Dear BPCWA worshipper, so far, we have understood the roles of elders, deacons, members, and the purpose of elections. As a worshipper in the church, we all must love God’s church and must be interested to know how God intends His church be governed. I hope that the study has not been something that you are uninterested in. Church government affects the church as a whole, and an orderly church is well-pleasing to God, not to mention that it ensures unity and peace. While it is not necessarily a popular subject with Christians, it is a necessary subject that must be taught to every generation so that the government of the church is consistent through the ages for BPCWA and
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, we saw how different churches may run the church differently based upon their doctrines and denomination. A lack of understanding and unity on church polity can lead to many problems in the church. We are a Presbyterian church and must maintain a Presbyterian church polity, one ruled by the teaching elder (known as the pastor) who preaches and oversees the church together with lay ruling elders. The Deacon’s role is not to preach. To understand the role of deacons, we must go back to the reason why the office of deacons was established. In Acts 6:1-4, deacons were to “serve tables” so that the Apostles (the teaching elders) could give themselves to “prayer, and to
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, I wish to summarize our recent Church Studies Series as it is a crucial topic for peace and unity in a church. It is important for everyone in BPCWA to know this topic well. Since there are too much details to cover, I am summarising the lessons taught during the series of lessons. The videos and audio recordings of two of the three parts of the study are available on both our YouTube and church web sites and I hope that those who are reading this pastoral but did not attend the sessions will make the effort to watch and listen to the more complete lessons online. Do remember that this topic is not just important to
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, we looked at God as a King. We mustn’t just think of this as mere imagery since it is a reality and God is indeed King. In fact, God is the Supreme King who appoints kings. He is unparalleled when compared to the kings of this earth. When we see the pomp and majesty attributed to the kings and queens of this world, we must realise that God must be accorded infinitely greater. So, this week, we will see how we, as His subjects, should respond to God, our eternal King. In a world that increasingly resists hierarchical structures and authority, the past weeks’ events offered a rare glimpse of the obligation of subjects toward
Read moreDear BPCWA worshipper, Over the past few weeks, the attention of the world has focussed on the passing of the Queen. Visuals of the mourning reached our shores through online media. In a world that is increasingly desiring to shake off as many vestiges of authority as possible, monarchs are increasingly rare. While my intent is not to propound a system of government above another, the monarchy was the first system of man’s government implemented in Israel. God allowed that there would be kings in mankind’s history and through it uses many analogies to teach us about Him. What lessons can we learn from the past weeks’ events about our God? We will look at that in this week’s pastoral.
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