Inflation Hits Home

It seems every time I visit Pizza Hut the price of pizza has gone up. It is RM29.00 for a large pizza and RM19.00 for a regular. The large pizza cost RN18.00 just a few years ago which means in less than five years cost of pizza had risen more than 50%. Salary has gone up perhaps 10 percent in the last five years hardly accounting for the rate of inflation. In churches, salaries have actually gone down. When you are paying RM2,000.00 for a senior pastor of 20 years experience then can you expect one who is skilled and knowledgeable?

Golden Mouth

John Chrysostom was known as the golden-mouthed preacher. His preaching attracted thousands to the SUNDAY services of his time. My preaching attracts about 110 adults per Sunday but about 90 adults were regular worshippers before I came in a pastor. There has been a small increase in attendance since early December averaging 110 adults. Yesterday I saw the back benches filled to the full with a couple of vacant seats in front. In fact as I went up to preach the second front row was filled with new people.

Church & Vision

As long as I have been active in church, I have always regarded my church as my family. The sense of community must be present if it is true church as many social clubs and institutions also put much emphasis on community, a sense of belonging, Last night it was quite unusual for about 40 people turned up for a Friday night and it was mainly due a a thanksgiving dinner we had before the prayer meeting. I was at church by 5pm having driven from home at 4pm to escape the peak hours after 4pm. It was my turn to preach and lead prayers and I shared from Psalm 45:4-8 about the warrior riding on a horse going out conquering with truth, meekness and righteousness.

First Sunday 2025 Lord's Supper

I could not have wished for a better start to the New Year. The church hall was packed into a small one unit shop lot. On the second floor which the church also rented, 25 kids followed Sunday School. The worship went for 35 minutes which was fine and I preached close to one hour, the first 15 minutes about the New Year and resolutions and plans for the church, then I launched into my main message about the Lord's Supper as I expounded 1 Cor 11:17-34. When the closing prayer was said, I looked at my watch and it was 11am sharp exactly 2 hours had run for our first Sunday of 2025. Then one elder and I moved to the back of the church to greet the church members leaving the church hall and I shook with about 100 of them, as 20 worshippers had already made their way downstairs as I stood near the entrance.

Downward Slide

If I were to rate my three former pastorates, the first was the best followed by the second. The third was the toughest as it was during the height of the pandemic that I pastored the church and had to relinquish my duty as pastor when vaccination mandate came into force within my denomination. The fourth is just into the 2nd month and I am no longer naive or even optimistic that it would reach the height of my first and second pastorates. My first church more than doubled its membership in 5 years growing from 200 to 450 regular worshippers.

Quality Masters & Doctoral Degree in Theology

As for the church, it can never be paper chase or degree accumulation for the sake of prestige or payrise or career prospects, as Christ has given to the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers and pastors and evangelists to equip the saints. The centre of equipping is within the church and not Seminaries or the academy. I am not saying Seminaries and Theological Universities or Colleges are not important, but if they are useful, it is to train pastors in biblical languages, read the texts in their original languages.

Quality MTheol or PhD in the Bible

I told my Christmas audience in Keningau that I had packed away my doctoral regalia when asked to bring it along during a recent convocation address I gave in Sarawak. In Malaysia as a whole with much regret and grief I can say most MTheol or doctoral programmes are not up to international standards by any measure one would want to evaluate it.

This Corner of the Earth

When I attended an international conference at Yonsei University 9 years ago I had coffee with a Harvard tenured Professor in theology and after he told me he had published four books to secure tenure I replied that I akso wrote just one book published by T & T Clark (2005). His eyes lit up in “disbelief” that in that corner of the earth called Sabah or North Borneo, someone actually published a book of any note and still constantly referred to in monographs commentaries and journal articles. Now I pastor a church of the lowly and B40 group of Malaysia of the native peoples of Sabah in a little corner of Kota Kinabalu. But God loves them ans He is no respecter of persons.

Five New Things in 2024

This has been the most fascinating year for me. When many of my friends retire from active work, I feel my life work is just beginning. Not only did I take up a new pastoral appointment at the other side of town, though it is only 14 kms away, but this is the farthest church I had had to pastor. My first church rented a house for me, 3kms away, my second church house in Ranau was only 1km from the church, my third church was 9kms away but basically one way northward from my home but my current one, I had to make several turns across the city before reaching the church building. 

Christmas in Keningau

After preaching twice on 24th Dec night and 25th morning I slept for 2 hours from 2.30-4.30pm. Then we had dinner in a nice restaurant at 6.30pm and the portions were so big that we had do take away for one dish. But 10.30pm I fell asleep again. Later today I will drive back to Tambunan, my wife’s village. If I don’t attend a relative’s wedding, then I will return to Kota Kinabalu on Friday to prepare for my Sunday sermon.

Three and a half Weeks

In less than 24 days into the last month of the year, I had an amazing introduction to the church. I did not preach yesterday and also on the eighth but I preached twice on my first day at work (1st Dec 2024) which was a double blessings for me, in fact thrice blessed as the night service was held to welcome its new pastor, my 30th anniversary of full time ministry and the launch of my 7th book, the fourth in Malay.