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Crossroads Cup: Singapore’s inter-church football league

3 July 2013 blogpastor Leave a comment

WRPF playing a Methodist church team

The Crossroads Cup is an inter church football tournament. Bless the people who organized it for it has offered an opportunity for men passionate about football to express their witness and worship in play. Many church activities does not press the button for Christian guys. This one does for those with an interest in football. And its a good way to bring in pre-believers into the squad. People often come to faith through experiencing Christ in Christian community. In the safety of the football pitch, under the open sky, or over meals at coffee-shop, hawker center or a home, the pre-believer encounters the Christ in community. Stories are told. Acceptance and love is experienced. Seeds are planted. Who knows?

World Revival Prayer Fellowship joined the inter-church league this year. We have a team of church members as well as pre-believers. They pick up good values on the field. They fall, they fail in more than one ways. They learn character; they learn values. They learn Christ not by studying the Bible but by experience, observation, and reflection. A different way of learning than in the classroom, or in the worship service or in the small group. Nevertheless, learning takes place. Probably in ways that cannot be replicated by other church programs. More churches should join in next year. Winning, everyone says, is not the main thing. Even so, WRPF is currently fourth on the table, and everyone loves to have a sense of progress, and if it includes winning, why not? Maybe in three years time, this is a probability. Amen and amen.

Preaching at Care Community Church camp

25 June 2013 blogpastor 2 Comments

Care Community Church camp at Pulai Springs, Johor

Pulai Springs, Johor is a good resort for church camps. We arrived there from Singapore within two hours or less. We had ice breakers and orientation and settled into our rooms. The haze however spoiled what would otherwise have been an ideal place for relaxation, seminars and meditation. The food was excellent and the rooms were above average. So was the service.

The Care Community Church is a warm and loving family church. Their welcome quickly put us at ease with them. Meals were pleasant as we got to know different members of the church. As they responded to us warmly, we in turn enjoyed a growing rapport with them. When I am relaxed and feel at home with an audience, I find I can preach and teach more effectively. I found the church to be friendly, unique, and blessed with many talented and faithful people. You could tell they have been cared for and loved.

Small group discussions increases learning

Pastor Amos Yap has been their pastor for more than a decade. I got to know his family better: Juliet, his wife who gives tuition with a twist – counseling and guidance! and his son and daughter. They are a lovely family and all are serving the Lord. The theme was about personal renewal and rebuilding the church. I dealt with the common symptoms of an unhealthy spirituality.

Pulai Springs, Johor is a lovely hotel with good service and food. I adapted some ideas I got from Peter Scazzero’s “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” and filtered them through my experience, and shared 8 symptoms with them over two nights. Detecting some of these symptoms will help people unlock some of the hindrances to the Christ life in them. I also did two morning workshops on the spiritual disciplines of the “Examen” and “Lectio Divina” – fancy Latin names for a review of the day and devotional reading. Short explanations and 25 minutes of actual prayer, followed by 20 minutes of group sharing and prayer. I kept the practices brief and manageable so that the young people can enjoy a taste of these spiritual practices. These are disciplines that will position them to receive and experience more of God’s grace and love on a regular basis. On the last night we had a wonderful ministry time praying for the sick, prophesying and blessing people in the name of the Lord. The presence of the Lord was among us.

There was more hunger and faith among them than I had assumed from the first session. In the final morning session, I encouraged them to rebuild the church together, doing a bare bones expository message of Haggai’s second prophecy.

Euclid Tan was my room mate, a young man who had been in Bill Johnson’s school of the supernatural in the US. He was a great help. He gave me input on the messages, helping me to angle it to young people and contributing stories as well as trimming off unnecessary fats. May the Lord raise a new generation of ministers who will excel in faith, hope and love.

Pardon my rambling all over the place. This is a symptom that I need to slow down, slow down.

How to preach at church camps

blogpastor 2 Comments

Sought after church camp speaker

One of the most popular speakers for church camps must be Pastor Benny Ho. He took our camp at Batam this year and mentioned that he had six camps to do during the June holidays. The theme he spoke to us was “Life on the Top” – a series of four messages that speaks to life issues. He also gave the young people an informal workshop on dating and courtship. We were blessed. I was curious about what he thought about speaking at church camps and how it was different from church service sermons and what speakers needed to take note.

Things to note

One of the important things is to be aware of is the physical and mental state of people during a camp. The ups and downs of energy and interest levels have to be observed and given attention to. He found that using humor is a help as it catches and maintains attention levels when campers get tired. Camp talks have to facilitate an encounter with God, as that is what people are positioned for and need during a camp. People have taken time out of busy studies or work, and they are more ready to hear God and experience him. The concentrated time allows for a theme to be fully developed and expanded. It would also be good for the camp speaker to work closely with the pastor and help the church rally together and work in unity for the common good. This would entail mixing around with the people and getting to know them too, especially during meal times.

Some personal observations

His preaching was well-received by the campers. I observed his preaching during the camp and here are some things I noted down. Trust this might be helpful when you get invited to do a church camp somewhere:

Topical (more accessible, I suppose) though two years ago he did an expository series on Joel with us
Clear, coherent and easy to follow outline
Pithy quotations from well-known writers and preachers or anonymous sources.
Apt use of words and synonyms and a sprinkling of original Greek or Hebrew
Stories: here is where humor is most evident
Backed up points with Scripture texts
Use of some facts, statistics and research
Put notes in people’s hands