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.