Shalom Youths! I Need You!

This troubles me. As i walked into church for YF today, i passed by riverlife and glanced inside. I just love their little, hang out space la. like a patio yet it's like... an open space where it's jus SO nice to hang around, chat, drink coffee in. sigh. for a split second again, i wished so hard Shalom had one of that. that we converted our outdoor carpark into something like that. :S but yeh, not good thots.

YF was alrite. sad attendance. wished we had more but i'm so glad for the core group that comes every week. it's refreshing to see that in the midst of such troubling times, there's still a bunch of strong willed and clear hearted people. they inspire and encourage me.

After YF and dinner, i was back in church waiting for a lift from Auntie Alicia and glanced over to riverlife again. Adrian, Yuan and I then broke out into a discussion as to why at 9pm, there were still youths there, hanging around, going home... basically fellowshippin. We asked ourselves what makes them come, want to come and be so bonded? why aren't our youths that fired up?

Adrian said it's about the open sharing and the sense of belonging. they feel closer and bonded. I said it's coz they have vibrant and emotional worship which leads to them also feeling closer coz they experience more extreme emotional poles together and grow thru encouragement between each other. No one's right... but the fact we all agreed on is that their hearts aren't like ours. ours seem cold, indifferent, routined... worship isn't the winning factor, neither issit the activities.

it's the hearts

what's with the hearts? what makes our youths not have the hearts for God or each other? why aren't our youths reaching out to each other, finding support within the church, finding love and belonging? Why can't i share my dreams with you and you with me?
I wanted to buy a new acoustic guitar soon. to change the idea of worship in people's minds. to bring in more lively [yet spiritually grounded] songs. to liven up the mood so worship is really sumthing of an offerin to God. and not sumthing that starts YF every week. Worship isn't songs... worship is response. and i jus dun feel it now. i look at CF and sumtimes, jus having worship can be good enuf. now why is that? why isn't that the case for church?

Shalom. in charismatic churches, they call this a revival. When they see something's wrong and want to change. i dun like the word so i'll call it an examining of the heart.

If you're a Shalom youth and you're reading this. ask yourself why you come for yf. why you don't. why aren't you feeling loved by the other youths, why aren't you loving each other. why aren't you lookin up to older ones, why aren't you helping younger ones. what is Christianity to you? what is Youth Fellowship to you. How do you want to change, what do you want to change.

This is your chair. pleading. begging you to listen. to hear and to cut your heart open. find the inner most deepest core. find it and set it right before it's too late.

Tell us, tell me. what you want us to do. we're not here to entertain you. but if you feel we're boring, mundane, routined, strict, informal, indifferent, unloving, biased, judgemental, harsh, comformists... tell us. we want to be a loving community. not a loveless community.

i ask you to heed this call. coz it's gonna be gone soon. i'm 20. most of my youth is gone. i look back and i realized how much i missed what my youth was. when i was sec1, 3... i enjoyed it so much [i still do now] but i dun feel you guys do. what made my youth so much more... [make me wanna come to yf] then it is now?

This is your chair. there's so much i can say, the rest is up to you. Please Shalom, love each other. i need you to be there for each other, to be people of God. to be ONE.