St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

tentatively March 27th or 28th

Volunteers urgently needed:

- preparation of snacks

- talents

- welcoming guests

Please get in touch Nixson or the worship team

A night of music and fellowship

Coming this end March

All non-Muslims are welcome

The Nominations Committee requests members to submit nominations for the following church officers :
TREASURER
ELDERS
DEACONS
Nomination forms are available from the fellowship hall or from Elder Greg Poarch or Elder SC Yong.
Completed nomination forms should be returned to Greg or SC by mid April 2010.
As per our operating procedures, nominees will be vetted by the Nominations Committee before their names are referred to Session for final approval.  Communicant members will vote on the candidates during the forthcoming AGM.  Information on the qualifications for the above officers may be found in the nomination form.
SC Yong, Convenor

We're members of God's family,
We're children of the King;
Because we've put our faith in Christ,
To us He'll always cling

We have a vacancy for a youth pastor.

If you know of any suitable candidates, please refer them to Vacancy for Youth Pastor at St. Andrew’s.

Old Testament

When : Saturday 23 Jan 2010

Time : 2pm-9pm

Venue : Room 5, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

New Testament

When : Saturday 24 Apr 2010

Speaker: Pastor Stven Low

Cost: RM 50 per person (each session) – inclusive of materials, 1 tea and diner

RSVP: Joanne Sim 012 3266862

DATE: 12 March 2010
TIME: 9.30 – 11.30am
VENUE: Fellowship Hall
THEME: Persevering in the Gospel of Grace
TOPIC: Galatians 2

Speaker: Prema Matthews
Activity : “What is the real thing”?

* feel free to bring a snack to share
* childcare will be provided
for more info pls email :

Women’s Friday Morning Fellowship: Providing women with opportunities for friendship and fellowship with God and with each other.

4th April 2010

9:30am to 11:00am

All are invited to join our Easter Brunch held at the Fellowship Hall.

It is an opportunity for the 1^st & 2^nd service members to get to network, have a wholesome meal and get to know one another. As the Bible says in Galatians 3:28 “All One in Christ”

We welcome financial contribution to offset the cost of food so that we can fund more brunches in the future.

We look forward to you joining us for the Easter Brunch .May God Blessings be upon you and your family. Be happy and rejoice in the Lord.

Shalom,

Fellowship Committee

For anyone who wish to contribute to this Easter Brunch please contact Oliver Ho -1^st Service or Dahlia Lee-2^nd service, thanking you in advance.

Reverend Richard Tok’s sermon on 7-Mar-10

1 Thessalonians 2:1-12

The acorn is the fruit of an oak tree. For the oak tree to rich a ripe age to bear fruit it must resist being uprooted. The stronger the storm blast the deeper the oak tree strikes its roots into the ground. The ugly gnarled woody trunk of the oak tree tells the story of its resistance to many seasons of wintry storms. The solid character of the oak tree is the result of its perseverance through merciless and blistering winds. The acorn is the fruit of the oak that virtually refused to surrender to an unkind and harsh environment. Endurance leads to maturity and maturity leads to productivity.

The young salmon swims with the current down river to the open sea to feed and grow. Its life in the open sea exposes the fish to all sorts of challenges and dangers. By instinct it must survive and by instinct it will retrace its path back to the beginning. The salmon returns to its birth place, up the river, when it is time to spawn. The return journey is no easy ride! It must swim many miles from deep to shallow water, through rapids and against strong current, escaping predators and finally lay eggs before dying. That is just to ensure that they continue to survive from one generation to the next. To the salmon, the last great effort to spawn is an effort to see fulfillment in its life. It goes against every resistance or opposition, challenging the cascades or ‘swimming against the current,’ as the saying goes. If the salmon gives up half-way in its strife and struggle to survive, it would then drift down stream like a dead fish would. The fisherman knows that good salmon and caviar comes from one that swims against the current and leaps over cascading water.

These two examples from nature show us that the cycle of growth and reproduction does not come easy. It is the struggle and victory over the vagaries of life that determine the survival and continuity of living things. The founding of a church and its development faces similar challenges. Giving birth to a church has its travail or labour pains. Nurturing an infant church to health and growth is hard work. The church’s path to maturity and reproduction is paved with multiple challenges or should we say opportunities. Young couples enquire about parenting. Church-goers ask “what is the best way to birth and grow a church?” The care-givers of the church require divine guidance and providence. Let us see what Paul, the church-planter, and the Thessalonian congregation have to teach us.

1. Paul and Silas: Preachers with a Pastoral heart. 1 Thessalonians 2:1-6

Preachers’ Passion (v1-2)

Paul came to Thessalonica as a preacher of the Gospel. Thessalonica was a pagan city as well as a Roman colony. It was a challenge to the preacher as well as the receivers of the Gospel to handle a new religious faith. We already know that in chapter 1, Paul had successfully preached and the Thessalonians were convinced, convicted and converted to Jesus Christ. The fact that Paul dared to preach “Jesus is Lord” in a Roman colony and the Thessalonians were courageous to receive “Christ the Risen Lord of Life” in an idolatrous society meant that the evangelistic effort was “not a failure” (v1), but a resounding success. That Church was an example of a cosmopolitan congregation bearing Christian witness to a non-Christian society.

Paul recounted a painful event prior to his coming to Thessalonica. With Silas, they were both brutally manhandled and humiliated in the city of Philippi – “suffered and insulted” (v2a).

“These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept and practice.”

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrate ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks (Acts 16:20-24).

Paul and Silas were not deterred a single bit by that episode to press on preaching the Gospel wherever they were led. They refused to allow previous setbacks to alter their commitment and mission to preach the Gospel. Their refusal to “throw in the towel” is an important lesson to us today as a believer as well as a Congregation on matters of evangelism, mission and Christian duty!

Like Paul, we must be personally convinced, convicted and converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a sense of indebtedness to those who have not heard that “Jesus Saves” and therefore condemned to die in their sin. There is deep trust in God who loves and saves anyone and everyone who believes.

Paul said: “I am obligated both to the Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.

I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew then for the Gentile…” (Romans 1:14-16).

Did Paul and Silas fold up their evangelistic programme when opposition was raging? Where would courage and wisdom come from if they were to proceed? They must have confidence in themselves or reliance in someone else!

“But with the help of God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition” (v.2b).

We learn from Paul that in God’s service God’s servants just have to have faith in God. It is His business and His resources are just a call away. Opposition may be His appointment. It is there that we see His glory and power displayed. We are not alone in sharing the Gospel to an unbelieving world and God is there to give us a helping hand. It should not be a secret that the Lord Jesus called us to be His partner to save the world. He could have done it all by Himself, but He didn’t. He launched salvation plan and enrolled us into His team! Our verbal and non verbal conduct demonstrating faith in God is itself a testimony of the Gospel to the new believers and non-believers as well.

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Pastors’ Compassion (v3-6)

As a preacher Paul was concerned that the truth of the Gospel was clearly and boldly explained. His concern was to reach minds and touch hearts so that they would accept Jesus Christ as Lord. When the Thessalonians received the Gospel, Paul had to help them to practice their new found faith in an age-old environment. From preacher, Paul became the pastor. Paul had the understanding and experience to lead them along like a shepherd who led the sheep to green pastures and still waters. In nurturing a group of new believers and a young church, right attitude is essential. Like Paul and Silas we must have a shepherd’s heart. Paul began reaching minds and touching hearts and finally transforming lives through the power of the Holy Word and the Holy Spirit.

Paul saw himself as a steward of the Gospel – he was “entrusted with the gospel.” A steward has a responsibility to the one who has put the trust in him. The Gospel was from God. God put into Paul’s hand a trusted possession. So Paul was responsible and accountable to God in the way he kept the stewardship trust. Paul realized that he had to properly discharge that duty when he said, “we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel.” Pastor Paul was approved by God. His trustworthiness was beyond question as he was authenticated by God. The Gospel was not originated by Paul. God was the originator. In other words Pastor Paul was like a trustee or a custodian of a very precious commodity called the Gospel. This Gospel had to be passed on to others on God’s behalf. How do we fare as trustees and custodians of the Gospel today? Will the Gospel die with us or we faithfully give it away?

There are beneficiaries to a trust. The Gospel is destined at the right time to be handed over to the beneficiaries, the intended recipients. It cannot be kept in perpetuity by Paul. Paul was not unaware of his heavenly calling at his conversion on the road to Damascus: But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15-16).

Later when Paul and Silas were in Asia Minor, the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Jesus directed them towards Macedonia across the Aegean Sea: “Come over to Macedonia to help us” Acts 16:1-10. Paul concluded that God had called them to preach the gospel over there. It was this sense of obligation in Paul that propelled the Gospel into Europe.

Just imagine the far-reaching consequence of a sense of obligation here in our church towards the evangelistic progamme called Alpha, the nurture programme called Home Fellowship, care and counseling called Pastoral Ministry, just to name a few. Many would not be involved with excuses. The few who hear the heavenly call would put their heart and soul into the challenge. Never in the realm of spiritual adventure has so much been accomplished by so few over here! Not everyone would soil their hands or put their shoulders to the wheel. The problem is that obligation is so easily played down in our days. Let us pray that all will catch the fire and be on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ!

2. Some Pastoral Attitudes

Faithfulness

“We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts” (v4b).

Like Paul and Silas we are the custodians of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must be faithful and seen to be faithful!

The message of the Gospel was not designed by us. We received it from God.

Since we are entrusted with the Gospel, one day we have to give an account of how we handled it. Unfaithful stewardship of the Gospel has its consequences. It would be heaven or hell for some people. Stewards will have their due rewards.

The Gospel when planted in the hearts of men will take root. It will grow and bear the fruit of eternal life. As more and more people gain eternal life, the church grows and His kingdom expands. So the Gospel is best shared and spread.

There will be differing and opposing views from men about whether the Gospel is to be protected, defended or propagated. Our responsibility is not to please men by playing to the gallery. Like Paul and Silas let us do the work of the Gospel with all our hearts. Let us take the Gospel into new territories, engaging new people with the Gospel. The invisible God is not just watching from up there. The Spirit of God in us is the constant witness of our thought, word and deed. Our faithfulness in service is the outward expression of the inward conviction of our hearts towards the Gospel. God sees the sincerity of our hearts and He approves of it. Let us “Hold forth the word of life” faithfully. Let us not be weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap a harvest.

Not Negative in Ministry

“For the appeal we make did not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you” (v3).

Paul presented the message He received from the Lord Jesus Christ truthfully. He was not deceived into believing and accepting Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. He was neither deceitful in preaching the Good News. Paul was persuasive but he did not design to deceive. People can tell when we speak the truth with fervour and force from our heart.

In preaching the Gospel, Paul’s motive was to give not to receive. He was not a traveling teacher pedaling his trade for money. Neither was his debates and arguments intended to show his superior intellect or holiness. Simplicity in living, humility in speech and transparency in deed earn a hearing from people.

Paul preached without fear or favour. He did not paint a rosy picture of following Jesus. He did not lead people down the garden path. He was not cunning or crafty in word and deed just to win people for Christ. Uncompromisingly Paul preached “Christ crucified” as the “hope, love and peace” for the troubles of today and tomorrow. Those who are unashamed of Christ and handle God’s word correctly need not fear rejection from God or people.

“You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed- God is our witness. We are not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else” (v5).

Paul and his colleagues did not attempt to win acceptance through flattery. They neither glorified human nature nor cheapened the Gospel. Flattery has fatal consequences as it deludes people of their true self and sinfulness. Flattery dishonours God and man. Flattery manipulates but does not communicate the Gospel.

Greed or covetousness cannot be hidden from spectators. Paul knew too well to use his position as a guise to get material gain for himself. To the elders of Ephesus Paul said, “I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing…It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:33&35). God’s servants are not to pan for gold but to sow the seed.

The church is not an arena. God’s servants are not gladiators. Like Paul and his colleagues we are not in gladiatorial conflict. If so we would be seeking personal survival, victory, trophy and the applause of men. God’s servants just want to get God’s work done. The greatest challenge for us is to avoid competition in ministry, to complete our duty and fade away.

Positive in Nurturing

Gentle as a Mother

“We were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children” (v7b).

Paul’s attitude and relationship with the new believers was that of gentleness. That is the chief characteristic of a nursing mother. The babes in Christ needed tender loving care as they adjust to a brave new world surrounded by the old. They were not given a “do-it-yourself” book on how to grow. Babies are not given a tin of milk and a bottle and told to “do-it-yourself” either. Paul nourished new believers like a nursing mother would. They were fed in small portions the “milk of the Word” and gradually progressed to chew on the “meat of the Word.” The new believers were not turned over to ‘baby-sitters’ or other ‘care-givers.’ Paul and his colleagues nursed them themselves.

In this light we learn not to be haughty or proud, demanding respect and subservience from new or young believers. It is important to be pastoral in heart and conduct ourselves in the spirit of the Good Shepherd. Paul’s advice to Timothy is quite relevant: And the Lord’s servants must not quarrel, instead he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim.2:24-25).

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you become so dear to us” (v8).

It is easy to nurse a baby when all is well. When the child falls sick or sustains a fall, it becomes a different matter all together. We draw on greater energy, imagination and resources with increased inconvenience to our comfort and time-table. It is in this light that we have to be present in order to protect and to provide for new followers of Jesus Christ. Paul and his colleagues had to risk their lives for the young in faith. We are quite conditioned in our peaceful environment to ignore this challenge. By this we risk being ill-prepared to be good shepherds to feed the lambs and the sheep. As each family nurtures and prepares their own children to face the future, the spiritual house of God must ready itself and its spiritual children to face the conflict of the ages! Paul was not alone in this. He had Silas and Timothy. Who can we count on in our church today?

Caring as a Father

“For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory” (v11-12).

Paul, with Silas and Timothy, were well aware that the new believers keenly watched them. The new believers were learning the ropes of being Christians. They were learning how to behave, looking to the missionaries as their spiritual model. They were observing the missionaries’ verbal and non-verbal communication. Paul was confident that they did not discredit themselves before the Thessalonians when he said, “How holy, righteous and blameless we were among you.” More important than the Thessalonians was God, the silent and invisible witness, to the whole affair of nurturing a young congregation. We must not adopt a careless attitude just because God appears absent, and we are in-charge. It is to our credit and to God’s glory when our humble service is affirmed as excellent by good witnesses. Like Paul we should maintain our two-fold relationship as Christians, toward God and toward man.

While Paul preached the Gospel he also made and traded in tents. He worked night and day to earn and support his own ministry. He set a high standard of self-reliance without being a burden to others. He demonstrated to the young in faith the dignity of work through his “toil and hardship.”

A father works hard to support a family and teaches to set a good example. Another important role of a father is to communicate verbally. Paul, as the spiritual father had to talk to his children.

He encouraged them to press onward, as children easily got discouraged when they face difficulties. Paul used words of encouragement to raise their enthusiasm for the Lord.

He comforted them by coming to their side when they were saddened or depressed. He stood by them in persecution. He raised their hope by reminding them that Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to heaven and is coming again.

He urged them not to give up. He charged them to remain “stedfast” using his own testimony. Paul inspired hope and courage in them. The learned that one day they would by their faithfulness become an inspiration to another generation of believers.

Conclusion

A growing church needs faithful preachers and pastors to nurture its young members. Some may say “I’m not a preacher or a pastor.” Look at it this way: We are in the business of winning souls for Christ. When Christians are born they need to be nursed. We are also in the business of nurturing young believers so that they live lives worthy of Christ. In St. Andrew’s PCKL, every member is a minister – servant!

We have a two-fold ministry in growing our church. We win people for Christ. Then we build them up in the faith. We must be passionate in our work and compassionate with people. We must not be negative in our ministry for Christ. We must be positive in nurturing people in the faith. Two classic approaches to “Nurturing a Church to Grow” are: Be Gentle as a Mother and Caring as a Father. Like in Paul’s days we will face our unique set of obstacles and difficulties. Let us take them as opportunities and challenges. If we persevere we will wear out the resistance and be over-comers!

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Candidates for membership of St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church must attend a New Member Briefing Session run by the Membership Committee to ensure that they understand how St. Andrew’s is governed. and how it differs from other churches.
There will be a New Member Briefing session on Sunday 14th March. It will take place at 10.00am and will be held in Room 3 (upstairs).  Please note that it is essential that all new applicants for membership attend.
George Elledge, Convenor of Membership Committee

BIBLE OVERVIEW (also known as "Introduction to the Bible") is the first module in the Certificate of Theology 12-week course, and it will begin next Tuesday, 2nd March. Classes will be held on Tuesdays from 8.00 – 10.30pm in Room 5.  The course administrators will be giving a short presentation, and also be answering any questions TODAY from 9.45-10.45am in Room 5. They will also share their experiences and register participants. Sponsorship is available for those interested to undertake the course but do not have the financial resources to do so.
A brochure with more details can be found on the Christian Education Notice Board in the Fellowship Hall.
For those interested to attend please email if you have not done so, by end of 28-Feb-10.

Mr. Chew Phye Keat aged 47 is a practising lawyer by profession.  He is married to Shaw Mei with 2 kids (Li Ann who is 13 and Zhen Wei who is 10). He is also an elder of Petaling Jaya Gospel Hall (a Brethren church), and chairman of FES (Fellowship of Evangelical Students) which is affiliated to Scripture Union and a ministry to tertiary students.