Dear BPCWA worshipper, It is our 39^th Church Anniversary already! Thank God for His mercies and grace to have seen us through all the ups and downs and for preserving us. The fact that we are still functioning as a church and seeking to be faithful to God today is due entirely to His longsuffering, patience, and leading alone. Time has flown by very quickly and will not wait for any man. Many things can happen through that time. The important question we must ask ourselves is not how long the church has been. This is because every year that passes is either a year of doing well for the Lord, or a year wasted. So, rather, we must be asking ourselves how we have been doing for the Lord and how careful we have been about where BPCWA is progressing towards.

How do we ensure each year is well spent? To ensure this, we must ask, “What does God expect BPCWA to be?”. Are we being that for Him? That is the only measure that matters. It is not what we want, what we feel, what we reason, or what other people think BPCWA should be. God does not keep His expectations of a church a mystery to us. He plainly states in 1Timothy 3:15, “But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth”. This is what BPCWA must be acutely conscious of in every little thing we decide on and choose to do or not do.  This is the only way to ensure that each year is well spent for the Lord. And this is how we ensure, by God’s grace, that we are staying on the right track now and building His church for the future. 

The measurement – the pillar of God’s Truth. The Apostle Paul wanted Pastor Timothy to be clear about what the church is meant to be. This is so that, in case he gets delayed in coming to them, Pastor Timothy would not waste any time or be distracted from fulfilling God’s purpose of His church – “the pillar and ground of the truth”. The truth clearly refers to God’s Truth. Not what society values. Not what other churches have changed God’s Truth to become, having imbibed the world’s thinking. The Christians would be familiar with the tall, large, and strong pillars holding up buildings. Pillar refers to upholding, holding high, exalting, and thus promoting God’s truth. So, we must ask how well and how much we have been promoting God’s Truth, both in the defence of His Truth and in exposing errors.  The measurement of a church in promoting God’s Truth is how much God’s Word has been taught. Besides that, it is how relevant and current issues are taught, so that worshippers know how to relate doctrines to practices. By God’s grace, this must always be the spirit and aim of BPCWA – to feed the sheep that Christ died for. However, I feel that the area we have been weak and falling short of is the promotion of the Gospel of salvation. Evangelism is the promotion of God’s light for salvation to the lost, especially where God has set up BPCWA. We need to be honest and ramp up.

The measure – the ground of God’s Truth. The ground refers to keeping the building stable to ensure it stays upright. It would refer to preserving the integrity, soundness, and steadfastness of the foundation of the building which the pillars hold up. A weak and moving foundation will cause the building to fall. So, the ground of the truth refers to the preservation of God’s Truth. Being such a ground is God’s expectation for His churches. Christ has warned of the great apostasy of Christianity. Christ Himself exposed falsehood and false teachers. Exposing errors is a key element of preserving God’s Truth. We must not think of being polemic as negative. This is because exposing errors highlights, differentiates, and points out the potential areas that lead to deception and decline. In these days of rapid degradation of Christianity, we must not just follow what other Christians and churches teach or do. Much teaching in a church or movement does not necessarily mean soundness. The question is always to ask what God’s Word says about any teaching or practice. This is because Christ Himself prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). To keep BPCWA safe into the future till our Saviour returns and not be swept along into errors in these end times, God’s Word must be our only measure. Scriptures must be our authority for faith and practice, not how long we have been doing something, not what others do, and not what well-known Christians say. It should not matter to BPCWA what others have come to accept and do, for example, regarding the Ten Commandments, the family model, worldliness, situational ethics, seeker-sensitive teachings, music, and worship styles. Preserving the faith once delivered to the saints is our safety. We do not blindly imitate and accept what others do or do not do.

Are you supporting the direction? Pastor Timothy was asked to ensure that God’s church is such that it is a place where the people of God have the Truth faithfully taught to them about all areas of life. To ensure that no matter how the world and Christians change, the church that Timothy pastors must continue to uphold God’s Truth and not waver.  But for what purpose? Why does God want the church’s pastor to do this year in and year out? Surely not just so we feel good at the church level. The measures are to ensure that the worshippers receive the right teachings and then promote and preserve the truth by how they live them out in their own lives for God, both inside and outside the church! For example, the lack of evangelism will not improve if only the church leaders do so. The congregation, you as individuals, must actively engage in it at your workplace, school, and neighbourhood, to bring them into BPCWA to be discipled. Moreover, Pastor Timothy can lead, he can teach and preserve the Truth as he obeys the Apostle’s injunction. But what the church will eventually become depends on whether the people learn, submit to the Truth, and make it their own convictions to live by at all costs to themselves and their families. If you do not come to learn God’s Word constantly, you will struggle and fall behind as we build precept upon precept. So, as the church worshippers grow in sanctification, the gap between your thinking and the church grows wider. And when you fall behind in your understanding of God’s Truth, you will inevitably begin to struggle with the teachings and directions of the church. As others live by their convictions, you will get upset at how they live or when they encourage you to live a more consecrated life. When that happens, instead of supporting the church, you begin to speak ill of it to others. Let us not lose sight that fighting for the perfect preservation of Scriptures but not preserving them by faith and practice in God’s church is not being a ground of God’s Truth! Having sound teaching but a hollowness within spells disaster waiting to happen. The church is made up of worshippers. You must support it as it promotes God’s Truth. You must not be pulling it down.

The ultimate measure – the church of the living God. This is the house of God, the church of the living God. This spells a warning to the leaders and the congregation. The church is not just a moral and social establishment headed and run according to the whims and fancies of man and society. Our meetings are not social gatherings. The Word of God must be the central focus if the church is the pillar and ground of God’s Truth, because “thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). The church is always about the living God, not us. You are in His house, not your own place of abode. As BPCWA moves forward in promoting the Truth and exposing more errors about doctrines regarding personal living, some of the teachings may begin to rub against what you are used to in the past, what you are brought up with, how you have been living, or what you’d rather prefer personally. When you begin to struggle and resist, remember it is not the church that says that, but it is the Word of the living God. Hence, the other warning – when you disrupt the church from reaching these measures and try to draw people to yourself, to make the church to be about you, your preferences, your family’s, your personal agendas, your pride, your carnal socialising – the living God is not blind. So, let us all examine ourselves carefully. Do not seek to pull the church of the living God from being what it should be, doctrinally and spiritually. Finally, the tremendous encouragement to BPCWA is that if we continue to focus on promoting and protecting God’s Truth, then no matter what we face in doing so, the living God is with us! He will continue to use BPCWA, strengthen it, provide for it, and lead it! May God help us as a church and individuals in the church to progress in the promotion and protection of His Truth.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor