Something pastor said on Sunday made me write something into my journal. Part of it is directly relating to a longer post that I hope to complete soon. The other part is of course the subject of this post! (DUH!?!)
Yeah... so set theory (not axiomic set theory, but the analysis style approach). Pastor said that cliques can destroy Christian fellowship. And as I have heard from some of you, that is true. Cliques are like compact set, closed and bounded. Nothing can enter it and nothing can come out of it. (more or less ah...)
I think we as the Church are called to be more like open sets, where (intuitively) they do not have boundaries. When we sing songs that have words like, "build this church without walls", do we really mean it? How can we build a church without walls when we already have set up walls in our own cliques, our own SG even, and shut out even our fellow brothers from them?
The whole point of having small groups, are to be groups that do not have boundaries and that when a newcomer comes in, when someone brings a friend, when another batch of primary 6s enters the YM, we can make them feel welcome.
The model of dividing the YM into small groups is not a new one. It's the original pattern of the church in the book of Acts. It is therefore a 2000 year old model! If you read any books on church growth (numerical in this sense) they will all adhere to the model in Acts. Small groups that over time start to include other people till they reach a certain size then they split! And the process repeats over and over. You cannot replicate this process if your group is so "clique-ish", close and bounded. You need to get rid of the boundaries and be open!
Complements. The www.dictionary.com definition of this word is, either of 2 parts that complete the whole or mutually complete each other. The mathematics set theory definition is that if a certain element is in a set, then it is not in the complement of the set and, and conversely as well. Yup, almost the same meaning for the 2 definitions.
Unfortuantely, I guess that over time we have misread the word to mean that if 2 things or people complement each other well, it means they are almost the same. Well, obviously not totally correct. And that's where misunderstandings can arise I guess.
To me, if you really complement each other; chances are we are totally different people. So, expect arguements and the such! But you know, God has really made us in such a way that the people whom we can really work well with are precisely our complements. I don't know how that works, but that seems to be the case. So, when you are in a project and it seems thatyou can work well with the people in the group, expect some shouting matches! But you all will be really good friends at the end of the day. Like the crazy YM Com! (those of you who have sat in our meetings will understand!)
By the way, Sophia is really my complement! :D
