Oikos

I attended the cell group meeting of my brother-in-law and sister last night. Man, was I blessed! I know that the ideal cell group should be between 8-15 people but my sister’s house was jam-packed! There were easily around 30 people divided into two groups: the men and the women. This was a convenient setting because most of the attendees were spouses so the meeting doubled as their weekly dates.

I was chuckling a bit when I looked around the men when our meeting started. It was a bit odd to see the members take their writing notebooks out with excited faces and rummaging with their daily devotionals and reflections when sharing time came. JCIL (Jesus Christ is Lord Family Church) has a policy of requiring and checking personal devotionals weekly for attendance purposes. Apparently, it’s a big deal to always have your notebooks with you every time the group meets and I was inwardly smiling as I saw the other members who did not bring their devotionals get an uncomfortable look on their faces when sharing time came, much like a kindergarten kid caught without his homework. Remember, we’re talking about grown men here, most with teenage kids already. Recently, my brother-in-law actually got a memo from their pastor because he has not been submitting his devotionals regularly. LOL! To his credit, he has his devotionals daily but he just doesn’t like writing them down... or so he says.

Hairs at the back of my neck were standing up as I hear the men talk about the words that God had led them to read during the week and how it affected their resolve to continue living for the Lord. I have never been to a gathering of men who were so open with each other and the best thing was that there was no alcohol in sight! Talk about male bonding! What they had were cassava cakes, bananas, softdrinks, sandwiches and willing spirits. I’m actually grinning as I write this reflection.

Just goes to show that living a godly life need not be “boring” as most people think it is. Everybody was talking about their week, sharing their insights, praying for one another and generally making a ruckus. For what purpose? To encourage each other to continue serving the Lord. The stories were mostly about how they think they’ve faltered in their Christian journey ( just because they were not able to share the gospel to an unbeliever for the week!) and how they resolve to change their ways to better serve the Lord. The stories were ultimately irrelevant because the point was that they were there to encourage one another to stand up and not give up the race, knowing that everyone falters but that they still have a group of people who will accept them and pray for them. They have that genuine joy on their faces, bright smiles on their lips, twinkle in their eyes that not even an Oscar winner can fake. I actually felt a bit intrusive because what they’re doing felt so intimate, so family-like. What they have- whether you call it friendship, camaraderie, bonding, love for each other- is more than what most families have.

I can only imagine a time when the whole world will experience a joy like what I witnessed last night. An oikos, the Greek term for household, where everybody gets to be there for somebody else. They were not merely talking about the early Christian church in the bible but actually living it. I will attest to the fact that whatever they had did not end during the weekly meetings. My brother-in-law’s cell group mates were the ones who literally painted their house, installed electrical sockets and laid down the floor tiles when they had their house renovated. And their spouses were actually joking around with their head pastor to preach about having the husbands make the coffees of their wives every breakfast because they were sure their husbands will do it.

Oikos, cell group bonding, is a living and breathing manifestation of the choice of each of the persons present last night. “Choose now who you will serve”, says Joshua in the Old Testament. I can actually picture out my brother-in-law, sister and the rest of their respective cell group mates raising their bibles and tattered devotional notebooks with their right hand and holding a cassava cake with the other shouting, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”