Recap of Members' Meeting (10 Mar 24)
We had our second Members' Meeting of the year on 10 March 2024. During this meeting, we received and saw out members, were updated on upcoming pastoral team transitions, as well as committed various plans of our life together as a church to the Lord.
After an opening prayer to commit the time to the Lord, Pastor Eugene proceeded to the first item of the agenda: to receive and see out members.
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS
Receiving New Members
As shared during last Members' Meeting on elder-led congregationalism, the Bible gives final authority to the members of a local church, as led by the elders, to affirm what is true gospel confession and who is a true gospel confessor. We do this through faithful gospel proclamation, rightly administering the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as well as practising biblical membership and discipline. Hence, during these Members' Meetings, members would be affirming the profession of faith of those whom we would be receiving.
At this Meeting, various elders came up to share briefly about each of the 9 individuals whom they had chatted with. Out of these 9 individuals, 3 would be joining us by baptism and the other 6 by transfer. Their testimonies were also made available to members prior to the meeting.
Members of GBC were then called to receive these baptism or transfer candidates into membership via a show of hands. As each member was presented, we were reminded that God is the one who saves, and we praised Him for His mighty work in the life of each individual as well as His faithfulness to His church. We were also reminded of our covenant as fellow members of this local body to know and serve one another.
In addition to these 9 new members, the elders updated that they have baptised a new member while he was in the hospital and he has since passed on. He has professed his faith clearly and wholeheartedly prior to his death. As such, the elders have received him as a member of GBC and he won't be put up to the members for affirmation.
To close this segment, Pastor Eugene invited these new members to the front to introduce them. He then led the members through two statements of affirmation, where we affirmed that:
1. These brothers and sisters have, along with us, repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ alone for salvation; and
2. We receive them as fellow members of GBC, and therefore commit to walk with them in Christlike love and unity, for our mutual encouragement and for building up the body of Christ.
This was aptly followed by the reciting of the Members’ Covenant together.
Seeing Out Members
In the life of the church, as we receive members, we will also see members out for various reasons. One instance is when members transfer to another gospel-preaching church. At this Meeting, Pastor Eugene updated that two members would be transferring out to join the membership of another gospel-preaching church. GBC members were invited to affirm the transfer of these members. We are thankful that these individuals have found another church to be a part of, and let us pray that they will continue to grow and be an encouragement to the local community of believers that they have committed to be with.
Non-Attending members
Next, Pastor Eugene drew our attention to a list of non-attending members who have not been gathering for corporate worshp for more than a year and have also been unresponsive to the elders’ previous attempts at contacting them. This list had also been shared during the last Members' Meeting. He explained that the reason why these names were shared was to encourage all members to join the elders in reaching out to them. The church's desire is to pursue them, to engage them and to encourage them to gather regularly with God's people for corporate worship, so that we could walk together in love and unity in obedience to Christ.
He urged members who are in contact with any of these non-attending members to let the elders know how they are doing. If they are regularly attending another church, then encourage them to join that local church; if they are unable to attend due to health or other reasons, the elders would like to think of ways that we can care for them such as arranging for transportation or visitation. If these members remain uncontactable or they persist in not attending despite our reaching out, the elders will put forward a recommendation in July to review their membership.
We will not be publishing this list of names here, but if you know of members who have not been regular, or would like to find out how you can help reach these members, please approach our elders or write to the church office (info@gracebaptistchurch.sg).
PASTORAL PLANS AND TRANSITIONS
Mark & Samuel's Move
Pastor Mark gave thanks that the paperwork for his move has been approved, and Lord willng, the family would be leaving on 6 May. He expressed sadness at leaving, thanked God for the incredible generosity that has been shown him and his family while they were in Singapore, and looked forward to continued gospel partnership with GBC. He asked that we continue to pray for the family and the gospel ministry in the next season of their life.
It was also shared that Samuel, our Ministry Support Worker for Care Groups, would be joining Mark, pending the members' affirmation of the local church there. Samuel shared that he's grateful for the opportunity to be able to spend two years serving as a pastoral assistant. He looked forward to the opportunity to grow and be trained in ministry, as well as serving in a cross-cultural context. Samuel had visited the church last year and also met the elders a few times. He's encouraged by their hospitality and their faithfulness in ministry. He's thankful that the move would not be a very drastic one given the similarity in terms of living environment as well as church's elements.
We gave thanks for the Collinses, for their faithful ministry with us and the fruit that the Lord has brought through their work with us. We will certainly miss them! We praised God for the exciting and wonderful opportunity for Samuel, and for raising up one among us who's willing to go and pray that many would also be keen to go for the sake of the gospel. At this Meeting, we also prayed that Samuel would have a richly rewarding time and that he would be brought back to us strengthened and encouraged, trusting that the Lord will do His work through him.
Eugene's Sabbatical
Elder Lup Meng explained that the church's policies on sabbatical is based on the biblical principle in Hebrews 13:7 which exhorts us to remember our leaders. We remember and care for our leaders by giving them a time of rest, recharge and reflection. As such, our lay elders are to step down every six years, and for full-time elders, they are given six months of sabbatical in their seventh year.
As this is Pastor Eugene's seventh year with us, he will be taking a six-month sabbatical. This would be broken into two three-month segments: April to June and October to December. Elder Lup Meng assured members that the remaining team of full-time elders—Thian Chye, Oliver and Jeremy—would take over the role of Pastor Eugene during his absence.
Following that, Pastor Eugene stepped up to thank the elders for affording him the time to rest and be refreshed. He shared that he would be spending some time catching up on reading, as well as to reflect. He asked that we pray that his time away would be fruitful, that the Lord would continue to encourage him to persevere in ministry. As a church, we can pray that God would continue to mould Pastor Eugene's heart to be soft to God's Word, and that he would rest in Christ and delight in Him daily. He also sought prayers for a restful and fruitful time with the family.
During his sabbatical, Pastor Eugene also intends to visit some friends and fellow ministry workers overseas, such as India and Dubai. He will be accompanied by some GBC members on some of these trips. Lord willing, he also hopes to spend some time with the Collinses and Samuel; and to visit workers, partners or churches that we know of in the region. There're also plans to visit other local churches in Singapore to observe their ministry and spend some time with them to learn from their ministry and be encouraged by how God is working in other places. Let us pray that these visits would be a mutual time of encouragement and refreshment.
LOOKING AHEAD
Pastor Jeremy took us through some of the plans for the months ahead.
Growing in the Word
We started a new sermon series on Isaiah in January this year, titled “The LORD Saves”, and we would be continuing this series in the upcoming quarter. There would also be three EQUIP series in upcoming months:
Healthy Church — for those who have questions about the ways we are practising church membership or how we are thinking about missions as a church.
How We Grow — for those who want to know more about living out our Christian faith or just wondering how we could help someone who's new in the faith to grow and mature.
Dating and Engagement — for those who are dating and thinking of marriage or know of someone who are.
Growing as a Church
Pastor Jeremy updated that we have about 120 children and youths in our Children’s and Youth ministries and he asked that we pray for more volunteers to serve in these ministries. If you are able to help in any of these, contact Pastor Jeremy, Siew Ting or Joshua.
Benevolence Fund
Next, Elder Thian Chye shared about the Benevolence Fund, formerly known as Care Fund. He explained that the fund is administered by a team consisting of himself, Deacon Hewlett and our member, C.C. Lee. He encouraged those who have financial needs or struggles or if they know of someone who have such needs to come forward and talk to one of them.
While he recognised that it's encouraging to hear of members helping one another in many practical ways including financial aspect, he advised members to excercise wisdom when it concerns monetary help. He recommended members to redirect all these financial needs to the church especially if they're significant or repeat requests, or the needs would stretch over a prolong period of time.
Watchman Prayer Mailing List
In addition to financial support, he emphasised the importance of supporting one another in prayers and bereavement. He updated that going forward, Watchman Prayer—our mailer on prayer requests and bereavement information—would be sent to all members regardless of whether they have signed up for the mailing list. Non-members who have subscribed to this mailing list will continue to receive these mailers.
We wish to keep all members updated about prayer requests or bereavements so that members can participate in church life by intentionally setting aside time to be with the bereaved families, or even praying and sending text messages to them. If you are a member and have not been receiving email updates from the church office, do check in with us to see if your email address has been updated. You can write to us at info@gracebaptistchurch.sg.
Ministry Traineeship
Pastor Eugene shared that the next Ministry Traineeship would run from July this year till May 2025. It would be a 10-month programme which would consist of not just a reading and reflecting component but also a practical ministry component. He encouraged those who are considering full-time ministry or are thinking about theological education to consider this traineeship before heading into full-time ministry or signing up for seminary.
This traineeship would provide a trainee with the opportunity to know more about the church and ministry, as well as allow the elders to get to know the trainee. Our ministry worker, Samuel, is an example of someone who has been trained through the traineeship, who then went on to be a ministry apprentice and now a ministry worker. It's a process that we hope would continue and we pray that God would continue to raise up more gospel workers among us.
Rebecca's Internship
We were next updated that one of our members, Rebecca would be interning at Bangkok City Baptist Church (BCBC) from 22 April to 28 May. Rebecca, one of our Young Adults, shared that she has been interested in pursuing long-term tentmaking for a while, and when she heard of this opportunity, she thought it would be good to spend her current break before university to serve alongside some missionaries in Bangkok to learn the realities, joys and challenges of long-term cross-cultural missions.
During the five weeks, she would be learning the Thai langauge and joining some mercy and justice ministries in Bangkok to reach out to refugees, teenage mothers and abused women. She added that the humanitarian and gospel needs in Bangkok is an area that she would like to focus on in future. She asked that we pray for her spiritual growth, for a fruitful time at BCBC, for growth in her intimacy with God and in her love for the unsaved, and for the strengthening of BCBC and for more Thai to come to know Jesus. She's also fundraising and if you would like to support her, you could reach out to her.
Church Calendar
Pastor Jeremy concluded this segment with an update on the various events in the life of the church that are coming up in the next two months:
1. Baptisms—as introduced earlier, 9 new members would be joining us on 17 March including 3 baptisms. We gave thanks for God's marvellous work in transforming lives.
2. AGM (24 March)—if members have any questions, they could approach any of the elders or attend the Q&A session on 16 March.
3. Church Matters would be held on 11 May from 9am–12.30pm and lunch would be provided. This is our membership class and visitors and members who are interested to find out more about our church are encouraged to attend this. It's also a good refresher for existing members on what we believe as a church and how we can practise meaningful membership.
4. Next Members’ Meeting: 12 May
Q&A WITH DIRECTOR-CANDIDATE
Elder Lup Meng explained that GBC, being a registered public company limited by guarantee and also a registered charity, is subject to the laws and regulations as set out in Singapore's Companies' Act and Charities' Act, which require us to have a Board of Directors who are primarily responsible for the finances of the church and ensuring the church complies with her Articles of Association (AoA), i.e. constitution of the church, as well as the relevant laws of the land.
He clarified that the current decision to appoint an elder (Elder Chuan-Xin) as a director was to align the chuch's leadership structure. He elaborated that directors are leaders, and so they too should be elders selected based on the leadership qualifications stated in Scripture.
In addition, this practice is not new. Prior to 2011, GBC's board of directors consisted of deacons whose selection, roles and responsibilities were equivalent to that of the elders now. It was only in 2011 that a Board of Directors consisting of members from both the English and Chinese-speaking congregations was set up to foster unity between the two congregations, and GBC's AoA was amended to reflect that.
However, over the last 15 years, the elders saw a need to more closely align the leadership structure to biblical principles and model, and hence the requirement for directors to also be elders selected based on biblical qualifications. He stressed that our brothers from the Chinese-speaking congregation have been made aware of this conviction and are supportive. In light of that, he added that Elder Chuan-Xin, if elected as a director, would continue to serve as an elder.
NEW ELDER-CANDIDATES
Elder Chuan-Xin updated that the aim of having a Members' Meeting every other month is to present all major members and church matters to members in these meetings, and one of the matters that would be included on a regular basis would be the presentation of new elders. He elaborated that to give members sufficient time to get to know new elder-candidates, each new elder-candidate would be introduced to members around four months prior to the election date.
As such, in the coming weeks, the elders would be introducing new elder-candidates whom they would put forward for election only in July. There will also be a Q&A session during the Members' Meeting in May. This four-month window would give members sufficient time to get to know these elder-candidates, find out if their spiritual convictions align with what the church believes in, and pray for God's wisdom to steward our votes.
SMALL GROUP PRAYER
The Meeting ended with a time of small group prayer where we committed all the various matters that have been shared to the Lord, and gave thanks for His faithfulness and work in His people. Pastor Oliver then closed the meeting with thanksgiving and prayer.
See you at our next meeting on 12 May 2024!
If you have any questions about any part of this meeting, we encourage you to speak with our elders in person, or you can also write to them at info@gracebaptistchurch.sg.