Last Saturday, I dropped by Huanyan's CG. I was free that day, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to catch up with HY and Elvis and Shuyi and Minchen and well, basically the rest of their CG haha.

But I did feel a bit worried. 'Cos was wondering whether I'd look a bit out of place there. But when I reached there, HY and Elvis welcomed me with big chimpanzee-like grins and big hellos. With amigos like them, how can one not feel blessed? Haha.

Then I said to Huanyan, "Hey bro, thanks for letting me drop by." He looked rather surprised, and said, "This is our church family lah! Of course you're welcome!" Mich (Elvis' cousin) said the same thing too. Haha... so we went over to join them at SMU... and saw that it was a unit gathering! Haha. Very fun. :D Lots of music, singing and playing... carefree, and so on. Felt like uni days again LOL.

Anyway, what Huanyan said made me think. Actually, it's part of a whole bunch of observations... or rather, perceptions. :) Haha. I'm very much more intuition-based rather than sensing-based. :) So I intuit a lot.

Anyway, think some of us in church have this mentality (correct me if I'm wrong) that once you move on to a new ministry / services, you have to cut down on your contact with the old groups of friends you made in your previous ministries/services, so that you can focus on your current ministry. (Not cut off lah, but cut down.) But I think that might be a bit imbalanced...

Maybe it'd be good to encourage more inter-ministry minglings. Just to drop by different units, different CGs, and so on. 'Cos we're one big family. Of course let them know before dropping by, but I think I shouldn't feel paiseh about dropping in. It may not be easy to make the effort to keep in touch, especially when there's restructuring here and there. But well, ultimately, we're one big family. And that's a biblical doctrine, last I heard. :)

I did go down to NUS to catch up with Joyce and Edmund Lee. And while I was there, one brother came to HQ, and he saw me. He was so surprised, and said (I quote it verbatim), "What the hell are you doing here?" (Aye, that's his style.) Haha. The surprise comes from the fact that the seniors usually don't come back to intermingle and connect with the juniors. Of course, it does take extra effort, as obviously we don't know the younger ones, and there's probably the generational barrier.

Personally, I think we make too much out of generational barriers. Gen-X this, Gen-Y that, Gen-Z etc... but honestly, I think cultural, language and social-economic barriers do make a more significant difference. But whatever barriers there may be, perhaps just because they're there doesn't mean that we shouldn't make the necessary effort to cross these barriers. There are some young people (like the freshman sister who went into Medicine - she's 10 years younger than me) who have a stronger and more vibrant faith than some believers 10 years older than her! Of course, there are believers 10 years older than us, whom we can learn SO much from. We can learn from one another. God is the God of all generations!

I remember Weizhu talking with me about the importance of cross-generational ministry. I think it's something so important too, and something that our church currently lacks. Yes, I know, it does seem strange to drop by just like that... so I check to see if it's ok to drop by, to meet up with existing friends in the different ministries, and in turn get to know more new friends. And I think life and the community is so much the richer for it. Not only having friends from the same life-stations, but across different life-stations, add a new dimension and richness to your perspective of life. Not to mention that you get unique cultural exposure, get to have your finger on the changing pulses of society and so on.

Of course, it's important to also build up your own CG. To that, I think there's a time for everything. I remember HQ telling me that there are times you have to find support outside your own CG. I was reluctant initially, but yah, it's really helpful advice. :)

Anyway, I'm just sharing all these thoughts, because I think the different congregations in our churches can do so much more to intermingle and minister to one another more... so that the whole body of Christ may grow together in unity. So, I guess I have yet to make closer friends with our brothers and sisters from the Filipino, Indonesian and Mandarin services. But at least I have made friends from Children's service... Family service, Uni, PolyDINs and so on. Thank God for the joy of renewing old friendships, and building new ones.

By ourselves, we can do so little. But together we can do so much.