: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

I think you can't get any more exclusive than that!

But ... I think the exclusivity issue of Christianity is restricted to the claims of Jesus' divinity. Apart from that, Christianity is, for all the accusations about it being exclusive, is wonderfully diverse. People from every nation, tribe, people and tongue. The Bible has been translated into God-knows-how-many languages. And not to mention that the hope of the gospel, that there is a God who made all mankind, and that we are all equal before God, and that Christ came to die for all mankind...

It is so incredibly universal. Crossing across ethnic divides. Cultural divides. Political divides. Family divides. Gender divides. And so on and so forth.

That one day, with one wonderful voice, we shall see a grand multitude that no one can count, people from every nation, every tribe, every people, every tongue.

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But what then about Christianity in Singapore? I think culturally-wise, unfortunately, religion is generally closely associated with ethnicity. Even for Christianity, unfortunately, the churches in Singapore are generally homogenous ethnic groupings, and from what I know so far, also by social groupings.

Sigh. I think this is the current situation so far.

I think what I've been doing - but I need to work harder - is to bless my Indian neighbours. I've been blessed to have them as my neighbours - they're very nice Hindus. Visited them and chatted with them... and well, we have a lot in common haha. Like soccer? eating? playing DOTA? :)

Still, I really hope I can share the gospel with them soon.

Yup. Christianity will always itself in trouble with the authorities from time to time. After all the power of the apostles' preaching, causing many to turn to Christ, caused those from other religions to be really agitated. So we're not alone.

But I think we should do our best to be peacemakers, even though we're being accused of being agitators and troublemakers. Such as building friendships with other ethnic groups (added: and other faiths). I mean, we Christians profess to believe in a gospel that is universal and freely available for all men, regardless of race, language or religion, right? So shouldn't we be living it out all the more vigorously in our lives?

It's natural, yes, to want to be in the same kind of grouping... but it's supernatural to have very different people bonded together as one family. Clearly, what is supernatural must overrides what is natural.

And only the power of Christ's work on the Cross and the power of the Holy Spirit are able to do such a difficult and even impossible thing.

That is the power, the glory of a united church.

Now you tell me, isn't that God's dream? To see white men and black men side-by-side. To see Chinese, Indian and Malay all worshipping God together. To see different language-speakers united in a common love... to see different nationalities...

Different social groupings even. The rich and poor serving one another. The masters kneeling down to wash the feet of the servants.

I just watched "Faith Like Potatoes". The white farmer was telling his black farm workers about his trip to his ancestors' homeland (which was Scotland). And he was telling them about his own clan - which is very similar in concept to the blacks' tribes.

Then one of his senior farm workers asked him, "How come you didn't stay there? No offense, but I'm curious as to why white people like to have one foot in one land and another in ours! *hearty guffaw*"

The white farmer thought about it and spoke respectfully... affectionately, even. He replied, "It's true. I'm proud of my Scottish heritage. But let it be known that I am a white African... and you are my Christian brother."

Whoa. It was such a touching moment.

Yup... :)

Ha. I'm so glad that my church has different ethnicities... Indian, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese, Chinese, German and so on. But... it could be so much more. We gotta step out of our comfort zones. The gospel is truly for everyone.

That's why I'm so proud of my sub-district vision and goals. To outreach to more people groups too. :D

Ha! All the more being a Christian, I should be more eager to make new friends with people from other cultures!

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Haha. On a side-note, the Nurture Programme is taking a new step. We're joining with Ms Raja's group - a marvellous lady is she - with so many children. It's a very heartwarming sight to see so many children of different ethnic groups mingling together. (I refuse to use the horrid word "races", for there is only one race (on Earth right now) - the human race.)

And haha that's part of the vision that God gave me. Sharing the story of Jesus to children from all sorts of different ethnicities. Different kinds of families. So cool. So wonderful. So exciting! :D

Added:
Oh oh, looking at what I wrote last night... haha, I think I gotta add that I don't talk about Jesus at the Nurture programme... it's secular mah... =) it's about serving the community out of love. "Love your neighbour as yourself."

But think next time, if I'm able to do this as part of a missions outreach programme... cool! :)