WELCOME to FCBC, God bless you!

Our tribe have been serving as the Hospitality Team for the past 3 sundays. I would like to share some reflections of my guys.

Both my HT duties were rather easy actually, being the frontliner. The first wk, we just had to help out at the hospitality counter, handing out bulletins and taking down names of the visitors. It was quite easy we had alot of people serving along side. But I tried to maximize my own utility by helping to hand out bulletins and reserve the tables for the guests.

3rd Sunday's was fruitful too. Same thing, we were frontliners but we were literally in front. Stationing outside the church was quite the experience for me. Although we had an umbrella each, it was still hot and I was perspiring profusely. In addition to the hot and humid weather condition, we had to smile at everyone passing us greeting them “WELCOME TO FCBC, GOD BLESS YOU!!!”, it was definitely harder than expected. Now I know how those people feel when they do that. The hard part was when those people we greeted just walk pass us without even smiling back appreciating our efforts. It was really diffcult to serve under those circumstances.

However, there was Junius next to me cracking all those jokes trying to go for the next person who walks pass. That was quite heartening. Followed by Narash, who came and asked us this question “What does it mean to serve people?” or something like that. That was when I really thought about what I was doing then. This was really service unto the Lord. Welcoming people to church, I can vision it, me welcoming people into God’s dwelling place, where people will experience God, so I immediately changed my mindset and decided to have a more cheerful delivery of my welcome message. After I went in, my back was all sweaty but I knew that it was service unto the Lord and with my sweat I will glorify God.

God is generous. I learnt that we mustn’t only receive from the Lord. Instead we should also learn to serve others, the different people we meet. That is also counted as service unto the Lord. Another lesson learnt is to be a good leader, u have to be a good follower.

- Darryl Boey
17 yr old, RJC student

Read on for more testimonies.

Serving the Lord, is it a chore or a very tiring thing to do? As for me, I find serving the Lord through the Hospitality Team such a joyous thing. Honestly, if I could do it every week I would. Despite, sacrificing a lot of your time, lunch, etc… I find serving the Lord in this manner brings a certain type of joy, which is unexplainable by words. In addition, I find serving the Lord is really an act of worship as it involves a certain form of hardship but the joy, which you receive from welcoming a new comer or a smile on a fellow brother/sister face makes it all worthwhile. Therefore, be encouraged to serve the Lord in the Hospitality Team =)

- Jonathan Sim

19 yr old, Temasek Poly

During the course of this 3 short weeks serving in the hospitality team, I felt that it was a rewarding experience and an enriching one. Having served in 2 areas of hospitality, namely, sector A and frontliners, it has helped me gain more public relations skills. It has also taught me how to rise to the occassion to take initiative and see to the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters in church. While serving as a frontliner, I have also learnt to always greet people with a BIG smile as it could easily make one's day and they will definitely feel welcomed! Although I've been serving many hospitality duties in school due to Student Council, the experience is different from what i felt in church and I look forward to this week's Hospitality duty and the duties to come in the future! ~Always serve with a cheerful heart! =)

- Joash Tay

17 yr old, TPJC student

Having done all 4 duties, with 3 different tasks (sector B, FnB, frontline), these are my reflections:

By pure logic and reasoning, it seems like a waste of time. i mean, sacrificing own time and effort to do something that doesnt appear to be important.

However, that statement couldnt be further from what i feel.

Although yes, time and effort has to be sacrificed, but it is not a waste of time. Serving god is never a waste of time. it is not about how we give with the intention of receiving from god, but give in respect and out of a thankful heart, a bit like tithes and offerings.

At first it seems like a useless job. standing outside in the hot sun greeting people as they enter. whats more as they walk in, the more we welcome them, it seems as if the more they dao us. but there was something narash said that i feel is really true. there may have been a few people who have been through a torturous week, where they may have faced rejection and sadness and discrimination. hence, this simple: HI! WELCOME TO FCBC! may have made them feel welcome, in the face of rejection, that truly, in God's house, there is refuge to earthly solace.

Another thing would be to treat each one of them as Jesus. there was a bible saying that spoke about this, in that caring for one another (neighbours) is akin caring for Christ. yes indeed, our motivation should not be about benefits, or about how if we dont come we'll get it from joshua teo, (haha) it should be God. serving others, is like serving god. hence, even though people around us may not seem to care about being welcomed to fcbc, but at the end of the day, how we have made them feel is not so important. what is more important is the condition and motivation of our hearts as we seek to serve Jesus. :)

- Kong Ming

17 yr old, TJC student