Gospel Partnerships in 2022
At the start of 2022, our pastors and elders shared 8 aspirations for our church, and strengthening our gospel partnerships with other churches is one of the aspirations. We aspire to strengthen cooperation with other like-minded churches, both along and across denominational lines, to fulfil Christ’s commission. This is taken from Paul’s words in Philippians 1:3-5, which says, “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.”
Connecting with other churches
In 2022, we thank God for the many opportunities to explore and also partner other churches for the sake of the Great Commission. From August to December, a team of eight men from GBC had the chance to preach at ACTS Baptist Church regularly. Pastor Oliver shared about this endeavour earlier in the year.
The team that has been preaching is made up of the following people: Pastor Mark, Pastor Oliver, Elder Lup Meng, Yanadi Tan, Joshua Lowe, Hewlett Chew, Marcus Ng and Matthew Choo. Comprising both pastors, elders, staff and lay people, this team has been encouraging ACTS while also sharpening their preaching skills. These men had previously been a part of the Preaching Lab that ran in 2021. Their sermons can be found on ACTS Baptist Church's website.
We asked Hewlett Chew about the experience. Hewlett shared, “ACTs was starting on a series in 1 John. We each took a passage to preach on, and then we'd listen to the others' passages and read their transcripts to see what they covered. It was challenging preaching from 1 John because many of the themes are repeated."
Hewlett does not preach often, and when asked about how it was like preparing for the sermon, he said, "It was stressful for me because I recognised the weight of the task to deliver the sermon from the pulpit to another congregation. I needed to be faithful in bringing across God's word."
However, it wasn't a lonely endeavour. Hewlett went on to share that he had help during the process, "It was helpful that in the preparation, I got feedback from Pastor Ollie and Marcus (who preached the message before mine). It was laborious but I'm thankful that I wasn't alone in the preparation.”
As we desire to seek out and develop gospel partnerships with other churches, we also hope to build our own relationships within GBC. Ministry can be difficult and challenging, hence, friendships like these are important. This experience allowed these men to partner alongside one another and help each other remain faithful to God's word.
Apart from this, Pastor Mark also had the chance to preach a couple of times at Evangel Baptist Church in November 2022, and recently, in January too. Evangel Baptist Church is no stranger to us as we've not only prayed for them at our services, but their pastor, Jeremy Lee, also preached at our service in 2021. We thank God for these opportunities to serve and be served by other churches in this way.
Meeting Christians overseas
These gospel partnerships also extended beyond Singapore. Samuel Ho, our ministry apprentice, also had a chance to preach at Covenant Baptist Church in Malacca. Samuel shared that this opportunity arose through another GBC member, Thomas Hamilton, whose friend is a member of the church. Samuel shared, "It is a small church attended regularly by 35-50 people, planted around 13 years ago. They meet weekly in a rented shophouse. Uncle Thian Chye and Aunty Janice were very kind to accompany (and drive) my dad and I up to Malacca."
He goes on to share his experience, "We arrived at noon on Saturday and were invited to a church member’s house for lunch to meet their family and a few other church members. We got to know the history of the church, how they were currently doing, as well as the landscape of Christianity in Malacca. It was a blessed time of fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ across the causeway. It was encouraging to see the gospel bearing fruit in the lives of people elsewhere in the world. I was reminded that no matter where in the world, man’s shared need is one of salvation from sin and its consequences, and that the gospel really is powerful and effective to save and change lives. The next morning, we were welcomed and introduced to the church, and the love and warmth from the members were very much felt."
Samuel had the chance to preach at their service. It was his first time preparing for and preaching a sermon, and on this experience, he said, "I had the privilege of sharing God’s word from Colossians 1:1-8. On a personal level, it was the first time that I had preached to a church and I am so thankful for the encouragement and feedback that I received from the members. Elder Jeff took us out for a Peranakan lunch after service and we had the opportunity to share ministry joys and struggles, as well as talk about ways that we could support and partner with each other moving forward. We stayed for another night before making our way back to Singapore."
These were instances where we could partner other churches in 2022. Most of these opportunities were occasions to preach the gospel over the pulpit and we are thankful that various members in our church had the chance to do so. However, gospel partnerships are not limited to this form, thus, as a church, let us pray for more opportunities to partner fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in the year and years to come. Our Missions Committee is also exploring and looking for other gospel partners that we can work with. We pray that we can do so in order to bring the gospel to our nation, and to the nations.