Discipleship – Page 2

Tag: Discipleship

Invited to Song of Songs

15 November 2019 blogpastor Leave a comment

Song of Songs. That prompting is so slight, so silk, I could have ignored it. But I did not and am thankful for following it. I figured that perhaps it may be the means through which my main prayer for my sabbatical, a deeper love for Jesus, may get answered. I personally find this Old Testament book forbidding. I am very much left-brained, and appreciating the Song of Songs is a right-brained activity. It’s like appreciating the poetic lyrics of a popular love song. This is outside my comfort zone. Which is good because at the later part of life we should be moving towards wholeness and wellness, and taking on new frontiers in learning.

I began listening to YouTube videos on appreciating poems and writing and interpreting poems. I listened to David Pawson give an overview of the book. I saved Mike Bickle’s talks on the book. I listened to audio readings of the book. I bought a book titled Love of Loves by Philip Riken, and this week I started to savour the text and talk to the Lord from it. I am excited because the Lord is making the song come alive. I hope it is awakening my love for the Lord. It is making me aware of God’s loving action towards me, His many kisses of love through the many gifts He showered on me. Yes Lord kiss me again and again, till passionate love is awakened in me again, and joy overflows from receiving Your love.

Young parents discipling children

1 February 2018 blogpastor 2 Comments

Young parents sharing their thoughts about discipling children

It was a significant meeting: pastoral team, children’s ministry core leaders, and the young parents. We wanted to share our thoughts about discipling children, the respective roles of the different partners, and our modest hopes and aspirations, and especially to gather feedback from them.

There were a few things I picked up from the feedback they gave:

Young parents are deeply appreciative of the dedication, care and sacrifices of children’s ministry lay volunteers.
Young parents are eager to disciple their children and give them what’s best for them spiritually and developmentally.
Young parents know the importance of their role in discipling parents and want to be better than what their parents were with them.
Young parents want to disciple their children but are short on time, energy and know-how to actually do it.
Young parents prefer informal learning to formal classroom learning. They rather have a picnic or informal meal with other young parents and be able to exchange ideas, share problems and solutions, and get to know one another and let children grow up together.
Young parents want to connect with other young parents at the same stage of parenting as they can identify with and comfort and encourage each other along a similar journey.
Young parents find little edification in being part of a cell (which has nothing planned for children) as they would be too occupied with minding their child.

Interesting information and feedback for the pastoral team to ponder over. Wonder what you think of their feedback?

Declutter your soul: its a New Year

6 January 2016 blogpastor Leave a comment

On Monday my wife and I went into the storeroom and cleaned it up. The more a storeroom has been left untouched, the more clutter, dust and dirt it gathers and the more intimidating it becomes. We felt overwhelmed but were glad we did it.
We removed obstacles that blocked the path, wiped dirt off the shelves, and strengthened sagging shelves. We threw away many things: old wires, rechargers, bathroom floor rugs that had mildew, tools, tired tennis balls, plastic containers with red lids, and other containers.
We got rid of clutter – things we had no use for. We re-organized what was left and important to keep. We cleaned and removed the layers of dust on things and on the floor. No we were not thinking of Chinese New Year. It was simply a long overdue cleaning.
Your life and mine needs a similar de-cluttering and cleaning act. Are there activities that draw you away from Christ, that waste time or distract, or that feed an addiction? Are there spending habits that need to be trimmed, or priorities that need to be reviewed? De-clutter your soul.