Think

Here’s food for thought: how can a humdrum activity like boot polishing bring young girls closer to God? In The Girls’ Brigade (GB) 1st Singapore Company at Methodist Girls’ School (MGS), we polish our boots every time we are in full uniform, and that can be several times in a month. The frequency increases during […]

John Wesley (1703-1791). Engraved by anonymous engraver and published in Thomas Dugdale Curiosities Of Great Britain, United Kingdom, 1845. A Methodist pastor once made a bold assertion that the unique thing about Methodism is that there is nothing unique about it. By saying that, he was echoing a prejudice held by Christians who assumed that […]

Conceptual Christian cross on a little rock island in the ocean or sea with waves and the sky at sunset banner I have sometimes wondered if our church members understand what it means to be a Methodist. Recently, we have had many new members from South India added to our Emmanuel Tamil Annual Conference churches.  […]

Whenever we come forward to worship, what do we think of? We probably think of many things – the piano, organ, drum, guitars – and many other activities like singing, prayers, sermon, offerings etc. Thus, our mind is very often preoccupied in performing and assessing these, and hopefully along the way we get a good […]

The practice of discipleship is well-known among Christians. There are books describing it and materials to help us. But a key question is this: Is our practice of discipleship just technique or does it really help us become disciples? The Greek for “disciple” means “learner”, persons who discipline their life to learn from a master […]

I have a friend whom I have not seen for more than 40 years. I am not sure whether I could recognise him if I met him today. Mr Viggo Sogaard spent many years as a missionary in Thailand before pursuing his Masters at Wheaton College and doctorate at Fuller Theological Seminary. We were part […]

God has given us a capacity and yearning to live beyond ourselves, an innate desire to do good by our conscience: where our actions, decisions, words and expressions are guided by our framework of values, beliefs and moral expectations. This framework could be based on religious beliefs, cultural heritage, family traditions, and law. As Christians, […]

For the longest time, many of us have functioned with a two-tier understanding of the Christian faith. We have been told that there were two types of Christians. If you accepted Christ as your Saviour, you were saved. You had Christ in your life. You would go to heaven when you die. You received all […]

He seems so out-of-place in a church where most children have loving families, a wide selection of nice matching clothes and footwear. The other children in church would have attended nursery and kindergarten before going to a primary school. They would be able to read and spell a wide selection of words, and could express themselves clearly in English with some Chinese as well. But 10-year-old Hou Ann cannot string together a proper sentence in English.

At family devotion, my 13-year-old son quipped: “The good should go to heaven and the bad, hell.” “Son, who are ‘the good’? Who decides who is good? What is the yardstick for goodness so I know for sure that I am good?” I replied. So continued our discussion which pointed to Jesus as “the way, […]

Person-centred care, or PCC, is a catchphrase familiar to the healthcare industry. It is also an adage the Singapore Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA) uses as the basis of their advocacy work on behalf of people living with dementia. The ADA explains that PCC captures a way of thinking and doing things that respects the person […]

The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is one of the most important contributions of Methodism to theological thinking. Although John Wesley did not systemise it, it was attributed to his genius. For centuries, Scripture was mainly interpreted through the eyes of tradition in the early Church. This kept the Church from making progress theologically, and affected thinkers and […]