Keningau is one of the biggest towns in the interior of Sabah. Within 10 years the town has doubled in size and there must be six or seven new hotels built in recent years. My wife and I were put up in one of new hotels with a glorious view from its roof top cafe and restaurant. We had buffet breakfast over two days, though I was struggling with flu nevertheless grateful for being able to rest while not preaching in comfortable surroundings. There are shops, eateries and the meal we had on our final night in a food court was simply delicious. Ranau is dull by comparison. I was told that are now two SIB churches right in town with the oldest where we had the series of meetings just at the outskirt of Keningau, 2 kms away.
The third and newest SIB church rented a double storey shop unit last year and now the church is packed with worshippers every Sunday. The trend is that with more church members owning cars they prefer the convenience of the church at city centre where after service they could shop and dine before heading home in the afternoon. Even in smaller Ranau town, I think there is a demand for another SIB church. Church leaders must keep up with the demographics and trends especially the younger generation that prefer church services to start on time and finish within 90 mins. Yet most traditional services go on beyond 2 hours. Yesterday on Sunday we went past 2 hours as one person took 25 mins to share her testimony and I preached for 35 mins. From an 9.35am start the service ended at 11.45am. It was not long by any means because the testimony was uplifting though perhaps could be more concise and therefore save time.
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