Last night I watched the finals between the Malaysian and Singaporean table-table teams for the Commonwealth Games gold. Which team did I support? Malaysia of course. If only Singapore had more local or Singapore-raised players, I would be torn between the two teams. I am not anti-foreigner. My point is that we must develop local talent. I am not into politics and I am writing about the church, Christian leaders and theologians. We need to develop our local talent. So much effort is wasted to get someone trained as a PhD and then you don't appreciate them. How many local scholars have published with prestigious international publishers and then they are loaded with teaching and preaching assignments that they have no time to develop their research and writing skills further? I really don't see much vision across the land. I got a friend, a brilliant NUS graduate, worked for a few years, pastored a church and then obtained a PhD from one of the top UK universities and then he got paid less than a new graduate working in a bank, let alone a new law graduate who can command $5,000 p.m starting salary in a multinational law firm. We need to develop our local talent in church.
Pastors with potential must be given exposure in preaching and greater responsibilities. I know of pastors who could preach well, perhaps even better than their senior pastors but hidden away and preaching only once in 2 months. What a waste of talent. I know local pastors who could rival most of overseas preachers that have come our way in the past 4 or 5 years but get little opportunity to serve the larger church. I have this vision for almost 2 decades now. Every pastor should get a rigorous MTh. MDiv or B.D in most Colleges I know hardly offer a rigorous enough biblical studies programme. Ask around and you won't find many that have done Septuagint in their MTh studies let alone MDiv. It is time to develop local talent and we will see things happen in our land and beyond.
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