CAC members ‘building covenant ties
with each other’

By EARNEST LAU

IN COMPLETING his second term of office as President of the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC), the Rev Khoo Cheng Hoot dwelt on various aspects of the churches in his Conference in the past year.

He noted in his address that during the past 12 months, attendance at worship services had improved, while the people were building a covenant relationship with each other, and pastors watched over each other in covenant discipleship groups.

Training in “Growing a Healthy Church” was carried out as a strategy for learning, while the ministry of love and care reached out to the youth, the family, the community (through the students, the prison, the hospice, and aged home ministries), as well as initiating the Reverse Mission to foreigners living in Singapore.

At the same time, the churches were aligning themselves with the Annual Conference in prioritising disciple-making in which training programmes were organised to achieve three goals – church planting, evangelism and mentoring.

The effort to complete the financial obligation to the $16-million Sengkang Methodist Church project was brought nearer the goal after $1 million was converted from loans to gifts by local churches.

Under Evangelism, he noted that the total adult baptism for the year increased by 579, about 10 per cent, making a total of 1,984 for the quadrennium, just short of the target of 2,000, while  adult baptisms increased by around 5 per cent.

Rallies were held by dialect congregations and training in Caring Evangelism was carried out. To improve mentoring, various training programmes were carried out for Church School teachers, for Local Church Executive Committee members to acquaint them with the principles of Methodism, for pastors and lay leadership in the “Growing a Healthy Church programme”, and for the new generation of youth leaders through youth camps and other associated training programmes.

Turning his attention to local church finances, the Rev Khoo said that they were growing stronger through encouraging members to tithe or pledge. The challenge was to do it both individually and corporately, “particularly when we are concerned for the needy as well as missions in fields ripe for the harvest”.