Dear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, we saw the difference between the church and the Bible College. The local church is God’s design in the New Testament age. How then should we view the pamphlet sent from a local Bible College that promotes its “lay biblical and theological” courses to teach God’s Word at basic levels to help lay people be confident to understand and share the gospel?  These courses are also designed and targeted for lay Christians who want to volunteer in church and serve as children or youth group leaders. Bible Colleges train full-time ministerial students for the church. Writing in “40 years of Church Growth”, Rev Timothy Tow documented why he founded the Far Eastern Bible College. Following

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Dear BPCWA worshipper, We received a brochure mailed from a Bible College in Perth a few months ago. It was a leaflet promoting their Certificate Studies, “designed to be easily accessible to people from all walks of life with a desire to dig deeper into God’s Word.” This leaflet made me sit up and think a bit more about it. This trend, which certainly isn’t new to us, has become very popular and is intended to attract the casual Christian “from all walks of life”. How should we view it? The church’s role in teaching. As we saw in last week’s pastoral, BPCWA is a local church, which is a gathering of saints. The church is not man’s invention, but

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Dear BPCWA worshipper, We have thus far understood the importance of ensuring there is a common basis of faith when one joins as a member of the church. I will cover in this pastoral about the mutual duties of the church and her members. Today, some Christians are beginning to feel that attending a church is not essential since online means are available. If so, they would deem it unimportant to have a sense of responsibility and duty to a particular church. The thinking may be that with so many online resources, why “tie yourself down” to a single church in membership and have duties and responsibilities to a church? Hence, Christians must understand what God expects of both the

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Dear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, I explained why interviews are required before acceptance into membership. We welcome all to worship with us. Every church has worshippers who are members and non-members at any instance of time. Some are students who are just passing through, for example. Worshippers typically stay in a church because they have found the teaching sound and wish to remain and grow there. There may be some aspects that they are coming to terms with and are still learning about, but they are generally not disagreeable with the church’s doctrines and practices. Since they don’t go against the church’s efforts and directions nor spread dissent, we have extended our welcome to many such ones to worship and

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Dear BPCWA worshipper, On Easter Sunday, we had a membership intake where some took their membership vows. Those wishing to take up membership had to finish attending our Basic Bible Knowledge Class before submitting their applications and thereafter be interviewed by the Board of Elders. I thought it would be a good opportunity to use this pastoral to explain the rationale for this practice. Some churches do not require attendance of any classes before taking up membership. Is attending BBK and interviewing those taking up membership important? Why does BPCWA do so and stringently insist that it be so? Our Basic Bible Knowledge class. In our church history, minimal classes covering how to be saved were required before acceptance into

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