Recap of Members' Meeting (9 March 2025)
We held our Members’ Meeting on 9 March 2025. At this meeting, we welcomed new members, heard of updates in our church life including an update on some of our missionaries and missions partners.
Elder Gerald opened the meeting with prayer. It was heartening to see about 170 members gather to hear of various updates in the life of the church.
Membership matters
Pastor Oliver led us through various membership matters, but first, began by teaching and reminding us of truths that govern the way we organise ourselves as a church. We believe that Jesus is the head of the church (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 20:28; Eph 5:29). His authority is the ground for the planting of the church, as we read in Matthew 28:18-20, where Jesus gathers the disciples in Galilee after His resurrection and gives them these words.
Jesus has delegated authority to elders to shepherd, oversee, lead the church (Acts 20:17, 28, Titus 1:5, 1 Pet 5:1-2, Heb 13:17). These Scripture references speak of an office of elder or overseer — a group of qualified men who shepherd, pastor and lead the church.
Congregations are responsible for guarding the “who” and “what” of the gospel (Matt 18:15-17, 1 Cor 5:4, 2 Cor 2:6-7, Gal 1:1-9). When we affirm someone as a member of a church, we are saying that they confess the true gospel (“what”) and are a true gospel confessor (“who”) who lives in a way that is consistent with the gospel. As members of this local body, we seek to trust and obey Christ and meet and gather regularly with the other members of a local church for worship, fellowship, and encouragement.
Pastor Oliver also highlighted an upcoming EQUIP session on 6 April that will teach about membership and the church. Titled, “Who is in charge of the church?”, we encourage all — whether you are new to GBC or a long-time member – to consider attending this and seeing how Scripture also speaks of membership and church life in this way.
Members coming in
Pastor Oliver introduced those who seek to join us by both baptism and transfer. Their testimonies had been shared with members to read before this meeting. At this meeting, the elders who did their Elder Chat also came up to share about their confession of the gospel and how they seek to live lives that show their faith in this gospel. Members were then invited to ask any questions, before giving a time to affirm their membership.
At this meeting, we affirmed the membership of 7, 3 pending baptism – Julie Ong, Seth Wong and Tan Yang Jie, and 4 by transfer – Belinda Liaw, Rony Ang, Rebecca Tan and Chua Wei Jie Glen. It was then timely to receipt the Members Covenant together with these new members.
Members going out and non-attending members
As members, we also desire to live sincerely out of the spirit of the Members’ Covenant. We encourage all believers to be actively present in church where they are, thus we encourage members to join a local, gospel-preaching church when they have moved overseas etc. We are heartened that GBC members have been doing so and at this meeting, we also affirmed the transfer of a member to join another church.
The elders have also been sharing a list of non-attending members since September 2024. As a church, we were encouraged to reach out to them and members have been reaching out to those on the list. Some have responded while others remained unresponsive. Unresponsive members have been absent from corporate worship for more than a year, did not attend in 2024 and continue to be non-attending. It is with a heavy heart that these names were presented to be removed from membership. Members were given a chance to ask questions before voting. Pastor Oliver encouraged the church to continue reaching out and praying for these individuals. He also led the church in prayer, that God will draw them back to Him in repentance and faith.
Due to the sensitive nature of this matter, we are unable to publish the names here. Members, if you have questions about this process would like to find out more about how you can reach out to them, please do not hesitate to speak to any of our elders.
Looking Ahead
Pastor Thian Chye shared about key events in the life of the church in the months ahead. As we seek to grow in the Word, we will be taking a break from our sermon series in John to do a series on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in the next quarter. As mentioned, there will be an EQUIP session on 6 April on congregationalism titled, “Who is in charge of the church?”.
There are also some important meetings and upcoming events in our church life:
Prayer Meeting (13 Apr, 11.15am): Join us for this Prayer Meeting where we seek to spend time praying for the prodigals
Good Friday (18 Apr, 5.00 pm) and Resurrection Sunday (20 Apr, 9.00 am) services: Invite your friends and family to come hear about the significance and meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection
Women’s Ministry Open House (6 Apr, after service): Ladies, come and find out more about Women’s Ministry at GBC. Meet other women and learn how you can disciple and be discipled.
Ministry Traineeship (Jul - Nov 2025): Find out more about this programme here, or speak to Pastor Eugene.
Find out more about other events in our church life on our Events page.
Pastor Thian Chye also reminded church members to sign up for Church Camp. Early bird pricing will be until 31 March, so sign up now.
We are also looking for volunteers to help with the preparation of the Lord’s Supper on the first Sunday of every month. Members who are available and interested can speak with Pauline from the church office.
Missions Update
Elder Jonathan also gave an update about our missionaries and missions partners at this meeting. They are:
Bangkok City Baptist Church
Deborah, who was our missionary
Hannah, our missions Trainee
Members, you will receive a detailed summary of our missionaries and missions partners via email. You can also receive regular updates through our enews. Sign up here if you have not already done so!
Church Plant Updates
In January and February, as a church we began a conversation about church planting and also invited a potential candidate as a Pastor for Church Planting and Missions. Members have also been having conversations with various elders and sending their questions in to them. Elder Gerald also took the chance to answer some of the questions that members had:
What is the biblical basis for planting a church?
What are other alternatives to growth apart from planting a church?
The answers to these, and more, have been uploaded on the “GBC Church Plant” section on our church website. You can find it under the navigation header “Go”.
Members, let us continue to prayerfully consider and seek God’s direction and leading on this issue.
Small group prayer and closing
The meeting drew to a close with members breaking off into smaller groups to pray for these various items and events in the life of the church. This is also a way that we practice church membership.
Pastor Andrew ended the meeting by thanking God for all that He has done and is doing in our midst, and to pray for continued strength and dependence on Him.