Revival of 1972: A Landmark Video

9 August 2022 4 Comments

This documentary done by Salt & Light is surely a landmark in Singapore’s Christian media history. We have had books about the history of the Singapore church (“In His Good Time” by Bobby Sng), and about the charismatic revival of the 1970’s (“Unfolding His Story” by Galven and Georgie Lee ), but this is the first time a significant full-length documentary has been launched by Salt & Light a Christian media company. It comprised mainly current interviews, old photos and film footage of witnesses and participants of the revival of 1972. 

I can imagine the challenge it presented to the media team, sourcing and collating all the old photos and rounding up revival witnesses and filming all the interviews. The amount of man hours and talent involved is huge. I first received a WhatsApp message from Thomas Franks introducing himself on 6 February 2022, and he probably had started the ball rolling even earlier. 

If the revival took place in 2022, there will be no lack of videos, social media traces, lots of Instagram pictures and Tik Tok and YouTube videos of the revival. In fact, it will be in excess – a huge video editing migraine! But it happened 50 years ago, when most of us do not own a camera. So lots of archaeological digs! Besides the initial meeting, when Thomas Franks the video producer, noted down facts and opinions, there were many occasions of clarifications about events, facts and photo sourcing. Then there is the script to write and the interviews to do. Monumental task.

The video team came to World Revival Prayer Fellowship (WRPF) an hour earlier than the appointed time to set up their equipment, and they did about two hours of filming on a few cameras, for the two interviews about the revival in Dunearn Secondary Technical School, which then grew into WRPF. By the time they finished work, it was close to 4.30pm. It took a whole day for the media team, and these were only the raw files, which then had to be sifted and edited, to fit with the storyline and script. And ours was only one side story among many side stories. 

I was glad to be part of the project, and to see myself talking in the video and contributing to the story of the revival of 1972, gave me a sense of satisfaction. The revival story was richly multi-faceted and yet there is a unity about it and this is clearly reflected in the video. You can see and hear me at the 8.15/8.30 minutes time stamp.

May this video stir a hunger among generation next to seek a new move of God for their time. It won’t be the same kind because God is not stuck in the past and his wisdom and creativity is greater than our forecasting capacity. Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what God has prepared for those who love him.

If you were a participant of the revival of 1972 that went on for close to a decade, please feel free to tell us your story in the comment box. Thank you.

Share this:

Read More →

Singapore churches , , , , , ,

St John’s Chapel: a missional family church

31 July 2022 2 Comments

It was early Sunday morning at St John’s Chapel, and I was warmly welcomed by Revd Tang Wai Lung, the experienced priest who was newly appointed to lead the English congregation. He showed me around the lovely church sanctuary with parquet flooring and three-pointed arches that led your gaze upward to God. He showed me a set of four plaques that was preserved from their old church building in Jurong. He informed me that St John’s Chapel was originally a church plant initiated by Revd William Gomes and Mr Cheok Loi Fatt to reach out to farmers and villagers in Jurong in 1872.  By 1884, a church building was erected and a congregation established. The church was missional right from its birth. Thankfully, true to its DNA, St John’s Chapel has remained a strongly missional church that encourages all members young and old to sign up and embark on mission trips every other year. When the government took over the Jurong building for redevelopment, St John’s Chapel moved to St Margaret’s Secondary School, and has been there since.

Two pleasant surprises

I had two pleasant surprises before the service began. I met an old friend, Boon Sing, whom I knew from the Christian fellowship in Mindef, while doing my National Service. I recalled how we memorized verses and prayed together. The second surprise was that he was in the traditional choir of the church and they sang a lovely “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. Why did the song at the prelude and this song moved me? The Lord was reminding me of his presence in the meeting.

Preaching the good news

I was asked to preach a gospel message and I had only one thus far and I have preached this five times before. I still had to sit before the Lord in prayer, hovering over the script, and making minor modifications and improvements. It took time for me to warm up to the new faces in front of me, but as I proceeded, the delivery of the message got better and better. I was glad that people responded to the invitation to pray in the front, for all the kneelers in front of the stage were occupied. A period of prayer ensued and I prayed that these precious seekers of God would be rewarded with real answers to their prayers. While I have been praying for souls to be saved through my preaching, there was no response to my invitation to non-Christians present to follow Jesus. Strangely, I was not discouraged about this. I trust God to anoint his word and let it germinate in its time. 

Kenny, Revd Wai Lung, Revd Barry Leong

A missional and family church

After the service, I had refreshments at the school canteen with the priest Revd Wai Lung, and Canon Barry Leong, the acting vicar, and my old friend Boon Sing. I found it amazing that Barry had to oversee three churches in the past, and is currently overseeing two churches for the time being. He said the secret to doing this is to have the right people in place and to trust them. After he left to go to attend the service of the other church he was overseeing, I continued to chat with Wai Lung and we talked about the Revival of 1972, different church polities, the culture of St John’s Chapel and other Anglican churches. He told me besides its missions emphasis, St John’s was a family church, a close knit caring community, which gives deliberate intention to include all generations into its activities, whether it be games, church retreats, or ministry. I thought these qualities are wonderful strengths for smaller churches to have. My observation is that the quality of community closeness fades as the congregational size enlarges. So this is the strength that small churches can cultivate and leverage, and be different from big churches.

Well, this was a visit and ministry I enjoyed. Taking on speaking engagements while you are still pastoring, is different from doing them after you have retired. With retirement, you are well rested, you have more time and space for God to move your heart and prepare yourself, and you are able to preach with more energy, restfulness and grace.

If you are interested to know more about this church and its services, you may visit their website HERE. Other churches where I have guest preached in or visited can be read about HERE.

Share this:

Read More →

Singapore churches , , ,

Of Mother’s Day Sermons and Preaching at Shekinah Assembly of God

14 May 2022 2 Comments

It was a joy to preach at Shekinah Assembly of God on Mother’s Day. Blessed to return to in person worship and fellowship. I was told that they have moved their services to the Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium, along Outram Road. We seldom speak of Covid-19 positively, but thanks to it, they had a good, blessed rental arrangement and terms with the hotel management. The location and facilities suited their needs perfectly, to the praise of God’s provision. It reminded me of those days when the church I served had to sojourn from hotel to hotel, till the Lord gave us a resting place in Geylang.

I rejoice with all Christians and churches everywhere in Singapore. What a joy to be back to in person worship services! Yes, we had to wear masks but we were allowed to sing aloud! Certainly, we can worship without singing aloud, but it was good to be able to vocalise our praises again. I was blessed by the worship. I preached about “Real Faith” using the story of blind Bartimaeus to illustrate the four aspects of real faith. We could even have time at the altar for prayer and ministry.  I pray all churches everywhere will allow for 5 to 15 minutes at the end of the service, in front of the stage, for people to pray and to be prayed for. We should trust God to visit his people with a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit. It is time for people to return to intimacy with God and authentic fellowship with their church friends. Spiritual social distancing has to end!

My wife was also given the Mother’s Day gift package of two bottles of Scoop tea leaves. This is a generous church and Pastor Hock Cheng and his wife Camelia hosted us to a Japanese lunch at Great World City. 

The quandary of the Mother’s Day sermon

The Mother’s Day sermon usually lands the pastor in a quandary. The sermon has to recognize the importance and contribution of mothers, without forgetting the fathers (they will have their day weeks later). The quandary is that single men and women are also present in the church service, both young and mature, and they are important to the church too, but there is no Single’s Day. Maybe churches should initiate a Singles Day to celebrate these people’s freedom from anxieties; and extol their ability to give undivided attention to pleasing the Lord (1 Cor 7:32-35).

Ways to preach Mother’s Day sermons

I have preached quite a few Mother’s Day sermons. Some of these sermons focus on the important role, influence and virtues of a godly mother. This is usually the time people like Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah, Jochebed (remember her?), Hannah, Naomi, Mary, and some lesser known unnamed female characters in the Old Testament and the gospels get the spotlight on Sunday. Other sermons deal with the more didactic passages like the famous (or infamous) Proverbs 31, that makes most mothers feel they are failed mothers or have fallen short of the glory of God. Other sermons compete with Reader’s Digest to give practical tips for mothers to upgrade their parenting skills. 

These are certainly a few ways to go about developing the Mother’s Day sermon. However, the pastor needs to be conscious of the brokenness, discouragement and stresses that modern mothers face today. They need encouragement, affirmation and refreshment. We need to point them to the privileges, blessedness and resources of mothering. We need to point them to the grace, wisdom and power of God available to them as they love and form their children into godly adults. No mother should have to leave the sanctuary crestfallen, feeling condemned and a failure as a mother. They should leave feeling assured of God’s forgiveness, inspired with fresh hope for the calling, and certain that God will faithfully watch over and work on their children, despite all their parental shortcomings and regrets.

Directed at mothers mainly

The pastor does not want half or more of the congregation feeling the sermon is largely irrelevant to them, so for such sermons he needs to use general truths and principles that are just as applicable to singles and fathers as well. For example, the pastor can talk about how Mary the mother of Jesus pondered over significant events that accompanied Jesus’ birth, and while mothers will find it specially relevant, it can be used to exhort the whole congregation to be more attentive and reflective about what God may be doing and saying to them through the significant events that dot their lives.

Directed at all God’s people mainly

The other way, which I prefer, is to preach a sermon that applies to everyone but with a few sermon applications and references towards mothers. This helps gain the attention of all God’s people gathered for worship, and defuses or reduces feelings of irrelevancy or being slighted. Such a sermon could dwell on the attributes of God, or kingdom virtues like faith, hope and love revealed through a biblical event, teaching or character.  I chose to do this in Shekinah Assembly. I preached about Real Faith and made a few applications to mothers.

The middle path is of course to use a variation of both approaches during alternate years. Whatever is written here applies to Father’s Day as well. I forgot to mention that it would be wonderful to make some truths relevant for non-Christians in the audience too, as they sometimes visit the church during such special days, but preaching with an evangelistic slant is another topic for another day. 

If you are interested in visiting the SHEKINAH ASSEMBLY OF GOD, their website is HERE, and I wrote about them in an earlier blogpost HERE.

Share this:

Read More →

Preaching, Singapore churches, Worship Service , , ,

On Returning To In-Person Worship Services

7 April 2022 Leave a comment

It was pleasant to meet up with Pastor Peter Sze, to see his boyish smile and hear his cheerful voice. He is one who always bothered to arrange to meet people and friends whenever he was in town. Although he had retired, he is still the pastor of New Covenant Church, a grace-based church in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. 

Lunch was in Din Tai Fung at Suntec City and we caught up about family, church and, of course, frustrating Malaysian politics. Peter has three daughters and a son and a blessed total of eleven grandchildren. The pandemic has meant more times of family togetherness – one of several meaningful and happy outcomes. 

Church During Pandemic

The pandemic in Malaysia has affected his church just as it had affected churches in Singapore during the few periods of tightening and loosening of pandemic regulations and restrictions in the last two years. The church has had to respond quickly to the ever-changing situation. The church’s media team had to learn to pre-record services while keeping to the government restrictions. It learned to be resilient and quick to respond to changes. It had to be able to shuttle between online, on-site and hybrid models of doing worship services. 

The church conducted more meetings on zoom and when it offered mid-week online Bible studies the attendance was much better than when it was done in-person in the past. They have also found that the online presence of the church now saw visitors from other countries viewing their worship services and messages and with a few emailing letters of appreciation. 

And Now?

Now the church has a hybrid model and restrictions have been loosened. Members are returning to the services. However, like in Singapore, church members are creatures of habit. It will take some time before all the regular members and attendees turn up for the in-person services. 

My take is that two years of watching mainly online services have enslaved the people of God to the idol of convenience, and made us spectator worshippers with special multi-tasking powers and lazy bones. Without judgmental and holier-than-thou attitudes, while being sensitive to special situations of some members, we need to pray for God’s people to be freed from this digital captivity, cross the Red Sea, and return to embodied community and worship, where one can be more fully attentive to God and one another. 

Personally

As for me, the online worship had been a blessing. Having retired I felt compelled to be away from church so that the new pastor of the English congregation, Ps Alvin Lim, can freely establish the new dynamics of his leadership with members. With the church going online, I had the joy of remaining in contact with my home church, and did not need to look for other church services to attend. It has now been a year and a quarter since I retired, and I feel it is a good time to return in-person more often but keep a low profile.

Last Sunday, I found it a joy to be together with God’s people, singing, listening to the preached Word, and having lunch with members. Being able to sing, albeit with masks on, was a bonus.

What is it like for your church with the loosening of restrictions? Let us know by making a comment. It would be enlightening to know what’s happening in churches in Singapore and Malaysia.

Share this:

Read More →

Church in general, Malaysian churches, Singapore churches, Worship Service , , , ,

MFI Singapore Pastors Consultation – 24 Mar 2022

24 March 2022 Leave a comment

What a Joy

It was a joy to be welcomed by Pastor Bernard. His church Harvester Community Church was hosting the event. I knew Bernard from the Christian fellowship at CMPB when we met for times of prayer and encouragement, before he completed his National Service. 

My joy doubled as I saw various pastors I know among the groups of five that were seated around tables: Ps Lawrence Koo, Ps Francis, Ps Justin, Ps Ben (one of the panel speakers), and of course my cycling buddy, Ps Richard Wong. I felt relaxed and at home. 

Joining MFI Singapore

I joined the Ministers Fellowship International Singapore after my retirement. They are an association of ministers that intentionally facilitate meaningful relationships among ministers. In doing so they hope to strengthen churches. They also believe that the Church would be strengthened when local churches recognise and allow for the development of the five-fold ministry amongst them. The two main key leaders of MFI Singapore are Ps Chua Hock Lin and Ps Gabriel Han.

Pastors Consultation 2022

This Pastors Consultation began at 9.30am and ended around 1pm. Surprisingly the three and a half hours passed quickly, which was a good sign. The theme was “Leading With Clarity In Uncertain Times” and the speakers were seasoned pastors: Ps Chua Hock Lin, Ps Jeremy Seaward, Ps Ben Lee, and Ps Joey Bonifacio. There was also an interesting panel discussion of three youth pastors: Joel Tan, Jay Ong, and Jess Ong. On the whole, the program fulfilled the purpose of helping pastors gain the clarity to move forward. The program was ably helmed and facilitated by Ps Rhordan Wicks. Every speaker and their respective topic, and the panel discussion contributed to expanding and developing the theme. It was an enriching time, though more time for processing on the insights we gained would have made the meetings more fruitful. However, pastors are busy people and we have to leave it to them to reflect on what the Lord stirred in them personally, and pray about the implications and action to take. 

Clarity For The Church

For me the session about “Clarity For the Church” was inspiring in its centrality and simplicity. The church needs to stop being pre-occupied with reacting to the rapid changes triggered by government covid regulations, necessary as this was, and let Jesus come and give us clarity. He used Luke 5, where Peter was pre-occupied with cleaning the nets and Jesus facilitated a process of revelation where in the end Peter realised his real call was to be a fisher of men. This however was but the first of three encounters where Jesus came and clarified things for the disciples. The other was during post-resurrection, when Peter and the disciples went back to fishing, and Jesus came and clarified their call. The last was when the disciples asked Jesus when would the kingdom come, and Jesus in effect said, Do not be pre-occupied with such matters of last days timing; rather let the Holy Spirit empower you to be My witnesses. I could feel that the pastors were moved by the simplicity and clarity and directness of the message. It was a timely rhema word for the Church in the midst of pandemic uncertainty.

Jeremy Seaward
Chua Hock Lin

Ps Chua gave an overview about what he believed the Lord is doing in the midst of this pandemic. He is shaking what can be shaken, and judgment has begun in the house of God, so that the Church would be purified and prepared as the Bride for the return of Christ.

Ben Lee
Joey Bonifacio

The other speakers spoke about “Clarity in the Family” and “Clarity in the Personal Life”. Here are some of the insights and catchy lines delivered to us:

  • Clarity addresses uncertainty; it does not remove it. You cannot have certainty but clarity is the next best thing to have.
  • Covid had made it such that parents could not outsource the discipleship of their children to the children’s programs. It had to be done by them at home. 
  • Families need to root themselves in the local church and not move from screen to screen and church to church because the children and teenagers need more than the input of mums and dads – they need adult uncles and aunties to enrich their faith and lives. This can only happen if they root themselves in a local church and stay put.
  • Online or physical services better? Most important thing is to be fully present. In which format can you be more fully present to what God is saying and doing?

Youth Pastors Panel Discussion

Jess Ong, Jay Ong, Joel Tan, Ps Rhordan Wicks

The youth pastors panel was interesting as you get glimpses of what today’s youth pastors are like and what are their perspectives and experiences of ministering during the pandemic. Some points that struck me:

  • Young people prioritize authentic relationships.
  • They are tired of being online behind the screen and prefer face to face. At the same time, they need help to relate to others and have authentic conversations.
  • They want to engage and make contributions that make a difference and would participate in social causes and justice issues in tangible ways. 
  • They feel a sadness to have lost two years of precious experiences due to covid restrictions.
  • They need and would appreciate the humble sharing of the ups and downs of life stories from people older than them, as it helps them imagine what their life can be like in the real world and give them hope. 

Reflection Time

At the end, we had a time of quiet reflection and then in our groups we shared about the insights that struck us the most. This was a good time of collaborative learning and of iron sharpening iron. Some good news also came through as it was announced that by next week groups of ten would be allowed, and wearing masks outside would be optional! Someone remarked: I hope this does not undo the good that the pandemic has done in the church. A great way to end the consultation.

Share this:

Read More →

Pastoral ministry, Singapore churches , , ,