Happy 22nd Anniversary, FCBC!

FCBC turned 22 years old on 17 Aug 2008. It's kind of hard to imagine that it's been so long and that we have gone through so much as a church. From a rented auditorium at SLF building, we have since moved to Touch Centre, added a new premises at Touch Community Theatre and finally made the BIG Move to Expo Max Pavilion. Somehow when I think back, it doesn't seem that long ago when I was a 13-year-old cell member trying to figure out what cell group was all about. Then at 15 years old, I led by first cell group and began my journey wondering what being a cell leader was all about. Today, the challenges are not altogether new, as I still continue to learn what it means to be a disciple-maker.

As I thought through my life being part of FCBC for the past 18 years, I realised that being part of this family had influenced me a great deal to become who I am today. The experiences, the memories, the relationships, they all make up what FCBC means to me. It's funny how we sang Happy Birthday to FCBC during Youth service last week. For a moment, it felt as if we were celebrating the entity called FCBC. But FCBC is just a name. By itself, it is a non-living thing. The thing that makes FCBC alive is its people, the people who make up this family-in-christ. We were not celebrating someone else. We were celebrating our lives together! ... [+]

As I thought about the years to come, what FCBC would be like 10, 20 years down the road, I realised that I could not think of it as if our church was a growing organism on its own. It isn't. FCBC 10 years on, would be pretty much what we decide to make it. And that's the beauty of it. We are not outsiders watching a show unfold. We are the actors of the show! We each have a part to play to become the people of God He desires us to be! That is what it means for FCBC to fulfill it's calling - if we, the people who make up the church fulfill our calling in Chirst! Hence, as you read SP's thoughts on FCBC's Defining Moment, I encourage you to read it from a personal capacity too, as God's challenge and call to transformation for your own life. Then, let's look forward to greater days in the future. As a family, as a church, as FCBC, a people of God committed to His destiny for our lives.

On our 22nd Anniversary, I believe that God is leading our church into a new phase of our ministry - God will use us, together with the other LoveSingapore churches, to effect transformation in Singapore. God gave me a prophecy for the LoveSingapore churches. And I believe FCBC will play a pivotal role in the next seven years in seeing God bring major changes to our nation. I have included this prophecy for you, so that FCBC will rise up to fulfil God’s destiny for us.

GOD’S HEART FOR SINGAPORE

“This is a defining moment for Singapore. We are entering into seven years of the Lord’s abundant blessing for His people in this nation. The Lord is about to do more than we have ever seen in our history of transforming Singapore in the coming seven years. God is leading Singapore into her divine destiny.

Yet this defining moment is also a moment of decision. Our destiny lies in the choice we will make as God’s people. The devil wants to distort and frustrate God’s purpose for us. God has brought the foreigners to us, so that they too, can be a part of our destiny as the Antioch of Asia. If the church of Jesus Christ arises as one people, committed to fulfil God’s destiny for our nation, these foreigners in our midst will put their roots here, and make this land, their land, this home, their home, and enter into the spiritual destiny and inheritance of this land with us as one people.

If every leader of God’s people in Singapore will be committed, not just to build his or her own church or congregation, but be committed to build God’s kingdom in this land, the values of God’s kingdom will penetrate into every fibre of our society. However, if we fail to make the right choice, if we decide to be sectarian in our attitude, and if we just focus on how we can grow our own church or denomination, we as a nation will lose this destiny of being the Antioch of Asia. The foreigners in our midst will remain as foreigners, using us as stepping stones to greener pastures. The true blue Singaporeans will lose their identity, and they too will leave this nation, abandoning their dreams and forfeiting their divine destiny. The future of this nation is in the hands of God’s people.

This is a defining moment for LoveSingapore to rise up again, and with a strong national agenda in transforming our land. God had shown us in the past what we could do together when we unite and seek only to build His kingdom. God had shown us in the last seven years that, where unity had eroded, and where the vision had not been clear and strong, the spiritual and moral fibres of society began to degenerate.

It is the time for a national agenda to transform our nation, and to align our people to God’s destiny. LoveSingapore is about being a catalyst in spurring God’s people to fulfil God’s national agenda for the nation. Only when this national agenda of transformation is fulfilled then can we realise God’s destiny for us in Asia, and around the world.

This 43rd National Day ushers us into a seven-year season that will bring Singapore to her 50th Anniversary. It could become a Year of Spiritual Jubilee for God’s kingdom in Singapore, or it could become a year of frustrated dreams and unfulfilled destiny.

May God humble and enable us, with brokenness before Him, to cry out for His mercy and grace. May the Lord impart upon us a fire from heaven to have, not only a heart of compassion to win the lost, but also a heart of passion to see our nation transform into the Kingdom of God. May the Lord unite our hearts together, to embrace God’s heart for this nation.”

Senior Pastor Lawrence Khong

Joshua Teo
Photos from www.fcbc.org.sg