Eight Members-on-Trial (MOTs) were admitted during the Annual Conference Special Sessions in July 2026. They share their stories on how they were called into the pastorate.
Surrendering to God fully
Pr Kyle Yeo
Bukit Panjang Methodist Church
Chinese Annual Conference
I did not grow up in a Christian family. At 14, I came to faith through apologetics, wanting to understand the “inconsistencies” I thought were present. After a 5-hour conversation with a learned Englishman, I had heard enough; perhaps God was real. There was no dramatic experience, just a sinner’s prayer and the beginning of my faith.
For years, I lived what I called an “eight toes in, two toes out” Christianity. I loved God, served, led and even helped pioneer the youth ministry at Holland Village Preaching Point (now Holland Village Methodist Church). Yet parts of my life remained unsurrendered. When I moved to the UK for university, I made mistakes and hurt someone terribly. It plunged me into a pit of guilt and self-hatred. Depression soon followed. I never stopped believing in God but I stopped believing his grace could be for someone like me.
In 2016, at rock bottom, the song “Come Out of Hiding” by Steffany Gretzinger played on my Spotify radio and spoke to my despair. I felt God reaching into the shame and hate I had carried for so long. Exhausted from running, I surrendered fully for the first time and my world changed. I said to God, “Where you go, I go; where you stay, I stay.”
God began stirring a call to pastoral ministry. During an altar call, as my heart broke for those who had never known the fullness of life in Christ, the word “Pastor” surfaced in me. Moments later, my pastor gave a specific call for someone sensing ordination. I knew it was for me.
In 2017, two visions confirmed the direction: return to Singapore, and serve at Grace Methodist Church. I obeyed. In 2022, while discerning what God had planned for my next five years, a trusted friend shared a prophetic vision—a ball of light with two belt straps tied across it. The straps fell away and God told him, “Tell Kyle he is released into his next season.” I knew it meant theological training and pastoral ministry. I entered Trinity Theological College in 2023, seven years after that first call.
Looking back, God’s fingerprints were everywhere. Through questions, failure, grace, people, visions and timing, he pieced together a calling I could only understand in hindsight. My part has simply been to keep saying “Yes, Lord. Where you go, I go; where you stay, I stay.”
No more hiding
Ps Caroline Chew
Paya Lebar Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
I first heard the gospel at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ Secondary School in Secondary Two. During one of the chapel sessions, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour and started attending Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church (AMKMC) together with some of my classmates.
My family strongly opposed my new faith. Slowly, I drifted away from God and often challenged my Christian friends, determined to prove that God was not real.
When I moved to Perth for university, I tried to find fulfilment in many things, but I found myself empty. In desperation, I turned to God and started having a real and personal relationship with him. During this period, I sensed God’s call to full-time ministry.
Returning to Singapore in 2001, I joined AMKMC as an administrative staff. Pastors and leaders often encouraged me to consider pastoral ministry. I always resisted because I felt inadequate.
At a staff retreat in 2003, “Pastor” emerged as my strongest spiritual gifting, and later that year, during the Young Methodist Leaders’ Conference, I received a vision of the word “Pastor”. I surrendered to God’s call and subsequently pursued theological studies in Sydney before returning to Singapore in 2007 to serve as a Pastoral Team Member (PTM).
Ironically, this became a way of avoiding the specific call to ordained pastoral ministry. I negotiated with God that serving as a PTM, and later supporting my husband in his pastoral ministry, was sufficient. Yet an underlying restlessness remained and the call to the pastorate became stronger.
During devotions and at silent retreats, the consistent message was to stop hiding and trust God. On 31 August 2024, I had a dream where I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness, a distinct impression that I was grieving God through my disobedience. At service the next day, Hebrews 5:12 was preached: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.”
With these encounters, God convicted me of his call on my life, and I could no longer hide. I finally understood that responding to his call was not about my adequacy but about his grace at work within me.
His grace is sufficient
Ps Luke Yan
Bedok Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
I grew up in a Christian family with several relatives serving in full-time ministry. Yet, the thought of entering full-time ministry only arose when I started taking my faith seriously and serving regularly both at my church, Barker Road Methodist Church (BRMC), and in Cru during my polytechnic years.
While completing my diploma in Mass Communication, I considered three career paths: photojournalism, taking over my father’s funeral business or full-time ministry. It was during a Cru mission trip to Taiwan in 2011 that God’s calling was firmly impressed on my heart.
That same year, while attending Fusion, a worship event organised by Truthmin, I sensed the words “Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men”, echoing Jesus’ words in Matthew 4:19. During my church’s Young Adults’ retreat, an altar call was issued for the ministry of “word, sacrament, and order” in the Methodist pastoral ministry, and I felt compelled to respond.
Heeding the advice of my loved ones, I sought experience in a non-church environment first. I entered the social service sector in 2014, where I completed a social work degree while working full-time. Although I enjoyed social work and found it deeply meaningful, I experienced a clear nudge in mid-2020 that it was time to leave for full-time ministry. This came with many uncertainties, especially at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
God led me to BRMC’s pastoral team in early 2021, serving with the youth and young adult ministries. Two years later, I began the MDiv programme at Trinity Theological College.
Did I mention that between 2016 and 2023, I also got married and had three kids? Balancing family, ministry and studies has been challenging. Yet God’s grace—manifest through the support of loved ones and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit—has been more than sufficient. His faithfulness gives me confidence to step boldly into this new season!
Following the Architect of my life
Ps Linda Pang
Covenant Community Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
I followed the religion of my parents. As a teenager, I suffered from anxiety due to the pressures of studies and my father’s dwindling fortunes. I prayed often but had no peace in my heart.
Before my GCE A-Levels, I asked a Christian classmate for a Bible and read the pocket-sized New Testament she gave me. During the crucial examination, I did terribly in one subject and knew I would fail. In desperation, I prayed to the “Christian God”, promising to go to church to learn more about Christianity if he answered my prayer. Amazingly, he answered my prayer for the grades I asked for, and I started going to church. At a Christian retreat, I experienced God’s love poured into my heart and I responded by inviting Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour. I was 19 years old then.
A few years later, I started attending Faith Community Baptist Church and served as a cell group leader from 1995 to 2013, before moving to Faith Methodist Church (FMC).
After 25 years as an architect working for the same company, God’s call to full-time ministry came around 2013. He did not specify pastoral ministry, only that I serve him full-time. The verse that spoke to me was “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” (Matthew 9:37). After a few years of preparation, I took a step of faith and enrolled at Trinity Theological College (TTC) in 2020, expecting to work in a church or Christian agency. Gradually, God made clear his call to be a pastor, confirmed by his preparation of my life, his paving of the way, affirmation from fellow Christians and the Holy Spirit’s empowerment.
I joined FMC as pastoral staff in August 2023 after completing my studies at TTC, serving in the Life Groups and Prayer ministries. As an architect, some of the projects that I had worked on included Central Fire Station, Tuas Checkpoint and the Supreme Court. Now, I’m excited to see where the Architect of my life is leading me!
Called from the back row
Ps Jabez Fong
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
From a young age, I sensed God calling me into church work, though I had no idea how it would unfold. Growing up shy and introverted, I preferred to fade into the background. Public speaking and pulpit ministry were the farthest things from my mind.
My clearest call to ministry came during the Young Methodist Leaders’ Conference in 2019. Having already served in ministry for three years, I came seeking God’s direction about the future of my ministry. I knew that God had been equipping me to serve him, but my strong preference was to support ministries quietly from the rear.
When an altar call was given, I felt no compulsion to go forward. Yet as I stood worshipping, a weighty presence enveloped me with the words, “Take off your sandals; the place you are standing on is holy ground.” Overwhelmed, I hastily removed my shoes and knelt in worship.
Opening my Bible to Exodus later, I saw my own apprehensions mirrored in Moses’ call—from his lack of confidence (“Who am I?”) to his fear that he lacked eloquence (“I am slow of speech and tongue”). God’s response—that he himself was the one who gave humans the ability of speech—rebuked my fears, confirming my call to a ministry of proclaiming God’s word.
To pursue that calling, I attended Trinity Theological College, graduating in 2023. I then returned to Wesley Methodist Church to serve in the Young Adults Ministry. While I served there, I still wrestled with the fear of public-speaking and some elements of being a Methodist pastor. Thankfully, God sent wise, patient mentors to walk alongside me and provide opportunities to grow.
The eventual breakthrough came while reading John 12:24, where Jesus speaks of a grain of wheat falling to the earth and dying to bear much fruit. Thus the Lord convicted me to pursue his purpose no matter the cost—for it is by dying to ourselves that we find true life and hope in what God accomplishes through us.
I pray that anyone sensing the Lord stirring their spirit will not quench it, but seek his kingdom first, discovering true satisfaction and joy in that surrender.
Finding God amidst setbacks
Ps Edwin Seah
Trinity Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
Exposed to Christianity at Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), my family’s religion kept me from knowing more. I rejected God wholeheartedly after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis wiped out our family businesses. My sense of identity was shattered by further setbacks: quitting university due to academic pressure and the weight of my perfectionism, the shame that followed, and repeated rejection in relationships. I felt utterly worthless.
Yet, God was preparing a way for me to know him. A university mate brought me into his inner circle of friends at Christ Methodist Church (CMC). Despite me stubbornly declining their invitations to church, they warmly embraced me into their lives.
The turning point came in the wee hours of 28 April 2013, a Sunday. After simmering with anger from another relationship setback, a sudden calm descended upon me. Then a thought came, clear nsistent: Go seek the God your friends believe in.
I phoned my friend for service details and walked into CMC hours later. Through the songs, sermon and joyful hospitality, I was touched by the presence of God. I knew instantly I had found a place to belong.
The following Sunday, I could not return to church as I had travelled to hike Mt Kinabalu. But on the trip, God revealed his power and majesty. He answered the first prayer I uttered, a clumsy plea asking for my strained knee ligaments to be healed halfway through the hike.
I was determined to reach the summit, a place befitting to encounter the Creator God. Sufficient relief from the pain came after some rest, and I arrived at the peak just before sunrise. Seeing the vast lands and billowing clouds beneath left me in awe of God’s majesty and his deep love for me. I received Christ several weeks later.
Now, I look forward to serving God’s people and helping them know the faithful God who patiently provides a way for us to find him.
Step by step
Ps Daniel Koh
Wesley Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
Step by step. That is how I would characterise my walk with God. Perhaps God knows I would be too overwhelmed if he revealed more than what my next step is!
I graduated from university in 2012 and I worked in HR for about four years. I was competent in the work, but it felt deeply unsatisfying. I thought to myself, “There must be more than this, right?” Little did I know this dissatisfaction brewing in me was God’s way of calling me out of the corporate world.
In 2016, I decided to devote a year to knowing God more. I thought this would give me a better understanding of my purpose in life. I figured that the best place to know God better would be in a seminary, where I could learn from people more knowledgeable and mature than me. At this time, I still didn’t have any intention of entering full-time ministry; I just wanted to know more about God.
I applied and was accepted into Regent College. I thoroughly enjoyed my time of study. One year of study became two. During this time, God slowly changed my heart.
He dealt with some of the misgivings I had with full-time ministry, such as low pay and working on weekends. Upon returning to Singapore in 2019, I was open to working in ministry, though I still did not feel called to be a pastor. I remember asking God, “What do you want me to do?” and committing to giving whatever he asked a try.
God heard my prayer and a few weeks later, a family friend approached me to work as a pastoral staff in her church. I ended up working in that church for three years. Even though I earned less and had to work on weekends, there was deep joy in serving God. It was then that I received the call from God to be a pastor.
In this new season, I know that God will continue to lead me step by step, and empower me to serve his people!
From classroom to pulpit
Ps Joshua Loke
Barker Road Methodist Church
Trinity Annual Conference
I was 21 when I first heard God’s call for me to full-time ministry. It was at a Christian conference where the speaker said, “Some of you here may be called to full-time ministry for God.” At that moment I felt a deep impression in my heart that I was one of them. It was both unmistakable and indelible, and I carried this conviction for the next 10 years of my life.
After completing a degree at National University of Singapore as an English Literature major, I went on to NIE to be trained as a teacher. I then taught English Literature and English at a secondary school for the next four and a half years, seeing a batch of students through Secondary 1 to 4 before sensing it was time to pursue the call. All this time the impression was at the back of my mind, as I continued to serve my local church as a lay person in the youth ministry.
I quit teaching at the end of 2019 and enrolled at Trinity Theological College (TTC). Transitioning from being a teacher to being a student, I started studies at TTC the same year my daughter was born. Although juggling between parenting and studying was not easy, the years spent at TTC were both mentally stimulating and spiritually formative. I believe it was God’s way of preparing me for the upcoming season.
After graduating, I returned to my home church, Fairfield Methodist Church, to serve full-time as a Pastoral Team Member taking care of Youth and Young Adult ministries. I had a great burden for the youth ministry and felt convicted to first serve the youths as I continued to discern the expression of my full-time call. Throughout that time, the call towards pastoral ministry never diminished but continually got reaffirmed through various ways.
I begin this new season as a pastor with both humble gratitude and hopeful expectancy, looking to a faithful God who has brought me through the years past, into the years to come.
