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Facets of Pastoral Work I Enjoyed

10 December 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

Teaching God’s Word

Equipping the saints is not a cliché for me but a major reference point for pastoral ministry. It is therefore not surprising that teaching God’s Word through sermons and Christian education courses was something I found great joy in. I loved teaching the Bible and every year I devoured books on preaching, and experimented and incorporated new homiletical insights, ideas and styles into my preparation and delivery. I found satisfaction when I received feedback that the adaptations were effective, and concerned when they fell flat. I also enjoyed the development and execution of Christian education curriculum. I enjoyed running Life in the Spirit seminars to help members receive the baptism of the Spirit, and conducting membership and foundational courses for new believers.

Pastoral Care and Mentoring

Another facet of ministry that I enjoyed was meeting with leaders and members individually and giving them pastoral care, personal counsel or coaching. Patient listening to members’ concerns and struggles is a powerful way of equipping and helping them move towards wholeness. When I first began pastoral ministry in the 1980s, visiting families in their homes was the norm, but gradually I noticed that with the formation of home cell groups, the pastoral care that came through cell groups lessened the need for pastoral home visits unless there were special needs or circumstances involved. Still, it was the one on one sharing and sharpening of life that I found fulfilling.

Blogging as Ministry

Halfway in my forty years of pastoral ministry, I stumbled into blogging through my son Joshua’s suggestion. At that time around AD 2000 I began blogging on Xanga to reach out to the youth in church, and later moved my blog to my own website. Somehow this blogpastor.net website was blessed by the Lord to influence its readers. Readers from around the world read the blog. The blog was cited in the Asia Wall Street Journal, the Straits Times, and in books and articles. The discussion was very active and beyond my ability to monitor and I saw that blogging allowed for conversation/discussion and thus was a good platform for teaching and influencing thought and attitudes. I enjoyed this thoroughly as it also led me to see my writing as an extension of my teaching and pastoral ministry.

Soul Care

Later in the last decade of my pastoral ministry, I was more interested in spiritual formation and spiritual direction. I saw how waiting on God in silence in a retreat setting with a spiritual director to guide helped me recover from a burnout, and I became convinced this kind of ministry to be vital for the spiritual health and vitality of pastors, church leaders and members. I completed a Master’s program on Christian Education and Spiritual Formation with AGST Alliance, went for annual silent retreats, and searched for spiritual director formation training. The whole area of spiritual formation of the soul became a focus for me.

Coaching

During the last five years of my role as senior pastor, I also became more engaged with issues of pastoral succession and sought to equip a team of new ministry staff so that when I retired, the church would have a leadership team able to feed, care for and lead the church. My main concern was to equip them to do what would be a major means of equipping the saints – the Sunday sermon. As this was my main strength, I designed a simple program to give them opportunities to develop their preaching ministry. They have all been trained in Bible Schools but I wanted them to apply what they have learned in a systematic way and with peer group supervision and encouragement. I enjoyed this coaching role in the last five years of pastoral work.

If leading, feeding and caring are the main roles of a pastor, then I would rank the roles in order of personal fulfilment this way: 1) feeding, 2) caring and lastly 3) leading.

My Call Into Pastoral Ministry

3 December 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

I believe God’s call to each person is unique. We can conclude this from scanning the Bible and analysing the different experiences of ordinary people when they were called by God. They ranged from the supernatural experiences of burning bush (Moses), visions (Ezekiel), angelic encounter (Gideon), and prophetic utterances (David), to ordinary experiences like Jesus inviting Matthew the tax collector to follow him (modern equivalent: the pastor asking you to pray about joining the church staff). Thus, what I share here may or may not find resonance with the call of other pastors, missionaries and full-time Christian vocational workers.

I feel grateful that the context of my call to pastoral ministry was the charismatic revival that visited Singapore in the 1970s (you can read more about this in the book, “Unfolding His Story” by Georgie and Galven Lee). I was initiated into a period of intense and deep experiences of repentance, baptism, and the infilling of God’s love and power. These powerful encounters with God and other prayer encounters would generate in me an overwhelming passion for God and his church.

Discovering My Gifts and Calling

This passion and desire to serve God’s people grew and blossomed, and ranged from running the library, to intercessory ministry, doing personal evangelism and follow-up, serving in the church management committee, and teaching Bible classes and preaching from the pulpit, first in the youth fellowship and then in the Sunday worship services.

This heavy involvement in church work helped me discover my gifts in teaching and pastoral work, and the affirmations I received helped me identify how God has chosen to work through me most fruitfully. They would inform my pastoral ministry for years to come: firstly, of where I should give the most priority and energy and time to; and secondly, the kind of gifted people I would need to work with to balance off what I lacked.

Overwhelming Passion

This overwhelming passion to serve refused to fade or die. The deep desire never left me or waned, no matter how often I kneeled and surrendered the desire to go into full-time Christian vocational work, it would remain. When I looked at the NUS courses on offer for me, there was a complete lack of interest and deadness towards them. A vision and prophecy from a leader emboldened me to finally let the pastor know about my strong desire to serve on the church staff. Despite his advice that I should get working experience first (which I obediently followed), that desire never waned but grew even stronger, for after I was working-training as a cadet-teacher for two years, the daily devotions over a period of a few months, stirred me to leave my job and join the church staff. When I brought this up, surprisingly, the church leaders approved it. Immediately, “left my nets” and answered God’s call.

Strong Conviction and Perseverance Linked

After years in the pastoral staff, I realised the importance of having a strong conviction that God has called me. The pastoral ministry is fulfiling but also challenging. On many occasions during the forty years of service, there were moments, even periods of discouragement, inadequacy, self-doubt and hurt. There were moments of temptation when I could have given up God’s call. However, it was the strong conviction of God’s call and the Spirit’s ministry of comforting, strengthening, and encouragement that bound and anchored me to the cross, and helped me continue in perseverance and faithfulness.

God not only calls us, but he also empowers and reinforces us. Blessed be his holy name. Amen.

Retirement Update

29 November 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

It has been a year since I retired. There is only one word to describe it: SWEET.

I looked at my TO DO list and saw what is left undone and they are: Use Skills Future Fund, CPF Inquiry, Look at camera Fujifilm xs10 manual, Paint all ceilings (one ceiling left – the biggest one), Set up Pay Now. Twenty four of the listed items have been done and many, many more that were not listed. It’s been sweat, not sweet.

I treated the year as a sabbatical I never had in forty years of pastoral work. My sabbaticals were from three to six months. I longed for a “biblical” one year sabbatical. My first was a short sabbatical in 2000 when I attended conferences with Pastor Lawrence Koo and Andrew Khoo at the Toronto Airport Church, Willow Creek Church, and Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. On the second three months sabbatical I mainly learned to fish – literally. The third one was six months and the most fruitful: I was 35 days in a prayer retreat in Chiangmai. The most recent one was three months and I did the Camino Ignaciano, another meaningful retreat.

When I retired as the senior pastor, I felt I had to stay away from church so that the new pastor in charge of English congregation can settle in with ease as the new leader. Thankfully this period coincided with Covid-19 and made staying away less painful. Church services were just a few clicks away every Sunday. Initially, I thought six months was sufficient. Near the end of that period, I decided to extend it to a year.

Rest for the body and soul

It was a good year of sweet rest. I listened much more to my body and paid attention to its needs. I am healthier now than before I retired. I could sleep-in most days and sleep came easily for me, so I felt very rested. Thankfully, I did not have to force myself into some regime of strict exercise or diet. After all, I enjoyed outdoor sports activities and, without gritting my teeth, health was a natural outcome. In addition, being extricated from pastoral cares and burdens also freed the soul to rest and this is so good for health, and so sweet.

The art of relish

During retirement, I could do the things I enjoyed most. I went back to blogging and writing and am currently working on two ebooks for distribution (pray for me). I blogged more regularly than before and have seen a return of readership. I have read more widely: novels, thrillers, non-fiction and others. I have returned to leisure cycling and hiking, but could not return to tennis because I had tennis elbow the first time I did. I am also learning photography and joining my wife in a new sport called pickle ball.

Family time had expanded and contracted. For over a year my daughter was working remotely and stayed with us and that was such a joy, and my sons and their families came back from overseas. My grandchildren were fun to have around whenever they came by my home. But now they have gone to the US for work though it’s a comfort that we still have a son and his wife around. The nest is empty but my wife and I have much more time together and this is also a privilege to treasure and enjoy as we are in our mid-60s and only God knows how much time left we have together. Retirement is sweet with no working hours hindering our full enjoyment of God’s gifts of family and pleasurable activities.

Intimacy and friendships

The most delightful and fruitful of all activities was simply time spent on fellowship with God. I loved prayer, reading, journaling, and having the luxury of time to slow down and be quiet before God. I was worried that my life of prayer would taper off when I retired, but it was not so. I still made prayer a priority even though there were no sermons to preach, nor decisions to make, nor people problems to grapple with, nor emotional turbulence to process. Part of this delight was reading Christian books that nourished my soul, and theological stuff that stretched me intellectually. I could also go on a prayer retreat albeit locally.

Another delight is my continued fellowship with pastor friends, some retired, some not. I continued fellowship with individual pastors as well as small group of pastors, including a recent addition: some pastors from Ministers Fellowship International, Singapore. I am also blessed to be a part of a small Catholic community that organizes caminos (journeys) and prayer retreats.

Did I still preach during the past year? Yes, I did. I took a four-month hiatus, and then began to preach after that, but only occasionally in the English and deaf congregations, and mostly in pre-recorded services, which I have gotten used to! I enjoyed the lighter preaching schedule as you have more time to to conceive and gestate and carry a sermon before delivery.

With the recent news of a new strain found in Africa, called Omicron, and which WHO viewed as a “variant of concern”, I pray that the current move back to on-site vaccinated services will not falter but continue to bring God’s people together.

“Lord, have mercy. Waves upon waves of infection have touched so many nations and our tiny island. Stretch out you hand to save us. Help us point people to Jesus as the only Hope of the World. Free us from fear, frustration and depression and fill us with new joy and peace that can only be found in YOU! Amen.”

This was how the sabbatical year panned out but I will leave to another blogpost some updates about the near future.