too many churches?

Have you ever heard people say that Singapore has too many churches already?

I guess those who say so must drive along our ‘bible belts’ very often. Well, it is true that in some parts of Singapore we have many physically visible churches, and we have many tucked away and not so visible. But too many? On what basis can we say that?

When my husband first told me about church-planting, I would never think Singapore (or for that matter other modern cities) needed new churches. But then we thought again.

The first thing we need to answer is: what is a church? God is not looking for buildings, traditions or even well-intentioned efforts.

Then we need to ask if we really do have churches that are effectively reaching out to the entire spectrum of the population. Today, God has brought as many as twenty diferent nationalities to our shore. My neighbour is a Chinese PR.

Finally, the men and women who are be-stirred by God – and every generation will have these men and women of renewal — shall we encourage them or too quickly reduce them to ambition, pride and worldly thinking?

Our years as pastors have shown us there is much for the church to discover, recover and uncover. We have to constantly watch that we do not slip into organisation, order or obsolesence. We have to grapple with God’s promises and those amazing visions of church given in Scripture and ask some heart and hard questions.

We are constantly exercised to create space in our daily lives to stop and talk with someone. (the other day Jenni stopped to talk with a muslim sweeper and prayed for her: wow! the joy of doing that lasted days!). Not easy at all. {you can read Jenni’s blog about foreigners: world without strangers} …

And then, we are learning to be open to God’s assignment. Surrounded by real daily needs, expectations, personal inclinations and limitations — pray for us to maintain a steady walk of surrendered-ness please!

To more churches of Jesus Christ!!