Venue Research - done in Sept 2007

Looks like going back into the old files can be very interesting. Found this about the venue research committee that I was in back in 2007 as we already sensed that the current location is not ideal for our church.

Apparently, we're still there and no idea when we'll be moving? Our lay leader hopes by June 2012.

Anyway, have put some of my comments down in the article in red
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Venue Research

Objectives, options & plans, pros & cons

The objectives for us to have this task group to be done is aim to have a large enough venue for our congregation in the future time, either by long term lease or purchase. After a month research and discuss, few options have be selected.

First at all, we will look at current church financial capability. According to 2006-2007 financial statement, $18000 was allocated for property rent. Due to inflation fluctuation, + - 10% of current amount will be considered for this research. This will give more flexibility to conducting this research. <--luckily enough, our rent has been reduced however, we have also been moved into smaller spaces

After research and discussion, 3 options are listed as below,

Option 1

Remain the downstairs, but let go the upstairs. Estimate rental for downstairs might need $9000p.a.  This will cut down part of outgoing expenses.

As we still need to have office setup for doing admin paperwork and outreach new friend, two alternative options will be giving

1)     Residential property

Find a residential property in nearby suburb, perhaps 3 spacious rooms townhouse, convert it to office block and other room could be use for Sunday school, counseling, tuition or other purpose.

2)     Commercial property

The advantage to have commercial property is good exposure to outsider and non-believer. This enhances the effectiveness of missionary, maximum foot traffic. As it designs for commercial purpose, some possible usage will be consider such as tuition, photocopying, Fax (send/receive), office, internet cafe, pool, snooker. This also provides great opportunity to student to gain working experience by being admin, receptionist etc. But cost of renting commercial property have to take in consider, too expensive and it beyond budget.

Option 2

Keep existing rental agreement for 2 years and fully utilized the upstairs such as provide library facilities and tuition service. On the other hand, financial plan need to be prepare for 2 years later to accommodate the future expenditure as in property outgoing cost. Perhaps have AUD$12000 by July 08 and AUD $25000 by July 09 on church development funds. <-- As of today, I think we have over $55,000+ already for the church development funds, so good work to those who have give into this fund~!

- Current location is not fully utilised to its' financial spending

- It's a risk to be too comfortable at an existing place, lose heart to evangelise or grow more <-- I believe we have experienced this for the past few years. Not easy to wake up the sleeping giant!

Option 3

- Rent warehouse type of property

- Too costly

- Renovations will costs a lot too

- May not get permit due council zoning

Tasks delegated & report

- Raymond: City of Melbourne council doesn't have the list of properties available. Suggested we look at town halls. None available. Meat Market (North Melbourne) a possible alternative but unable to contact or look through the spaces. Has 3 rooms to lease now. Drove through North Melbourne, plenty of shops available to lease and sale. Recommends to follow up on Meat Market

- Lok Kiong & Daniel: 123 Little Bourke Street still under renovations, asked us to approach them at the end of the year (Oct, Nov) to see how things progressed. Welsh Church has been unreachable.

- Shawn: VicTrack has no property available near CBD or Docklands.

- Fund raisings are hoped to be done to raise funds for property use. Car wash, house cleaning, garage sales, dinner.

- Hope a longer term task group would be form to always keep in touch and look out for properties for church. Members have to have commitments and responsibilities. Do not need to meet every month. <-- often neglected, hopefully can improve~!

- In the short term, car parking is not an issue. Should it become a greater issue, we could negotiate with the commercial car parks beside to see if we can come up with an arrangement. <-- at least we had the privilege of using the car parks until recently. So that's nearly 4 years of free convenient parking! Amazing sometimes we can foresee problems earlier. Sad thing is this committee has not been ongoing to tackle the challenges we faced yearly. So we're stuck without a car park now! Ouch!

Reminder:

- Our comfort zone MUST NOT be build financially, rather on God <-- Still a big reminder today especially with DGR

- Our purpose must not be financially driven or profit driven.

- We must always aim to outreach to the lost souls (primary goal), the venue itself is a centre for outreach, not business.

- A lot of things are good to be done, but we must remember to do the things that are RIGHT. <-- Still agree to what i said in 2007 :P

Conclusions:

- As the way current market is going and based on our financial capacity, it's recommend that we take option 2 with a clear saving plans in mind so 2 years later, our circumstances will be different than what it is today. <-- Thank goodness we chose this option 4 years ago! Our savings plan have given us about $55000+ to work on now. However, the journey is still long. Hopefully the venue research committee for 2012 can work out a better plan accommodating our church's needs!

Old Document From 2008

Was browsing through my old files and saw this. One of my proposals back in 2008 to cater for church's growth. Unfortunately, it was never approved or implemented. 

Still interesting to see if my ideology or principle has changed or not throughout the years.

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Proposed LCEC Structure 2009

Purpose/objective: Current church administrative system is failing and hard coping on the effectiveness of our ministries. The present system is designed for 1 service church, we have 2 and it’s hardly working as we would want. When we had the opportunity to experience 3 services, “disaster” happened. We see a lot of disappointments, setbacks, confusions, and tiredness. In other words, we couldn’t cope and keep the church growing. So, we try to refine what we have to cope with the workloads that are involved. It’s nothing new, just re-arranging the positions & ministries structure to improve effectiveness & efficiency. In other words, separating administration and ministry related issues.

 

LCEC

1. Chairperson
2. Vice Chairperson
3. Lay Leader
4. Stewardship & Finance
5. Treasurer
6. Secretary
7. Pastor Parish Relations (consist of Lay Leader, Chairperson, Pastor Representative, Service 1 Rep, Service N Rep)
8. Property Management
9. Service 1 (Task Group 1)
10. Service 2 (Task Group 2)
11. Service N (Task Group n)

Brief explanations

-          The LCEC will be responsible mainly for the church as a “whole” rather than individual services

-          Task groups may be set up to manage issues involving only individual services or special groups

-          Under LCEC, there can be a maximum of 35 committees in total. Special exemptions apply. As above example, only 10 committees are used but we can look after at least 2-3 services efficiently.

Typical Task group for Services

1. Task group leader (aka chairperson)
2. Secretary

3. Italics = subgroups

   Treasurer
4. Mission & Evangelism
5. Social Concerns
6. Christian Education
7. Small group
8. Activity
9. Worship & Music

-          This is the typical task group to manage a service

-          This group will be responsible for their own service only

-          Any issue related to the whole church will be brought to the LCEC via  the Task Group Leader

-          Any purchase of properties/inventories will need to go via LCEC Property Management Committee and all assets belong to the church, not service or task group.

-          Each Task Group can have more or less subgroups depending on needs

-          The subgroups do not need to held separate meetings; their meetings are done in the Task group meetings. They however, can have subgroup meetings if they wish to.

General

-          Meetings to be held once in 2 months, the task group meetings should be done at least 2 weeks prior to an LCEC meeting

-          Pastor, Chairperson, and Lay leader are to attend task group meetings.

-          Task groups should consist of members of one service only. 

-          This structure allows more focus on issues and more appropriate discussion during the LCEC meetings. 

-          The task groups can have more detailed discussion regarding their specific issues and needs.

FAQ

1. Are you having 2 or 3 LCEC in the church?
   - No, just one.
   
   
2. Does it mean we now have 2 or 3 LCEC Chairperson?
   - No, only 1 LCEC chairperson. The other is task group leader acting as a representative for a particular service.
   
   
3. We only have 2 or 3 services max? Why the introduction of this structure? Is it really necessary if we have more than one pastor?
   - Short answer yes. In the coming 3-5 years, we can only see probably 3 services max, further down the track it could be 4-5 services in total.  As we see from the current situation (5 months trial), we are crying to go back to 2 because it’s almost impossible to keep up. IF we had more than one pastor, yes we still need a structure change. Having an extra one or two pastors does not mean that the current structure will work even smoother. It just means the pastor do not have to look over so many services. The workload of a pastor is reduced, that doesn’t mean the workload of the LCEC is reduced. We’ll still face with the same problem of human resource and ineffectiveness in dealing with 3 or more services. The new system will simplify a lot of issues.
   
   
4. Won’t committee members have twice as many meetings?
   - Not really.  LCEC meetings occur as usual to discuss church issues.  Task group / subgroup meetings take the place of the previous subcommittee meetings. 

5. Will we have problem of disunity among task groups if there are people from different services?
   - There’re many ways to show unity. Not necessary physical unity. We can be united in terms of visions, goals, policies, etc. We can show unity by providing assistance when required, able to compromise on matters that affects the church, etc.
   
   
6. Will it create more trouble for matters to be brought forward?
   - There’ll be an extra layer or so to go through before it reaches the LCEC. However, Chairperson & Lay leader is always in the meeting to handle any issues.
   
   
7. Are we in compliance with the Laws & Constitution of the Methodist church?
   - Definitely yes. It’s just a matter how it’s organized.
   
   
8. Can a member of the LCEC be a member of a Task Group or Vice Versa?
   - Yes, except for the position of Lay leader and Chairperson. They would have to be from that “service” to be in that particular Task Group.
   
   
9. Can any members of the church attend the meetings?
   - LCEC meetings, no as general rule of thumb. Task Group meetings; yes but are not eligible to vote.
   
   
10. Previous year’s structure has always benefited the Chinese side more due to the majority of the LCEC members are from Chinese side. How will this one be different?
    - English side will have their own task group, which will be run totally by people from English side. This gives them the flexibility to plan at their own pace & style. If there’re matters regarding the whole church, they can always bring it up during the LCEC meetings.
    
    
11. How about combined activities or services? Evangelistic events? Training seminars?
    - We try our very best to avoid combined services as it’s not good and doesn’t serve much point except for our own enjoyment or fellowships. There’ll probably be just one or two for the whole year. This will be set in the LCEC and delegate to a special task group or existing task group to organize. As for evangelistic events or seminars (should it be approved by LCEC), normally the party that proposed it will be given the priority to organize it. If they are unable to, then a special task group is to be formed or other existing task group to organize.
    
    
12. I’ve always wanted to see a big church rather than “churches” within a church. It just doesn’t seem right! Why don’t we look for a place big enough for all of us and stay on the current structure & system?
    - In an ideal world, anything’s possible. In reality, it’s near to impossible to find a church or worship space big enough for it. We can look and look, and each time your results will be another disappointment. It can be very stimulating to say let’s go to the Town Hall, MCG or Telstra Dome, but we all know in reality, it’s not going to happen, at least we don’t have any glimpse of the possibility now! So, instead of dreaming & hoping to that way, we need to workout what’s best and a solution to welcome growth & manage it in our church. The world has changed; churches mentality needs to change too.

Badminton in Western Suburb, Victoria

On hold until further notice - 8/2/11

This is due to technical issues in getting the courts.

I've booked in regular session for badminton on Thursday nights starting 3rd 10th Feb 2011.
The session will be 8-10pm.

The skills level I don't really know yet, but expecting D grade and maybe some low C. It's mainly for social, so come have a hit & some laughter along the way! Don't mind competitive players as we're always looking to improve!

Please post a reply if you can come so I know how many people to expect. Ideally we have 16 24 people so we can keep it at $7pp. We'll try to keep it under 18 28 people for everyone to have a fair chance to play. There're 4 courts there!

We'll keep it at $7per person for now and adjust in the future if necessary!

Thursdays @ 8-10pm

$7pp

Address: Federation Boulevard, Truganina (Truganina South Primary School)

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Rocks?!?!

Was just curious about my block of land so I drove there to have a look personally last weekend. I was kinda annoyed to see so much rocks around the area.

Based on my estimation on site, the rocks are just right above my block of land! Not a happy chap!

So I tried street directory, google map statelite views but their photos are outdated. Then someone from Home One forum posted a link to view updated satelittle images. Guess what I found?

Yes.....a pile of rocks dumped on my land!! And this was about 3 weeks ago and more have been dumped since then.

I hope they'll clear all the rocks away before the land titles! Grr.....

The Comeback

Felt so good tonight to be able to hit some birdies! Haven't been playing for nearly 2 weeks now. It's sad that I might not be able to play for another 2 weeks again!

Sometimes the feelings just felt different after you stopped for a while and you pick it up again. It's almost like first love but not quite.

Perhaps that's why in our spiritual walk, there're ups and downs too. So when we were down, and after we got up, it felt so great!

So, don't feel bad if you're down, just remember to stand up from where you fall!

Looking forward to 2 weeks from now....another night of action packed badminton!!

Love Your Enemies.....R U Sure?!

Everytime you talked about Jesus, you cannot miss the part where He says "Love your enemies...". This is probably the hardest thing to be done here on earth yet this is a very clear instruction.

How applicable is it for us Christians today?

It's still very applicable if you asked me. However, it's so hard that nobody really cares about it anymore. Most people turn away instead of turning the other cheek!

Christians today should learn to love...

Their loved ones

Their families

Their friends

Their co-workers

Their church

before even thinking of trying to love their enemies. It's beyond our ability!~~

I myself is still learning this lesson but I need to learn how not to love myself too much that I neglected others...It's very hard!

Learning is a lifetime process but life is short so appreciate it while you can!

God gives me strength!

Give me the heart of compassion!

Let me be Your tool to bring love to this world!

Denied, Detained & Deported

As most people would have already known, we flew back to M'sia on 12th night via Air Asia. The journey certainly didn't start off very well.

On our way to airport, we thought we were going to be late as we only left my place in Box Hill around 10.30pm. As we had to park in the long term parking, we didn't give allowance to wait for the bus to pick us up.

Luckily, driving right at the speed limit, we made it to the airport check in counter around 11.10pm. And thankfully for web check ins, we actually managed to jump the queues!

Anyway, after proceeding through immigration, my dear wife was thinking about buying gifts, magz, etc that she left our DSLR camera at security check! Luckily i asked her for it as i wanted to take some photos, otherwise we would need to buy a new one again!

Now comes the real nightmare of 'em all. The entry denied, the detention and the deportation.

As I cleared my immigration checkpoint in LCCT easily, my wife on the 'foreign passport' counter is still waiting for a stamp on her passport.

After a few minutes, the officer went away to speak to her manager. This is usually normal as her crap passport couldn't get her smoothly anywhere except East M'sia and Singapore!

This time, she was asked into the immgration office. This reminded me of the incident in Incheon, South Korea.

She was refused entry because she needs a visa to enter West M'sia and we never knew that previously. So we tried to negotiate our way through but the respond we got is 'hantar balik Melbourne'.

This sucks, we just spent 8 crappy hours on Air Asia X and we're not going to like another 8 hours of torture. We asked them whether we could call any embassy for help or internet to get information but all requests were denied.

They asked me to find ways myself to sort this out. Anyway, cut story short, i contacted my parents, my cousin, and friend in M'sia for help & most importantly prayer. We, well at least myself, just kept cool and remind YL to pray for way out.

After a while, the immi officers found out that YL is my wife and i'm a pure m'sian, they started to soften their hearts and try to look for ways to help us through this tiring ordeal.

In the end, they came up with the idea of deportation to Brunei as YL is a Bru PR. We were glad not to return to Melb again so stuff it, we're buying the ticket to Bru. They also provided both of us with lunch (other detainees don't get them), we were able to sit freely in their compound (others were confined into tiny room) and I can walk through security points without a pass! Haha!

However, costs us about RM860 for the ticket....OUCH! Not to mentioned about RM 450 worth of tickets not used (kl-miri, miri-lbg). It's no longer cheap, might as well fly with SIA or MAS. Better service and comfort!

We were at LCCT from 7am, we only left around 6.30pm. From it all started, we were on this experience for over 26 hours!

Nonetheless, we arrived safely to Brunei yesterday. Will be looking to see if the M'sian embassy is open today to get visa for our return ticket. Then heading back to Lbg in the afternoon.

HBK signing off from Brunei :p

My Last Session

This is it! My last badminton session in Melbourne...for the month of August :P

Need to play super hard tonight! Hopefully will be a fun night!

Hopefully get the chance to play in Limbang or Miri as well! Perhaps can try Uncle Kuek's indoor court! He He!!

Then I'll be off to M'sia for 2.5 weeks starting Wednesday night!

Watch this space for update & photos!

Down But Not Out Yet!

As expected, another crushing defeat tonight. I lost all my games again, so another 0-4.

The good thing is 3/4 of the matches are close games by just 3-5 points roughly. So it's a moral victory for myself!

Another way, got off for next Thursday. After that, I'll be away for 3 weeks namely 13th, 20th and 27th. Hopefully my game doesn't go downhill again!

Can't afford to!

I should be considering joining tougher social games but during "cost cutting" periods, it's hard to juggle between excellence and money!

Costs Cutting

It seems inevitable. To continue staying where I am now seems to be more likely than ever.

The rent i'm paying now is nearly $1600pcm. If I downgrade, i need a minimum 2 bedder. In any good location, i would need to pay about 1100-1500pcm.

The savings are not as much or worth the effort of moving, not to mention all other costs involved. All the connection fees, redirections costs, removalists, etc.

Some areas we looked at were in the West so public transport is poor and security is bad. I wouldn't dare to let my wife use trains especially in the evenings and nights. That'll be a big problem too as she doesn't have a drivers license yet.

So, it seems we have to squeze ourselves a bit to save the difference. Meaning less dining outside, electricity & water usage to be cut down by at least 30% and less badminton for me!

Let's see if we can save an extra $400pcm.

Bad news is we're going back soon so money will be spent. Hopefully the AUD will keep the momentum going upwards. Then I can save some from the exchange rates!

Maybe I need to hope for money coming out from the skies!

Aih...why am I so poor??????

Conquering The Summit

In about a month's time, I'll be climbing the 4th highest mountain in Southeast Asia, Mount Kinabalu. It has been more than 10-15 years since I last step my foot on Sabah, I can't even remember anything except Pulau Manukan by name!

Anyway, I aim to take down one of M'sia toughest challenge this time. Failure is not an option! Just hope the weather will permit me to get to the top! To be the King of the world (dreaming~)!

Last Saturday was a good opportunity to play around with my SLR camera as I haven't been diligent enough to practise my skills lately. Though the nature of the shots are a lot different (actions/candid vs landscape/macro), hopefully I can take a few good shots! Quite disappointed with my shots on Saturday though. Nothing nice! LOL! Need to learn to have an eye for good shots!

My poor wife claims to be the Innocent victim to my lust for adventurous challenge! However, she has only "practised" once up to now. Running/walking 20 minutes on the treadmill! I'll keep you guys posted on how she's doing when we get up there! HAHA!

Diana encouraged her last night by telling her that she cried all the way up and down the mountain! LOL! Oh yeah, and could hardly walk a few days after that!

As for myself, didn't train for this as well. Just busy training for badminton games as I don't want to pummelled again in the weekly competitions! Won 2 matches last week, yay~! This week I'm facing probably the strongest opponents, looking at a 0-4 results. :(

Crash, Boom, Bang

Nice words to describe the start of the second season for the badminton competition. Totally crushed tonight. The score was 9-3. I lost all my 4 matches though came close in winning one of them.

Last season, we also started off with only 3 points. With 7 teams this time, we need to work a lot harder to get into the Semis!

Our captain must be quite upset too! He He!

Oh well, gotta work harder to train and prepare for another 10 weeks ahead!!

Road Block

What could have been a beautiful finish on the road to redemption was wrecked in a major road block. My aim was to get two runner up positions for both Mixed and Mens events but I fall one position short!

After knewing my team mates for the Mens event, honestly, I knew I couldn't stand a chance getting champion or runners up. However, we couldn't even get 3rd position so we had to settle for the last position! All teams are much stronger than us in both tactically and skills wise. Nonetheless, I still wanted to challenge them!

We only managed to win a game from the 3 series that we played. Shame on us~! We nearly won a series when my teammates were leading 26-22 in the decider but they lost 30-27 in the end. Too bad!!

Team events really talks about team efforts and not individual performance. So naturally, I couldn't carry the team like how Jordan carried the Bulls, Kobe carried the Lakers, etc. Skills wise, I'm still way below par!

My aim now would be to improve more and hopefully reach A grade within 1-2 years?!! HAHAHHA!!

I know I'm dreaming but it's all good~! I started playing and training around 2006, managed to reach D grade finals...OK lah...not too bad!! If only I didn't stop between 2007-2008, I might have been a B grader by now....oh well!!

Also, maybe it's time to look for more consistent partners for competitions....hmm...!

Slow Starter

This is one of my bad habits: a slow starter. Needed quite a while to get myself warmed up and get into top form.

Today, this has caused us the championship in the mixed events. Quite unfortunate that the first team we played was the strongest team. We lost the first match by 2 points, I think. Mostly due to unforced errors. Then we won the second match to bring it level 1-1. However, in the decider, I crumbled and lost! I guess that's what you get from a scratch pair! So, we lost the series 2-1. We can only complained "If only....".

After that game, we knew each others' games well now. So, we went undefeated throughout the tournament. Just quite unfortunate that the other team didn't lose any series after that. If they had lost one series, we could have been the champ! Luckily, we didn't end up empty handed as we won the runner up trophies. :)

However, no excuses and congratulations to the champ.

Time to get rested and prepare for my the Mens' team event tomorrow. Need to get down to business early and not making the same mistakes again. My team mates are again scratch pairs, never team up with them before. Guess it'll be another tough road ahead.

Road To Redemption

After 3 years of absence in badminton tournaments, this weekend will mark my comeback. What's interesting is, I'll be playing two tournaments over the weekend: JT ULTRA/ MUBC Team Tournament Mens & Mixed events. A bit test to my stamina and physical recovery!

I haven't been to any proper training since 2007? Yesterday I just went for a half training session and my muscles are sore!! Hopefully it'll be fine after tonight's sleep to be ready to get on the road to redemption!

Back in 2006, I was lucky enough to be the 1st runner up in 2006 JTULTRA team's tournament D grade. Can I repeat or do better this time? Hmm....I guess I need to know who is my partners for the Mens' events first! I think I'll only know on Sunday itself!
Hopefully I can at least get a trophy this weekend!! My trophy collections are still quite empty!

Public Holidays

It has got to a point that I'm quite afraid of public holidays, especially if it's just one day only. It's too short to plan anything nice and too long to just stay at home waiting for it to pass.

My wish is now to be able to start work around 9.30am or 10am in the morning and finish off later in the night. However, as long as I'm working where I am now, it's impossible.

Hopefully I'll be able to work something out within the next 12 months to fulfill my dream ahead. It won't be easy as I don't have super rich background financials to support my family. So God, please guide your servant!

No Pain No Gain

When I was little, I often heard the phrase "No pain no gain" from all those Hollywood movies from HBO and Star Movies. Not that I really understood the meaning back then but it sure sounded cool.

It didn't take me very long to understand the true meaning of that phrase. So all my life, I've been enduring lots of "pain" to get a little bit of "gain". Nothing ever comes easy.

I'm not a legalistic person but more of a discipline person. A lot of people still couldn't tell the difference between a legalism freak and a discipline practitioner. I'll make it simple for you to understand.

Legalism: Being bounded by set of rules word for word
Discipline: Mastering a set of rules through its spirit

Whenever we try to introduce discipline living, they said we are going back to the Moses days of commandments. Thou shall not this, thou shall not that...

So instead of practicing spiritual disciplines, they're "forcing" God to give them grace and they'll be so thankful that God has heard their prayers. For example, I don't really study much for exam, I just watch TVB series all night long. When exam comes, I pray hard for God to give me good results to "glorify Your name". It's a bit like, God, if You don't act, it's not me who is shamed but You are!

It may sound right in some sense but my question is, wouldn't it be better if we had live a discipline lifestyle and God bless us with His grace? Isn't that a more beautiful picture? For example, I study very hard for exam, I don't skip prayer meetings or Sunday Service just because I wanted extra study hours, I pray for God to bless me abundantly with good results for His name sake. Isn't this a lot better?

So why are we still living like parasites?

The bad news is discpline lifestyle doesn't come easy. It involves a lot of sacrifices, commitments, determinations and endurance.

Of course, young people these days know NOTHING about "no pain no gain" or in Chinese words 先苦后甜.

Sure they wanted growth (in fact, lots of them!) and lots of gain but they're unwilling to sacrifice themselves in any ways or put much effort into it. How many times have we heard them say, "Oh I wanna grow more in Christ" but their actions always show the opposite?!

Nothing comes easily in this World. Try scoring HD in all your university subjects without studying for a single second! If you can do it, I'll buy you a BMW. Try to be like an apostle without learning and applying the Word of God in your lives, then I'll call you Master!!

Stop acting like a pampered baby that wants mummy to change your diapers everyday. GROW UP & take responsibilities to your own life! It's YOUR decision.

NO PAIN NO GAIN, Christians are no exception!