Church

Had a great lesson with my brother just now. It was really interesting to find out about the different types of classical music. Hmmm, starting to get more and more cultured man. :) There's really so much about music to learn and explore. I really wanna quit my job and go full time into learning music man. Sigh. So much to learn. So little time and money.

After lesson, we were chatting about church. Actually there has been a lot of stuff going on in church. If you do continue to read this specific blog, please read on till the end cos I wanna give a proper completion to this blog rather than to leave a really bad impression about church. Because my brother has been pretty active in church lately, he has heard a fair bit about the stuff that happens in church. I too, because I was once a youth leader and still am involoved in other ministries have my fair share of hearing bout the stuff that is going on in church.

Because I do not have the full picture (nobody has) I do not want to go into details. But the picture really is not good. There seems to be a fair bit of disputes and disagreements within the management of the church. I suppose there will always be such in any setting but what disappoints me is the way things are handled. From what I noticed (again I emphasize that I do not know the full picture), there has been a lot of good people coming in and leaving church. Also, there is a couple in church who are elders whom I feel have been pretty much ostracized by the leadership (I do not know exactly why). I have heard reasons before that could have contributed to it but if I have to take sides I would stand on their side. I may not have convincing evidence to support my standing by them but there are things in their lives which I see glaringly reflect their heart of service and their character.

Number 1. Despite being ostracized by the leadership, they are still helping out in whichever way they can, big or small. They even help out in taking video during the service. Most would probably left church already. Number 2. They are very approachable and down to earth despite being rich and having been high up in the corperate world. There is another elder who is in church who is rich and high up in the corporate world who gives me the EXACT OPPOSITE impression. As far as I can see, I see them practicing the love walk and being faithful even in the small things. I cannot say that for some others in leadership.

Anyway, God has not called us to take sides. I just felt that I wanted to pen it down. Now for the balance to it. I suppose that in many churches these issues do exist. I suppose that some churches are so big that it does not reach the congregation. In any case, the management and leadership is still made up of humans and that's where all the problems come in. Knowing all the facts that I know now does not help me in any way. In fact it has caused me to be cold to certain issues and people in church. That should not be the way. God has called us to love. And knowing more about the ugly side of man certainly does not facilitate love in any way. And when we see issues like that crop up in church, our first response should be to pray and not to blurt out what we think. We should always bear in mind that we do not have the full picture and probably will never have. Only God knows all that is going on and our first respose should be to look to Him so that negative emotions do not have the chance to creep in and spoil our hearts.

I used to adopt this verse in my former workplace and I am reminded all over again to adopt this for any arena of my life. Proverbs 26:17 says "Like one who takes a dog by the ears Is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him." We all know what happens when we try to take a dog by the ears right? If you do not know, do try it sometime. Do try it on a big german shepherd or something. Then you will realise what the verse is talking about. I used to hold this verse to my heart a lot cos in my former workplace there will always be a lot of complaints against the boss. So in order for me not to get emotionally involved, I always try to avoid all the complaint sessions regularly held after lunch. I believe that this should be applied to church as well. In order to serve God whole heartedly, I believe that many time we have to just bypass issues that are actually none of our business. Not to mention the fact that many times, we do not have the exact picture, there is no point of getting upset about something that you do not totally know about.

I realise that for now only God truely sees things as they really are so lets leave the judgement to Him. Tough job trying to be God when you are not.......