Recap of Members' Meeting (8 September 2024)
We held our Members’ Meeting on 8 September 2024. During this meeting, members participated by voting on various matters, heard updates about our life together as a church and committed all these things to God in prayer.
This meeting was slightly different, as the Weekender participants also joined us at the meeting as part of their programme. The Weekender was a four-day opportunity for pastors and elders from churches in Singapore and around Asia to come and learn from one another on how to grow to be a healthy church.
Elder Gerald welcomed both the members and the participants and prayed to open the meeting.
Membership Matters
Pastor Jeremy took us through some membership matters. He began by reminding us of the importance of meaningful membership in a local church. We meet and gather regularly with other members in this local body for worship, fellowship and encouragement, in order to help us to continue believing and obeying Christ.
Members heard the Elders share about new members whom we sought to affirm and welcome.
At this meeting, there were 9 prospective new members, with 7 seeking to join us by transfer, and 2 will join us by baptism. Pastor Jeremy invited the elders who did the Elder Chats with these individuals to come up and share how they came to faith and now profess faith. Their testimonies had also been sent out to members two weeks before the meeting. Members affirmed and welcomed each individual with a show of hands after each sharing by the elders.
Pastor Jeremy also shared that a total of 55 new members have joined us to date in 2024. Currently, our membership stands at 690 members.
He also invited members to respond by affirming that these brothers and sisters have, along with us, repented of their sins and believed in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. Members also agreed that we receive them as fellow members of Grace Baptist Church, and therefore commit to walk with them in Christlike love and unity, for our mutual encouragement and for building up the body of Christ.
Here are the members whom we welcomed.
Both existing and new members were then invited to recite the Members’ Covenant together, as a reminder of our responsibility and commitment to each other.
Pastor Jeremy also shared about members who are transferring out because they have settled in and are joining another church. As our Covenant states and encourages us, “We will, when we move from this place, join another Gospel-preaching church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.” Thus, we are also encouraged when members seek to transfer to other Gospel-preaching churches, and we continue to pray that they can grow and love their local church.
Finally, Pastor Jeremy also shared the names of some members who have not been attending for more than a year. The elders – both staff and lay – regularly pray for members, and also reach out to members who have not been attending. The reason for sharing these names at Members’ Meetings is to encourage the church to pray for these members and to reach out to them too!
We will not be sharing the list of names here, but please write to the office or speak to the elders if you would like to find out more. For the members who were at the meeting, feel free to also reach out to the elders to share any updates about these non-attending members, if you have or deem appropriate. As a church, we want to care well for each member. Our goal is not just for them to turn up in church but because we desire to encourage them in their walk and faith in Christ. This work of caring for and building one another up is the work of us as members of this local body.
It was only appropriate and apt that Pastor Jeremy closed this section with a prayer for these non-attending members, and also to thank God for the new members who are joining us.
GBC Plans
Next, Pastor Eugene shared some of our plans as a church. GBC seeks to be a healthy church that is rooted and growing in the gospel. We have 8 aspirations under 4 main categories:
Gospel: Christ-likeness and Gospel-shaped
Gather: Unity and Discipleship
Grow: Every-Member Ministry and Train and Send
Go: Mission-Minded and Gospel Partnerships.
We also seek to help other churches do the same. It is our prayer that we can also build up, train, equip and send men and women to build up other churches in Singapore, the region and even the world. This is why we have been holding an annual traineeship. Samuel, one of our supported missionaries that we sent out in May, was a part of this programme. Currently, we have 6 trainees who are on this year’s programme, and we pray that God will use this period to train them, and also provide opportunities for them to bring the gospel to those around them.
Pastor Eugene also shared that Yanadi, our current Ministry Worker for Christian Education, has accepted a pastoral position at Fisherman of Christ Fellowship in the Queenstown area. This will begin 2 January 2025. Yanadi was also a former trainee before joining our staff as a Ministry Worker.
Yanadi was invited to share. He expressed how this is a bittersweet moment. He has enjoyed his time serving and being a part of the community here at GBC, and has also formed many precious friendships here. He is thankful for the opportunity to pastor and serve another local community, but is also sad about parting with us. He requested prayer for the church that he will be joining, that they will grow in their understanding of and continue to cling to the gospel. Pray that a gospel culture will be cultivated and maintained and the church will see how Christ is better than anything this world can offer.
Yanadi shared with the church and Pastor Eugene also prayed for him after.
Yanadi also shared that we can pray for him as he takes up this role as pastor. This would be his first pastorate and he said candidly that he does feel inadequate for the task. But as he seeks to trust God to strengthen and equip him for the work, pray that he will be able to grow relationships with the members and love them. Finally, he requested prayers for his family – Fellisia and the two boys, Lazarus and Jairus – as they move and settle in at FCF. There are also many young families at FCF, so pray that they will be able to make and grow friendships in the church.
It really is with some sadness that we are sending off Yanadi and Fellisia and their sons from our local community. But we rejoice and pray alongside them for this new opportunity that God has opened. In the months ahead, let us continue to pray for them as they transition, and also seek to help them in practical ways!
We were encouraged to hear the sharing by one of the participants.
The Weekender is also part of our goal to help other churches grow in the gospel. Pastor Eugene invited one of the participants, a pastor from the Philippines, to share about the Weekender. He shared how he appreciated the time spent over the past three days learning and interacting with other pastors. It was helpful to not only listen to teaching, but also to see how it can be practised and worked out in a local church context. He expressed his gratitude to GBC for our generosity in organising and providing this learning opportunity, and shared that we can continue to pray for him and his church to be faithful to the gospel.
Pastor Eugene also invited Danny from Bangkok City Baptist Church (BCBC), who was here for the Weekender, to share. Danny pastors at BCBC and expressed his joy at being here with us. He is thankful for our partnership in the gospel, and the ways that this relationship between churches has been embodying Philippians 1:5. He shared how GBC has been working with them since their first day, when they covenanted as a church. We sent our pastors and elders to join them, and since then, we have continued to support and work with them in different ways. We continue to support their efforts to translate books into the Thai language and this year, we also sent Rebecca to join them for a short internship. She was their first intern!
Indeed, it has been an encouragement to partner with BCBC for the sake of the gospel. We pray that God will continue to deepen our relationship with them, and open doors for us to share the gospel, and make disciples of the nations.
Missions Update
It was therefore timely that Elder Jonathan came up to give a missions update on behalf of the Mission Committee. GBC is supporting 13 missionaries or missions projects in 2024. The missionaries or projects are in Southeast Asia, East Asia and even beyond.
Elder Jonathan gave a quick introduction to these 13 supported missionaries and missions projects. Due to the sensitive nature of some of their work, we will not be detailing it in this summary. However, you can find out by writing to the Missions Committee. Alternatively, we provide a monthly update on some of our missionaries in the enews and you can sign up for it here, if you have not already done so!
How can we be involved in missions? Elder Jonathan highlighted four ways as a start:
Pray. Prayer is a big part of our work as senders. Pray that God will strengthen our missionaries and multiply the fruit of our ministries. Pray that more people from all nations will come to give God the glory He deserves!
Join in prayer for Unreached People Groups (UPGs). This group meets for an hour once a month to pray for UPGs that are in Singapore.
Explore via the Missions Reading Group. A group of 15+ members meet once every 5 weeks to read helpful books about past missionaries and seek to gain a biblical understanding of missions.
Join one of GBC’s short-term missions trips. Our elders and Missions Committee members regularly visit our missionaries.
If you are keen to find out more about any of these, contact Elder Jonathan or Elder Beh of the Missions Committee!
Budget Update
Elder Chuan-Xin took some time to update the church about the state of our finances. We thank God for the members’ generosity in giving. We currently maintain two funds – the General Fund and the Missions Fund. The Missions Fund is designated for our missionaries and projects that we support. The General Fund covers our staff human resources, ministry expenses, building upkeep, general expenses and excludes the missions fund.
General Fund
Regarding the General Fund, we had approved a budget as a congregation in November 2023. In approving that, we were saying that in faith, we believe God has led GBC to these ministry plans and what they will cost, and we give to be counted as faithful. As of August 2024, we are giving slightly less than our budget, and we project that for the end of the year as well.
That said, Elder Chuan-Xin shared that our giving is more or less keeping pace with what we are spending, so we are not operating in the red or living beyond our means. As a church, we should give in order to meet our budget. Our full confidence and trust is that God will, through the combined giving of the members of GBC, provide for the needs of His church. He is a loving Father who will never give us stones when we ask for bread, or snakes when we ask for fish.
Thus, we call on every GBC members to pray for and participate in increasing your giving to meet our General Fund budget. As we purpose in our hearts to increase our giving, we trust that God will provide for each of us to be able to do so.
Missions Fund
For our Missions Fund, as of August 2024, our giving has exceeded our budget and if this continues, our giving will exceed our budget for the year. We praise God that He has brought to us new missions partners that we have been able to support through this Fund in 2024. This is something to praise God for in the area of missions, that we can partner good men and women to obey the Great Commission.
Thus at this meeting, Elder Chuan-Xin took the chance to encourage members to sustain their giving for missions, at least for the rest of this financial year.
The purpose of budget updates is so that as members, we see our important role in gospel work. The elders also hope that members can pray and participate by increasing their giving to meet the church’s ministry budget, and to sustain the giving for missions.
The giving of members is important as it enables the plans of this church to be realised. Without it, gospel work cannot get done. Therefore, we urge members to give generously and gladly to the church, and participate fully in the life of our church through ministry and missions. Members with questions about the budget can speak to Elder Chuan-Xin or any of the other elders!
Looking Ahead
Pastor Oliver shared about some upcoming events in the life of our church.
We will be finishing our series in Isaiah in October, and will begin a series in 2 Thessalonians in November. EQUIP will also be holding various series on the following topics:
Walking with One Another through Suffering
Dating and Engagement
Marriage
Evangelism
You can find out more these series on our EQUIP page.
Our Reformation Concert will be held on 26 October at 8pm. Our choir and musicians have been hard at work rehearsing and we invite the church to continue praying for the preparation efforts. Pray that they will continue to savour God’s glory in the gospel as they prepare.
Finally, our Church Camp will be held on 4-7 June 2025 at Le Grandeur at Palm Resort Johor. The theme is “Community on Mission” and we are inviting Ian Buntain to be our speaker. Ian may be familiar to some of us, as he was our pastor from 2017 to 2021, and we are excited for him to join us at our camp! We encourage members to save the dates and plan to attend.
Small Group Prayer and Closing Prayer
As always, members spent time in small group prayer at the end of the Members’ Meeting. In prayer, we continue to thank God for His gracious provisions, and also humbly express our dependence on Him.
Members spent time praying together, to express our collective thanks and dependence on God.
Elder Gerald closed the time that we spent together in prayer.
Members, let us continue to keep these items in prayer. Our next Members’ Meeting will be held on 10 November. See you there!
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.