Apr 2009

Beloved Evangel Family,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ...

Atthe outgoing Church Council (CC) -Peng Jin, Boon Lian, Grace and Pick Ming - step down, I ask you to join me in thanking these men and women who have given of themselves to serve the Lord and His church over the past two years. We praise the Lord for helping this team to work well together. I am privileged to have served with them and encouraged by their faithfulness. Indeed, in all our shortcomings, we did sense the Lord’s enabling in our leadership task. I am also encouraged how the Evangel family has shown grace in accepting and supporting the leadership in many ways.

It is with this reassurance that I call on you to give the incoming CC - Chong Tuck, Boon Lian, Giau Peck, Louise and Hwee Peng - the same gracious partnership and support. They have obeyed the call to come forward to serve in leadership. Let us then come alongside them as they serve.

Besides the incoming CC, I am also thankful to the Lord for four brothers - Laurence, Peter Lee, Hieng Sik and Roger - who have availed themselves to help me with the ministry concerns as members of the Church Ministry Committee (CMC).

We are grateful to the Lord that as a church, we have reached a collective decision to separate the ministry and administrative functions between the CMC and CC respectively. Hence, we can now proceed with this spirit of interdependent partnership between CMC and CC in the leadership of the church.

As it may not always be easy to demarcate what is ministry-related and what is administration-related, may the Lord teach us to serve with a spirit of servanthood and not legalism. I call on the Evangel family to constantly keep the leaders in prayer as they are not serving in a state of perfection, but in a spirit of obedience in the Lord.

We aspire to grow toward serving according to our gifting and calling, and establishing godly patterns of team ministry. May this challenge and encourage more people to be mobilized to do God’s work in and through us.

Looking ahead, I pray that we will continue to grow toward being a Great Commission Church that takes discipleship seriously—i.e. moving God’s people from Word to walk by:

• Keeping and restoring right relationship with God

• Making a difference for God in their world

• Serving according to their spiritual gifting and calling

• Leading others to Christ and nurturing them in His kind of life

I quote here what Paul says in Romans 15:1-2 about living and growing as a people of God: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

Beloved Evangel family, do join me in asking the Lord to help us grow as:

• Members of His Body

• Models of His character

• Ministers of His grace

• Messengers of His love

May the Lord bless this desire of our hearts.

A Fellow Pilgrim in Him,
Pastor John

Tel: 6749-2990 (O) 9789-2414 (HP) Email: johnyuencw@gmail.com