By Khoo Tze Wei
One of the post-it notes read, ‘more glue’. Who wrote this and what does it mean? I wondered.
I was at the 2018 Youth Development Programme (YDP) that was held in December last year. In a lesson about congregational & personal vision, a task required each team to create a vision tree. The youths were tasked with envisioning what an ideal church would be on post-it notes. The post-it notes would then be pasted on mah-jong paper to form the shape of a tree, as pictured.
Plenty of familiar concepts and ideas were presented – a loving, growing church, great singing, good benevolence programmes; plenty of good thoughts on what young people want the church to strive towards. One in particular caught my eye – ‘more glue’.
“Who wrote this?”, I asked the team that prepared the vision tree.
“Me”, Amanda Yu quietly responded.
“What did you mean by more glue, Amanda?”
“Sunday School not enough glue (for arts and craft)”, she said to the amusement of those around us.
As I chuckled at her sweet child-like response, a deeper thought struck me. The church does require more glue.
We require more glue to bind us together as a church. God intended and requires that individual members be of one body (1 Cor 12:12-30). We ought to function cohesively as Jesus desired His followers to (John 17:20-23) and not be divided (1 Cor 1:10-13). A house divided against itself will not stand, said our Lord Jesus (Matt 12:25).
We are taught by scripture to have the same care for one another to the extent that we rejoice and suffer together (1 Cor 12:25-26).
“25 that there should be no [h]schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” 1 Cor 12:25-26
On the contrary, we are to note and avoid those who cause divisions and offenses (Rom 16:17-18).
“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.” Rom 16:17
This ought to be done that we may “with one mind strive together for the faith of the gospel” (Phil 1:27).
We need more glue. Funny how a 12-year-old can unwittingly teach us all a profound lesson that we need to work towards.
Ed’s Note: The Sunday School is happy to report that there is enough glue for all students.
