a beautiful mind

2 weeks ago, I met M for the first time over coffee - we were hooked up by a mutual contact who felt we had to meet due to how similar our interests and agendas were regarding youth outreach. I was looking for a contact to bounce of my CIvics Education idea. M apparently was the "rainmaker" to talk to.

Anyhow, M turned out to be pretty much my kind of girl - gregarious, doped up on enthusiasm and talking in that kind of vocabulary only network-mindmap-abstract-thinking people use. She was also a proud, happy Christian. All that added up to a really cool breakfast meeting where we exchanged some sketchy ideas about radical, bold, alternative Christian outreach. Straight after we prayed together to end our breakfast, she started jotting down names on a little Post It.

See, M thinks in connections, amazing spiderweb-type thought processes. She makes immediate, mental links between people and causes that she knows. So straight off the bat, she was listing down every Christian that she knew who might be remotely keen on the stuff we were talking about and was already involved in some kinda cutting-edge independent ministry of their own. "We really should all meet just to see what can come out from a collective conversation of like-minded people." M declared, "You free for dinner in 2 weeks, Thursday?"

FAAST FORWARD to this past Thursday night, at the Book Cafe, I met a breathtakingly dynamic group of Christians who were natural social activists at heart, if not in name. I was struck by how all of us spoke in the same lingo and vocab of network-mindmap-abstract thinking. Usually when asked to explain my raw ideas to people, I have to work at trying to rephrase, quantify and simplify my thoughts into something that sounds workable and coherent. But in this crowd, people got it in a snap. Phwoar. That was cool! M really knew how to put like minds with like minds.

It was amazing how much energy these people put into their words, their passion for their ideas and the verve and conviction was so visible. The opening ice-breaker round of introductions was a simple, spontaneous "Hey let's take out interesting stuff from our bags to introduce ourselves". The table instantly filled with a collection of truly funky stuff - a UN Report, Henri Nouwen's Wounded Healer, a book on evangelising to the Postmoderns, a syringe-pen bought from CanTeen(an NGO for teens with cancer), postcards for 'Text In The City' creative writing competition etc. It was pretty telling of the crowd. Thankfully, I was currently reading some book on PAP Politics and another theological book instead of some trashy girly magazine. haha. Otherwise, it would be a pretty sad display on my part. :P

The group comprised of: (I will go by professions cos it is telling of what were their main skillsets)

1. The Architect
- funky dude who runs a non-denominational cell group for anyone with questions for Christians; a ministry for creative types, artists, theatre people etc.

2. The Suit
-cool gal who does branding, corporate strategy and ministered to families

3. The Missionary
- had left a high flying banking job to find her missionary future. just did Borneo, Acheh. Going to teach Burmese English in Malaysia. And in a few months, heading to LAS VEGAS for missions.(of all places!)

4. The Rainmaker - "M"
- consultant on various boards for various arts, youth, community activism; attached to UN Women's group; thinking of running a company encouraging business ethics

5. The Dreamer
- consultant on many of the same projects as M. Started Dream Factory, a group that assisted the realisation of young people's dreams and hopes

6. The Artiste
- theatre practioner with a ministry of using drama as a communication tool; currently a project creator at a local organisation that supported international community building.

7. The Teacher
-that would be me.

I thought it was cool...we were kinda like a mini Christian G7, debating about how to deal ideally and practically with pressing international issues. We concluded the night's fruitful sharing and super encouraging discussion with a good prayer.

It was really edifying to find a kind of collective Mind in this group, that was hard at work at putting their God-given Intellect for God-given purposes. We joked about how we could form a bizzare kind of Christian Thought Collective - a collective mind that worked to create methodologies, technologies, processes, and programmes for the use of the Church in these turbulent postmodern times.

You know what...I think it might actually happen. Wow. God works amazing stuff in people.
Just when you thought Singapore could not get cooler, it just did. Who would have known such dynamic, doped up on intellectual pursuit and high on enthusiasm types were just around the corner? There is much much hope for the Church to come :)