Zion Bishan Bulletin 05 Apr 2020 Livestream
Christianity Explored
Reflections from recent Christianity Explored (CE) Participants held on Jan/Feb 2020:
Esther and Hock Lam
We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to our “guiding angels” Desmond, Maybeline and Yong for their time and patience in facilitating our CE sessions. We have come to recognised that CE has been a good start for our exploration journey into Christianity, and we would like to highlight our facilitators’ helpfulness in making us feel at ease in asking questions. This played an important part as it motivates and keeps our interest to further explore the Bible and Lord Jesus.
Secondly, we found the Gospel of Mark is an interesting read. However, without prior knowledge, we found certain questions quite difficult for non-Christians to understand and answer. For example, “If you could ask God one question, and you knew it would be answered, what would it be?” We found it quite intimidating to be posed with such a question in the first session!
Overall, we are glad we attended CE. It has provided us a good
opportunity to clarify our doubts about Christianity. It was also good to learn
about Mark 12: 29-31 where Jesus summarised God’s laws with 2 simple
principles: love God and love others. When we next find ourselves uncertain
about what to do, we can ask ourselves which course of action best demonstrates
love for God and love for others.
Elizabeth Ang
I want to say “thank you” to Desmond, Yong and Maybeline for taking personal precious time off to go through the recent Christianity Explored with me and my friends.
The CE sessions aim to explain, and especially with analogies from Desmond, helped to clarify questions like: Who is Jesus? What did he achieve? What does it mean for us today? Personally, I felt the analogies were really great in explaining and clarifying some Bible verses very well.
The greatest takeaway for me is from Mark 5:36, where we are reminded not to be afraid and to just believe. If one can do this and have great faith in Jesus, obstacles in life can be conquered, along with being able to accomplish a host of other things.
However, I would like to point out that for a new believer or even someone who might have some Bible knowledge, some questions were pretty intimidating and difficult to answer. But I guess they are put there so that CE would be thought-provoking time!
Thanks once again to Desmond, Yong and Maybeline. I truly appreciate your time and effort.
Calvin
I think CE is a very comfortable place for anyone who wants to explore and learn more about Christianity. The environment is relaxed and I felt no pressure when the sessions were conducted. CE provides a safe space for people to ask any kind of questions, everyone was very respectful to each other.
Our facilitators, Heather, Vernon and Sharon, did not make the experience a sit-back-and-relax one, but, and especially Vernon really encouraged us to challenge the Bible and even shared how he had his own doubts in the past and how he eventually found comfort in God’s word.
Everyone was very friendly and willing to share, even outside of CE the sessions which was really great. The sessions really allowed me to understand more about Christianity, both cognitively and spiritually, and has pointed me to ways to continue growing in understanding and eventually placing my faith in Jesus.
Christine
The sessions were interesting and the discussions covered topics and areas I had not previously thought of. On the whole, I found the sessions to be both informative and instructive.
Reflections from a CE attendee who wants to remain anonymous
During the three sessions that I attended at Christianity Explored, I learnt a bit about apologetics. I come from a Christian background, and found it enlightening to understand perspectives from others and even the barriers they themselves might have had in believing the gospel. I also learnt good reasons we can trust the Bible. These include eyewitness testimonies and historical accounts.
Finally, through CE, I got a chance to see a little more of God's character. He is loving and faithful to His creation, which is the reason why He would choose to give His Son to redeem it instead of destroying it.
For information on Christianity Explored
contact Sunil Peter: 9018 0968
EXPLORED 2020 Internship
The EXPLORE internship program is a program designed for youths and young adults to grow in their spiritual maturity and better discern God’s calling for their lives. Over 3 months, interns are mentored by members of the church staff over a range of topics such as Spiritual Disciplines, Theology, Bible Study and Missions. They also have opportunities to explore the different ministries in church, as well as ministries conducted by external agencies, to be exposed to the work being done by the church in Singapore and the region. This year, we are happy to have had 4 interns – Daniel, Ethan, Miranda and Timothy. These are their personal takeaways that they would like to share from their time in the internship.
Daniel
Having just finished NS, I saw the EXPLORE internship program as a meaningful way for me to spend my time before university starts. However, one week into the program, I realised that these three months had the potential to be more than just “meaningful”. This was a time where I could be more deeply engaged in the study of my faith, and it has indeed been a good opportunity for me to ground myself before a new chapter of my life begins.
As a second-generation Christian, I have always managed to “float” through my Christian life without really questioning my faith. This changed in the army when I started to backslide, and this internship has been helpful in reconnecting me with key tenets of the faith. I have also learnt how to better question, reflect and apply what I learn about the faith, whether through sermons, bible studies or the internet. The internship has also challenged me to articulate my faith more often and share it with others. In doing so, not only is the love of God shared with others, but my own understanding of my beliefs is also refined!
Perhaps what was most interesting about the internship was being exposed to the work being done by different mission organisations around Singapore. Migrant x Me and OMF were 2 such organisations. Through them, we got a glimpse of the work being done among the migrant worker community and streetwalkers in Geylang. We also managed to partner with Micah Singapore in their effort to collate notes of encouragement for our healthcare workers. These experiences have opened my eyes to the breadth and depth of mission work here in Singapore, and I hope to play my part in the near future as well!
Looking back, I’ve been able to grow in many ways by God’s grace, and I thank Him for the work He’s done through the staff to make this internship possible. They have been such a blessing to all of us! :) To anyone who is looking for a way to spend your post-school/post-NS break next year, consider this! You’re never too distant for God to work within you. All He asks for is that you come with a heart that is willing to learn.
Ethan
What is church? This is a question that surfaced many times and in various forms during my time in the program. What is the mission of the church? What is the role of each person?
We talked to and learnt from different church workers who seemed to have a better idea than us. I found that - from the missions staff connecting churches across the country, to the teachers training AG leaders to disciple their AGs, and even to the media staff who tries not to use the building to represent the church - very many of them have a sense of church as a community.
In ministry, I saw the emphasis on personal interaction. In Christianity Explored, guests sit around a table engaging hosts with questions. Church leaders teach members to study the Bible so they can go on and study it with others. Local missions, such as the one in the red-light district, visit the area regularly to build trust and relationships. People are seen as people with their own lives and stories.
How Biblical is this community approach? In our study on Philippians, we saw that the church is supposed to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. The church must regularly meet and every member must be involved in building others up - in exhorting, encouraging and even scolding - and helping to teach the gospel both within and outside of the church. None is exempt from this work.
It made me think about Zion Bishan. Growing up here, I have seen a rise and decay of my immediate church community. I have seen some old friends leave. I have seen gaps between age groups who tend not to mix and get involved in each other's business. Perhaps, therefore, a question I have about Zion Bishan is: what must the church's members do to train up the next generation so that they can take over in future? I hope that we will know what to do and will do it seriously so that we can be faithful to our job until Christ comes.
Miranda
EXPLORE has really been a fulfilling time of getting to know myself better in terms of my spiritual walk. I have learnt a lot from my mentors Timmy, Pastor Dev, Zhiwen and Vernon through their various sessions over the course of 10 weeks. We were also able to meet with most of the church staff over many meals, which gave us the opportunity to know more about their respective ministry work.
Throughout these 10 weeks, I have benefitted a lot in terms of being able to reflect deeply on many topics such as what it means to be living as God’s people, on how we should be meditating on God’s Word, that we are all gospel partners, and that God is love, and many other things. I am glad that I made this decision to be a part of this programme, and I am really glad that this internship could happen.
Just attending church worship services every Sunday isn’t enough to grow deeply in my walk with God. It isn’t about the number of AG/YD/CD sessions I’ve attended, nor is it about reading through the Bible —I learnt that it really takes a lot of faith to be living out as a Christian in this world that is mostly hostile to Christians, to practice spiritual disciplines, to know more about theological topics & to have an active part in the mission of God - God’s mission is actually all around us, whether local or abroad. To end off, I would like to share these two verses which resonated with me: “...our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21)
Timothy
My biggest takeaway from EXPLORE 2020 is learning to live as a practicing Christian rather than merely a believing one. Despite only having moved to Zion for slightly over a year, I decided to join EXPLORE immediately after concluding my national service to deepen my faith. My experience over the past two months have indubitably enabled me to achieve that aim, and beyond that, gained a confidence in God’s plan for all of us. Though the four modules we took seemed very diverse on the surface, in many ways they all linked back to our status as citizens of heaven.
For me, this realisation began when we read Philippians in depth with Vernon. What really spoke to me was how Paul called on the church to behave in a manner befitting their heavenly citizenship. Whether it was being other-centred, or partnering together in the gospel, I realised that what we learned in Philippians formed a strong biblical foundation for the practices that we learned in the rest of our internship.
It is precisely because we are citizens of heaven that we must behave as such and let it reflect in the way we live, not just on Sundays, but in our everyday lives. Just as Paul called on the Philippians to let their manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil. 1:27), we too must change our mindset to live in a way that seeks God actively. As we progressed through the other modules, the necessity of such a mindset became evident, be it through learning the subtle differences between different aspects of theology, making space in our hectic lives to listen to God’s word, or going forth into the world to care for others and living as ambassadors of Christ.
My time in EXPLORE has come to an end, but my citizenship of heaven hasn’t, and I pray that as I head to university and beyond, Philippians 3:20 will always be at the forefront of my mind: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Over the past two months, I have gained much, and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from Ps Dev, Timmy, Vernon, and Zhiwen.
For information on the next EXPLORE Internship
contact Vernon Quek: vernon@zionbishan.org.sg
