Looking back at the past 3 weeks of the Synod Training Exposure Program (STEP), I have decided to reflect on: “How has STEP deepened my understanding of Christianity in various aspects” because it has allowed me to gain deeper exposure and understanding of church history, exploring different denomination of churches and the relevance and importance of what we are learning and doing in church today.
The history of churches had led me to realign my purpose for coming to church and a deeper significance in my faith in Jesus Christ. Before the reformation in the 16th century (1500 – 1600s), churches governed the people’s social lives, punishing moral wrongdoings and place strong significance on mass and rituals to attain salvation and forgiveness from the Lord. The services and teachings were held in Latin, where most people were unable to understand. They believed blindly, thinking that by attending relics and praying to saints, they would receive miracles and healing, and they can offer monetary gifts to the Lord in exchange for salvation. For instance, sins such as murder can be forgiven when one pays money to the priest and begs for forgiveness, and when you died, the church decides whether you will go to heaven. Gradually, the biblical focus was drifted away into interests in money and power rather than the true purpose of salvation and saving souls.
Today’s Christians, also known as the protestants, were born due to the opposition of the practices and rituals in the past as it does not follow the teachings of the bible. Praying to saints and attending relics would cure illnesses and perform miracle is a form of idolatry, where you are substituting God with an object or a ritual, breaking one of the 10 commandments of praying to idols. Furthermore, salvation is not saved by works or money. In Eph 2:8-9, it is by the grace of Jesus Christ through faith and earnest repentance will we receive the precious gift of salvation, not by ourselves or by works. Learning all these has reassured me of the God whom I am believing in today, as everything I learn and do in church is in line with what the bible says – sincere and penitent heart to seek repentance for the sins we have committed and justification by faith, not by works. God hears our prayers for miracles and healings and everything he does is based on his good and perfect will.
The theology of worship and sacraments have also eased my doubts in various aspects. In the past, I thought of worship solely as singing praises to God through music and voices. However, I learn that worship does not necessarily come in these forms; it can encompass a deeper and wider meaning in the form of conversations, testimonies, songs and scriptures. Worship falls back on God’s nature and sovereignty as omnipotent (infinite power), omniscient (infinite knowledge) and omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time) and our response to him. We worship God, not because of what he can do to meet our needs and our prayers, but rather to invite him into our hearts and to acknowledge him as our personal saviour. Do we stop worshipping God if we see that God’s miraculous signs and wonders were not evident in our lives? Do we only worship God for what he can do for us?
The term ‘Sacrament’ used to be a foreign word to me and holds very little importance in my walk with God. Through the theology of sacraments, it has introduced me to this term that comprises of both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, symbolising God’s acts of sealing the promises of the faith and a sign of grace given by Jesus Christ to mankind. Baptism is instituted by Christ as he was baptised by John the Baptist and it is also a great commission given by Christ to baptise others (Mt 28:19-20). It also marks the entrance into the fellowship of the Church, perform in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Baptism by water ‘re-enacts’ the baptism by the spirit, where we make a public profession of faith and discipleship. It is a turning point for me and it also empowers me to continuously profess my faith in Jesus Christ amidst the struggle against the world.
The second aspect of the sacraments – The Lord’s supper is also another significant aspect of a Christian’s walk with God. Initially, I thought of it as a routine-based ritual to reconcile with Jesus once every month and have the body and blood of Jesus Christ dwell in me through his death and resurrection. In fact, the Lord’s supper also holds other significant meaning besides his remembrance; it also establishes the new covenant we have in Christ, keeping a constant reminder from Gal 2:20 that Christ lives in me and I am a new creation in him; therefore, we share and partake in unity as a church. In addition, it brings joy and celebration for us too, to always look forward to Christ’s returning and coming reign. Regardless of how often and the different ways of celebrating the Lord’s supper, it leads to the fact that God’s love for us is given through Christ’s death on the cross to die for our sins and his resurrection to bring us a new life.
This STEP program has also given me deeper views on God and enabling me to read the bible with deeper understanding, not just to take it on a literal perspective by the introduction to theological studies. To formulate a view of God, we must first have the basis of faith, a belief based on where the heart points towards and not based on proof alone. As we read the bible, many times we read the verses while neglecting the context, and even taking it too literal, which may result in errors and misunderstandings. For instance, when we take this phrase “God is Love” (1 Jn 4:7-12) out of its context, some may think of it as God loves everything and it may lead to a romantic love approach. However, based on the full context, John was addressing to the believers with regards to how God has shown his compassionate and sacrificial love to mankind by sending his one and only son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Some churches even practice ‘snakes handling’, believed to be taken from Mk 16:18, even when they are bitten, they refuse medical treatment as they believe they are worthy of God’s faith and healing, and their fate is in his hands. As we drive deeper into this verse, Jesus is not giving clearance to handle snakes to prove one’s invulnerability. He is bringing across the fact that any ‘powerful and resourceful enemy’, including the force of nature, will not be able to hinder the success of a Christian mission.
Many churches may argue that they are practicing and teaching what is mentioned in the bible, indeed, these churches have the right intention of bringing the gospel to the people, but the approach is wrong. As a cell group leader advocating a group of younger youth, it serves as a reminder for me too, in the way I teach my members, not to misinterpret and teach the wrong thing, but rather to read through the context, cross refer to other verses that mentions about a similar meaning, or approach any senior church leader when in doubt.
The course on ‘Exploring the defence of the Faith’ has built up my faith in my religion, and giving me new perspective on life questions regarding the Christian faith and helps me to think in the non-Christians’ perspective, evaluating their hypotheses and reasons why they do not believe in Jesus. These help us to be clear on how to bring the gospel and our faith to them, and to do this out of love, gentleness and respect for them. Based on the 3 tests of truths: Logical consistency, factuality and viability, Christianity indeed is true and the God we believe exists:
Logical Consistency - A true worldview will not contradict itself
Evil is a reality; suffering occurs in this world. That is why we need Jesus in our lives, to help us fight the evil and bring us comfort amidst this suffering world. (Rev 21:4)
Factuality – A true worldview will fit the facts
God exists because objective moral values and duties do exist. (We can be good without believing in God, but we cannot be good without God.)
God exists because the fine tuning of the universe is designed by him alone.
Viability – One can live with a worldview that is true
What we believe from the scripture comes from our faith, that is from our heart and this reflects how we live our life for Christ, to continuously be assured in our salvation and our walk with God and to bring the gospel to the unbelievers.
The STEP Program also provides talk on Christian Leadership which is relevant to me as the future leader of my church today. It emphasises in the aspects of the desire to grow spiritually and to see others glorify God and to practice servanthood with one another. To be a good Christian leader, we must always ensure these 4 aspects of our health are of the best condition – physical, relational, emotional and spiritual health. Conflicts and quarrelling among Church leaders are inevitable, so we ought to acknowledge our flaws, embrace criticism and strive to change for the better to grow in our spiritual being and our relationship with one another.
As Christian Leaders, we must also be thoroughly equipped and be ready to face challenges faced by our church members. This is when biblical counselling comes in; it serves as a good reminder for us to live a disciplined and obedient life for God, before we can bear the fruits of the spirit, encouraging and helping our Christian church members facing different challenges. In addition, the 8 aspects of biblical counselling – situation, reaction, motivation, result, changes based on the Word, new motivation, bearing good fruits and good results – allows me to dive deep and find out the underlying reason(s) why a person is behaving this way after facing the situation and the motives behind it. This is only possible if we respond to our members’ needs with love and patience and are thoroughly equipped with the gospel.
The STEP Program has also given me opportunities to visit other churches – attending an afternoon Catholic Mass and a Mega Church service and visiting the foreign workers from Health Serve in Geylang and the tours around Bible Colleges (TTC and SBC). There are different points to reflect based on these church services and how it differs from my own Presbyterian church service. The Catholic Mass has a different culture – the congregation were sincere in praying, through kneeling and silent meditation and they were serious in their call to confession and respond together. Based on what Presbyterian churches believe in, we do not need to attend a mass to seek confession and forgiveness from God. The ultimate purpose is to glorify God regardless of the ritual practices.
The Mega Church service in New Creation Church impresses me with the high-energy level of the congregation in their worship and the warm, amiable welcome by the befrienders. The worship in general is very modernised and well-rehearsed, which is an aspect I hope to bring to my church, but I beg to differ in their informal and less emphasis on holy communion, and the sermon was very charismatic, displaying mostly the positive side of Christianity and little mentioning of the other side of Christianity. For instance, by believing in God, he will pave the path of wealth, riches and healing to us and God does not bring diseases. There was a lack of the spiritual aspect of wealth, riches and healing when we believe in God. Regarding the aspect of God not bringing diseases and suffering, these are not directly inflicted by God, but God allows them to happen and use them according to his perfect will and to accomplish his sovereign purpose, as ultimately, his ways are higher than our ways (Isa 55:9) and he knows the plans for us. (Jer 29:11)
The visitation to Health Serve has allowed me to see God speaking to us Singapore Christians to reach out to the foreign workers, who left their hometown to make ends meet, taking up harsh and difficult jobs in Singapore. Health Serve has willingly opened themselves up as a Christian association to help these foreign workers with their basic needs. Through the conversations and tour with these foreign workers, I felt God has called me to step out of my comfort zone, to reach out to these workers, where I do not necessarily need to bring the gospel to them, but through simple actions of love that they may see Christ working in me.
Reference
The History of Parliament, 2017. KS3 > The Reformation [Online]. Available from: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/schools/ks3/reformation [Accessed on 29 May 2017].
Delesslyn A. Kennebrew, Christian Bible Studies Transformed By The Truth, 2012. What is true worship? [Online]. Available from: http://www.christianitytoday.com/biblestudies//bible-answers/spirituallife/what-is-true-worship.html [Accessed on 29 May 2017].
The Seven Sacraments [Online]. Available from: http://www.jesuschristsavior.net/Sacraments.html [Accessed on 29 May 2017].
gotQuestions?org, 2017. Why is it important to study the Bible in context? [Online]. Available from: https://www.gotquestions.org/context-Bible.html [Accessed on 29 May 2017].
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch, 2012. Difficult Bible Passages: Mark 16:17-18 [Online]. Available from: http://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/06/02/difficult-bible-passages-mark-1617-18/ [Accessed on 30 May 2017].
gotQuestions?org, 2017. Why does God allow sickness? [Online]. Available from: https://www.gotquestions.org/God-allow-sickness.html [Accessed on 30 May 2017].
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