church governance

I find myself thinking more about church governance after i met choom yam to ask him about how our church is governed or ensure that it is in check, properly accounted for.

After the session, i have the burden to pray for our church esp for our church staff. Our new senior pastor and his team need much support and covering. Who will shepherd ps jeff when ps ben is leaving for the States? Does he has a network of local pastors to fellowship and find support? I really hope he does, if not, it can be an easily burnt out job.

Despite the assurances, i am still uncomfortable with the fact that we are an independent movement affiliated to no one? To me, it makes a lot of practical sense that we are under covering by our local counterparts with the well-established denominational groups such as the Methodists etc than under foreign body when there is hardly any check and balance if any at all. Can they know what is happening locally all the time? It sounds scary to me if we are isolated, sheltered and not well-networked and not know what the universal church body is doing and how we can learn from one another. We do not have the answers all the time. If the Board of Directors come from our own people, can they be objective still without compromising proper governance guidelines? Being nice and understanding is quite different from stating the facts and telling the truth.

I cannot help but think of ps ben's vision of a global-city church, as compelling as it sounds, it is a double-edged sword as having international affiliations bring about complications as well when things do not go well, just as the recent bangkok incident has shown. It has an effect on the local church and brings an important lesson of keeping our own porch clean and tidy. Winning souls and making disciples come with the house in order and there is proper usage and prioritisation of funds and resources. It is not mutually exclusive. Our hard-earned money and pledging of tithes need to go to funding God's work and nothing else.

Yet at the same time, also share Choon Yam's heart for our church to continue to keep to our original vision of church planting. Having about 10-plus people out of a 4k congregation once in a while go for church planting does not seem a mission-minded church, that is like 0.25%? How do we accomodate people who has the heart to start different ministries, find like-minded folks, equip them well and be mobilised as we grow bigger? The last we want is to be too comfortable with our fellowship, solely get married and start our families without knowing what He wants us to do for our church and lives. Think it is important to know what we are doing with our sheeps, our plans and where we are bringing them to?

Equally important is the need to build a supportive, transparent and safe environment to share about any issue. Brothers can feel secure and talk about gender-specific issues with one another and people from diverse backgrounds can find their meets met in their own caregroups. No one is left out.

keeping our church and people in prayer..hope we continue to mature and grow..