Why cg is important

Haha, thought might as well use my APEC holiday weekend to write this.

I guess many of you only got to know me when I was a semi-senior (sem3?) in IMU.
Let me tell you a secret.. haha.. ;)

When I was doing my SAM in Taylors, I was a really studious "kiasu" student. I was the kind of student who didn't go to church if I had a test on Monday. And I did not attend cell group at all. I felt going to church was enough, and if I was busy, as long as I prayed myself or read the bible a little it would be fine. After all God can hear us no matter where we are right?
I guess at the time, I was also practicing self serving Christianity where I would only want to hear sermons that were only relevant to me and not sermons about the church or community.

Even in my first semester in IMU/DUMC, I did not go to cell group! Haha. I only went once and then didn't go again even though Chris and Victor and some IMU seniors urged me to.
Again, I just didn't see the importance of going to cg. And frankly, during the one time that I went, I felt that we were just wasting time chatting/playing ice breakers and that I didn't really connect well with the people there. I had better things to do; namely..study for EOS 1 (nerd!)

I don't know what came over me in Sem2 but I started going regularly. And from then I got to know people better and started to be more involved. One of the turning points for me was going to Jackie Pullinger's Mission Conference; it changed my outlook...my selfishness and my purpose in life. It's from that conference that I told myself I didn't want to just hear a conference and not do anything..so I randomly (I have a tendency to email/call/sms randomly) called up Pastor Margaret and asked her where I could go and serve the underprivileged. That's when I started going down to Petaling Street on Saturdays.

Looking back, I can't believe I was so stupid to not go for cg earlier. How foolish I was to think that I did not need the support of people. I am also amazed at how God changed me; now I feel that cg cannot be divorced from Christianity. A person can only grow if he/she has the avenue to serve and more importantly, fellow Christians to cry, laugh and share with. Especially in DUMC, if one doesn't go to cg, he/she will be lost in the crowd of 2000+! :)

Of course I'm human too. There were times where I rushed to get word prepared on Friday afternoon or complained when I had to do last minute worship song sheets on Thursday night. Lots of times where I felt anxious and unsatisfied with the word that I was sharing because it was not impactful. Even more times where I felt I wasn't qualified to share because I myself was still struggling and fighting through the battles; eg: how to share about prayer when I myself don't understand or apply prayer properly in my life.

But I do want to say good work to all of you who have taken up the responsibility in running & being part of cg. I've learnt a lot from my failures, and those are lessons I'm thankful God taught me. I hope those who are new will be able to fit in and grow in cg. Don't be a nerd like me, because I really can't remember what I scored for exams but I still remember the experiences God taught me in IMU.

:)