Lync @ St. Andrew's Cathedral

disappointed me very very much. ):

OKAY WAIT FIRSTLY I MUST SAY I STILL LOVE ST ANDREWS CATHEDRAL AND I MAY SOUND A BIT MEAN IN THIS POST BUT IT'S BECAUSE I WAS REALLY DISAPPOINTED AND NO OFFENCE TO ANYONE AT ALL OKAY!!!! I mean no matter what it's still a church and a place where people come together to worship God and have fun together, and how can that be bad?

Okay here goes. SUPER LONG POST.

I was looking so so so forward to Lync (Linking Youths with Christ) and I was looking super forward to today, but... it wasn't like what I had expected at all.

Everything's being done in the new place because the old one's, well uh, old. Thankfully they aren't tearing it down. If they tear down the old cathedral I'd cry my eyes out and climb to the top of the cross and cling on so they won't tear it down.

Well it was sort of like.. entering a totally new church, not SAC. I guess it's what most small youth services are like?Like, because it's quite a small group, everyone knew each other and it was like one big group of friends. It was nice of course.

So uh two guys called Matthew and Marcus came up to Jt and me, and I told them I knew Sarah (and Gabrielle from sunday school), and I told them that Sarah's birthday was the day before yesterday and they were like WHATTT!!!?!?!?! Hahahaha. Then I told them the last time I came here was Sunday School, and one of them (Can't remember who, Marcus I think) went "Oh I hated Sunday School man! Don't worry, Lync is much more fun."

In my mind I was like... what's wrong with Sunday School? Sunday School or Lync, we go there for the purpose of worshipping God and learning more about Him right? I mean, when I was in Sunday School I wasn't a strong Christian (at all) but I still enjoyed singing and doing worksheets and listen to the Sunday School teacher explain stuff about the Bible etc. We were learning more about God! How boring can that get? Okay maybe I'm a weird person. But I don't mind going for sermons you know, I mean the hymn singing ain't fun because there's no band or anything, but the pastor preaches a lot and you get to learn a lot, which really is the main purpose of going there. I go to church not to have fun, but to learn more about the Bible and God, because to me, that's fun. Am I weird? :/

Yeah there was singing and stuff, which was quite okay, but like it was quite a small group so it was very hard to get high and stuff, and only one person (excluding Jt) was raising her hands. I mean I don't mean that if you don't raise your hands you aren't worshipping God because I'm not high all the time either, but like, it's about how enthu the people are about praising God?
This pastor came out and spoke a bit. I'm really sorry, terribly sorry I'm saying this, but... I've a terrible impression of the pastor. I mean, I like old pastors, but he.... seemed like he didn't really have anything to say and was trying to crap out something to waste time. He talked about Matthew 1:23 about the Virgin Mary giving birth to a son who would be called Immanuel which meant "God with us" and then he talked about how that was what Christmas was all about and how the Jesus who was born was the same God who created the heavens and the earth (genesis 1:1 right?), the same God who existed before, you know, Jesus was actually born as a human? And about how amazing it all was and how significant Christmas was because of that, and I was like.... uh, yah, then?

Didn't strike me lah, basically. I mean, obviously we all know that Christmas is special because it was the day Jesus was born and his birth was predicted by the prophecies and he was God, sort of, right?

And then he said something I TOTALLY couldn't believe he said. He started saying something about Chew Chor Meng suffering from some terminal muscular disease thing that was very rare, and he was like.... saying something about how maybe it wouldn't have happened if he'd known God. Like WHAT?! I mean, well maybe that was true. But hello there are so many cancer/diseased patients out there who are Christian! Does that mean they don't know God? Well if Chew Chor Meng's disease really does have to do with God, it's still crap, because God can use the weak to teach the strong. It doesn't mean that God isn't with him if he's sick. Maybe it's a test of his faith? Maybe it's to show others that miracles can happen, when Chew Chor Meng prays and has faith and manages to live on a little longer than he's expected to, in hope? Maybe he isn't a Christian, and God wants him to reflect on his life, because of this illness, and convert, and become a believer before he dies? Even then, it's not like no Christians die of sickness. Come on. But it doesn't mean that God wasn't with them! Okay I don't know how to say this. BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN RIGHT?!

I'm sorry. I really am, I mean, I'm obviously in no position to critisize any pastor. But... really man.

Okay, and after that we played games (Christmas celebration!). We split up into groups, Jt and I went with Sarah and her group yeah. There was Don't Forget The Lyrics, where there were 3 categories: Fast holy songs, slow holy songs, and unholy Christmas songs.XD Then there was Taboo, where like one person from a group (Sarah went up!) had to make the group guess a word or short phrase.
Some guy: You fry -
Some other guy from his group: Eggs!
Like that yah.

And then each group was given a plate of biscuits and peanut butter and some other spread and we were supposed to make houses with them. Ours was totally the nicest k!

Okay, then here was the weirdest: We were supposed to... ballroom dance. I was made to pair up with someone called Jonathan who couldn't do the ballroom steps for nuts and kept telling me "aiyoh just anyhow left right lah! Hahahaha" and Jt was paired with some guy. He looked like the girl and she looked like the guy can! HAHA

Okay, anyway, I mean like.. the games are supposed to be for celebrating Christmas right? And Christmas is to celebrate Jesus's birthday right? But the games seemed to have nothing to do with God at all (except for the Don't Forget the Lyrics one).

Like... I don't know. To me Lync was just like.. a big group of friends getting together to play and laugh and uh, sing a few Christian songs and pray a bit. But everything didn't really seem sincere, the people seemed more bent on going there to have fun rather than to worship God. I mean, if I were a part of their group, it'd probably be very fun to me too, but the worshipping God thing seemed like an excuse for them to get together to have fun, in a way.

I mean, I go to City Harvest, and then I come here. It's so different! I know some people don't have a good impression of City Harvest. I've heard people say stuff and all. But to me, City Harvest seems.. too holy?! I mean, it freaks me out A LOT when the whole church starts speaking in Tongues. But other than that, I think City Harvest is great. There are lots of people there and most of them are super high right from the beginning so it's very easy to feel high and jump and raise our hands and shout out loud while singing. And I learnt a lot at City Harvest's service. The pastors are like... to me, crazily pro Literature students. From what Jt describes to me, YHope seems a lot like City Harvest to me, because apparently there are also a lot of people and it's quite high and the preaches are very interesting because they sort of "unlock" the Bible and go deeper into what the Bible says to help you fully understand God's Word, and the Tongues thing, because the pastor helps them pray for the gift of speaking in Tongues when they're baptized?

Well anyway, I prefer City Harvest's service... a lot. I can see why those in City Harvest are very dedicated to God and their church. If I grew up in Lync, I probably would still be as faithless as I was when I was in Sunday School - never realising how much I didn't know about God and how weak I was in Christ, thinking that praying every day was enough to make me a good Christian. What crap that was, when I think back about myself before I attended my first City Harvest service and realised how little of a Christian I was. Almost not one at all.

I sound like I'm a fan of City Harvest. I'm not, really. It has its bad points too. I mean, I don't always agree with what the pastors say, like the self-image thing (Whoever's interested to know, ask me on Msn or when I see you or something), and some people dress a bit sloppily there compared to other churches. I mean, no slippers of course, but.. most are quite casual rather than semi-casual /what's presentable in church in my opinion. I don't think there are many churches you can wear shorts to? Or can you? Maybe I expect too much. But it's God's house after all!

Shrug. My parents don't want me to be a member of City Harvest, because they don't have a good impression of the church. Not to my surprise. But I wish people would look at the church themselves before critisizing it. I mean, it really isn't bad. In my opinion, it's great. Once you step inside, it's all about praising and worshipping and getting to know more about God, and nothing else. it feels great.

After the ballroom thing, they wanted to go to eat a bit before coming back again for some pinata game. By then Sarah had left cos she had school stuff, and Jt and I decided to leave. I was so dissapointed and confused I couldn't take it anymore, I really wanted to cry. I walked through the old cathedral again, where my memories were revived - Sarah's mum's Church Choir room, the place where the kindergarten kids, Sunday School kids and a few teens gathered for mass thingies on days like Easter etc., the old chapel (The stained glass windows are amazing), the place Sunday School was held, the statue my friends and I sat at while holding palm leaves during one of the Easter celebrations, the water cooler that sprayed me in the face a number of times so many years ago, the big sheltered place little booths selling Christian stuff used to stand, where Sarah and her parents and I would meet Sarah's grandparents after service. After walking around a lot Jt and I sat on a bench at the sheltered place and just talked, and we sat there for nearly an hour, just talking.

I didn't want to leave. I missed the old place. I didn't like the new place. It was.. too new. The old place brought back so many memories, and it sort of has this serene, peaceful feeling to it; I don't know, I just feel very... peaceful at the old cathedral. We talked about a lot of stuff, there were long pauses, but I didn't feel bored being here, looking at the cathedral I used to spend all my Sundays at until I was stopped from attending service three years ago. It felt... peaceful. That's all I can say to describe the feeling of being there, at the old cathedral. Peaceful.

Maybe I'll spend afternoons after school there, just to relax my mind and maybe read the Bible. Nah I won't do homework there. It'd totally spoil everything.

I love St Andrew's Cathedral, but the St Andrew's Cathedral I'm in love with is the old one, not the new one. I don't think I'd go back for Lync... but I'll definitely return to the old cathedral, even though I can't attend any services there.

I'm sorry.