Here are some feedback that I get on Cell Conference:
1)    Is this just another strategic change to try something?
2)    What so special about this new way compared to the old way?
3)    Why is this necessary?
4)    Is this a very regimented formula to get numbers into the church?

And a whole lot more.

I know some of you might have questions on this ‘strategic change’ in the church. Some may question the effectiveness of these changes. Some question why the church keeps having conferences and activities. Some question which direction the church is going etc.

It’s ok to have questions, really, and I’m sure our pastors welcome them. What’s not ok is to have a preconceived notion in your mind that this is just another conference without any thrust, without any direction, just there for the sake of being there. I think it’s very sad to find Christians, especially those currently in ministries, closing themselves from accepting God’s blessings and church vision. To me, that’s just pride, and I think it’s tough for that person to remain in ministry is he is not willing to catch the vision.

Cell Conference is simply about this: The Ministry of Reconciliation.

That’s right. It’s not about a set of things to do, or not to do. It’s about understanding why we minister, why we come to church, why we serve. Most of us don’t understand it. Most of us figure, hey, I’m paying back to the church for the good things it did for me. Or hey, there’s something I can do so I’ll slot in. Or hey, it keeps me on my toes in terms of spiritual walk. Or hey, there’s where my talents are. In fact, all of the above would be correct, but the encompassing reason why we serve isn’t about us, or the church, or the need, or the gifts. It’s about having the ministry of reconciliation.

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-20:

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Here are the keys:

1)    God initiated the reconciliation

God changed the relationship between us. He made us friends again, not enemies. We didn’t do anything on our part to deserve it, and we can’t do anything to justify or reconcile ourselves to God. God accomplished reconciliation through Christ, not by anything we did. So when we serve and minister, it’s not about reconciling yourself to God. It has already happened! A done deal, at the cross. In v21, it says BE reconciled. The word BE means that the reconciliation has already occurred and we must decide to accept it. The offer is on the table, we need to just sign it!

2)    We must spread the news of reconciliation

This is not an option. This is a must. If God reconciled you, you must bear the news of that reconciliation. The reconciled becomes agents of reconciliation. Note, we do not reconcile man to God, but simply tell people about it. We are familiar with Romans 10:14-15:

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

As ministers, we are the bearers of the news. So when we serve, we shouldn’t be thinking only of hey, how can I use this talent? Hey, that’s a superb song I want to try out; hey, I just have to smile and shake hands when I usher; hey, I just want to help the kids and show what a great fellow I am; hey, I just want to offload my pastors a bit here etc.

As ministers, whatever you are doing, you are called to be bearers of the news of reconciliation. That means we need to find ways to tell them of the good news, to evangelise, to show Christ love. When we look at that fundamental, all the technicalities and questions of the Cell Conference will come down to: What can we do better to be more effective in our reconciliation ministry?

Until we understand that fundamental, we will be forever questioning our roles in life, the vision of the church, the direction of our leadership. We will serve and be tired, we will be uncommitted, we will lack the desire. That’s why spiritual parenting, mentorship are terms that are going to be vital as we grow. It’s not a numbers game to be the biggest church. But it’s about telling people about the reconciliation to God, and discipling them to tell others the same good news.

So I pray you will come to the conference with an open heart and mind and leave your preconceived ideas and prejudices behind, and I am 100% certain the Holy Spirit will impress on you personally. I will see you there! (especially my cell members haha!!)

Leading up to the Battle of the Woks – cooking competition between our cell and our mother cell (led by Kelvin Chee) on Saturday 12 July 2008, I had a spiritual compulsion to share on the relevance of the event, and in particular the meaning of the word “oikos”. The following was shared during our cell meeting on Friday 11 July 2008.

Oikos is a Greek word for “house” or “household”. From a biblical perspective, this term describes the basic building block of society – one which is made of individuals, forming a family unit which in its multiple form creates a community and hence a society. Narrowing this down requires each of us to look at the existence of our personal community thereby creating and defining the boundary where we move comfortably within those we acknowledge as family, friends, colleagues and the like.

Why is this important? How does this tie in to the Great Commission of Matthew 28 which specifically commands “go and make disciples of all nations”? Shouldn’t we be less micro focused but more universally attuned? I think you will find that what it takes is a simple step of faith of reaching out and God taking care of the rest. Indeed I quote Neil Armstrong (in 1969) when he made his descent to the Moon’s surface and spoke his famous line “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.

i) Peter and Nathanael (John 1: 40 – 48)

In just 8 short verses taken from the Book of John, we discover how Peter and Nathanael came to know Jesus. Peter, as we know is the brother of Andrew. Both Andrew and John, who were already devout followers of John the Baptist had immediately left the Baptist to follow Jesus when John the Baptist had proclaimed about Jesus being “Lamb of God” (verse 37). Amazingly the first thing Andrew did was to seek out his brother Peter and told him “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ) and he brought him to Jesus (vv 41 -42). This is the remarkable thing – the news was too good for Andrew to keep all to himself so he hurriedly went to find the one person who was so dear to him – his brother, Peter and Andrew led Peter to Christ. Peter was Andrew’s oikos. I would even go so far to infer that without Andrew, Peter may never have been one of Jesus’ disciples.

In a similar context, verse 43 describes how Jesus sought out Philip. Philip had also been in the wilderness with John the Baptist and before returning to Galilee, Jesus sought him out and invited him to join the other disciples. And just like Andrew before him, Philip wanted to share this with his friend, Nathanael so he went to look for him (verse 45) and told him “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth”. Nathanael was doubtful at first (verse 46) but when Jesus affirmed His position as Son of the Living God, Nathanael exclaimed “Rabbi you are the Son of God – the King of Israel”. Here is a biblical example that friendship can provide the most fertile soil for evangelism. Nathanael was Philip’s friend – his oikos and it is through Philip, that he met Jesus.

John MacArthur in his book “Twelve Ordinary Men” wrote the following – “When the reality of Christ is introduced in a relationship of love and trust that has already been established, the effect is powerful. And it seems that invariably, when someone becomes a true follower of Christ, that person’s first impulse is to want to find a friend and introduce that friend to Christ. That dynamic is seen in Philip’s spontaneous instinct to go and find Nathanael and tell him about the Messiah.”

Andrew’s and Philip’s actions set forth a chain of events. They both sought out one person who was close to them to share the news and that’s all it took.

ii) Matthew – the tax collector (Matthew 9:10 – 13)

I used to work in a tax division of a large accounting firm and when new introductions were made, I always reply that “I work in tax”. Inevitably, I got similar reactions from many “So you work for the tax authority and collect taxes, is it?” It’s funny that most presumed the worst of the kind of work I did and usually after careful elaboration (on my part), many didn’t view me as an enemy instead:->

There is a common saying – Only two things are certain in life, death and taxes. To a very large extent, we have no control over death, but taxes, well, that’s a different story altogether. I mean who in their right mind welcomes it? Salary, which sounds so generous in gross terms, seems so meagre after those wretched monthly tax deductions. We all grumbled about how the government uses taxpayers’ monies. From a monetary perspective, taxes are just bad news for all of us.

In walks Matthew, the tax collector. Tax collectors are hated by many and considered the scums of the earth. Not only do they collect on behalf of the Romans (a nation which had defeated Israel and occupied the country), these imbeciles collected more than was due and became rich from extortions. So you can imagine everyone’s surprise, least of all the disciples, when Jesus said to Matthew “Follow me and be my disciple” (verse 9). Not only did Jesus invite Matthew to follow him, He asked this “scum of the earth” to be his disciple How preposterous is that! And to add further insult to injury, Jesus accepted Matthew’s invite to dine at his house. The Pharisees were up in arms and in fact jeered at Jesus for eating together with Matthew and his guests, other tax collectors and other disreputable sinners (verse 11) - “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?”

I want to bring up two things here: Firstly, Matthew’s guests at the dinner and secondly, Jesus’ response to the Pharisees. Verse 10 indicates that Matthew also invited his fellow colleagues to the dinner – ie other tax collectors PLUS other disreputable sinners. I am highlighting this not because there are other sinners at the table (although this is the heart of Jesus’ ministry – verse 12 refers) but to address who we associate with and those we consider our oikos. Matthew, being a tax collector, will hang out with his own kind – they were his friends, his colleagues, his oikos. So if he had a dinner party, naturally these guys would be invited as well. Matthew was elated beyond belief that he has been chosen by Jesus, to follow Him and to whom will he share this if not with his friends.

Within this environment, Jesus was able to minister collectively to Matthew and his friends. It was a strategic move by Jesus to seek out Matthew and in doing so he was able to cast a wider net. Verse 12 - “Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do.” And he added in verse 13 “For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners”. Jesus didn’t care that the religious leaders (may be) offended. His sole purpose was to reach out to sinners and He found Matthew, a sinner, who was willing to share what he himself has received – the forgiveness of his sin when he chose to follow Jesus and became his disciple.

iii) Cornelius, the Gentile (Acts 10:21 -27)

The 3^rd passage was taken from the Book of Acts 10 which tells the story of a Roman army officer named Cornelius. It is an amazing story where God showed Peter that He intended for the gospel to be offered to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. This is significant because up until this point in time, Peter’s ministry had been to the Jews only. But first, God had to deal with Peter’s prejudice against the Gentiles (vv 9 – 16). God gave him a vision of a large sheet which was let down by its four corners holding all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds. Peter was instructed to kill the animals and eat them but Peter refused declaring that he had never eaten anything which is considered impure and unclean by the Jewish laws. God rebuked him and said “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean”. In the subsequent verses we discover exactly what the Lord meant – He wanted Peter to reach out to Cornelius, who although was a Gentile, he was a God fearing man, gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. The Lord looks at the action of man, and not what the man calls himself. And it was Peter who affirmed that salvation is meant for all when he said “I see very clearly that God shows no favouritism. In every nation, he accepts those who fear him and do what is right” (verse 34).

Cornelius, in preparation for Peter’s visit to his house, gathered all his relatives and close friends (verse 24) – this guy basically invited EVERYONE he knew and cared about to come to his house to listen to what Peter had to share and say. And in doing so, the Holy Spirit fell on those (the Gentiles) who were listening to the message and they began speaking in tongues and praising God. Acts 10 is noteworthy because it describes the conversion of the first Gentiles to Christianity, that being Cornelius and his entire oikos.

All three stories have their biblical merits but in my personal opinion, the last story has the most clout over our lives. This is largely because we live in a society which is ripe with prejudices, whether the issues are gender, size, religion, background or wealth related. Society dictates so much of our thinking and we forget that our behaviour should be in line with the Bible; that God looks to the heart of men and that salvation is meant for all.

For me, nowhere else in the Bible encapsulates this better than Romans 10: 9 -15

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with Gods, and its by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard of Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? And how can anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring Good News!””

Matthew 28 gave all of us the authority to be the messenger. In the three examples above, God, in his infinite mercy, followed this command through by showing just how this can be achieved. Start small and who knows where it will lead. Begin the sowing with your oikos and God will give you greater confidence as you cast your net wider

Remember, salvation is not just meant for you and I; it is meant for all.

Text: ACTS 18:24-27

We are first introduced to Apollos, a Jew from Alexandria. This is important for a few things: Alexandria was in Egypt, where there was a huge contingent of Jews, but also, aside from Rome, it was probably the most important city in the Roman empire. It was the city of learning. Hence, Apollos was a different breed from Paul. Paul wasn’t very attractive, had afflictions, but Apollos was very very charismatic. Very persuasive, and no doubt, very handsome. He was also very knowledgeable in the scriptures.  Because he could pursue education in Alexandria, we can assume he was a wealthy man or from a wealthy family. He had a combination of:

1)     Education

2)     Knowledgeable on the OT Scriptures

3)     Instructed in ‘The Way’

4)     Spoke Passionately

5)     Spoke Accurately

When you have a guy who is balanced with passion, humilty and wisdom, you go a long way. Here are some other characteristics of Appollos:

1. He was ready to work.

In fact, in v26, he doesn’t muck around waiting for opportunities or people to ask him stuff. He goes straight to the plow and work. Man, that’s motivation! And he goes to the toughest place of all, the Jewish Synagogues. Even Paul debated there and locked heads with the leaders. Apollos said, “let’s get the main stuff done.”

A lot of us linger here and there in terms of service. “I’m not ready spiritually because I would feel like a hypocrite” is the favourite tag line. This might apply to worship or music instruments in terms of skill wise, or frontline, pastoral and leading ministry, which requires training and preparation. But what about ushering, children’s, or even helping out at a registration for church, or just cleaning up the church on a Saturday morning? Or what about helping out with the food during conferences and stuff. “Not ready spiritually??” That’s a real insult to God because he has made you physically capable to do many things but you’re throwing back your spiritual excuses in His face.

Do we need to have a certain standard of holiness when we serve? Of course. We can’t be in ministry one day and the next be found in the gutter stoned drunk or chain smoking Marlboros. But the moment that we become Christians, whether we serve or not, we fall under the same standard. So it’s not a matter of “I need to be spiritual before I can serve”, it’s a matter of “I need to pursue purity because He has called me out of darkness into his light.” Service and ministry is the outward evidence of that faith, not the conclusion of it. In the book of Acts, you see believers serving each other when they came to the church. They didn’t have to wait till someone measure their spiritual level and say, good to go. They didn’t complicate matters, they simply saw a need and did it.

Was Apollos 100% ready? Not really. He was equipped, trained, and he knew his calling. He knew his gifts. But he wasn’t 100% ready. No one is. One issue with Apollos was that he had an incomplete revelation of Christ. He perhaps knew what he had read, but until then, the Holy Spirit concept was still new. In fact, he wasn’t with the disciples in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came and he never thought about the Holy Spirit.

In fact, in Chapter 19, Paul returned to Ephesus (Apollos have gone off to Corinth/Achaia) and found some disciples didn’t know about the Holy Spirit, only the baptism of John, which is the baptism of Repentance, i.e that they could repent their sins, and good works are the result to appease the father (Luke 3). His baptism wasn’t about Jesus death and resurrection, but simply a baptism to prepare the way of the one greater than him. He was preparing the hearts of the people to no longer require living sacrifices for the remission of sins. His baptism was breaking tradition, a new anointing was coming.

So Apollos knew that, but Paul understood the new Holy Spirit revelation and baptized the Ephesian disciples (who probably were taught by Apollos before).

2. He was teachable.

One of Apollos greatest characteristics is found in V26b.

When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

Prisc and Aquila are church leaders in Ephesians, partners of Paul in the ministry. Key words here: INVITED. They didn’t force Apollos to come. He could have turned it down but he didn’t. He willing went and there was explained the way of God more adequately. Perhaps they thought him the resurrection of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus.

And another key here is that they invited him to their home. Now, remember, Apollos was a very educated man, from the education city of Alexandria. He was eloquent, imposing, very impressive and I’m sure he had a few fan clubs as well, and very popular (so popular that in Corinth, people were divided between him and Paul). But he was humble enough to take instructions from tentmakers (Acts 18:2-3). That’s a modern day equivalent of a pair of hawkers on the street instructing a trained doctor on medicine.

He could have stopped and said, “Well, teach me here in the synagogues. We have all the facilities, the powerpoints, the projectors, the air cond here.”

But no, he not only took up the invitation, but he went to their home, probably several times for his education. Imagine what his ‘fans’ would have thought. Imagine what the Jewish leaders would have said to mock him and undermine his teachings.

But he didn’t care about what people said. He wanted to learn and he was instructed MORE ADEQUATELY. What humility!

3. He was spiritually supported

In v27, it says, he was encouraged by the brothers in Ephesians, and he was well recommended.

Apollos also had support from the church, so important in a ministry. Apollos wasn’t a cowboy who  went and did things on his own. He identified with the local church and when he desired to go to Achaia to preach, he had the recommendation of the church in Ephesus.

Identification with a body of believers is important. Membership in the body of Christ allows other brothers to vouch for you, to support you and more than that, to encourage you in your ministries.

4. He wasn’t spiritually lazy.

This is also a very important thing for Christians. We submit to God, and if there are occasions where you have a specific prompting  to do things different than what your leader suggests, you should follow the Holy Spirit. See, leaders won’t know the specific will of God in your lives all the time. We cannot be spiritually lazy and always depend on leaders for nourishment!! In 1 Corinthians 16:12

Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the opportunity.

Paul respected Apollos decision, knowing that Apollos was being directed by the will of God. As Christians we must understand leaders are our guide. Their every word may not be the rule of your life, but you should follow Christ’s prompting.

Of course, that is not to say that in everything, we use the Lord’s name in vain to escape ministry.  Shall I serve as an Usher: oh, let me pray about it. Shall I help out at JC, oh let me pray bout it. It seems strange that when we decide whether to go to a nightclub or a pub or do sports or watch movie or play football/golf instead of going church we never pray about it. Why NOT??

Don’t lie to the Spirit and use God as a cop out for ministries that you know you are gifted at and you know you can help out. Apollos never did. He went to Corinthians and was a great help there ( Acts 18:27).

Perhaps we can derive a conjecture that he didn’t want to go yet because the Corinthians perceived him wrongly.

Read 1 Corinthians 3. His charisma might have created a division as some people have started to hero worship him. Corinthians was a church with a very worldly view. They had liberal rules on sexual sins etc, so in a very worldly sense, they start to compare their Christian leaders and were divided. It was perhaps Apollos intention that he only returned after the divisions has been healed properly by Paul.

Conclusion

Apollos represented many desirable qualities that Christians should strive for. He embraced sacrifice and gave up his wealth and comfort to go and preach. He embraced his gifts and used it as best he could without giving excuses not to serve. Finally he embraced mentoring and being taught by lower class citizens, humble tentmakers teaching a graduate from Alexandria’s universities.

Apollos had two ingredients so vital for ministry: Passion and Humility. With passion, he gave his best for the Lord. With humility, he learned to set aside pride and stand to be corrected. Many times we offer ourselves in ministry and believe we are so passionate about something. But when there is a preceived rejection or offense by another brother or sister, we leave the ministry and church, unwilling to learn what has to be taught. Let our service be unto the Lord, that we may mature more in Christ and seek to please Him in our works and ministries. Accept correction when it is due, but do not take things too personally and be easily offended.

We later found out that Apollos continued his work as Paul’s companion and became the bearer of the letter to Titus, and later served the church in Crete (Titus 3:18), becoming a major influence in the early Christian church. Tradition according to Jerome, implied that he stayed in Crete until the rift in Corinth was completely healed, before returning there to become a bishop.

Our names are brands.

It’s like Nike or MacDonalds, or Cisco or Louis Vuitton. They are associated with different things, and different people associate different things to it. To some, the list above represents: Quality, Success, Stability and Class. To me, it represents Lousy Golf Shoes, Fatty food, Expensive routers and EVEN MORE expensive bags, but that’s just me. I’m not important to these brands because I’m not a customer. But the important ones are their customers.

Likewise, when someone mentions your name, whether in church or at work, what are the first thoughts of it? What do people think when they think of you?

You can sit here and just say, “Well, I don’t care what you think of me, if you don’t like me, who cares?”

Like it or not, when you signed up to be a christian, your customer is the entire world. You are associated with Jesus Christ, and from there, people make judgement on you as they pass judgement on what you believe in. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 says:

“You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

And in Philippians 1:27:

“Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,”

“Why should I live to what people expects of me?” This isn’t simply living to people’s expectations, it’s conducting ourselves worthy of the gospel of Christ. Settle that first; and ‘what people think of you’ will settle by itself. Here are a few thoughts on our branding:

1. Each experience determines the progression/regression of your brand.

With every experience a person has with you, your branding either gets better or it deteriorates. Run through the following negative brands and we will find that we all identify with some of them:

Always Late; Give your word to do something and don’t do it; Lie and cheat; Manipulative; Moody; Rude; Hot Tempered; Impatience; Takes credit for him/herself; Do things that only benefit onself; selfish; undependable; money minded, unapologetic etc

Likewise when we do the opposite (i.e positive attitudes and habits), our brands progresses.

2. Be Self Aware of your Brand

There’s a whole lot more ways that we can negatively brand  ourselves even without knowing it. We need to be more self aware of what we’re doing, and change slowly, to build a better brand image. Not a lot of people are going to be candid and tell you where you need to improve, especially in church context. Usually, they’ll give you one chance, two chances, and if you’re not up to it, that’s it. The job, the new project, the ministry goes to someone better.

I used to be a hopeless case in punctuality; as in I would saunter into practice 20 minutes late. Once, twice, thrice…ok, but as it becomes a habit, people associate you as an utterly undependable person. That’s bad image. But I’m slowly changing, and making better judgement of time. Not because we want to impress people, but because we carry the Brand of Jesus around us.

Another time, I promised Pastor Julie to help out at the kids service during church camp. Last Day, and I really wanted to stay to listen to the sermon. Really, and Pastor Julie didn’t call me or remind me or whatever. I could just say that I forgot. But I had to protect the ‘brand’ and so I went anyway to help out, and was blessed.

3. Your word becomes a contract

As the brand-name improves and become more dependable, you become the go-to guy (or gal). When you give your word, everyone knows you’re gonna try your very best to get it done, come rain, come shine. So your word becomes an assurance. But the more we are fickle or easy on our promises knowing that we cannot commit or may not fulfill it, the worse our brand-name becomes and our word becomes cheap and almost laughable.

4. We will be categorised differently

Without us knowing it, we’ll sometimes be an A-list brand, sometimes a B, C-list brand. Management, leaders, even friends subconsciously run through the list of names, bringing up past experiences and make decisions based on it. If you’re known for being unable to focus on your work; you’ll be moved down, marked out. If you’re known for being disruptive to the team, it will be difficult to get any headstart in anything.

5. Every Brand needs a chance

Finally,  everyone deserves a chance. Another go. I think as Christian leaders, we become so caught up with doing things and getting the best people to do it, we sometimes forget that we must also reconcile people. As how Barnabas gave John Mark a chance, when Paul wouldn’t; we need to re-adjust our threshold of tolerance and understanding now and then. As christians, we must have more threshold to tolerate others, and less threshold to test others. Meaning, more grace should be given to other people’s mistakes, and on our side, try to err less and change for the better.

I obviously have a long way to go before I get more bad habits out and develop good, positive ones, but through the grace of God, I hope to get there one day, and change whatever negative brand image I have, in work, church and life.

Last Saturday’s event was a smash! We eventually lost to Kel’s cell, but only by 0.8 or 0.9 points. Really close call! Here are some pics:

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