One of the comments that is sometimes made about Life Church is the lack of warmth among members. The majority who attend our worship services and other church activities hardly get to know the rest of the members. The greetings offered by worshippers to one another when the service ends have not done enough to generate more interaction and meaningful fellowship.

Although we know quite well that we ought to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34), and that we ought to be ‘fitly joined together’ as one body (Ephesians 4:16), we seem to have great difficulty in applying and practising this within our church. While this difficulty may be an indication of spiritual deficiency (which each of us must deal with personally), it may also be due in part to the natural fears that come from relating to people we don’t know.

It is evident that we need help to break or ‘melt the ice’ so that we can experience the blessedness of Christian fellowship described in Psalm 133 ("Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!") and be ministering one to another in the body of Christ (1 Peter 4:10).

During our church camp at Port Dickson 3 months ago, the camp committee prayerfully implemented a simple programme called WARM, to facilitate closer interaction between campers. By God’s grace, this turned out to be quite effective! At the close of the camp many testified how they were blessed through the opportunities they had to interact with others. Five of them have written their testimonies, and these are printed below.

This programme is not a once-off event but an ongoing one by church members for church members. It needs every Lifer’s commitment and participation in order to succeed – the commitment to initiate contact with other Lifers and to build solid Christian relationships. The acronym, "WARM" tells us the four steps to do this:

1. We mindset – (1 Peter 3:8) At the mental level, we must begin to think of ourselves as one family in Christ, with one common faith.

2. Actively engage – (Philippians 4:21; 3 John 14) At the physical level, we will connect with one another through making eye contact, smiles, greetings and handshakes.

3. Reach out – (Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 4:1,2) At the emotional level, we will communicate with one another with love and forbearance.

4. Minister – (Hebrews 10:24,25; 3:13; Colossians 1:9) At the spiritual level, we will seek to show care and concern to one another by exhortation, encouragement and prayer.

These four steps will be printed as a reminder on the back of namecards which will be placed in the card-holders of our church pews. At the end of each service, each worshipper will take a namecard, fill in his or her name, and exchange it with someone seated nearby. As they get to know each other they will record what they learn on the namecard. This will help us get to know someone new every week. The more namecards collected, the better, as long as we all make it a point to remember the people that we have got to know!

Please look out for more details which will be given at the worship services, be ready to participate diligently, and most of all, pray that the Lord will help us to become a warm church for His glory!

—CS

PRIOR TO THE WARM PROGRAMME, I hardly knew anyone outside my own fellowship group. Sunday after Sunday, I saw the same familiar faces, but I was too shy to exchange greetings with them beyond smiles or nods.

The WARM programme has been a platform to get to know these familiar faces better, now I know many of them by their names, how they were converted, how they came to church and other details. In case of forgetfulness, writing down these details on the WARM cards had helped me remember them better.

At first, the WARM programme sounded a little unnatural or superficial to me. However, since I started on it, it had helped me to go beyond my Asian self-consciousness and get to know people better at a deeper level. Thank God for this opportunity to exercise the ‘One Another Principle’ towards God’s people. – Mei Li

WHEN I FIRST FOUND OUT about the WARM programme I felt that it was a bit ‘Lame’ or ‘Boring’. A few days later I realised that the WARM programme was not only just for fun, but to know people better. Here is one example that made me appreciate this activity: a person from LTF asked me to go up on stage and share about the person I met and two new things I now know about this particular person. It got more interesting as time went by and soon I was exchanging cards with a lot of people and getting to know more about them.

Finally, I managed to fill up most of my empty cards and I was happy and excited. I would encourage everyone who is reading my testimony to exchange cards more often, not only during church camps, but also before or after church. Get to know your friends better and also other people whom you have not met before. – Darren Foo

THE EXPERIENCE of the "WARM" programme at our recent church camp was a delightful one.

1. It is a means to get to know more people whom we don’t know and to know those whom we know, yet "don’t know."

2. It serves as a notebook which helps to refresh my memory in remembering those whom I have spoken to.

3. It is a very friendly and non-intrusive approach. It offers opportunity to interact with one another.

4. It generates an interest in knowing and caring for those who are our neighbours. It is definitely better than a "Sunday handshake".

It is a great programme. I strongly believe this programme will benefit our church. Knowing ten more people per year will be a reasonable achievable target for me. May God bless our effort as we try to reach out to others. – Shirley Chew

"WE MINDSET, ACTIVELY ENGAGE, REACH OUT AND MINISTER PROGRAMME" was what I saw on the cards that were first distributed during the church camp. After reading the instructions telling me to record down 2 things about that person, I began to feel sceptical – was this going to work? I mean, there were about 300 campers, it would be impossible (and awkward) to start conversations with those people I don’t even know, let alone find out 2 things about them. However, God was gracious in that after the distribution and instructional talk, a woman came up to me and gave me her card! "Wow!" I thought, "She is really enthusiastic about getting to know people, people who are not her peers! Hmm, maybe this could work."

This incident helped me to open up to many others (around 60?) who came after that. I even got to know my friends better! The WARM Programme has taught me to go out of my comfort circle and go beyond the age gap to explore different levels of friendship. I did not even know that I could have some common interests with someone who is not my age. It is comforting to know that "I am not alone".

Remembering the camp theme, "Fitly Joined Together" and Ephesians 4:16, that we need the increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love, in that we have to take the first step to get to know each other (increase of the body) and from there to edify the body of Christ in love (of itself in love).

And one last thing, if WARM could work for me, it can work for you! God bless! – Jun Ng

I JOINED LIFE B-P CHURCH about 2 years ago. I thank God for bringing my husband back to church; he left this church for almost 20 years. This is my first time attending church camp. My roommate also attends the same Ladies Bible Study with me every Wednesday and we got along well in the church camp.

The WARM programme was very useful to me. It helped me to know the church members by name because church-going in itself does not provide many opportunities for members to fellowship with one another. It also gave me the chance to share with them my testimony about how my husband came back to the Lord (especially useful for reaching out to non-believers).

This programme has given me the benefit of reaching out to other people, and also the chance to encourage one another and to pray for their needs. I thank God that I have learned a lot of things from this church. – Lynda Kwan

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"For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21)

Baptised 43 years ago, he has served Christ faithfully as an elder of Life B-P Church: as a Sunday School teacher, as the Chairman of the Board of the Far Eastern Kindergarten, as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Far Eastern Bible College, as a Preacher at various Tamil B-P Services (at Life, Johor Baru, Kelapa Sawit and New Life), and as the Advisor of the Life Church Missionary Fellowship.

His life has been a godly influence to many Lifers and accomplished much for God’s kingdom. May the Lord comfort his wife, Elizabeth, as well as his children, Malcolm and Suzanne and their respective families, with the blessed assurance that our beloved Elder is now safe in the arms of Jesus.

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1) Those who are from other B-P Churches transferring their membership to Life Church at the 56th Anniversary Service in Oct, please see Rev Wong today to fill up an application form.

2) The Sunday Evangelism for September will be held on the 4th Sunday (24 Sep) instead of the 3rd Sunday (17 Sep).

3) Sunday Lunch Fellowship: Lunch Coupons for the Sunday Lunch on 17 Sep will be on sale today at $2.50 a packet (vegetable rice, tomato rice and mee goreng).

4) "In Green Pastures": Daily Devotional by J.R. Miller, Vol 4 (Oct-Dec). Now available at the front counter. The same devotions are available online at http://www.lifebpc.com/devotions .

5) Collection of Car Decal. Please collect it at the reception counter, if you have not done so.

6) Estate Management Officer (EMO): The church has a vacancy for this position. Those who are interested may email their CV for more details.