Song and dance and cells

After a few of you guys have nagged me I’m writing a quick post tonight to let you know that yes, I’m still alive!
My life as are all of yours, is a bit hectic what with the Kalahari Konserttoer (a concert tour outreach hosted by NG Universiteitsoord) that I have to organize and being leader of the student church council. And, oh yes, I’m still studying (not that it would look that way, but hey).
There are a few interesting things that I would like to share with you though. Firstly, it’s the one of Kollegetehuis (my university residence in Pretoria) and the sêrrie competition. Sêrrie is a annual song and dance competition that the University of Pretoria has for all its residences. We are not that big on it, usually – the guys make a drinking event of it. Out of my five years connected with this res (and I’ve only been out 1 of these years), only 1 was done sober thus far.
Thus far?
Yes…but wait, there’s more. We are also not big on the whole dance moves-issue. You might wonder how one would do a compititon that involves this kind of thing without actually doing it – come to Kollege, they will show you how. But this year, it is different…
The competition is in 2 weeks time and because a few of you know us and our reputation, all I’m saying for now is that we ARE gonna surprise you this year…I will let you know of the outcome soon afterwards!
The second one is on cell groups and church denominations. I found it interesting the past few weeks to see the influence of a specific denomination on certain people in our residence and what these people do with it. This church has the motto to “win the lost at any cost” , but to me it looks like, at the moment, they are winning “Other churches’ people at any cost”. There are a few reasons for that, one being that they do not yet have a permanent building – they still hold their services in a tent – and they need people to give money for that. And it is easier to involve people who are already sympathetic to the whole idea of going to church than to invovle a newly saved person who has never been to church in his or her life. They also have a strong viewpoint that, no matter which congregation or denomination you go to (God will place you where He wants you or where it will be best for you), you MUST get involved. Now, I agree that it is good to get involved in a congregation. It is a place where you can make friends that shares (some of!) the same values as you and that whole bunch about being family and what not. It is good. But that doesn’t mean that someone who worships in private is not a christian any more. He or she makes it difficult for themselves, trying to stand alone in this crazy world, but in the end it still is between them and God.
That was my starting point with the cell groups in our residence in the first place: to be a space where a person who DOES NOT necessarily goes to A church can come and read Bible, pray and fellowship with other believers in an environment where they do not feel obligated to ANY denomination or congregation. It still is my starting point and we try our best to succeed in our goal (yes, I’m not alone in this, I find it good to be involved in a certain congregation!).
The thing is that we, unlike this certain believer-stealer church, don’t see the need to implore a congregation on the people but rather Jesus and His Kingdom. At the moment we are struggling a bit, but I’m sure it will work itself out, to one way or another.
Irony? The one guy that is the cell group leader in our res for this “opposition”, is the guy that works out the dance moves with me and my Dutch Reformed friend for the Sêrrie competition…
Something we can all pray about!!!