Go for God

Yesterday I visited an English speaking congregation reaching out to all English speakers in HKSAR. The name of this church is called The Vine Christian Fellowship. Its congregation consists mostly of English speaking Chinese, some born locally, while others born overseas. There are some Africans, Americans, British ex-pats, and other foreigners who call HKSAR home.

The church is led by two senior pastors and their wives: Tony and Drusilla Read, and John and Sandra Snelgrove. They have been in Hong Kong since the 80s. I've met John and Sandra during Hillsong conferrence last year, and though yesterday I didn't get a chance to say hi, I saw their congregation.

I visited their 6pm service. Asking around, I found out that this church has probably been around for 6-7 years now, and now has about 700 people. They have three services on Sunday, a vibrate youth group for teenagers, and an amazing young adult group known as One-Eighty. I visited One-Eighty on saturday, but didn't have the time to stay for long, but what I saw was a group of passionate post-teen young people who are absolutely for Jesus, and loves each other as well as visitors like me. I spoke with four people in their reception area which they call 'the lounge', where it is a culture for people to 'hang out' immediately after the service. Most of the worship team members also attend One-Eighty, and this church has just recently released a live recording of their own songs!

They had being doing Reinhard Bonnke's "Full Flame" series of sermons, and had being doing so since the beginning of this year. This year is the year where they as a congregation are going to "go for God". Though I only caught a glimpse of what that means, I do get the feeling that this church is going to step up its effort in leading people to Christ. Apart from the push in evangelism, it is also going to step up in its effort to make firm disciples of Christ. They have printed personal journals for everyone in the church, as part of going through the entire Bible together this coming year.

Leaving the church, I got a distinct feeling that this is sort of what OCF should be like. Indeed, as I explained it to my aunty, this church is like an enlarged version of what OCF can become. Let me be as bold to say that this is what OCF will be, if only God is allowed to work through the lives of faithful people willing to just "go for God". This church, like OCF, can be said to 'cater' for a niche group in a strictly economic sense. Just as English speakers in Hong Kong are a small part of the whole population, so too is OCF whose mission is to reach the University campus' through out Australia, with an emphasis on overseas students. Just as this church is pre-dominantly young people who are passionate for God, so too is OCF. But I believe that OCFers in general needs to be even more passionate than we already are, and take up our Cross like our Lord. Each of us needs to rise up to a newer level.

Why not make this year the year to 'go for God'?