United With Christ, United As One Church - Adriel Yeo

Ever since my baptism in 2010, I have been partaking in Holy Communion without knowing much about its significance. I recall learning about it during my baptism class but it had no lasting impression or rather I did not give it much thought. Based on the little that I could remember before reading up on this, Calvin rejected the claim that Jesus was physically present during communion as well as the claim that communion was purely symbolic without any further meaning or value. Now as to what that meant, I had no idea. 



One of the sessions that we had to sit through during the STEP was on John Calvins’ sacramental theology. As mentioned above, Calvin did not hold to the idea that Christ was physically present due to his bodily ascension. In his book Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin says “Flesh must therefore be flesh; spirit, spirit -- each thing in the state and condition wherein God created it. But such is the condition of flesh that it must subsist in one definite place, with its own size and form.”

At the same time, to make the claim that communion carried no true significance apart from it being symbolic was to simplify this sacrament. Personally, I myself struggled with this issue. If communion had no spiritual purpose, did it matter how I approach the Lords’ table? My natural conclusion was that surely it mattered in terms of preparing my heart and mind. 

Deep within me I did find something mystifying about Holy Communion that I could not quite comprehend. During Rev Tan’s lesson on this topic, I was doing my own reading up and I came across this term called the pneumatic (from the greek word for spirit) presence of Christ. Basically, it was the view that Jesus’ body and blood was really present but through the spirit and not physically. In that sense, “I [Calvin] say then, that in the mystery of the Supper, by the symbols of bread and wine, Christ, his body and blood, are truly exhibited to us, that in them he fulfilled all obedience, in order to procure righteousness for us—first that we might become one body with him; and, secondly, that being made partakers of his substance, we might feel the result of this fact in the participation of all his blessings.”


Now of course, this still left me with questions as to how a person can be any more in Christ than he already is through the Holy Spirit. As I reflect on this, analogies do come to my mind but I recognize that it is difficult to come up with a perfect analogy that explains this mystical thing that happens during communion. However, I think communion not only unites us to Christ, it also unites us as an entire church. I just came back from meeting with one of my mentors and he was sharing with me that when he goes to a church in a foreign country, he may not understand the sermon but when it comes to communion there is this mutual understanding among everyone regardless of language because at this point, everyone is one in mind.

This coming Sunday, I will be partaking in Holy Communion. While I most certainly do not fully comprehend the spiritual significance, yet with this slight clarity of mind regarding this topic, I look forward to preparing my heart and mind before partaking the bread and wine. However, what I do know is that regardless of race or whatever language barriers that we may have, when we come to the Lord’s table, our eyes are all set on the same direction - that is the person of Jesus Christ.

Adriel Yeo

Lessons From Pastors - Adriel Yeo

The time spent in the Synod Training & Exposure Programme has been extremely meaningful for me. Personally, I felt that it was a great time of break where I could spend more time reflecting and consolidating my thoughts which in turn helped me to develop more as a person rather than a ministry worker. 



Sometimes, so much time can be spent on ministry work that it starts to take over our life. Eventually, we may find ourselves needing ministry more than it needs us. Our lives become engulfed in planning events, meeting up with people within our ministry and perhaps even preparing for bible study. Slowly, our joy and excitement for the Lord diminishes. We start off as passionate workers for God and end up as passionate workers for work. 

The past two weeks however, provided me with the opportunity to rest, learn, think deeper about my calling and recharge so that I may enter ministry refreshed. The lessons on John Calvin’s theology and the reconciliation of religion and science served well as an equipping tool in understanding church liturgy and tackling tough issues that our fellow friends may ask concerning the relationship between faith and science. 



While I have been thoroughly enjoying this process of learning, interacting with fellow Christians from other churches and even catching up with people from my own church, I do wonder and spend time thinking about the work and effort put into all these sessions and activities. Throughout the entire session, there will always be at the very least one pastor around. Sometimes, the pastors have to juggle between going back to their own church for meetings and then coming back again. While they are here, work back at the office is piling up on them. Some may even have to pick their child up from school and return back again. Yet without fail, they happily and joyfully appear to sit in with us (or at least they look happy). 

Looking at it from a broader perspective, the learning that takes place is not limited to the speaker who gets the stage and happens to be teaching us something. It also extends to the pastors who quietly plans and faithfully looks out for us. They teach us something too. Theirs may not be heard or seen as visibly as the speakers that are invited but it is perhaps more real than anything we’ve heard so far because we can observe how it is lived out. May be in the midst of trying to absorb whatever we can learn from the speakers, we have missed out how much we can learn from these pastors who have dutifully committed their time for our very own spiritual growth.

Adriel Yeo

Importance of Theological Education - Adriel Yeo

It has been a week since the Synod internship started and there are plenty of things that I have learnt. In my first reflection paper, I covered my thoughts on the importance of church history. So today I want to talk a bit about some of the thoughts that I have regarding theological education and the importance of it.

The first thing about theological education is that it is a lot broader than we think it is. Theological education is not limited to attending a seminary, bible study or the preaching of a sermon but it also encompasses things like worship, prayer and dress code. In that sense, we all go through some form of theological education. 

The second thing is with regards to the importance of theological education. When I heard Dr Simon Chan and Clive Chin, I was reminded of a conversation that I had with my mentor. He would constantly remind me that the goal of theological education is three fold – Biblical knowledge, Theological perspective and Spiritual formation. All these three points are equally important and not to be taken in isolation. Instead they interact with one another throughout our Christian lives. 

Biblical knowledge is essential to our understanding of the nature of God. With biblical knowledge, we are then able to apply and think through issues from a theological perspective. Dr Simon Chan gave a good example regarding the motivation behind social services and social issues. But perhaps another analogy that we all can relate to might help. We often ask ourselves the question “What would Jesus do?” or as some would put it, WWJD? But we fail to realize that this question is one of perspective. Without the study of scripture, one can hardly justify their answer to the question of WWJD.

Theological education is also crucial to our spiritual formation. Similar to the chapel that is located directly above the library at Trinity Theological College, so is our spiritual growth and formation based upon the foundations of the very word of God. J.I Packer in his inaugural lecture on December 1989 said, “I want our systematic theology to be practiced as an element in our spirituality, and I want our spirituality to be viewed as an implicate and expression of our systematic theology...” 

In short, right theological education, will lead to a better understanding of the bible which in turn helps us to gain a better theological perspective on matters and the application of God’s word will draw us to a deeper and more intimate relationship with God thus building and enriching our spiritual lives.

With this understanding of theological education, we should all the more commit ourselves to the study of scripture and encourage one another not to be intimidated by this term but rather to help and build one another up.

Adriel Yeo

History, Identity, and God's Purpose - Adriel Yeo

For the past two days, I have been spending time learning about the history behind Presbyterianism and how it started in Singapore. There are occasions when I question the need or the importance of studying the history of my local church. After all, it neither represents me nor defines me. Or does it?



In the Old Testament, Israel was repeatedly called to remember their past because it was through their history that they could remember the Lord’s faithfulness to them, the nation they currently were and the nation that they were meant to be. Similarly, I think the significance of remembering our church history is to recall the original intended purpose of the church, to remember God’s goodness and also to plan and make the necessary amendments so that the church may be what it is meant to be. 

Whenever the question “who are you?” or “what kind of person are you?” is posed, my mind flashes back to the past recalling all the different activities that took place. In the same way, when we ask “what kind of church is this?” or “what is the identity of this church?”, I believe the answer lies somewhere in history. 

During a short course on a survey of the New Testament, I remember the lecturer saying, “The history of the church is the history of the people of God.”

 Whether we like to be associated or defined by our past, is not the point. The fact remains that whatever way we want to define ourselves as a church, history reveals who we truly are. 

But I think history also brings another thing into the picture. Just like how we see God at work in the nation Israel and later on within the churches, we must not fail to realize that God is currently still at work even today. God’s work continues through the early church extending all the way to the 21st century. It is through the study of history that we see how God uses the most ordinary people to do the most extraordinary things. From one church to many, and eventually a synod. But not only that, history also reveals to us the times that we have fallen astray from God’s intended purposes. It is in some way, a slap to our face. A wake up call reminding us that we are sinful and at times have neglected God’s mission and purpose for us. But history does not confine or trap us in that identity. 

For those who do not agree with the current impression that the church gives off, something can be done. Change can be made resulting in a new identity so to speak. This however, must be built upon the foundations of prayer and the very word of God because it is through these that we may discern God’s will for us as proven in history.

Adriel Yeo