O Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness

JUST THERE AND CARING

“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith….” (2 Thessalonians 1:3–4)

Every church of Jesus Christ is called of God to be a testimony to the one who shed His blood for them (Revelation 1:1-2). This congregation is also called to hold forth the word of life (Philippians 2:16). These two great tasks and privileges have always been the duty of every Pastor, Elder, Deacon and member of a local church.

We, a local church of the bride of Christ on earth, have also devoted ourselves to the four components of Acts 2:42: the apostles’ teachings, the breaking of bread, fellowship and prayer. As a church of Christ with these four activities, we grew spiritually and learned to be a good testimony and bearers of the Word of GOD. With God’s eternal presence and grace to help, we have done this as a family of GOD faithfully for 72 years.

Our Senior Saints

After 72 years, we now have many senior saints that make up our church body. As someone in the senior adult ministry, I am especially thankful to the LORD for this pioneer generation of saints. Their examples of faith, obedience to the Word of GOD, prayer and life-long Christian friendships in church continue to amaze me and cause me to praise GOD. In fact, I did not know many of them before even though I have been in this church for over 40 years. Our church is big and there are still many stories of lives that are faithful to GOD that are untold to this day.

Generally, we are a church that does not give rounds of applause during worship services nor single out people for mention. This is a good thing as it reminds us to live for GOD and GOD alone. Our church is committed not to man but to Christ who is the chief shepherd of the church. We are also committed to care one for another in the church of Christ.

Caring for One Another

The Pastors, Elders, Deacons and Members of this congregation of Jesus Christ are an unassuming group of people. In the congregation there are many who do not sit in committees or lead as chairpersons. In fact, those who are in committees, chairpersons and serving in prominent roles are the minority. The majority of us will show up on Sundays for worship and do our small little parts to build and care for one another. These little acts have been going on for ages. These acts of ministry could be as simple as reaching out and befriending someone, bringing something for the coffee corner, helping another person come to church, getting a room ready for Sunday School, talking and praying with someone who looks sad, introducing someone to a fellowship group, and the list goes on.

These unassuming church members go about their little ministry of being present in church for GOD and with GOD unnoticed. Most of these members will faithfully come to church on a Sunday, attend the church programmes and silently care for one another. Sometimes the one they care for are related by blood. At other times it is just someone they see in church. Often, they may not even know one another. That itself is a ministry that everyone and many church members have served in.

There are many other spiritual activities that go on in our church life and on Sunday mornings. For example, parents at home praying for their children’s Sunday school classes, teachers and all the other children ministries. Others could be praying for the LORD’s messenger for that Sunday and all the supporting crew who make the Sunday worship run like clockwork. Some could be praying for the traffic wardens, a friend, family member or even a stranger they had invited to church. Their presence in church and all these little things they do are unnoticed. They are like an invisible web that supports the church spiritually.

There is a special joy when one comes to church on Sundays, and this may have a lot to do with all that is going on in church, both the visible and invisible activities. And it is very easy to miss the invisible aspects where many are just present and doing their part silently.

Thanksgiving

I would like to use this week’s article, at the early part of 2023, to acknowledge and encourage these members who never fail to show up in church. Their presence may be invisible to some, and their service unnoticed. But they are there, for the testimony of Jesus and living out His command to love their LORD and one another. These people are precious to our church and every local church.

The ministry of presence is the ministry of being there—of simply gathering with the church on Sunday and caring for one another.

I was inspired by Tim Challies to write this article. Hence, I shall close with a quote from him: ”I am convinced every church needs more of these people—more people who see their presence as a great contribution to their church. The local church doesn’t need people of outsized talents or rare abilities as much as it needs normal people with full-out commitment. Your church and my church can thrive only when there is a dedicated core who make it their mission to be there, to make their main ministry the ministry of presence.”

 https://www.challies.com/articles/the-ministry-of-presence/

Thank you to all of you who have always been present in church!

– Joel Seah

Appointments for the Week

Onsite & Online Meetings

Announcements

1. Sanctity in the Sanctuary: All worshippers are kindly reminded to observe silence in the church sanctuary from at least 10 minutes before the service begins, and to spend the time to quietly and personally prepare our hearts to seek the Lord. There will be ample opportunities to fellowship with other worshippers after the service ends.

2. Exercising Social Responsibility: To ensure the safety and comfort of all who use our church premises, the wearing of face masks is encouraged during activities that are held in crowded indoor settings. In addition, those who are unwell or who cough frequently are strongly advised not to attend church activities in-person but to participate in them online if possible.

3. Holy Communion will be served each month at the 11.00 am service on the first Sunday, and at the 8.00 am service on the third Sunday.

To minimise contact during Holy Communion, each worshipper is to hold out his or her palm so that the serving Elder may drop the bread into it with his gloved hand. All worshippers should sanitize their hands just before taking a cup of grape juice from the tray when it is brought to them. It is recommended that each worshipper should bring his or her own personal bottle of sanitizer for this purpose.

4. Hongbaos Printed by Life B-P Church are available at the front counter for use during the Lunar New Year season.

5. Membership Roll Update Exercise 2023 (8 to 29 Jan):

If you are a member of Life B-P Church, please fill in the online form in preparation for the Annual Congregational Meeting. The link to the online form is https://www.lifebpc.com/update

If you are not able to fill in the online form, you may either download the attached form (send to Church Office at: 10 Gilstead Road Singapore 309064) or fill in a hardcopy if you are coming for the worship service.

6. There is a Door to Door Evangelism session at Yishun Today. All are welcome. Meet in Beulah Room 2-11, E-DD room, at 12:30 pm.  

7. Lifers are invited to serve our Lord as Traffic Wardens on Sunday. Kindly contact Dn Yeo  if you are available.

8. Gospel Sunday, 29 January 2023, 8.00am and 11.00am. “Behold all things are become new” by Rev Bendick Ong

9.       Church Camp 2023 will be held from June 13-16 (Tue-Fri). at Radisson Golf & Convention Center, Batam, Indonesia.

Speaker: Pastor Tan Soon Yong.

Theme: Anchoring Our Faith in a Postmodern World.

Please reserve the dates!

10.     Life BPC has the following vacancies:

a)       Assistant Finance Officer (AFO)

Responsibilities:

Assists in the finance operations of the organization, and Human Resource administrative/operational functions of the Church.

Qualifications:

• Diploma in Accounting or higher
• 2 years’ experience in relevant fields
• Should be able to handle full set of accounts
• Knowledge of Quick Book Systems and computer applications is an added advantage

b)       Assistant Media & Technology Officer (AMTO)

Responsibilities:

Assists in supporting the Audio-Visual (AV) functions of the church.

Qualifications:

• Diploma/ITE or higher in Electrical/Electronic/Mechatronics/Computer Engineering or Mass Media & Communications or equivalent.
• Knowledge/skills in handling of Pro-audio/visual equipment is preferred.
• Knowledge of IT and computer software/hardware.
• Hands-on in technical and maintenance works is an advantage.
• A dedicated, responsible, truthful and spiritually mature person with self-motivation, commitment and interest in this work and as a church ministry.
• Able to work independently and as well as in a team.
• Preferably a member of Life B-P Church.
• Possessing a Class 3 driving license is an advantage.
• Candidates with no relevant experience may apply as trainee for the position.

Candidates with relevant qualifications and experience may submit your application and CV to the Church Operations Manager at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.