We Aspire to Cultivate Gospel Partnerships
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.
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?
Display compassion and care toward our ministry staff.
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.
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:
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
Fasting to grieve over sin and express repentance
A third reason to fast is to grieve over our sins and express repentance.
In the Bible, when people realise their deep and prolonged rebellion and sin, they fast and seek forgiveness from God.
For example, when both the Ninevites (Jonah 3:4-9) and the Israelites (1 Sam 7:3-6) realised their sin towards God, they repented and fasted. In their fasting they pleaded for God to forgive them and relent from judgment.
When was the last time you really grieved over your sins? When was the last time you pleaded for God’s forgiveness?
What can we do this Lent?
In this season of lent, these are all good reasons to fast, however what is more important in fasting is where our hearts are before God. This Lent let’s pray:
For a healthy dependence on God as we remember Jesus’s death and resurrection as our only means of salvation.
For deep longing for Jesus to come back soon to this fallen world.
That God will help us to repent of our sins and ask for his forgiveness in Jesus Christ.