The Cell Church

You know who was the first guy to start the cell concept?

In Exodus 18, Jethro came to Moses, and a conversation* ensued.

Jethro: What on earth are you doing, running the whole show by yourself?

Moses: “Ummm..” (remember, he was slow in speech. He was probably also a little stunned that someone would question his authoritative decision) *under his breath* This is what I get when I invite the In-Laws over…

Jethro: Why are all these people just waiting for you the whole day while you go through one by one their problems, man? You’ve got like (scans the entire Israel entourage), a 700,000 people church here! Plus 200,000 oxens!!

Moses: (Recovering composure), Dad, these folks come and seek God’s will through me. Remember, my face was shiny from the glory of God!!!! There’s a lot of argument in this church, Dad, and I gotta watch over these fellas…seems like miracles don’t impress them a lot, they’re always complaining….

Jethro: Pfft. Nonesense. No wonder you ain’t got time to beat me at desert golf. You gonna wear out yourself because there’s too many of ‘em here, and only one of you.

Moses:Hey Dad, all things are possible…

Jethro: Proverbs 4:1 Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding.

Moses: What’s Proverbs?

Jethro: Um, never mind. Twas an inspiration from God…anyhoos, here’s what you need to do. It’s a two step program. (With that, he draws a diagram in the desert sand)

1. Select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

2. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves.

You–>Senior Pastors (thousands)–>Zone Pastors (hundreds)–>Zone Leaders (fifties)–>Cell Leaders (tens)=More time for Jethro vs Moses Desert Golf

Moses: Sounds like a plan, Dad.

Jethro: Like, Duuh.

*Speculative conversation may or may not have taken place…but the result was the same…

In the new testament:

It is worth noting that the early church did not have its own buildings. From earliest times the believers met both in homes and in the temple. This structure of cell and celebration is first seen in the Jerusalem Church after Pentecost. Acts 2:46 states, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, . . .” The concept of meeting in the home and in public is substantiated by Paul when he says in Acts 20:20, “You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house.”

Household churches are frequently referred to in the NT epistles. Sometimes the whole church in one city might be small enough to be accommodated in the home of one of its members; but in other places the local church was quite large, and there was no building in which all the members could conveniently congregate. This was certainly true of the early Jerusalem church; there we find one group meeting in the house of Mary, the mother of Mark (Ac. 12:12); and although Luke does not specifically call that group the church in her house, it might very well have been described thus. Priscilla and Aquila were accustomed to extend the hospitality of their home to such groups in the successive cities where they lived–e.g. in Ephesus (1 Co. 16:19) and Rome (1 Co. 16:5). At Colossae itself Philemon’s house was used for this purpose (Phl. 2)

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses the individual ecclesia which met in the home of Aquila and Priscilla (1 Co. 16:19), but he also greets the ecclesia as a whole (1 Co. 1:2; 2 Co. 1:1). The same can be said about the church in Thessolonica and in Rome (1 Th. 1:1; 2 Th. 1:1; Rom. 16:23). This seems to indicate that a general relationship existed.

It has also been suggested that on occasion the house groups gathered for special celebration events. The Love Feast of 1 Corinthians 11 and Paul’s visit to Troas in Acts 20:6-12 could be examples of joint celebration. In the same chapter can be found quite a comical story of Eutychus!

Well, comical in a dark way I guess. Imagine this, Paul was talking on and on and on and this dude was getting way sleepy. I can identify with that. Really. There were times in Sunday service that I was just waiting and waiting for the speaker to say “Let us pray” and I would close my eyes and sleep for 5 minutes before he says, “Let us stand.” Sometimes I miss the second part.

Anyhoos, Euty unwisely sat next to the window, no doubt to get the cool air. So imagine a youth, long hair, probably a bit on the broad side and prone to perspire. He probably just had Banana Leaf at Sri Paandi and then topped it off with Mocha Mud Cake at TGIFs before attending Paul’s seminar. So he heads straight to the place that was the coolest. It was midnight, breeze coming in from the ocean, the crickets chirping, Paul droning when he goes off to La La land and falls off the third storey and smashes his head to pieces. At this juncture, it’s not supposed to be funny, but in the same way why we laugh as humpty dumpty fell off the wall, there seems to be some strange humor to this. The thing about Humpty was that no one could put that guy back together, with his brains splattered out (and still as kids we cheer him on), whereas, for Euty, Paul was there. So there was a great commotion and everyone cries out, and Paul calmly walks to the pudgy youth and says, “He is alive!!” And they went upstairs again and makaned. What a cell group! They like food just like us! This time, Paul talked till daylight and the story ends with the people taking Eutychus home. He was probably too shaken up to walk by himself, no doubt vowing never to eat at Sri Paandi and TGIF before going to cell ever again.

This was just one of the many ‘cell’ stories found in the Bible. Read up:Acts 2:42; Acts 2:44-45; Phil 4:15; Rom 12:13; Acts 2:46; Acts 2:47; Eph 2:19; Acts 5:42

And finally plagiarizing from our cell notes:

Hey peeps!

See attached.

Roster (April 06)

While I was in Sydney recently, I made it a point to visit my old church, Northshore Christian Centre (NSCC) which is being led by Pastor John Iulianno. On the Sunday when I was visiting, Pastor John shared on 1 John 4:19 “We love Him because He first loved us” with the essence of the message being:
1) 3 Things that draw a God lover to God’s attention
2) 3 Characteristics that separate a God lover (from one who lacks this)
Let me just say the message jolted me out of my seat. Yes, we all claim to love God but what I learnt that Sunday was claiming our love for God is one thing, actually being a God lover is well…harder than most of us care to admit. We all need to put the theory to practice…like the old proverbial saying goes “Action speaks (so much) louder than words”.
1) 3 things that draw a God lover to God’s attention
a) Repentance
One word…easy enough, but how many of you have been placed in the situation where saying “sorry” is a personal struggle of pride, denial and anger. Where a two syllable word becomes the hardest word to be verbalized; where a mumbled utterance of “sorry” becomes an admittance of wrong-doing. But hey guess what (and without sounding like an idealist romantic), love is knowing how and when to say “sorry”.
In 2 Chr 7:14 the Lord appeared to Solomon after the dedication of the temple – “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” God was seeking repentance from the Israelites for their sins in embracing other Gods and turning away from His promises for them. In forsaking God, the Israelites were punished (severely) and in coming before God again through offerings of prayers (Chapter 6 refers), sacrifices but most importantly by acknowledging their mistakes, God knew that they had affirmed their love for Him again.
Our journey with God is not a straight path – it will never be. We are born sinners and like it or not, sinning is what we do. God knows that; He acknowledges it. It is our actions that supercede our act of sin which is looked upon favourably by God – repentance. We must say “sorry” to God and ask Him to mould us to be better individuals. The verse “We love Him because He first loved us” – this is an act of love following an act of wrong doing ; “He first loved us” – ie God loving us even though we are sinners and in God loving us so freely, “We love Him”, by repenting our wrongs and mistakes.
b) Worship
This is a proclamation of our love to God. Is it not said in John 4:23 “…the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.”. We must hunger to be the worshippers that He has called us to be. We are called to come and worship individually (in your quiet time) and corporately (through prayer meetings, cell groups, services). Worshipping God means a body language of total abandonment and surrender. Don’t just say you love God - Show him your love! If you can today, would you not want to hug Jesus? But because the physical embodiment of our Lord is not here, one way for us to tell Him how much we love Him is to give praise, worship and honour His name.
In cell intern class, we learn about the 4 Ws (Welcome, Worship, Word and Works). Welcome is an act between man to man (icebreakers), Worship is between man to God (proclaiming our love for Him) and Word is between God to man (God’s word to us) and Works is between man to man (discipling, praying, outreaching). Now think about it, if we don’t worship God properly during our cell time, if we don’t acknowledge His presence and His love for us, if we don’t ask God to come before us in Spirit – then how is God going to impart His wisdom, His teachings, His Word to us during the sharing time. That is, if we don’t invite God in during worship, how do you suppose God can feel welcomed during Word time. Or put it another way, would you go to a party if you are not invited? Would you feel welcomed? So give God the rightful respect He so deserve and be a God lover during your worship time.
c) By becoming a God lover
“The man who loves God is known by God” (1 Corr 8:3). In all your actions, your faith, your sacrifices, your words, your life – if you love God, He will surely know it. The first person that showed his love for God was Abel in Gen 4. He brought forth fat portions from some of his first born as offering to the Lord. And God looked with favour on Abel’s offering (contrast this to Cain’s offering). Abel offered his best to God and God acknowledged that.
When we love someone, we want to provide the best we can for that person. (Some may even say - to the ends of the earth!). When we love something, say, your car – you will treat it well, wash it/polish it yourself (everyday – forget those drive thru car wash!), accessorise the car, some of you even give your car a name! The thing is love can make us do some very crazy things… so why don’t we go out of our way to show God how much we love Him. Who is more deserving of our love than God himself!
2) 3 Characteristics that separate a God lover (from one who lacks this)
a) Attentive to the voice of God
The Bible has ample examples of ordinary men who listened to the voice of God. An example that comes to mind is Samuel. Remember how Samuel thought that it was Eli that was calling him. And when Eli realized (after the 3^rd time) that God was calling Samuel, he told Samuel in 1 Sam 3:9 “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.” And that’s what Samuel did; he answered God subsequently. Don’t forget that during that period, word from God was rare (verse 1). And God walked with Samuel as he grew up to be a prophet.

How many of us have fine tuned our ears to listen to God? How many of you know when God speaks to you? In Isaiah 51:4, God asked us to “listen to me, my people, hear me, my nation…” Just like how we are naturally fine-tuned to the voice of the person we love, so we must too fine tuned our ears to God’s voice. When we pray to God, expect God to answer those prayers, expect Him to speak to you. The problem more often than not, we choose not to listen to His voice because what God is saying is not something we want to uphold. I have shared my testimony before. When God spoke to me during December 2003, there was no way I can possibly turn my ears away. I shared before on how to discern God’s will

· Step 1: I tell God what I am going to do. “To man belong the plans of the heart” Proverbs 16:1.
· Step 2: God responds. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” Proverbs 19:21.
· Step 3: I beg God to let me do it anyway. “All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord” Proverbs 16:2.
· Step 4: Finally, I humble myself and listen. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed” Proverbs 16:3.
· Step 5: God tells me what He is going to do. “The Lord works out everything for His own ends” Proverbs 16:4.
Tweak your ears to listen to God’s audible voice for you will reap when the time is right.
b) Obedience to God
You know what – our God is a very clever God. He not only asks us to listen to him; we must also obey Him. These two are mutually dependent on each other. If you listen and don’t obey…it’s as good as not listening in the first place. “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14-15). More often than not, we provide excuses for what can only be defined as disobedience. In verse 21, God emphasized that “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Obedience is a distinct act looked upon by God as a sign of our love for him.
We have gone through a series of sermon on the 10 commandments in Church. We each have our own reason(s) for why we cannot obey some of the commandments, or we view one commandment with an overriding importance over another. God said, we are to obey ALL of the commandments and Pastor Vincent supplemented this in his sermons by attesting (our) obedience as a way for us to have a “successful and happy” life. I know easier said than done. But at the end of the day, what we are given as a child of God is a simple formula : Love God = Successful & Happy Life
c) Passionate about God
Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”. Wow! God is asking us for our passion here. 1 John 4 – Everyone who loves has been born from God because God is love. We get so passionate about what the secular world has to offer. That is temporary. God is offering his Kingdom – this is an everlasting promise. God’s love for us must not be unrequited. You want to be ear-marked by God as a God lover? Be passionate for His causes… be passionate for Him!
Love is a process that takes time. Similarly, your love for God can only increases and multiply over time. We have often heard that a cell that does not multiply will mutate, be complacent and will eventually die. If we so desire for God to live within us, for our walk with Him to strengthen day by day, then we must continue to increase our love for Him. We should seek to:
§ Pray for a clearer revelation – Rom 10:17 “faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ”
§ Pray for a softer heart – In the book of Revelation (Chapter 2) – God rebuked the Ephesian church for abandoning the first love. Let not past hurts/material things harden your heart. Be malleable for God to work in you.
§ Pray for thanksgiving – 1 Thess 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
In this Year of Increase, let us all strive to increase our love for God. He is our Number One Love; in loving Him we are able to show our love to others, in loving Him we can be better disciples. Most importantly, we should love God because He first loved us.

I was clearing my personal mails when this caption caught my attention – “30 Best Companies to Work in Malaysia”. It was certainly a blessing in disguise and my heart was jumping in joy. Well, this is what I had always wished for (since my schooling days) – to work in a big renowned talk-of-the-town company. After all, Big Sis’s in Mayban Management, Small Sis’s in Yeo Hiap Seng, my brother’s in Shiseido, and me….

 
Determined to find a placement within these 30 Companies, I waste no time and quickly click into the website for more info. and below is the list I got:
 
1. Shell
2. Intel
3. DHL
4. Petronas
5. McKinsey & Co
6. Maxis
7. IBM
8. Motorola
9. ExxonMobil
10. Hewlett Packard
11. CIMB                         
12. Ernst & Young     
13. Citibank                          
14. Dell Asia Pacific
15. Accenture
16. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC)
17. Toyota
18. Nokia
19. Bank Negara Malaysia
20. Western Digital
21. AirAsia
22. LogicaCMG
23. KPMG International
24. Oracle Corporation
25. Federal Express (FedEx)
26. Deloitte Malaysia 
27. Ericsson
28. Samsung
29. Sony Malaysia
30. Berjaya Corporation

extracted from http://www.skorcareer.com/malaysia-eng/30-best-companies-to-work-in-malaysia.htm
 
I began to study all the 30 Companies and start figuring who’s who in which-and-which company. Wow, these people must be lucky enough to be attached in one of these mentioned Companies and I doubt they would tender their resignation. How I wish I were one of them…. Indeed, I was relieved that my siblings’ companies are not in the list.
 
Out of the blue, it just struck my mind on one of the recent articles I read in Star paper. Our Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak advised us to show our gratitude by giving our service to the company. According to him, one must stay loyal to the company that had trained us, and not job-hop for a better pay after acquiring training.
 
Well, it is a common inclination for people like me to get discouraged in the midst of adversity. Thus, we ought to sustain a positive attitude under all situations, seeing that adversity is affluence to those who boast a great attitude.
 
Our attitude is not automatically good just because we are Christians. Nevertheless, we can train ourselves to adopt and uphold a more positive attitude in life.
 
Our attitude is the main force that will determine whether we succeed or fail. What we sow is what we reap. When we sow a lot, we would reap a bigger harvest.
 
2 Corinthians 9:8 says “And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for very good work.”

“There is no portion of our time that is our time, and the rest God’s, there’s no portion of money that is our money, and the rest God’s money. It is all His. He made it all, gives it all, and He has simply trusted it to us for his service. A servant has two purses, the master’s and his own, but we have only one.” (Adolphe Monod)

 
God owns everything and everything belongs to Him – including our material possession, our career, and our family. He has given all these for us to take pleasure in, but they still belong to God.
 
Well, apparently I should just put off my so-called plan and stick to what I am now. ‘For as He think in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
 
Every opportunity has a difficulty and every difficulty has an opportunity.  I should be grateful for securing a job currently – in an infamous freight forwarding company. My workplace, to me is like a fun-thrilled theme park and believing anything is possible, I turn problems into blessings and try to make things better in my daily operation job.
 
“It is your attitude, not your aptitude that will determines your altitude of life”

Cell Fun Nite last Friday was excellent…really enjoyed it and here’s a list of highlights:

1) Allan’s “All You can Eat” Korean buffet
2) Kah Heng’s Photoshop Enterprise

3) Telepathic charades of the winning team, without drawing, we managed to guess it!

The undisputed winner goes to

4) Jeremy’s rendition of the 10 virgins on paper

Or something to that effect.

Anyways, thanks to all for making the iCell weekend such a good time; to all who participated to sell T-Shirts also!

For those of you who missed the movie presentation compiled by the creative brilliance of Nick Tay and Kelvin Chee, here’s a link to Nick Tay’s blog. He actually has been running this blog for some time now and you can have a read! Support GTian’s internet presence!!
Collin (from Kel’s cell) will be leaving today at about 6-ish. He’ll be gone to Saudi for work, for about 2 years or so, pls keep him in prayer and flood him your tearful farewells!

We got pictures from the cell fun nite coming up, Alvin will be posting them as soon as he gets home from Europe in 2 weeks time…also say your tearful farewells and place orders for football jerseys (for guys), for football guys (for girls) or whatever you think Europe is nice for.

Angie seems pretty hot for tapas and Patellas from Spain. Strange requests for Spanish knee caps…

Finally, cell this friday will be in Jeremy’s (who once again will be flying off) place, NOT CHURCH. We’ll be going through some stuff and discuss on how this cell is doing, where it is, and where we are heading as we enter into Q2, in respect to our 3D vision (hey…lame joke, becoming like Y.A. leaders!!). It’s also a Cellebration event, where we can bring in our friends not in cell yet.

Fridays 7.30 pm - I would leave my job aside, get changed to T-shirt ‘n jeans before leaving the office to attend Cell. At times, some colleagues would query me on why would I have to hang out every Friday whereas Saturdays’ a 1/2 working day. And why can’t I just go home and rest after a long tiring day, or possibly join them for ‘Ha-p Hour’. Somehow, they soon realize that I wouldn’t be available on Friday night and tried not to take up my day for dinner / gathering. But of course, Cell Group is not the priority if I were to be present at a Company’s Function or some other occasions which I consider I just gotta be there…. 

A Cell Group is defined as a group of people who meet regularly, i.e. once a week in homes for the purpose of spiritual edification and evangelistic outreach. Cells are open evangelistic groups that are “incorporated” into the life of the church. And its’ ultimate goal – to multiply itself as the group grows (usually to multiply when they reach to 15 people) through evangelism and then conversion. 

In Cell, edification takes place as members care for one another, using spiritual gifts, and support systems. Each Cell is on a mission to build each other up in Christ, and my Cell Group (which is still N-E-W) had came up with ThreeDs which focus on the following: – 

1) Diving deeper into His Presence 

2) Delving in His Word 

3) Dwelling in His Spirit 

In short, Cells are the basic structure blocks of all life forms. The Cell is also the basic life form of the church. Members participate in the life of the church by joining Cells. 

In Romans 8:28, it says… “And we know that all things work together for good and to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His Purpose.” God wants each and every one of us to have a sense of principle or visualization for his of her life. 

So, why not during this Cell Emphasis Weekend, all of us make an attempt in reaching out to the non-Christians. We could start approaching and win new souls with the intention that all should be able to enter the Kingdom of God. Keep on praying and have faith in Him. After all, a small gathering like Cell is a fundamental to a healthy church and a growing Christian. 

Well, for me, I am thankful I belong to a Cell Group … “I” Cell!

You probably have seen my email on this. Will put it up on this website..as a reminder. Details on the event:

Date: 25 March 2006

Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Venue: Sportsbarn. PJ (Map Attached)

 If you have friends who want to come for a kick about…bring them. Good way to establish some sort of friendship and bring them to cell!!!

PJ2 Cell Encounter (Cell-ebration Weekend)

Oikos night

Here is the tentative plan for Friday! It’ll be light and easy on the sharing, and heavy on the food. Meateaters will have access to extreme variety of ….ummm, meat, while vegetarians, well, we can chew lettuce I guess.

7:00 - start preparation, I’ll probably get off work earlier a bit and try to come by 6:30. No worries, Jeremy, I still have the keys!
8:00 - Everything should be ready, so hopefully we’ll get people coming in!
8:15 - Kick off with worship
8:30 - Ice Breaker 1
8:45 - Makan!!!
9:45 - Ice breaker 2
10:15 - Short sharing
10:30 - Ta Pau/ Desserts
Credits:

BBQ makan: Alvin & Allan
Drinks: Michelle
Desserts: EJ/Sue Kheng
Door Gifts: KH,Alvin,Justin
Worship: Angie
Guitar: Johann/Stevie
Sharing: Stevie
Icebreaker: EJ
Newcomers: Michelle/Siew Inn (make sure they fill up their details)

And finally, here’s some info from www.thefoodsection.com on what you do and don’t do in front of a kimchi dish…

Lettuce

DO tear off a small piece of lettuce (”face up,” with the bottom of the rib facing down) to wrap around the freshly grilled meat and make a bite-size sandwich.

DON’T grab an entire leaf of lettuce to form a Chipotle-caliber Korean burrito.

Banchan

DO taste the complimentary assortment of banchan, small plates of kimchi, pickled vegetables, and other side dishes typically brought to the table just after ordering.

DON’T try to stuff the banchan into your barbecue/lettuce sandwich. Leave them as side dishes to savor on their own. In other words, keep the sandwich simple: lettuce, meat, bean paste, shredded scallion or leek, and garlic (see below).

Garlic

DO eat the garlic, often served in a small bowl with sliced green chiles. First, roast the garlic atop the grill, and then add a slice to your barbecue sandwich, if you are so inclined.

DON’T eat the garlic raw. Our waitress commented, without explanation, that garlic is considered by Koreans to be more healthy when it has been cooked. It also tastes better grilled, not to mention the fact that you will be doing your significant other a favor by avoiding raw garlic.