Full house: Listening to Bishop Dr Solomon's sermon, which was interpreted by Dr Tan Chew Lim. - TACMC picture by CHNG SIEW KHOON.
JOY TO THE WORLD!
Combined Thanksgiving
Service for TA2 and
Christmas Worship
By PETER TEO
IT WAS a joyous homecoming
for the TA2 worshippers and also a homecoming of sorts for members
of Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church - the "mother"
church - when close to 1,500 of them congregated at the spanking
new TA2 Sanctuary at Wishart Road on Dec 19, 2004.
The occasion was the Combined
Thanksgiving Service for the completion of Telok Ayer Chinese
Methodist Church (TA2 Sanctuary) cum Christmas Worship. The church
members were justifiably bubbling with joy and admiration for
the beautiful $11-million church building with all its high-tech
features.
What was a simple, small church
building sitting on a much larger piece of land almost two years
ago is now an impressive three-storey building, capped with a
roof-top garden, reaching out to all corners of that piece of
land.
Now what is left to be done is for the church members to reach
out to the community as, in the words of the guest preacher Bishop
Dr Robert Solomon, a church is not just a building of bricks and
mortar but it should be a gathering of spirit-filled people of
faith working for our Lord.
Construction work on the building
began immediately after the ground-breaking service in February
2003 and was completed in the first week of December 2004.
The spacious and well laid-out
sanctuary, which can accommodate about 900 worshippers, is on
the third floor. On the far end from the main entrance to the
sanctuary are two eye-catching pieces of stained glass, one featuring
the Great Commission and the other the Great Commandment. In addition,
there are seven circular windows with stained glass.
The second floor houses the kindergarten,
Sunday School classrooms, the conference room, library, music
room and a multi-purpose hall. On the first floor are the social
hall, kitchen and car park.
There are three floors of basement
car park, and the columbarium is on basement one.
TA2 Sanctuary will only conduct
a Mandarin service, from 9 am to 10.30 am, and a Hokkien service,
from 11 am to 12.30 pm.
The first part of the two-and-a-half-hour
service was the outpouring of thanksgiving and praises from grateful
people to a faithful God, and what better way to do that than
for the Telok Ayer Church Orchestra to fill the hall with a stirring
rendition of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness".
The congregation then came on strong with the opening hymn, "O
Come All Ye Faithful", to the well-orchestrated accompaniment
of the choir under the direction of Mr Liew Cheng San.
The entire service was conducted
in Chinese, Hokkien and English, and the worship leader was the
Pastor-in-Charge of Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church, the Rev
See Ping Eik, who also sang a carol with his small group.
Following the consecration of the building, the congregation focused
on "A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols", the Christmas
Worship through the reading of Scriptures by various church leaders
and the singing of carols by the choir, children's choir, a small
group and the congregation.
When it came to the reading of
Luke 2:1-7, which announces the birth of Jesus - Lesson 6 - the
lights in the sanctuary were dimmed by the touch of a high-tech
control panel. This was the time for the congregation to sing
that well-loved carol, "Silent Night, Holy Night", with
excellent back-up from the choir and the Telok Ayer Church Orchestra.
At the end of the 9th and final
lesson, the choir and the congregation raised their voices to
ring out "Joy to the World".
The service then closed with church members going around wishing
each other as they sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas".
Then it was time for the feeding of the 1,500 as they adjourned
to the first floor for a buffet lunch, and a time of fellowship.
In his sermon entitled "Being
the People of God", Bishop Dr Solomon reminded the church
members of the necessity of witness.
"Your challenge," he
said, "is to be a witness of Jesus Christ and to share the
good news wherever God places you - as a community, in your families,
in your small groups, in all your organisations, to bring more
worshippers into God's sanctuary.
"Witness is necessary in
the lives of God's community. We must go and share and show who
God is."
This was one of three points he
made in his message based on the Scripture text from Nehemiah
8:1-10. The other two points were the centrality of God's Word
and the primacy of worship.
Why
reading of God's Word
is important
Stressing the relevance
of God's Word, Bishop Dr Solomon said the public reading of God's
Word is so much a part of the whole worship of God. It is something
we cannot and should not compromise, no matter how short or how
long the time we have for worship. Reading is important because
hearing is important in Christian life and discipleship.
He added that there must also
be a reverence for God's Word. The way for the church to grow
is to make sure that we show our reverence for God's Word by obeying
it.
On the primacy of worship, he
said: "The Word brings us to God."
We do not preach about sin too
often because "it is not so nice to hear that we are sinners".
"But I believe that God works powerfully amongst us if there
is a true repentance."
The Bishop added that if we are
to survive as a church, "we need to maintain our rhythms",
which remind us that we are a people of God called to worship
Him."