Queen's Road Cell

Winnie shared about pastoral and practical issues in the Youth MInistry as it tries to evolve to survive and be more effective in its role.  I noted how everyone loved being pastored and cared for by leaders but by nature were emotionally unready for any change, even if that change is intellectually perceived to be desirable! We continued discussion of some Christian clichés: 1.          “Judge not, that you be not judged” This is a very Biblical statement – it comes from the lips of Jesus! (Mt 7:1). It is often used as a reason for not making a statement about someone’s morality. ‘Judgement’ is withheld (or at least, unspoken), and this makes us seem very spiritual. Clearly Jesus does not intend for us to not exercise discernment between what is good and worthy and what is evil and unworthy. A few verses down (Mt 7:6) He tells us to identify ‘dogs’ and ‘pigs’ and to withhold spiritual treasures from them, and this would be impossible without discernment! The context of v.1

Edmund Chan speaks of the 4 purposes of mentoring as promoting: 1. Wisdom in thinking - a perspective based on Scripture 2. Humble boldness - a posture of brokenness, meekness and openness before God 3. Thoughtful, skilled competence - pragmatics to help us deal wisely with and not react to situations. 4. Power sourced from God that works in love We looked at Rom 12:1-2 to ask ourselves how we get the 'certain perspective' mentioned in the study.  Paul looks back at Romans 1-11, and he summarizes God's saving plan as 'mercies'. On the basis of those mercies, he then asks us to present our entire selves ("bodies") as living sacrifices. In contrast to dead sacrifices, all our lives - our actions, speech and thought - are to be surrendered to God. We are "living" also because we have obtained spiritual life through new birth, and are thus able to please Him by being "holy and acceptable". Verse 12:2 tells us how we can be accept

We started sharing about work situations and found encouragement in the devotion shared by MT and Selwyn about Daniel's (as in the book of Daniel) experiences in the workplace. This led to the question: "When is it right to leave a job?" We said that it would be right to leave when: 1. The job requires us to do something against the law of God. 2. The job habitually takes so much of our time that our church attendance, ability to serve and personal devotions are made impossible. We said that it was not wrong in itself to leave for a job with better pay, perks, position or people, but that the change of job would reveal our inner motives. A desire to leave with these things as a priority in our hearts would be wrong. Joyce shared that she would not leave a job ONLY because her boss was bad, but would look at many other factors. I thought that it would be a good time to talk about Christian cliches! 1. "God loves us unconditionally".  This is often paired