Think

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, with the revival of the institutional church in China after the Cultural Revolution, some painted a very bleak picture for Christians there: widespread persecution, heresy due to a lack of Bibles and teaching, a cowed official church. But nobody could deny that there was a great hunger for the Word in China. […]

Importance of passing our faith to the young AMONG my many Sunday School teachers in the past, I remember one for his unusual methods. He would make his students stand in a line and then ask us to recite the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and so on. He would […]

The Rev Dr Douglas E. Wingeier, who had lectured at Trinity Theological College, visited Singapore recently, and preached a sermon at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church on Feb 22, 2004. Below is a summary of the sermon. WHEN Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem on his last fateful week, he exclaimed, “If you had only […]

WHENEVER the question of church growth surfaces among pastors or church leaders, it presents an opportunity for either boasting one’s achievement for the church or defending the existing condition of the church. Statements like “We have experienced phenomenal growth under my leadership”, “stability is the key to our membership” and “quality is more important than […]

Finding rest in the midst of restlessness THE scream of a disturbed child shatters the silence of the night. It is soon joined by a mother’s loving and reassuring lullaby. Fear and love then have a strange conversation and fear begins to listen to love. The frightened child is soothed when he feels his mother’s […]

John the Baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance – Mark 1:4. THE church of today lives in an ethically debilitating climate. Where did we go wrong? Was it the urbane self-centredness of Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking and its therapeutic successors? Was it the liberal, civic-club mentality of the heirs to […]

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave … I’M SURE you’ve seen pictures of the Amish. They are […]

A YEAR ago, a schoolmate of mine, now an assistant pastor at an Assemblies of God church, asked me what my primary ministry was. I said, “My wife.” She laughed, “No, I mean in church. Do you see your main ministry as the youth or prayer or what?” And I continued my unconventional chant, “My […]

IT MUST feel strange to Christians of earlier generations if they were to attend modern worship services. One of the things they would find extremely odd is the absence of the prayer of confession which is an essential part of the worship service. Could it be that it is no longer fashionable to talk about […]

Preaching at Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church on Nov 16, 2003, Bishop Dr Robert Solomon addressed an issue that has been of deep interest to many Christians, Methodist and others – the question of “speaking in tongues” and its authenticity. A summary of his sermon follows. WITH John Wesley and John Calvin, we share in […]

IMAGINE a woman wearing an apron and holding a frying pan containing a hot pancake running up the pathway leading to the sanctuary in your church compound. Besides frowns and amusement, you may be baffled when the woman begins her confession of sins. Pure imagination and speculation in a time when we are required to […]

LONDON — The understanding of life as a journey has always played an important part in Christian imagery, but for John Wesley and the early Methodist pioneers, journeying was also of enormous practical significance — not the least because of its importance in holding together and strengthening the spreading network of Methodism. During his lifetime, […]