This cell group decided to replace their weekly meal fellowship with serving at the Dialect Church instead.
Contributed By Christopher Ow
Members from cell group W189 served together at the Dialect Church service. PHOTO: Chantal Chan.
Tuition center owners, Stanley Yew, 39, and his wife Jaques Toh, 38, are cell group leaders in City Harvest Church. Each week, Yew and his group, W189, would meet up and bond over a meal or at an outing. But on Sunday, July 16, they decided on a cell group outing with a difference: they would adopt the duties of Dialect Church personnel together as a cell group.
Yew and his cell group are the first volunteers in the Cell Group Serving Ministry, which was birthed from the concept that “a cell group serving together, will bond together.” The ministry encourages whole cell groups to collectively serve; this helps forge strong relationships between members, and allows each to gain invaluable experience in ministry.
Weekly duties in the Dialect Church include clearing chairs in the basement hall to provide space for wheelchair-bound elderly, managing the elevator, assisting with busing of the elderly, packaging and distributing meals, ushering, welcoming and befriending the elderly.
Yew’s cell group is made up of many families with children aged 7 to 14, as well as single working adults. That Sunday, each member came prepared to serve in whatever capacity was needed to help ensure the dialect service ran smoothly.
Melinda Kong, 39, a marketing entrepreneur, was in charge of the elevators that week. “It was a little stressful being in charge of the lifts. I never knew that there was so much to consider in this area. But I thoroughly enjoyed serving the elderly!”
Francis Lim, 39, a business owner of an automobile part company, praised the idea of collective service and said that more cell groups should engage their members to do the same. “Sacrificing one’s time to serve the elderly is certainly worthwhile.”
There is no minimum age requirement to serve, says Krystine Tan, a Dialect Church zone supervisor. “Apart from the aforementioned cell group, we do have regular young helpers—children aged 3 to 6—whom we brief and train to perform simple tasks such as placing offering buckets under chairs and other pre-service preparations.” These children are fully supervised by team leaders and helpers.
This new initiative in CHC has three purposes: to engage more members to participate in ministry, to help members develop a strong passion and love for the respective groups of people, and to create a platform for whole cell groups and even families, to serve together.
Does your cell group have a passion for the elderly, children or people with special needs? Why not serve as a group? Find out more from your cell group leaders.
