My Third Month

This is my third month in my fourth pastorate and it is coming to my 10th week. It seems I have been around forever. I attend all church meetings, from prayer meetings, rehearsals and council meetings. As this is our election year it will get busy from now on. This Sunday we will launch our membership drive to prepare for our AGM slotted on the first Sunday in April, exactly 2 months from now. In the meantime I will lecture on our church’s Constitution which I plan to do every three years according to our election cycle.

Church’s Mission and Outreach

I devoted one session in the leaders’ retreat last Thursday to discuss the church’s mission and outreach, first in our Jerusalem/Kota Kinabalu and our Judea (Sabah). We prayed in our final session as we sought God’s will. Just two days on I felt I know the answer as to where we are going. First I met an elder and church chairman and he invited me to visit his church anytime and soon and in his words “this year”.

Leaders’ Retreat

I have planned this since I accepted the call to pastor the church in early October. The turnout was encouraging with 33 participants from a 100 member church. That’s 33% which is much higher than the 20% of many churches where those who are actively involved are at most 20 percent of the membership. Moreover it was a public holidays and most of my members will normally take the opportunity to return to their home villages. But the first session was great being fresh as I shared for an hour and 5 minutes after a short 15 min praise and worship to start off the proceedings.

Year of the Snake

For the past few days I was in the zone, whether it is a public holiday or not, I work all the time. Even driving to my brother's place last night for New Year's Eve dinner, I was thinking about my three sessions that I needed to lead and speak during tomorrow's leaders' retreat. Sure, I could rest the next day on Friday but I am slotted to lead prayers on Friday, usually preceded by a 15 min sharing from God's Word. On Saturday if my energy levels permit, I will attend the Rehearsal by the worship team and by the time I return home it will be 11pm at night and the next morning on a Sunday I normally get up before 5am to prepare myself to preach in the Sunday service at 9am. Who is adequate for all these?

Year of the Dragon (a Review)

In a few days' time the Year of the Dragon is coming to an end. I have had a roller coaster of a year. But God is great. He is faithful to His promises. When the Year of the Dragon started early last year, I was well in advance in making plans to leave my former Seminary in Kota Kinabalu as I had tendered my resignation in October the previous year. But I had three subjects to teach, all new courses that I wanted to teach especially the Song of Songs and the NT Greek language (Level 2 or Intermediate Greek). Again at the start of the Year of the Dragon, last March I was surprised to hear what the ATESEA (accreditation body of my former Colleges including TTC in Singapore) had to say and I remember well that the five main points the Committee raised were ones that I thought I could make a significant contribution at the Seminary.

Trump's Triumph

I have not seen a greater political comeback since I got interested in world politics during the President Carter's election bid in 1976 than in Trump's triumph in last November's US Presidential Election. I am not sure I can stay up to 1am 21st Jan Malaysian time to witness Trump's taking of the oath of office. By all accounts he was out and down for more than 2 years prior to the Nov election. He was shot once and the second time was a close shave as well. He spent half his time in courts fencing off multiple civil and criminal trials. He was convicted and now has the infamy of being the first convicted felon to hold the highest office in the United States of America. But I was backing Trump all along. I am a non-political person just as I was backing Obama, at least in his first term. When I listened to Trump's speeches, he made sense to a far away foreigner like me, and for sure he made a lot of sense to his fellow Americans.

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.