In the Hot Seat

I am glad for the first time in my 7th month as pastor, the chairman of the church council chaired last night’s meeting. I still have to speak out often but I am no longer in the hot seat as in the previous six months I was asked to chair all the meetings. I still had to calm troubled hearts and minds and arbitrate disputes between elders and deacons. The goal is church unity starting with the unity of the church council.

Pastor-Scholar

Last Sunday I played the fool and spoke about my two primary gifts, preaching and teaching. If it is a gift from the Lord, there is no ground for boasting, so says Paul the apostle (1 Cor 4:7). I was preaching about those who have the Spirit know the gifts given to them by the Lord. But often times, people just sit in the pews and not serve as if they are not gifted at all. Of course, I cited the lazy slave who was given one talent but hid and buried it. But those with two or five talents traded with their talents and made many more talents for their Lord.

My Book in 50 countries in 6 Continents

The first eight days of June was super hectic. I preached for 7th consecutive Sunday. After next Sunday I shall be taking a week break to prepare for the End-Time seminar. Yesterday, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday with just over 100 worshippers. Our one unit shop-lot church hall could hardly hold anymore. It started with a dance and tambourine presentation with the song, "Yahweh Elohim..." and it was most powerful as my soul shook a couple of times as I sat there meditating on God's love and power. Then we had a wonderful worship with three songs then came the Bible reading of Revelation 11:1-12.

The Week that Was and Still Is

I thought I could not beat the month of May. But June started with a bang. I preached one of my best sermons on Sunday 1st June, being my half year anniversary in my current ministry. On Monday, 2nd June I gave an webinar on "faith and sacrifice in the context of leadership" at 8pm and took 7 questions in less than 25 minutes. I was tired after the hour long session and I did not sleep well Monday night. At 7.30am the next day I turned on my WhatsApp after getting up before 6am. My friend asked me whether I would be attending the SIB College's 60th anniversary events. I asked him whether we should go up together.

Serving the Lord

The month of May ends tomorrow midnight. I still have a prayer meeting to lead tonight and tomorrow’s worship rehearsal. I can’t remember when I had a break from preaching. But I felt the anointing strong and on Sunday I shall be speaking of end-time harvest conciding with harvest festival celebrated with the majority tribe here in Sabah and on Sunday’s Gawai celebrated by Dayaks, Ibans and the natives of Sarawak. But this month is a month in the Lord’s service.

Betrayal

It’s been five weeks. I thought I got over the sense of betrayal that I felt 5 weeks ago. But the pain does not go away. In fact I would not be writing about this if I did not know what to do going forward. It was not right to step down in less than half a year and many members would be shocked if I did, so I bore with the insult and betrayal but the wound did not heal after 5 weeks.

Pressing On & Planning Ahead

In the past couple of days I had sleepless nights. Just as Sunday night could be taxing after the exertions of the weekend and it was hard to relax and let the mind wind down. On Tuesday night, we had our church council meeting and again I was asked to chair the meeting which I duly obliged. As it was our first business since the election of office bearers last month, the meeting went for just over three hours and we ended at 11pm sharp. In fact, I had to apologise to the council members for the lateness when we were still on AOB at 10.30pm. But we managed to get many things done, not least the activities and programme for the next few months including our Leaders' Retreat scheduled at for the first week of December.

Where are the Men?

The proposed Young Men's Fellowship happened only twice since I suggested to form such a group early in the year. Yesterday on Mothers' Day, it was an eye opener although we had talked about it for a while. There could be 40 mothers who went up as I invited them to come forward to be prayed for but there were hardly ten men seated in the hall. That meant at least 30 women attended church without their husbands. Where are the men? I know it has been a trend among churches that we are losing men. Even young men, only seven of them took part in our Young Men's fellowship while there are easily 20 plus young women who will attend the Youth gathering. It looks like the percentage of women over men is getting ever larger, last time it was two-thirds female to one-third guys but now out of the four women, there is only one man. Where are the men? I need to take time to pray and wait on the Lord for answers.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit (43rd Anniversary)

I received news of the new Pope being elected early this morning. While digesting the news, it dawned on me that the Pope was elected midnight Malaysian time (6pm, 8th May Italy) which is today, the 9th May. It happens to be the 43rd anniversary of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that I experienced at the 3pm prayer meeting at Clyde Street, a road at the side of the University of Canterbury, Christchurch.

Eventful First Week in May

I thought I was going to take a break on Labour Day on 1st May but there was a home group to attend to. Thankfully the traffic was not that bad since it was a public holiday and my wife and I duly arrived at the home of the hosts in good time. I shared for about 20 minutes from two passages but that the labourer is worthy of his wages (Luke 10:7) and from Psalm 17 how the Psalmist said that in his righteousness he will see God's face. I told the home group how essential we continue to be righteous and do righteousness id we want to behold God's face which is truly a privilege by His grace. I can understand why many people cannot see God's face and their worship is routine or following basic instincts instead of being moved by the Holy Spirit into God's presence.

Conducting a Native Engagement Ceremony

It’s been hectic in the past 10 days. Since the Passover and Resurrection Sunday services it has been non-stop for me. First, I attended the first home group last Thursday and this Thursday there will be another cell group. Then on Friday I led prayers on the weekly prayer meeting but an hour before that I met a young couple wanting to be engaged which happened to be the next day, last Saturday. I talked with them and wanting to be sure that they were ready to get engaged and married in 6 months’ time.