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Interesting Developments with my Book

1 April 2025 blogpastor Leave a comment

It has been my sincere wish and prayer that my book, “The 26 Gifts of Christ’s Finished Work”, would be used to help Third World country preachers, pastors and church planters. I was pleased when Pastor Thomas mentioned that a Myanmar pastor who runs a Bible School in Yangon can translate, and would check whether he would be willing to translate my book. I was glad to hear that. If this works out, it has to be God at work to further the work of the gospel.

My book gives a better understanding of the gospel, which is what Christ has done for us through his death and resurrection. I always remembered that John Stott said, “The greatest need of the church is to have an enlarged vision of Jesus Christ”. I pray that God will enlarge vision, strengthen faith, deepen love and establish hope for all readers and hearers. With the scarcity of understandable writings about the vastness of salvation, such a book, I pray, will bless the believers as well as the workers in the harvest field.

I praise God that surprising people have asked if they could help me sell my books. I met one last Sunday. Her name is Suzanne. She helps organize the Academy of Prophets for Prophet Amos Jayaratnam. She offered to help me promote my book to her WhatsApp chat group, and I was surprised at her kindness.

A secondary school classmate ordered a book, which I posted to him. He, too, offered to pass a copy of my book to someone in church linked to a Christian bookstore. I felt so encouraged that the Lord is opening doors for me, and I pray this book will bless many.

I have to pray because many books are bought and not read. I have many books on my bookshelf that I have yet to read. Therefore, “Lord, I pray that those whom you move to buy will also be moved to read, and that you will strengthen and enlighten them as they do so. Amen.”

On Sunday, I preached about the history of Pentecostalism as requested by the church staff. It included an account of how the Revival of 1972 had impacted the Singapore church and resulted in the formation of World Revival Prayer Fellowship. The older members were enthralled and enjoyed recalling their personal experiences and filling in missing pieces in the story. A few of them suggested I write another book about that revival. What did I feel? I felt how a new mother would feel after she had just given birth and somebody asked her, “How about having another baby?”

MFIS Pastors Consultation: The Teacher

17 March 2025 blogpastor Leave a comment

I was early. I was graciously granted a book table to share a book I wrote, “The 26 Gifts of Christ’s Finished Work.” The Full Gospel Assembly(FGA) staff were very welcoming and helpful. Ps Maureen and Josefa helped me set up the table and helped me “man” it.

The focus of the consultation on 13^th March 2025 was on the ascension gift of the Teacher. The MFIS have consistently continued their series on the five-fold ministry of Ephesians 4:10-12. The speakers were Rev Calvin Lee, Rev Rhordan Wicks, and Rev Chua Hock Lin. Calvin Lee gave an overview of what it meant to be a teaching church: the what, the why, the how. Hock Lin spoke out of the burden the Lord laid on his heart. He preached passionately about the need to unleash the supernatural in the church through preaching the Word and allowing for the manifestations of the Spirit, particularly the gift of tongues, which is the doorway to the supernatural gifts. It was appropriate that he took the final session because it culminated in corporate heartfelt prayer.

Rhordan Wicks gave a practical and helpful teaching about teaching. He is an eloquent and articulate communicator and shared seven practical and vital principles of communication from the pulpit. Each principle was illustrated with analogies and examples that made them crystal clear. The seven principles were:

Relevance brings resonance – use language the audience understands

Build bridges not walls

Fillers drain power from your message

Your voice is an instrument -play it well

Your body speaks before you do

Your notes should support, not script your delivery – scaffolding brings freedom

Slides should support, not steal the spotlight.

To top this off, he demonstrated how to design impactful and elegant slides based on a sermon outline he had prepared earlier. He did it on the spot without prior preparation. Thus, we were let in on a real-time demonstration. His mantra is “LESS IS MORE!”. I loved the demonstration and it inspired me to try out some of his practical tips for my slides when I guest preached on Sunday.

I thought it would be wonderful if this impactful presentation about practical communication and presentation skills could be uploaded onto YouTube for a wider audience to benefit. Sadly, it was not recorded.

The consultation ended with prayer and some announcements about future events:

MFI Conference 2025 (17 July 2025 9.30am -4pm) – VFC Tampines

Thanksgiving Dinner (20 Nov 2025 5.30pm -8.30pm) – to be confirmed

Combined Fellowship Teams Gathering (15 May 12noon -2.30pm) – The New Church

How did the book sales go? Not good. Even with the moral support of my two Tung Ling friends, Dr John Sim and Benjamin Foo, my publisher. I brought 100 books and I sold only 10 books. For sure, I am not Rick Warren. However, I was at peace about it as I wrote not out of the need for money or an ego boost but simply to obey the Lord’s word. God will work things out for good. This book sale was disappointing compared to the launch in my home church, when 150 books were sold. I am always thankful for the support of members of my home church, World Revival Prayer Fellowship.

Lenten Soul Care Retreat @ TTC

12 March 2025 blogpastor 4 Comments

I have never been to Trinity Theological College for a retreat. They had been doing retreats for a few years before COVID-19 halted them. Now the college has resumed them, and they plan to do four retreats a year, God willing. Rev. Dr. Jimmy Tan and Rev. Dr. Niam were the retreat leaders, and Kim Lee Sue and I were supporting spiritual directors of this retreat from the 7th to the 8th of March 2025.

I was not ready for what was ahead. I studied in the old grounds at Mount Sophia. Even then, I stayed out since I was married. TTC has since moved to its new premises at Upper Bukit Timah, next to the Hillview MRT station. Its sprawling grounds hold a few entities: TTC, the St Francis School, Bukit Panjang Methodist Church (English), and Methodist School of Music. Furthermore, the campus was built on slopes so moving around demands patience.

In the past, I went to TTC mainly to do research in the Library. Besides the beautiful library, I know the carpark, the office, toilets, the sanctuary and the school café. During the orientation, I was shown the hostel rooms, the students’ cafeteria, the serene St Peter’s Hall chapel and guided to my room, I felt disoriented. However, after a while I adjusted to the surroundings and found my bearings.

I loved the times in the chapel. There is a sacred ambience that invites you to be silent and to pray. There were many other places where you could pray. Dairy Farm Park is a minute’s walk away, and within the premises, nature reminds us that it is near too: we can hear beautiful bird songs.

The team designed the retreat with the new retreatants in mind so they could ease into solitude, silence and prayer. There was a good balance of periods when we meditated and prayed together, with times for solitude and prayer. Meditations were on the theme of “Through the Wilderness, Towards the Cross” and were based on Isaiah 55. Each retreatant saw a spiritual director once a day during this two-day retreat, which began at 8.30am on Friday and ended at 5pm on Saturday.

We were blessed with superb meals during this retreat. We were expecting meals in plastic bento sets, but we were surprisingly given fine food plated stylishly. We were so thankful that Maple Catering went beyond what was agreed.

I had a meaningful time sitting with retreatants in all the sessions. The guided meditations inspired me to reflect deeply and pray honestly. The spiritual direction went well even though the rooms were not completely suitable.

On reflection, I was inspired and blessed as a participant in the guided meditations and prayer. I look forward to the next Retreats@TTC. If you wish to be informed of future retreats, the email contact is info@ttc.edu.sg

If you wish to register for the next Retreats@TTC, an Easter Soul Care Retreat click HERE