Church in general – Page 41

Category: Church in general

Faith Community Church: a Bible-teaching, migrant church in Perth

4 November 2010 blogpastor 12 Comments

Welcomed warmly by the Senior Pastor Benny Ho into the foyer of a Baptist school’s auditorium, we engaged in some small talk and quickly made arrangements to meet after the service. There was a sizable crowd in the auditorium when the service began, but like in Singapore, latecomers streamed in even as people lifted hands in worship.

A migrant church

Looking around, I saw that the congregation were mainly people of my age with about one third or more youths and young adults. There were less than two handful of Caucasians. Most worshipers were ethnic Chinese. This is an English-speaking migrant church in Perth. Most had come as immigrants from Singapore and Malaysia, led by the Lord, or seeking better and fairer opportunities for their children’s education, and a more satisfying work-life balance.

Being a migrant church, one of the unique strengths of Faith Community Church is that new migrants get referred here and the church is very effective at helping migrants settle into Perth and assimilate into the fellowship. Easily people get fitted into such a helpful and well-networked community.

Detailed and relevant Bible teaching

The worship gave way to the teaching of the Word and this is where Faith Community Church excels. Pastor Benny delivered a masterly exposition of Haggai chapter 1, the beginning of a series of messages. This is my third or fourth time hearing him speak and he certainly lives up to his reputation as a good expositor and teacher of the Bible. It was clear and relevant. His detailed and interesting Bible teaching has in no small way contributed to the recent surge in the church’s numerical increase.

Surprise, surprise

Later I met Benny to make an appointment for lunch and to my pleasant surprise I heard that Rev Dr Norman Wong my friend would be in Perth on Monday. So we did lunch together and they gave me some good advice on a difficulty the church I served was facing. These guys are experienced, unassuming and effective pastors whose wisdom and opinions I respect. I was not disappointed with the informal consultation.

Forget about retirement

An interesting aside was meeting Norman’s father, Mr Wong, I called him. He’s 88 and he’s still working. He’s had open heart surgery but looked healthy and still played golf. He said thankfully, “Every day I am still alive is a bonus!” An accountant by training, he still sat on the boards of several listed companies. Mr Lee Kuan Yew would have been happy to use him as an example of working into your old age.

Reasons why members leave or stay in a church

8 September 2010 blogpastor 12 Comments

The topic was important. Sheep-stealing is a derogatory term, especially when thrown at you. You turn defensive and reply, “The hole in your fence is too big. Can I help it if the grass over here in my pastures is crunchy, smells better and is more nutritious?” That adds salt to the wound, and a fight is about to break out in the body of Christ.

Well many of the pastors who gathered at the discussion of membership loss and gain found that they had similar reasons for why members left their church. About eighty pastors discussed in twos and then in tens. These are some of the main reasons that were listed, but not in order of importance:

1. Unresolved conflicts and disagreements with other members or leaders.
2. General dissatisfaction and frustration with their, their children’s or church’s progress.
3. Location and convenience.
4. Members from other churches enthusiastically inviting them to their churches.
5. Attractive and better children’s and youth programs of bigger churches.

And what about the main reasons why people choose a particular church to start attending?
1. The pastor and his strengths, usually the preaching.
2. To a megachurch in order to have minimum involvement, no questions and commitment asked, and to remain anonymous while recovering from hurts or burn-out.
3. To a small church to know and be known, love and be loved, and to find an avenue of service.
4. They were persuasively invited by a friend.
5. Great music or other programs that meet the family’s needs.

Reactions to New Creation Church record $21 million fund raising

30 August 2010 blogpastor 37 Comments

Joy Fang of My Paper reported today that New Creation Church collected $21 million in less than 24 hours!

In fewer than 24 hours last Sunday, members of the megachurch donated an impressive $21.1 million towards its multimillion-dollar building fund over four services held at Suntec City and Golden Village Marina. The sum breaks the church’s record of over $18.8 million raised last February, and $18 million raised in April 2008. In comparison, last year’s President’s Challenge raised a total of about $10 million for 37 beneficiaries. When “My Paper” broke the news last year that the church raised about $19 million in a day with about 21,300 people in attendance – what the church said was a “new record attendance and collection done during a worldwide recession” – it caused an uproar among netizens in online forums. This year, a record number of over 22,000 people attended the special service last Sunday,
called Miracle Seed Sunday. Church members donated money to help fund the construction of the Integrated Hub complex. Located at Vista Xchange at one-north in Buona Vista, the civic and cultural complex will house a 5,000-seat auditorium when it is completed in 2012. It is being co-developed by Rock Productions, the commercial- development arm of New Creation Church, andmall developer CapitaMalls Asia. New Creation Church will be the auditorium’s anchor tenant and hire the venue for its services on Sundays. With this new amount, the total sum raised so far by the church for the project stands at about $259 million, or more than half the $500 million needed.

There will be a wide range of responses from different people. Blogpastor imagines some:

Governance regulators: “Let’s keep a close eye on them!”

Politicians: “How can we get our party members to donate that much in such a short time?”

Finance/Marketeers: “It must be an investment scam!”

Organizers of President’s Challenge: “How can we harness religion for fund-raising?”

Christian idealists: “Why don’t they do the same for the poor?”

Secularist: “Churches should be taxed!”

Other megachurches: “Will we be able to match that?”

Small churches: “Can we have the crumbs that fall off the table of plenty?”

Parachurch organizations: “With that money, we can send 21,000 workers into the harvest fields”.

Fundamentalist: “20,000 deceived by prosperity doctrine in less than 24 hours!”

Roman Catholics: “How come our folks do not give as much?”

Gambler who lost $26 million at the casino recently: ” If only…….”

Unsaved dad: “I told you the church is filthy rich. Stop giving your salary to them!”

Arsenal fan: “We could get Shay Given with that amount!”

Blogpastor: “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.”