FGC Sunday (2nd August): My Father Preaches For the First Time

It was bound to happen sooner or later. It happened last weekend and it was interesting. My father came back to sort out some family matters and is also on his way to Korea for more ministry. Arrived on Saturday morning and as we talked on the one-hour drive back to Selayang I asked if he or my mother would like to preach in my church. For a while my father and mother had a toss-a-coin situation on who would preach. But I guess my father cannot resist the offer.


It was mid-term break so many of the MMU students were back in their hometowns. The remnants were pleasantly surprised that we had a guest speaker. One of my leaders (Melisa Ann) was also visiting family in Penang that particular week, so I did not get the exact number of people in attendance. But I think that for the first time in over a month, our attendance dropped below 40. I believe there were about 35 members last Sunday.

Even though many were missing from church, we still had our usual quota of guests. Fonie's two sisters were in town visiting. I guess it was visit-your-family week at FGC. There were also other guests that week. I feel that the church is still not ready for new members, we are still in an "incubation" period. But as I pray and meditate, it is becoming clearer what I believe is God's will for the church. Keep praying with me that the leadership of the church will be able to be sensitive to God's voice. Soon we will have to come out of our comfortable incubation mode and begin to move forward.

My father spoke about Abraham and the altars he built from various passages in Genesis. Rev. Yee Tham Wan reminded all of us that we need to continue to push ourselves in our journey with God. No matter who we are we still had room to grow.

It was also communion week so it was also a first as I served Holy Communion to my parents. I am still kind of in a daze and disbelief as I thank God for his grace, that he would use me to pastor a church. I will have to continue to grow in boldness and confidence as I minister but still keep that sense of reverant fear and priviledge for being granted such a great responsibility. At the moment it is still a shoe too big for my feet, however I want to push myself more and more to make sure I grow, and consequently because of my growth the church will grow as well.

Shekinah Community Center Sunday (July 26th): Prophetic Conference, Ipoh

So I went missing for the whole of last week. I was attending a prophetic conference in Shekinah Community Center (SCC), Ipoh, a.k.a. the mothership. SCC is my church's mother church.

I was initially quite reluctant to go, firstly, Ipoh was supposed to be a small town, what could Ipoh offer that I couldn't already get in KL? Then there was also my thing about the "prophetic". Many times I just substitute prophetic with pathetic, it really didn't help when I was trying to pay attention during the conference, everytime the speaker said "prophetic", my mind automatically switches it to "pathetic". It was really funny, to me, only. A real inside joke.

So I mentally prepared myself for a week of boredom. I was prepared to fast internet, stay indoors if there weren't any place to go, and bear a week of pathetic conference. I gave up on my "P" night on Monday and left before I could catch up with anyone, I only met Ke Xin when she came earlier to twist perm my hair, but you would have already had your share of that story by now. I left my wife, daughter, friends, and internet at home and headed due north for Ipoh.

Drive alone was nice, quite therapeutic and cleansing in a way. Music blasted from my aunty's new speakers as I drove her car. I arrived slightly late and had to find the church. For a brief moment I thought my GPS got me to the wrong place, but a brief call to Pas. Henry confirmed I was in the right area. The place was littered with pubs, cafes, cyber cafes, hawkers, and even discos (some dodgier than others). During the duration of my stay I have cristened that area where SCC was located as "Sodom and Gomorrah". I figured this shouldn't be as bad as I have initially prepared for. Worse come to worse I could camp it out in the cyber cafe.

Conference already started and the prophet-speaker already has begun the seminar. I see two familiar faces, Pas. Sam (from Baguio Philippines), and Pas. D'ton (from Bangkok, Thailand). I met them earlier in the week for a dinner on the day of their arrival, I also previously met them during my trip to Bangkok. We were going to be roomies throughout this conference.

The conference was great, for me I was reminded that I need to sharpen my spiritual gifts and not just rely on physical ministry. Many of the supernatural things can't be explained or understood so I just have to trust God when it comes to those things.

During the conference the speaker prayed for the manifestation of "golden glory" and true enough gold dust started appearing on people. Pas. Nagu, being Indian (dark skinned) was the most obvious of all, his face and hands was sparkly from the gold dust.

It is interesting why God would do something like this. I guess he's God and he's just showing off. It's just fantastic when God decides to show off a little... fantabulous!

There were also people who were healed, especially those with backaches due to uneven legs. We (the participants) would pray for the legs to be lengthened and true enough legs were lengthened. Then back problems just went away, it was a miracle. Of course there was also prophecies that were made.

The conferences were held during the night so days were free. So we had time to do some shopping. I spent most of the day with the foreign pastors. Being the local, I showed them around and basically played their host. If gained nothing else from this trip, the friendship built would be well worth the effort.

During one of the days, Pas. Henry brought us all up to Cameron Highlands for a cup of tea. The foreign pastors were also here for a meeting with the various national youth directors. Vietnam and Cambodia could not make it, but Philippines and Thailand was present, and guess who represented Malaysia?

Meeting lasted about 15 minutes, and time to travel to Cameron Highlands from Ipoh is just over 1 hour. Then the rest of the time we had tea and goofed off.

Other days I spent getting to know the people of SCC as well as getting to know the area around the church. Of course the eating was one of the highlights, for me it's the fellowship around the table.

I was supposed to head back straight after the final session late Saturday night, but I finally decided after much deliberation that I would attend the worship service in SCC. It was great getting to see how things are done in the main church. I was introduced to the church, and as expected, people were fascinated at me. I know I'm not the stereotype pastor, in fact, I'm quite the opposite. My newly permed hair got even more stares. But I am happy that people don't immediately recognize me as a "pastor". I'm just a normal guy that loves Jesus and want to serve him. I do the work of a pastor, but I don't want the "stigma" that comes with being a pastor. Christians and non-believers alike often act differently (and many times weird) when they realize you're a "pastor". Pastors are just people like you and me trying to make the most out of our lives. Anyway I was introduced to SCC.

After Sunday service I had the privilege of having lunch at Howard Leow's house. Howard studies Artificial Intelligence in KL and attends our church whenever he's around. He was going to hitch a ride from me back to KL so his mother invited me over to have lunch at their home. It was a great experience for me. They were real village folks and I had an authentic Hakka meal that is rare in KL, even though I myself am a Hakka. I had the chance to embaress myself with my horrible Hakka.

I left Ipoh with a very different perception of the place then when I first came. Ipoh is ready for harvest. So many young people so near the church there, SCC needs a youth worker badly. SCC is right at the heart of the hotspot, less than 100 meters away young people meet up to eat, play, and party. Someone just needs to invite them to come eat, play, and party in the church! God please send more workers, workers who can understand and meet the needs of these young people in Ipoh! I desperately want to go back to Ipoh, but next time I want to bring a small team along with me and try to make a difference there. It will also be good bonding time for me and my small team of ministers. For now I consider this more of a recon trip. People in Ipoh get ready, I'm coming back for you soon...

I arrived in KL at 4:30pm, just in time for futsal. Perfect way to cap off this fantastic week.

FGC Sunday (July 12th): Catching Waves

Sunday's Stats:

This week there were no extra guests from other churches. However I encouraged the church to take a look around and see that our church is filling up. Albeit only after 10:20 (our service starts at 10am). But it is encouraging to see that we are already moving forward. The official count was 46 people in attendance. I told them that I count people because people count. That said, I believe that it is the people and NOT the numbers. I will always build lives and not numbers because lives gives give birth to lives and numbers just give birth to numbers. Numbers will only be used as an indication of our health. Lives are our passion, the more we get the happier we'll be.

Melissa Ng & the worship team

Sunday's Message:

Pas. Henry our senior pastor was around. Second week of the month is his week, he preaches. He spoke of prayer from Luke 18, from the parable of the persistent widow and the unfair judge. It was a timely reminder for us to keep praying for our church and me, the pastor. Even before I passed the mic to him, I encouraged the church to pray with me for the church. I told them that we don't want God to bless what we are doing, but I asked that they pray we may be sensitive to what God is doing, so that our church can join in God's work, not the other way around.

Pas. Henry doing his thing

So even as we are moving forward let's keep praying as a church that we will be able to see the spiritual waves that are coming our way and catch them.

No free lunch? Think again, every Sunday only at FGC

FGC Sunday (July 5th): High Score!

I guess to help me keep this blog more updated I would do a weekly reflection of the Sunday I had. It would include a short section on the events that happened in church along with some numbers and more. There will also be a section on what I felt God was saying to the church that week. I guess if I was preaching I will provide the sermon points, otherwise I'll just share what I felt God was saying to me or to the church. So here's the first of many more to come.

Sunday Stats: MMU Week

Last week was a great week for FGC, we had an attendance of over 55. That would be our highest attendance since I began my ministry in this church. There were about 15 MMU students who turned up for service because they used our church premise the day before for their CF Committee Leadership training. They spent the whole day in the church and subsequently spent the night at the church as well. I had a chance to catch up with them after worship practice. I had dinner with them and got to know some of them. However my name-nesia issue still plagues me, hopefully when I meet them again I will remember their names.

Claustrophobic, let's grow out of this place!

It was good to see the church hall almost full, it was a good foretaste of what will come. Even without the 12-15 MMU CF committee members, we still had about 40 in attendance, which is still on the high side. We just got to keep doing what we are doing. As we are now stablizing, next up will be growth. We just have to wait for God's wave, and when he sends that wave let's make sure we're watching and ready to catch that wave and ride it for all its worth. Surf's up!

Holy Communion Sunday

Sunday's Sermon: Facing The Fire

Peer pressure is not just a youth's problem, anyone with peers can feel the heat. Here is a lesson how 3 friends faced the fire and did not get fried.

1. Surround myself with support (verse 16)
What support do you have?
What kind of support do you give?
Be a positive peer pressure.

2. Set my trust in God (verse 17)
God values trust and obedience above understanding and intelligence.
Teachers, parents, pastors fail, only God never fails.

3. Stick to what's right (verse 18)
Do you know what's right?
Do you have what it takes to stick to it?

Thanks Joshua for helping with the camera and LCD.

So what did God say to you last week? If God challenged you, and if you feel comfortable, share with me your thoughts here.

What Is Church?

It's been sometime since my last update. I normally try to update at least once a week but I couldn't help it as ministry in church is starting to pick up. It's not so much "doing" now, but a lot of reflecting, how ironic.

One of those main things messing with my mind and contributing to some amount of insomnia is the question of "What is Church?" and "How do we express church?" Tried posting that question to facebook-ers but the answers were generic and nothing new. I'm not saying we need to give a new answer for the sake of giving a new answer, but how can we better do this thing we call "church"? This can't be all that the church could be. Frankly sometimes church bores me to bits. I want to do so much more, I want the church to be so much more.

I might be coming across as being disillusioned or angry at "church", but that is not true. At this point in my ministry I am considering what kind of identity I want my church to develop. Every church has a certain "identity". Mention some church names and you have a mental picture. It might be a picture of the pastor, or the picture of the building, or the picture of some of the people, or a picture of some of the ministries of the church. So what kind of image do I want to project to people when I say FGC (or Foursquare Gospel Church). I have posed the question to some of the church members as this is as much their church as it is my church. What is most important to God? What should the church value most? What should the "perfect" FGC member be like?

The answer would differ one person to another. I guess we are all throwing our answers into the pot, but as the pastor I cannot let the situation where too many chefs spoil the soup happen. What is there left to do but to turn to God in prayer and seek his will in this area. Pray with me church, that his will be done in our lives.

First Things First:

... getting the first things right

As our church begins our journey together we need to have a common understanding. Some common values and principles. Last week I felt the time was right to share a message about some of the most important things to Christians.

I spoke on the most basic Christian disciplines. These were the "first things". Here are the first things:

First Hour of the Day: Spending time with God
Psalm 133 - Dwell/live in God's presence; recharge; drink of the living water.

First Day of the Week: Keeping your sabbath holy
Exodus 20:8-11 - The 4th commandment; rest and worship.
Hebrews 10:24-25 - Good habit; meet more (i.e. cell group)

First Fruits of your Labour: Paying your tithes
Malachi 3:9-12 - Keyword "paying"; don't rob God; privilege & responsibility.

First Love of your Life: Sharing your love with everyone
Matthew 28:16-20 - We God's authority and presence
Revelations 2:4 - God our first love; don't grow cold.

These four things are so important in a Christian's life, even non-believers know Christians as people who observe these practices. However we should not do it just because the preacher says so, above all we must do it because we love God and want to please him. God is looking at our heart. Don't patronise God, give him what he deserves.

The View From Behind The Mic Stand

So my good friend Joash, who was one of those who insisted I start a blog, has recently been blogging much less actively. So something that happened almost a month ago is only showing up on his blog today. Mind you this was the person who once preferred to stay back and blog while I wanted to go out for a walk, or anything else for that matter, since we were in Baguio. I felt like anything is better than just staying inside. Anyway we finally got him out by baiting him with food!

I felt I should highlight his recent post here so that some of you guys can read his account of what happened in my church on Mothers' Day. Click on the picture or check out Joash Chan's link on my blog.

Joash and Ken, you guys did a great job. I'm sure my guitar had a part to play in that. We'll have you guys back again next time if you're up for it.

As for our worship team, we're off on our way and in the right direction. I predict that in about 3 months we will be seeing marked improvements in the worship team. But worship is not just about the worship team and the music, as a church we need to constantly learn to express ourselves better in our worship to God. Looking forward to better days as God brings us on this adventure of getting to know him better.

Paraders of the Lost Ark

I preached in church last week, but because of the internet outage, my meeting with Tim Hughes on Tuesday night, Phinehas Mathius' visit from Taiping, and a few other things that happened I have not been able to update the blog.

Last week we were supposed to have a worship team meeting in the afternoon after lunch. It was also in line with our current theme of legacy. I spoke about worship in church. I used the incident from 1 Chronicles 13 to learn a few lessons on how our church should or should not worship.

The background to the incident in 1 Chronicles 13 can be found in 1 Samuel 4-7:

1 Samuel 4 - Ichabod Incident

1 Samuel 5 - The Lost Ark in Philistine

1 Samuel 6 - Lost Ark Found

1 Samuel 7 - The Ark in Kiriath Jearim

The message was basically split into two parts: what we should do in worship, what we should NOT do in worship. Lessons learnt were not only applicable to worship, but also applicable to our ministry and life. Here are the main points of the sermon:

1. Everybody's Way (1 Chronicles 13:1-4)

2. Other People's Way (1 Chronicles 13:7-8)

3. Frivolous Way (1 Chronicles 9-12)

4. God's Prescribed Way (1 Chronicles 15)

As we go about in life let's not do things "Everybody's Way" to please everybody. We should also avoid doing things "Other People's Way", just because other people are doing is not a reason for us to copy, especially in terms of music in the context of worship. The "Frivolous Way" also does not please God, we must also use our brains as we worship, worship must be thoughtful. Instead of these "ways", we must actively seek God and do his ministry his way.

As our worship team and church is now just taking off with a fresh start, let's make sure our foundation is strong. Let's really work on the fundamentals so that in the long run we will not limit our growth. The longer we go on the more obvious it is if our foundation is strong or weak. Let's get it right right from the start. It is an exciting time for many of us as we experience a fresh start. This is our chance to get it right again, this is the chance NOT to make the same mistakes again, this is what it means to have a fresh start!

Mothers' Day

Kinda late now I know, but I have always maintained that this blog lives for my life and not my life living for my blog. So if there is "living" to do, I'll do that first, my online life takes a backseat to my real life. In case you didn't know, I have a life.

As (almost) all other church, we had a good Mothers' Day celebration. I managed to put together a very nice gift package for the moms in FGC. I'm proud of it and won't mind getting something like that for fathers' day next month, the free movie passes take the cake (*hint hint*). Apart form that there was also a cosmetic voucher from MakeUup. My friend will be bringing some products to FGC one of these weeks and you can all check it out then. Otherwise, check out the site and make your order there. I also want to thank Jackie for her help in getting very nice freebies from Giant/Guardian. The moms were all buzzing about how nice the gifts were.

Pastor Nellie Chan spoke very motherly about mothers and children, and even as a father I felt that I had to apply what was preached to my life. I have to learn to enjoy Mikayla more now. Joash who came along initially as his mom’s driver for the day worship led. Ken Chung came along with him to play the keyboards. Both of them have been inactive in their own worship ministries but they too enjoyed ministering that morning. It was a good time of worship, Joash, Ken Chung and the rest of our worship team did a good job. I hope the atmosphere of worship in our church will continue to build up momentum. I’m looking forward to more vibrant worship sessions. Coming Sunday we will be having a worship team meeting to meet and just discuss briefly about the ministry.

After the service I spent some time jamming with Jay Sern and Jee Hor, and when they left I experienced my first time alone in the church. It felt weird being in my own church and feeling kinda off. Anyway I did some stuff, tidied up and left to spend some time with my mother in-law. I had my lunch at church so I missed the Vietnamese lunch with the family but I was there for cake at sister in-law's place.

When we got home the house phone rang, normally only a few people call our house phone: the bank (or sales people from the bank), various other sales people, my Aunty Kim Mooi’s family (who lives nearby), or my parents calling from Baguio. It was my parents.

This year I decided to do something for my mom even though she’s in Philippines. Previous years we occasionally bought her something, but this year I decided to call up my good friend Brian Lopez in Baguio and ask him to help me buy some flowers for my mom. That was what happened and I heard from my father that my mom was moved to tears because of the flowers. The grandmother (and grandfather) then spent close to an hour, maybe more than that on Skype talking to Mikayla, Melanie, me, and Elroi.

After the Skype session, since it was mothers’ day, I went to make dinner while Melanie went outside to play water with Mikayla. Mikayla really enjoys it. As I was preparing dinner the house phone rang again, this time it was Aunty Kim Mooi, she asked us over to her house for Bah Kut Teh. We packed some of our half cooked stuff and walked over to her house for their mothers’ day dinner. So that was mothers’ day all day.

Here are some sights and sounds of our mothers’ day…

Joash worship leading, I was playing lead guitar which is a first for FGC

Joash using my beautiful guitar, that's why he did such a good job

Worshipping through our giving as well

The kids wishing the moms

Guest speaker: Nellie Chan

Pas. Nellie spoke of how mothers build their children's lives

I heard what was spoken and decided that I too had to put to practice what was preached

The lunch I didn't have, but I'm glad to be able to spend time with the church members

Mikayla unwinding by reading a good book

Mikayla getting wet and dirty before her shower

Ready, aim, fire!

Here's the video of the kids' mothers' day greeting. Could not get camera turned on in time for Nicole and Jonas, but I did get Brighton. I'm waiting for the day when Mikayla I can see Mikayla doing something like this, she's so cute, she'll melt my heart. Yes, I'm biased, But Mikayla is the cutest!

Here is an interesting video I found on Youtube, I would like to dedicate this to my mother, Mikayla's mother, my mother in-law, my step mother in-law, and all the other "mothers" that God has placed in my life... God bless you all.

Big Heavy Balls & Creepy Communal Shoes

So I found out that FGC (which is in USJ) is relatively near to Multimedia University in Cyberjaya. Explains why there were so many former and current MMU students in our church. I always thought Cyberjaya, Putra Heights, yes, even USJ were in a land far far away. Now that I have started to travel more to church and cell groups these places seem to be getting nearer. I guess a lot of it is psychological, the rest of it is just about having a good old fashion... GPS!

Since many of the students are away from home, they would need to find a church to belong to for the duration of the studies here. So to welcome them and show our love we decided to take them for some kind of outing. Being busy students they are only free when they come to church, and since our church provided lunch every week, and dinner was too far away from lunch, we thought of doing an activity together. We decided the best thing for us is to bowl it out.

Bowling day came and there was quite a buzz. It's good to see that the church program is actually relevant to them. The youth that normally meet on Sunday afternoon joined in on the fun. Service was great, then after lunch the MMU students had their usual jamming session. Some of them coming from bigger churches are glad that our church instruments were available to anyone who wanted to jam. I was able to join them last week and show that I can hang with them, in a musical sense. Lucky for me they played songs that I already practiced, otherwise they might discover my noobness, and thus reject me as a noob.

After our jamming session we all hopped on our wheels and rolled on over to The Summit down the road. We all gathered at the bowling alley, and got ourselves organized into four teams on four lanes. Then the trash talk started. It goes without saying that my team that was made up of Deric, Wei Hann, and Bryan ultimately won. I currently hold the highest score in a game when I scored 121 in my first game. However, as usual, I totally sucked at my second game, scoring under 100 points even, but let's not go there...

At the end of the first round, Deric who was my team mate and main contender for best bowler award, realized that there was a dark horse right over our shoulders. Charis, of all people, was right on our heels! Of all the big chunky guys there, throwing their 12, 13, 14 pound balls down the lane, it was Charis' taichi like style of just releasing her 9 (or 10, can't remember) pound ball that took the spoils of the day. After combining total scored of both games, Charis had the highest score. I think she finally beat me by a mere 10 points.

The second round was really unlucky for me, I just could not close my frames. Out of ten frames I scored 9 in SEVEN frames!!! Two other frames were marginally less than 9, and the final frame I finally scored a spare, but alas, the mojo came back too late. Lady Luck was really not on my side.


Here I must reiterate that bowling is, in fact, a team sport, ultimately our team won. That's all that counts really. Deric and I was busy coaching Wei Hann and Bryan that we lost our focus. In the end our strategy went exactly as we planned. By the second game, both Bryan and Wei Hann showed dramatic improvements and more than made up my low score. We were a tight team, we played for each other. Whenever we missed we felt as though we let our team down, that was the kind of camaraderie that we are talking about. That's when all the drama happened. We cheered each other on unlike the teams that were indifferent. We wore our hearts on our sleeves and played with all our livers. We were also the only team to have laid hands on our balls before we started our game, so we dedicate our win to God's glory... amen!


Everyone had a great time, especially since the whole thing was free! Everything is more fun when it is free. The church was very generous and paid for everyone's bowling. I think we should do this more in the future. We all had a chance to talk to each other, even though it was mostly trash talk, we all felt we knew got to know each other better through the trash talking. We should also do this so that we can prove that Charis just had a fluke day. It was really unfair as she was worship leading that week and God liked her worship leading so God was quite biased that day.

In the aftermath of throwing big heavy balls and smelly shoes worn by too many creepy feet (*shudders at the thought of creepy feet), I am filled with excitment, yes excitment, at the prospect of our church being able to do a work in reaching out to the college students. I hope that they will be able to grow in FGC and by the time they finish their studies in MMU (or whatever other college) we will send them home stronger in their faith than they have ever been. God help FGC make a difference.

To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone

Yes that would be the line from Star Trek. I felt last Sunday's sermon was like my inauguration speech. The first time I preached in FGC it was Easter, and I had to preach an Easter sermon, but now two months into my ministry in FGC I felt comfortable and ready enough to share a very general idea of what I would like to see happen in FGC. It was very much a sermon cum vision casting session... “Change we can believe in”?

Our church is very much like the Starship Enterprise. If you remember Jean Luc Picard who is the captain of the ship will lead the whole ship with the help of his commanders and lieutenants. The rest of the ship, whether they are in the engine room, or on the bridge, or in the sick bay, or wherever on the ship you trekkies can think of, will work together so that they can reach a common goal. Being stuck on the same ship means that whether they like it or not they have to bear with one another as they will share the same fate and same destination. They need to be united and protect their ship, to keep the ship moving along, or they will be sucked into the vacuum of space. And like Starship Enterprise, FGC will have to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Need to get myself better pix that I can post here...

Being in transition I felt it was appropriate to share the Israelites' and Joshua's experience of their transition. The text is Joshua 1:6-9. At this point in Israelite history, they too were experiencing a transition, they too had a change of leadership. The book of Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses the greatest ever prophet, the humblest man on the face of the earth, a great leader, and an all round great dude. Joshua also begins with God telling Joshua "Moses my servant is dead". This was an indication of the end of an era, and the commencement of another. In order for the Israelites to enter the promised land the Moses generation had to die. Now was it was the next generation, it was the Joshua Generation.

Now as Joshua took over he was not naïve, or blur, or power hungry, or anything like that. Joshua for one would have felt the great burden of the insurmountable task before him because he knew what the Israelites really were like. He has been Moses' assistant all these time and have seen the way the Israelites grumbled and murmured, he also seen how fickle they were, as well as how rebellious they were. We can safely say that Joshua would have been petrified at the prospect of leading this bunch of misfits.

In the same way, I too felt overwhelmed at the prospect of leading an entire church. People looking to me for advice on life decisions, families looking to me to lead them and show them the way. Blows my mind. All these while I was readying myself for youth ministry or something like that, but taking on an entire church was one of the last things on my mind, but I believe I heard God's calling and I had to obey. The verses from Joshua 1:6-9 is a real encouragement to me, and I felt that what God has spoken to my heart from this passage would also apply to FGC.
So now that Moses is gone Joshua had to step up. Moses’ generation had their share of miracles, crossing of the red sea, manna from the sky, the pillar of cloud/fire, etc. Now Joshua’s generation would have their own experiences, they would have to experience their own crossing (River Jordan in high season), the walls of Jericho and various other victorious battles, etc. That would be what we had before our church as we move forward from where we are now.

Here’s the breakdown of the sermon:
Title: To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before ...(cue Star Trek sound track)
Text: Joshua 1:6-9
Points:
Divine Task (verse 6)
Divine Word (verse 7-8)
Divine Presence (verse 9)

For the FGC members who did not make it to service last week, you guys missed what I felt was the best service in FGC so far. I felt strongly for the sermon preached but apart from that Charis and the worship team did a great job during the worship session. It was also Holy Communion week and being able to partake of the Lord’s Supper together as a church on such a week was so meaningful. After lunch, there was also an outing with the group of students from MMU. Some of the former MMU students and the high school students joined in on the fun, but that would be a whole other post.

I am excited. I am looking forward to moving forward. There would be times where FGC would have to first take a step backwards before moving forward, if that is the case then we will go at that with all our hearts. I am anticipating God’s new work in our church and lives. Let’s keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of God and expect something new. Today is a new day, let’s leave the past behind and begin to dream God’s dreams. Let’s pray for God to show us his vision for FGC. God wants growth for his church, and FGC is his church, let’s build his church his way. Pray with me church, pray that we will be able to fulfill his will for our church. Greater days are ahead.

Once Saved Always Saved?

So I initially started this blog as a place to reflect on some theological issues for my studies in BCM. Check out my first blog post if you're interested to know more about how and why this blog is here. It has been some time now since I made any "theological" posts. But last Thursday during the Kepong cell (which is somehow located in Kota Damansara), Joel, who was leading the cell, brought up this question:

"Once saved always saved?"

So here's a chance for us (the cell members and you, the reader) to interact more on that question without being worried about the time constraint and needing to give one minute answers...

Among some verses mentioned during our cell discussion was 1 John 1:9 as well as Philippians 2:12. I'm sure there are so many other verses that can be brought up, so as we discuss you can go ahead and back it up with your choice of verses.

On this issue some people propagate that we have to constantly confess our sins, lest we die with unconfessed sins and thus cause us to go to hell. People who believe this are clearly against the "once saved always saved" doctrine.

On the flip side of the coin, there are others who claim that after we have accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and saviour it doesn't matter what we do anymore, our ticket to heaven is bought and pain in full, so we can live our lives in whatever way we please. People who hold to this view is for the doctrine of "once saved always saved".

I do not think there is a clear cut answer. Theologians to this very day still debate on this matter, only when we get to heaven will we really know for sure if this doctrine is right or wrong, or if it is a tension or certain mixture of this two opposing ideas. But I believe God gave us a brain, and I think God would like for us to use it (otherwise he would have created us without a brain). I do not appreciate Christians who want to reject theology as irrelevant to Christian life. What we believe (or don't believe) will determine how we live our lives. Even the smallest things make a big difference on a long run. So let's try to dig in here so that we can live a more "Christian" life, so to speak.

Feel free to express, as we interact I hope we will be able to better understand God and soteriology (meaning the doctrine of Salvation... have to throw in the theological term there), and thus cause us to grow in our faith.

I will also put up the very first poll on this blog, and it's not about whether I should cut my hair and how it should look. So check it out and leave your mark there as well.

Looking forward to growing with you.

Vital Statistics

Many people have been asking me about my new church. Many are asking where the church is so I guess the best thing is to put a map here on my blog. Along with it are more answers to many of the FAQs I've been getting. So check it out...

Church: Foursquare Gospel Church, USJ

Main Service: 10:00am (Sundays); free lunch, believe it!
Average attendance: about 40
Cell groups: 8:30pm USJ (Wednesday), Kepong (Thursday), Putra Heights (Friday)
Youth Service: 12:30pm (Sundays)
Address: 21-2, Jalan USJ 21/3, 47630 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.


View My Saved Places in a larger map

Pastor: Lemuel Yee
Demography: Made up of mostly young working adults, fresh grads, college students; and 3 or 4 families.
Denomination: The Foursquare Church (Pentecostal)
Links:
The Foursquare Church - http://www.foursquare.org/
Foursquare Gospel Church of Malaysia - http://www.foursquaremalaysia.org/

Curious?: Drop by to find out more...

Firsts

It's been a little over a month since I joined Foursquare Gospel Church (FGC). I've been here since 1st March. I have been tying up a lot of loose ends from my previous time in Canaan as well as some personal plans that I have made. I had travelled to Philippines to cheer my father on as he was inaugurated as the first asian president of APTS. Managed to catch up with my family. Elroi and Ian works crazy hours and office is really their home, and my office is my home (I work from home). There was also a trip to Thailand that Pas. Henry asked me to join him, and before that was the AG Ministers' Retreat. Now I can finally say that they are all behind me and I am ready to kick into gear and get focused on FGC.

Good Friday was celebrated with a "Tabernacle Worship Concert". We had an extended worship time, mixed in with a little prayer time for our church, followed by a flash presentation entitled "He Chose The Nails", then another first - I served Holy Communion to the church. It was interesting to note that FGC uses cornflakes for the bread. Everything went well, although I wished I paid more attention in BCM! We also had a great feast after the Good Friday service. There were many newcomers (a.k.a. noobs) that day, some of which will turn up on Easter Sunday as well. Ke Xin, Keith, Susie, and Chris finally turned up at my church, it was their first time at my church. I hope they will be able to find a church that is suitable for them. If you guys are reading this post... Hurry up and settled down with a church, there is so much more that God has in stored for your lives!

I also had to attend my cousin's farewell dinner on Saturday. Keisha and Serenity will be leaving to New Zealand to live with their father. I was considering on skipping this one as I was really not feeling well, but I had promised aunty Tham Ping that I will be there and I also wanted to say good bye to my cousins. I did not have enough energy to spend more time with them, also I did not want them to get sick as well. I left the dinner early and spent the rest of the evening under covers and perfecting my Easter sermon as much as I can.

Easter morning dawned on me and I was feeling much better, although I was still not completely recovered I was well enough. All night I was claiming God's promise that by his stripes I am healed. I was happy that I am not bed ridden. I worked hard on my sermon and I really wanted to share it with my congregation. Before the service started I whacked some flu medicine and some PCM. I was hoping the drug will keep me stoned long enough to get me through the sermon.

Initially it seemed as though there would be quite a few people attending service. I still don't know what the regular attendance is, I just assumed that there would be about 25 people on a regular Sunday. However as the worship went on people started to come in. By the time I took the mic the church was quite filled up. I think there was about 35 people there. My estimation might still be way off as there would be some getting used to before I can make more precise estimates. Announcements were made and then I started my first sermon to my church. Here are the main points of the sermon:

Text: Luke 24:36-49

Points:

1. Easter means Complete Peace (verse 36-38)
2. Easter means Unbelievable Joy (verse 39-43)
3. Easter means Eternal Hope (verse 44-45)
4. Easter means a Powerful Witness (verse 46-49)

I'm sure I will be experiencing many other "firsts" here in FGC. I am relishing the challenge before me. Next week 19th of April, on Sunday, I will be having my first meeting with the church deacons. Looking forward working with the deacons and with God to grow his church.

This post is so scattered. The drugs running through my system has got me all messed up. Just felt that I need to make a new post to update everyone on what's going on. Need to sign off here and do something that requires less brain activity (like DotA).

My Final Ministers' Retreat?

Ministers' (and Pastor's Kids') Retreat
Date: 16th - 19th March 09 (Monday - Thursday)
Venue: Pulai Springs Resort, Johor
Theme: LeadChangeGrow
Website: http://www.ministersretreat09.blogspot.com/

Time has come again for Ministers' Retreat, yes, this time it would be way down at the southern most state of Malaysia. My parents flew back from the Philippines to attend this retreat. Although I have already begun my ministry in FGC, USJ, I had earlier registered and paid in full, so I guess I will take this as a good chance to just relax. Just make the most out of what would likely be my final Ministers' Retreat. After this I will be part of a different family, although the AG will always be a part of me. Who knows maybe one day, if God calls, I might be back in the AG. But till then...

It was roughly a 4 hour drive from our home to the venue. We decided that we would stop over at Melaka for our lunch. I was always going to have a shot at the durian cendol if we were to stop in Melaka. Durian cendol totally rocks! I'll have it anytime!

We arrived at Melaka at about 2:30pm, we decided to call Ian out for lunch. Ian who is working with The Star newspapers was there helping out with The Star's Brats English camp. He was available so we picked him up from the Straits Hotel. From there we headed straight for Jonker Street.

After lunch we had some time to do some shoppping, which is always good as well. Mikayla got a new toy from her grandfather, but almost as soon as it was paid for, she lost interest in it.

Here Mikayla is signing "scared", she's afraid of the statue. We dropped Ian back at the camp and headed off once again southward.

We arrived at Pulai Springs late, about 6pm, which was dinner time. We got lost trying to find Pulai Springs. The GPS made that same mistake again, you know, the one where the GPS tells us to "turn right here" when we were under a bridge, there was no junctions. We were supposed to get on that bridge over our heads. The auto reroute informed us that the next U-turn was about 5KMs away. When we got to the alleged U-turn, we found out that the road was renovated and there was no U-turn. We passed it and again the auto reroute brought us another 5KMs before we finally could U-turn. That was quite a detour.

We quickly checked in, freshen up, and headed out for dinner which started at 6PM. We wolfed down dinner and quickly headed to the first session. This year the food was not as good as previous years' food. Previously the food has been nothing short of fantastic, Pulai Springs' food is really quite mediocre. During the first session Rev. Ong Sek Leang, our General Superintendant of the Assemblies of God Malaysia, gave the keynote address to the whole fellowship. One of the things he mentioned was served to affirm my decision to move to FGC, USJ. He said "the age of denominationalism has passed". He did not say denominations are history, denominations still exists, I think there will always be different denominations to serve different needs, but the gap between the denominations is no longer as they were previously. Denominations are now coming together and working together to be more effective in reaching the world.

Ministers' Retreat (MR) was often the time to meet up and reconnect with colleagues. This time it was special for me as I have just completed my studies in BCM, and I have been missing some of my classmates. I realized that, like the last edition, BCM students were invited to be the worship band. So I got to catch up with them over mamak during the final night.

The Pastors' Kids' Retreat (PKR) also runs consecutively with the MR. I was looking forward to catching up with some pastor's kids (PKs) however many who were from my batch did not make it this time. I guess I'm growing too old for this now. YAM did a great thing by subsidizing all the PKs that attended the PK sessions. At the end of the camp, when they have attended all the sessions they would be given a RM100 refund. I did not qualify for this as I was married. I understand that they are trying to help make it more accessible to the PKs, but I insist that no matter what, I am still a "K" of a "P"... I'm still a PK, I maintain my identity! Thank you YAM for subsidizing for my fellow PKs.

Lunches were not provided and they were a good time to go out and catch up. My parents who severely missed Mikayla were glad to be able to bring their precious granddaughter out for some of the lunches. Melanie and I tagged along a few times. We had some catching up of our own to do.

The resort boasts two seperate swimming areas (just like my condominium), if you didn't know, we enjoy quite a lifestyle... two swimming areas (not two swimming pools, swimming area, each area consisting of a few pools). Grandfather and granddaughter enjoyed the sun and swim. Mikayla is always trying to have a taste of everything, always sticking her tongue out to taste anything and everything in her world.

There was the usual football sessions in the afternoon, however since dinner was at 6PM, we didn't have much time to really do anything meaningful. It was way too hot to really go at it and so I continue to find it hard to motivate myself to exercise and keep in shape. Perhaps I really need to seriously take up paintball as my exercise. Last MR Reuben was recovering from a ligament surgery, but this year he was playing and boy he's good. He had the physique, great balance, skill, composure. I guess that's what training does to someone. It was fun playing with, as well as against him.

We sat at the back as we did not want Mikayla to be too much of a distraction to the other people, she doesn't understand why we need to be quiet in a service yet. While at the back, Mikayla had the opportunity to make new friends. She had so much space to run around with her new friends. It is the first time that she was allowed to run about in such a big open space. She could only walk about, but she was trying to run to keep up with the other kids. Very soon she will be running about, then we'll have to keep up.

On the final day my father told me to be ready to take some pictures for him, he did not mention why and I did not ask. He had also earlier asked me to help him buy a nice shirt as he was going on the stage. Later I realized that the fellowship was going to pray for him, for the position that he is about to take out. Come April 2nd he will be steppign in as the president of Asia Pacific Theological Seminary's very first Asian president. Everyone was proud of him. So are his children and grandchild. They made the announcement and invited him to the stage. I sprang into action with the very good camera that I got from them for Christmas and got some good shots. I'm sure you'll be seeing them in his site as well. The executive bethren were also invited to the stage to pray and charge my parents.

It was a great retreat. Of course the preaching and sessions was good, but the best part for me has to be when I was able to meet old friends and catch up. The physical side of being being waited upon at the hotel was great as well.

After the MR, my parents returned to the Philippines on Saturday. Mikayla went with them. Melanie and I are now enjoying and suffering the first time away from Mikayla since she was born, which was 15 months ago. We (Melanie, Elroi, Anne, Ian, Jackie, and me) will be flying over to celebrate my father's installation on April 1st. We will be coming back that same week on April 5th. We will bring Mikayla back then.

I have so much on my plate at the moment. I just got back from Thailand, but that's a whole other post. I have barely been at my home these last few weeks. But I thank God that I am once again on the move and liking it very much.

Will try to post pictures and thoughts from my Thai trip soon. But for now I need to wrap things up and get ready for my Phil trip.