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We Aspire to Cultivate Gospel Partnerships

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Yanadi reflects on the last of eight aspirations for GBC that the elders have shared, and how it is lived out together as a church.

Recently, the pastors and elders shared some aspirations for the church at our Watchnight Service and QCM. As Pastor Oliver wrote, in drafting the eight aspirations, the leadership allowed Scripture to inform their considerations as they sought to answer questions like “What does God want us as a church to aspire towards? What do we value as a church?”

The final aspiration continues on our joyful duty as recipients of the gospel to go, and focuses on Gospel Partnerships: We “aspire to strengthen cooperation with other like-minded churches, both along and across denominational lines, to fulfil Christ’s commission.”

We are not to be alone

One of the first lessons I remember learning in primary school is that human is a social being. I am sure that although the lesson was meant to be as neutral and secular as possible, like many good and right things in life, it is derived from a biblical teaching. After consistently decribing His creation as "good" and concluding with describing it as a whole as "very good", the first "not good" that God said was about the man being alone (Gen 2:18). And that is very true not only biblically, but also experientially.

The value of sending our kids to schools, instead of home-schooling them, is usually said to be the social aspect of typical schools. The recent spike of depression, mental health, and feeling of isolation numbers in Singapore since the COVID-19 pandemic started proves the importance of the social aspect of work. While being cooped up and working from home has its advantages, like being able to spend more time with family members and saving on transport expenses, clearly the social disadvantages for many of us are immense. And it is also true in ministry.

In seminary, we are always reminded to keep collegiate relationships with fellow gospel workers. The idea is that we need one another in ministry and in order to persevere in ministry. Although we may be serving in different organisations, the struggles are similar, and hence, we can relate with one another well. Moreover, during our time in seminary, we start to recognise fellows who share the same or similar ministry philosophy. Such brothers and sisters are indeed precious as working together with like-minded Christians is a rare thing to have, given the temptations that our culture consistently and persistently offer even gospel workers.

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Paul talks about his gospel partners in Philippians 1:3-5: 

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

As I see my fellow seminarians serve Jesus and His people in various locations and organisations, it is really my joy to see them being faithful and obedient in their service to the Lord, as I'm sure it is their joy to see mine.

But this is my story. What's in it for GBC?

Partnering with the staff

First and foremost, my hope is that we would grow our compassion toward our ministry staff. It can be very lonely being in full-time ministry.

But more than that, it is actually very liberating that in the passage I quoted, Paul is not talking about His fellow apostles or elders. Instead, he is talking about the church members of the Philippian church who are partnering with Paul in the gospel. What kind of ministry do they do? Is it a preaching/teaching kind of ministry? Most likely not just that. Most likely it includes ministry of financial giving, missionary (Epaphroditus) sending, praying, advancing the gospel, and living faithfully; the very things that all Christians are supposed to do. For doing those things, they are referred to by Paul as "gospel partners"! What a privilege!

So, more than showing compassion to our ministry staff, it is good to be reminded that all of us, GBC, are the gospel partners of our ministry staff. I hope it excites many of us that we are not consumers, we are not shareholders, but we are gospel partners. We have an active role in the church to do the "Christian-things" that Christians are supposed to do. But I know that a few of us are discouraged because we have bought the very common attitude among Christians that church members are consumers, while ministry staff are the service providers. This is a good time to reflect on Philippians again and consider whom Paul has in mind when he talks about partnership in the gospel, and apply it into our hearts and lives.

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Partnering with other like-minded churches

Beyond GBC, we have built relationships with like-minded churches. We pray for them corporately every fourth weekend of the month in our service, as I'm sure they do for us. We serve some of them occasionally in the ministry of the Word through our pastors, as some of them occasionally do for us. We had the privilege to have Roy and Victor as part of our Preaching Lab participants last year in our desire to help strengthen the ministry of the Word in ACTS Baptist Church. Although we have not had hosted various seminars and events in our building due to the pandemic, we continue to maintain and cultivate our relationships with the various organisations which regularly use our building.

In summary, what can we as a church do to help cultivate gospel partnerships?

  1. Display compassion and care toward our ministry staff.
  2. Live out Christian living faithfully. Do what Christians are supposed to do: live faithfully and obediently toward God's Word, advance the kingdom of God through sharing the gospel, give cheerfully, pray, etc.
  3. Pray for the churches that we pray in the service.

And in this current time, do remember our gospel partners in war-torn countries like Ukraine and Myanmar. They need and appreciate our prayers and help in this dire time. Our prayers and help matter a lot to them. I know of one Ukrainian and a few Myanma among us. We can be in touch with them and ask them how we can pray for the people there.

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Read also:

What We Aspire to Be

We Aspire to Cultivate Christlikeness

We Aspire to be Shaped by the Gospel

We Aspire to Deepen our Unity in Christ

We Aspire to Disciple One Another in Christ

We Aspire to Every-Member Ministry

We Aspire to Train and Send

We Aspire to Grow in Mission-Mindedness