today's dialogue session @ FCC

One of the gals asked me how I found the session. I simply told her that there wasn't enough time to talk about how to resolve the issues as a conclusion to the purpose of having the talk in the first place. It was a good idea that SL suggested to meet up another time to do that.

The purpose of the talk was how to enhance the presence of women in FCC. I didn't have a problem with the presence of women in church because I felt there was nothing much we could do about it. I think the root of the problem comes from how people perceive and receive the sermons and hence the decision to stay on at FCC or get their spiritual food elsewhere.

I guess what FCC or whoever has a problem with the lack of presence of women in the church has to determine what they want. Is their purpose to retain the current number of women in the church? Is their purpose to get gals from CGs to attend FCC ? Is their purpose to get other women to attend FCC? There are different solutions to all situations, as in I have not yet thought about how we can compromise to make everyone happy.

The way I see it, gals who are attending FCC either are very happy with the way the sermons are or that they are serving in some capacity but getting their spiritual food elsewhere, which explains why they do not attend FCC every week. For some gals who are getting adequately fed from the sermons, changing the content and depth of sermons may not appeal to them.

The way I know it, gals who attend CG but not the service @ FCC either have their commitments to their own church or that they find themselves not sufficiently fed @ FCC but a conflict in their own church's service timings with that of FCC does not enable them to attend both services. So the only way they will be @ FCC is when they feed sufficiently fed @ FCC. Sure, there is some level of personal responsibility in being more proactive in getting one's spiritual food other than church, but in this busy busy world, they must either have the conviction that FCC is the church that they are called to serve in, or they must be given time to feel belonged to FCC.

Everyone has their personal journey, just like mine. I started with just attending CG. As I feel more @ home @ FCC, I want to appear more in FCC. It used to be just for lunch with the gals, but of late, especially after having a conversation with CM, I decided to make is a more deliberate decision to rush down to FCC after Covenant's 9a.m. service. There is a need to hear what is preached at FCC to address certain issues that may come up during CG.

As for bringing new people to church, there are 2 issues relating to that. One is the way they receive the sermons which determines whether they will stay at FCC. THe other is how welcomed they feel when they come to FCC. For me, the reason why I would want to come to FCC is because I want to be able to be myself and am able to be real and authentic which facilitates honest sharing too. Other than that, I would want everything else to be ceteris paribus, as in with the theology.

Sometimes I think the gals who come to FCC are looking for a place for support without compromising on their desire to grow in their walk with God, then FCC would prolly not be the place they would think about settling down in if what they get from the sermons are not what they are used to hearing. I do think though, that if they stick around a bit more, the feeling of being @ home might influence that decision a lil.

I have brought some peeps to FCC, and I had spoken to people who had been to FCC. And the reason why most of them do not come back, was either because the depth of the sermons was not to their liking, or that the content preached was not to their comfort. There. I think if FCC wants women to have more visibility in church, they should deal with this; the sermons.
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