Pastoral ministry – Page 27

Category: Pastoral ministry

On sabbatical finally

3 April 2011 blogpastor 8 Comments

My sabbatical begins

The sabbatical has finally begun. First of April came and went without event. Lurking underneath was an anxiety that the chairman of the Board would call me –Pastor, I am sorry but it was all an April Fool’s prank. Report to work tomorrow. But that did not happen, and I am still pinching myself.

The last time I had a sabbatical was for three months and it was about eleven years ago. At that time, I had served in the same church for close to 20 years. No complaints from me as there are pastors who have never had a sabbatical. And there are those who had a sabbatical every six years. Comparing my situation with other pastors will only make me glad or sad. I would rather not compare and be grateful and contented with what I am blessed with.

Eugene Peterson, well known pastor, lecturer and writer about spiritual formation and prayer, wrote in one of his books, that sabbatical is “the biblically based provision for restoration. When the farmer’s field is depleted, it is given a sabbatical – after years of planting and harvesting, it is left alone for a year so that the nutrients can build up in it. When people in ministry are depleted, they also are given a sabbatical – time apart for the recovery of spiritual and creative energies.” For some years now I have been feeling the need for spiritual replenishment. This morning, on the Lord’s day, I woke up praying- Lord heal whatever brokenness You find in me. I commit the whole six months to You and trust You to order my steps and restore me fully in spirit, soul and body.

Visit to church nearby my home

This was my first Sunday. Community of Praise Baptist Church is nearby my home and their worship service starts at 10am. My wife came with me as we had to hurry off to Yip’s 50^th birthday lunch in Sentosa. The worship hall was gorgeous. The decor was tastefully done and I could see that they were willing to spare little expense to do the hall up. It looked like it had a seating capacity of about 500. The songs were familiar and I asked the Lord to minister and speak to me. A song touched me, encouraging me to trust Him to accomplish His purposes in me through this sabbatical. That was a good start, to start receiving at the first service of the sabbatical.

A few faces were familiar to me. I saw Jackie and pastor Bernie – both of whom I am acquainted with from a prayer retreat I attended last November. And there was Dave Tang who sits on the CRMS board and the senior pastor Rev George Butron who together with other pastors were attending a Focused Leaders Network facilitated by the CRMS founder James Creasman, former Anglican Archbishop Moses Tay, pastor Walter Lim of Grace II and myself.

The congregation were mainly folks in their 40’s and 50’s, as their young people, the Mandarin speaking and the children were worshipping simultaneously in other halls nearby. There were quite a number of Caucasians in the congregation and a surprisingly wonderful mix of different races. The Chinese formed the majority but there were quite a number of Indians, Filippinos and other folks too. It reminded me of Pentecost at Azusa Street. The Spirit brings people of all races and status and marks it with His kind of love.

George Butron’s sermon

George Butron taught from Nehemiah chapter one, the beginning of a series of messages. Detailing the historical and cultural background without boring the audience, he taught the Word, reading often from the text. It was obvious he loved the Word and that shone through. Near the end, he got on fire and the temperature in the congregation went up. From informing the mind earlier, he was now warming our hearts as he poured out his heartfelt convictions about what he saw God doing in the church and what he believed God was about to do. You could say he started with teaching and ended up prophesying. Black preachers call it celebration.

The insight I took home was about how Nehemiah mirrored the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our lives. Just as Nehemiah rebuilt the broken walls of Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit wants to rebuild our lives on the inside. That was the pivot on which the sermon’s effectiveness rested on. It resonated with me because of what I prayed in the morning. At the end of the sermon, I whispered to the Lord – I trust You to rebuild the broken walls during the sabbatical.

Long walks resume

My wife and I resumed the long walks and the usual Saturday treks. These have been laid off for quite a few months. So while the early morning Saturday trek up Bukit Timah Hill was cancelled because it rained, my wife and I went with Linda Teo, Tan and Christine in the evening. The hills are alive with the sound of music, and I do hear them when I trek. And it always feels good, yes priceless, when after an hour and a half of trekking up stairs and slopes, you walk down the tar and cement main road to the rangers’ station at the foot. There are other places I would like to trek during my sabbatical: Pulau Ubin, Sungei Buloh, Sentosa, MacRitchie, some parts of the city, and some hills like Belumut in Kluang.

Off to Kuala Lumpur

This Friday, I ride First Coach from Novena at 9.30am and will be in Kuala Lumpur for about ten days. Do my MTh(Ed) module under Perry Shaw whose lectures are about “Building Formative Faith Communities”- it may not appeal to you but just the title makes me salivate. Of course “ lim kopi” with some New Covenant Church friends like Pastor Peter and Simon and whoever is free. Preach there on Sunday morning. Possibly a peek at Stillhaventfound’s girlfriend. Maybe he’ll change his blog name now that he has found. Maybe attend Roger Sapp’s healing seminar. Quite a few maybes. And finally, a visit to an old friend, Mrs Ang, as we affectionately call her, who had ministered many times to our church in the past. Looking forward to this trip.

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Why pastors resign

10 March 2011 blogpastor 36 Comments

Recent spate of resignations

News of the resignation of two prominent pastors surprised me. It was announced in Riverlife Church, a megachurch in Pasir Ris, that Rev Vincent Lun, their senior pastor has resigned. Then I heard that so has Rev Melvyn Mak, the deputy senior pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church. These two in the wake of recent resignations of pastors from New Creation Church, City Harvest and Church of our Savior who have served faithfully in their respective congregations. Then there is the forthcoming retirement of many senior and experienced Anglican priests in the next few years.

Push and pull factors

It made me realize that though I have given thought to why members leave a church, little have I thought or written about why pastors resign. It was a rare thing in the many years that I have served, but recently it seemed like the drizzle of the past has turned into a tropical downpour. So why do pastors resign? Common sense, anecdotal hearsay and guesswork is all you need to draw up a list of push and pull factors. A combination of push and pull factors are usually involved in any pastor’s resignation.

Push factors

-Frustration over resistance to positive change.

-Unhappiness with some in church board or congregation, usually precipated by conflict or disagreement.

-Pastor finds insufficient support for his vision or strategy.

-Pastor is discouraged or burnt-out and there is no provision for sabbatical or rest.

-A stifling system invented out of distrust of a pastor’s consecration to God, dedication to the ministry.

-No chemistry with leadership or staff team. Personality clashes with key people.

-Disillusionment about people, leaders, and the way church is done.

-Frustration over inability to meet up to unrealistic expectations of church and self.

-Disunity and politicking in the church.

-Autocratic, unreasonable “boss” or board.

-Poor fit of one’s gifts with the position.

-The shove of mandatory retirement age or poor health.

Pull factors

-Called to another kind of ministry: whether missions, a para-church ministry or to plant a different kind of church.

-Attracted by greater freedom, flexibility and trust, or by its opposite: a clear structure and order and policy.

-Children have grown up and are independent and the need to provide financially for their education is lifted.

-Greater awareness of one’s true passion, gifts and wiring and the fit is better outside church.

-Too long in a place and restlessness beckoning for a change of scenery or challenge.

-Pastor’s conviction that they have done what they could with the team and people and a change would be good for the church.

-Emigration to another country.

-Finding expression for one’s changes in convictions about doctrine, philosophy of ministry or vision, that the church cannot provide space or acceptance for.

– Better compensation and terms so that there is more than enough to meet the family’s needs, and to give to others.

-Maximizing one’s experience and insight in the senior years to focus on passing on the baton to the next generation.

POSTSCRIPT: To find out where do pastors go to after they retire click HERE.

And you might want to add other factors in the comment box…..

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Inspiring people in Cebu mission trip

28 February 2011 blogpastor 7 Comments

This was the first time I went on missions with the Soon family. Michael Soon had been a missions man for decades. He had migrated from Singapore to Perth and the missions passion, instead of waning, burst aflame in the land of the relaxed. He operates in a dependency on the Lord, and makes connections between needs and resources. Thus I ended up on this scouting trip to Cebu island in the Philippines. He and his family were in Cambodia for about a week, and spent a few days of Chinese New Year with relatives in Singapore and then it was off to Cebu. This was one long missions cum reunion trip for them. They traveled budget so that they could pour more resources into the ministries they were helping. They were seasoned missioners: traveling light, no complaints, adaptable, culturally sensitive, encouraging, not patronizing and intent on serving and helping the people.

It looked like his missions passion had rubbed onto his wife, Soo Kheen, son Ansen, and daughter Anwen. Ansen had spent a gap year with Youth With A Mission doing a DTS in Perth. He had gone to Mexico for the outreach. It was a joy to see this family serving together in missions. Most often in church, family members would serve in different ministries and spheres, and that is okay because God gives different gifts, passions and grace to each one. Missions is one of those occasions when temporarily you can see the manifold grace of God at work through a family. Their strengths, training background, temperaments, spiritual gifts and passions come together like a lively and lovely dance.

Stephen and I shared the room and it was good to have a partner with you on any trip. Jesus sent his disciples two by two into the field. We could share our reflections and process what we were experiencing. This mission trip was packed. Morning we left the small hotel and we returned about 10 most nights. An interesting first for both of us was taking the night ferry in the tourist section. Told a few distasteful stories of overcrowded sinking ferries to the group but I suspect they thought I was kidding. Anyway the cheaper fare was in the open air bunk beds on the deck, which seemed safer to me, while the tourist fare was below the deck in a smaller air-conditioned section.

Both Stephen and I were impressed with the ministry of Grace Community Empowerment. Sharon and Manny Pastre are the leaders of the ministry. This couple complemented each other and are both vital to the success of the ministry and its outreach. Sharon was born in Singapore, raised in Hong Kong, but a US citizen, and a missionary in Philippines. She sold off her successful architectural practice. She used to design the interiors of hotels, and sometimes the facades of buildings. Now she designs programs to meet the needs of the poor and the proclamation of the gospel. Manny was an Assemblies of God pastor and had experience working in a community aid agency. He was an ex-Marine and still sported a Marine haircut. “Keeps me cool”.

Another lovely Singaporean couple were Seh Chuan and Brenda, who have been following Michael Soon in his mission trips. They retired long ago at around the age my father’s generation retired: 55. (You see in those days, unlike today, the Singapore system did not have scholars running it! Under them, the retirement age is currently 62.) This couple was sincere and generous, and they wholeheartedly threw themselves into all the mission work, especially the dental sealant project, with admirable zeal. They braved the dumpsite visit, the travels in jeepneys and ferry, shared their testimony with the marriage fellowship, and bought about 30 pairs of jeans for all the local workers and “scholars”.

Missions has a way of yielding interesting stories. Its always a privilege to connect with people, and be inspired by them. One of the simple joys of missions is to hear their stories of faith, love, failures and successes. Although our intent is to give and sow much, we inevitably receive much too!

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Dr Doug Leung and his ministry

24 February 2011 blogpastor Leave a comment

It was nice to have Dr Doug Leung around. He had sold a very successful dental practice in Boston and started Medical Dental Community Groups (MDCG) aimed at meeting felt needs of the poor. He had been around in Cebu to train a mission team prior to training our team. He trained us how to do dental sealants in a whole day! Then we had practice with some of the young guys in the center.

The next day, we went to a public school and helped about 100 students. They came in groups of manageable size. First they received a talk on dental care and decay prevention. Then they went into a group where someone would share the good news using the “evangelicube” – a method of sharing the gospel using something that looked like Rubik’s cube.

Then they came to us and had their teeth mapped and the lower molars without cavities sealed. We created a makeshift dental clinic: chairs, tables, pillows, headlights….but the sterilizing of equipment and safety precautions were tight. We each worked with someone who had experience and Dr Doug and Dr Marianne, a local dentist, walked around and coached us.

We were also dumbstruck by how decayed and devastated the teeth of these young kids were! I remembered in the 1960’s the school system in Singapore had this mobile dental clinic bus and I had my teeth regularly checked.

An Sen and An Wen the young adults in our team took to the ministry with enthusiasm and confidence. But we were not far behind in energy, but slower and tiring earlier.

We all felt a new respect for dentists and the backbreaking work they do. They deserve the fees we pay them.

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Cebu mission: between death and decay

18 February 2011 blogpastor 9 Comments

The visit to the Tomoy dumpsite gave me some anxious moments. There was an ominous feeling of what laid ahead, but I resolved to face it as it came. After donning rubber boots, we walked across muddy fields to the outskirts of the Tomoy dumpsite. There the Grace Community Empowerment ministry had started a preschool for children to learn phonics and Jesus. These children lived with their families in shacks along the edges of the dumpsite. They presented a few worship songs for us in English.

There we met a heroic girl, Marisa, who had deformed legs. She had to cross a canal on a styrofoam float, and walk with her butt and hands across dirt and mud, to get to school. The ministry is building a hut next door for her and her family so that she would not have to make those hazardous trips to school.

We ourselves had to balance precariously on a makeshift styrofoam “boat” to get across to the dumpsite. The canal was dirty brown and we were shocked to see children taking a dip in the stream of bacteria.

The suish of soft mud, the stench, the shock of seeing children scavenging among heaps of grabage grated at our conscience. We wanted to escape to a mall, but this was a mission trip! The discomfort churned in the stomach. Angry when you think of the super-rich politicians. Pity for the powerless and impoverished reduced to such humiliation. Only Christ can fix this, I thought, and we are his hands and feet.

Pastor Manny brought us to the home of Marisa. Instinctively I avoided looking into the eyes of poverty, and stayed a safe distance, as though poverty was infectious. Looking around was easier than trying to make a personal connection with them. He told us that Marisa’s brother was malnourished and the center helped nurture him with a special formula food. He grew bulk after some months and he was sent back home. We took pictures of him with his brother and mother. How were we to know he would be declared dead in the hospital the next day? There was nothing to indicate that his life hung in the balance that day. Between death and decay is a bottomless pit called despair, and I was there, and I had felt its merciless grip.

When I returned home the first thing I wrote in my Facebook was: “Every Filipino politician should work and stay overnight with a poor family living in a dumpsite before taking the oath as President or governor or mayor or senator or congressman.”

And maybe so should pastors and missionaries.

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