Ministries of True Life BPC
An extract of the Clerk of Session’s report for the year ended 31 December 2010 presented to
True Life BPC at its Annual Congregational Meeting on 17 April 2011
The Church was blessed by the Lord with steady attendance in its worship services as well as prayer meetings, Sunday school and fellowship groups. Average attendance each Lord’s Day for worship service was about 390, including children.
Worship Service
The Church holds its worship service every Lord’s Day, 10.30 am at the Regional Language Centre (RELC), 30 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258352. The pulpit is jealously guarded, with only preachers of the same doctrinal persuasion, i.e. of the reformed faith, taking a stand for biblical separation and standing squarely on the perfect inspiration and perfect preservation of Scripture, are invited to preach the Word. Our preachers include: Rev Koa Keng Woo, Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew, Rev Dr Prabhudas Koshy, Rev Dr Mark Kim, Rev Tan Kian Sing, Rev Stephen Khoo, Dr Tow Siang Hwa, Rev Errol Stone, Rev Nguyen Gia Hien, Rev Wee Eng Moh, Rev Dennis Kwok, Dr Paul Ferguson, Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo, Pr Richard Tiu, Pr Dennis Kabingue and Pr Joshua Yong.
Chinese Worship Service
The Chinese worship service was inaugurated on 2nd May 2010 to reach out to the Mandarin-speaking brethren and friends. The Chinese worship service holds its service on the Lord’s Day, at 10.30 am at Tanglin Room 1, RELC. Bro Lin Yang (FEBC student) preaches serially from the Gospel of John. He also translates our late Pastor’s commentary on the Gospel of John into Chinese which is published in the Chinese weekly part by part. Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo preaches every first week of the month and administers the Lord’s Supper.
Korean Worship Service
The Korean worship service at True Life B-P Church conducts a service every Lord’s Day at 10.30 am at the Chancery Room (#503), RELC (this is a change from two services every Sunday prior to 2010). The pastor of the Korean worship is Rev Park Seung Kyu. The Korean worship is now steadily growing from strength to strength and has regular worshippers of forty.
Children’s Ministry
The children are ministered to each Lord’s Day through the Children’s Ministry. They go to the 6th floor for the Children’s Worship Hour around 11 am after joining the Church worship service with the adults at 10.30 am until the offering time.
Prayer Meeting
Prayer meetings are held every Friday evening at the RELC, and for the first Friday of each month, Family Worship cum Prayer Meeting is held at the homes of True Lifers.
In keeping with the format of John Sung revival meetings, the study of God’s Word led by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo is followed by a season of thanksgiving and testimonies, whereby the faith of members are fortified by hearing how the Lord has been good to the brethren. Prayer meeting has a regular attendance of about 85, with a good number of parents bringing their children with them to pray and seek the Lord’s blessing.
Sunday School
The Adults’ Sunday school is an important teaching ministry that seeks to ground believers in the Word of God. It is held each Lord’s Day from 9.15 am – 10.15 am. For 2010, the class was conducted by Eld JT Joseph and Bro Joshua Yong (FEBC student). A distinctive feature of each lesson was the concluding session on “Lessons for Life”, these being applications derived from the chapter covered on that occasion. The Biblical Books completed in 2010 by Joshua Yong were Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah and by Eld Joseph, II Kings. The average attendance was about eighty (regulars).
Chinese Sunday school is held each Lord’s Day from 9.15 am – 10.15 am at Tanglin Room 1, RELC. Bro Lin Yang is currently teaching on the Fundamentals of the Christian faith to the Mandarin-speaking brethren.
Catechism class is held once a year for 12 weeks (January to March) for those who wish to be baptised, reaffirm their faith or join the church as members. The lessons on the fundamentals of the Christian faith and Bible-Presbyterian distinctives are conducted by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo.
The Children’s Sunday school is led by Mrs Jemima Khoo, and ably assisted by a committed team of teachers and helpers.
Evangelism
Door to door HDB flats evangelism is held at Bukit Panjang every last Lord’s Day of the month, with close to 30 (including children) coming each time to share the good news of salvation.
Missions and Outreaches
The Church supports missions in Australia (Rev Nguyen Gia Hien and Brisbane B-P Church, and Rev Errol Stone and Faith Presbyterian Church, Perth), Malaysia (Dr Wee Tiong Soon and Kemaman Life B-P Church, and Marilyn Nanta in Kuching), Myanmar (Amos Go in Chin State, and Thang No and New Life Orphanage in Yangon), Palestine/Bethlehem (Rev Danny Awad and Baraka Bible Presbyterian Church), and Africa (Bible College of East Africa in Kenya and Tanzania).
Choir Ministry
The Choir ministers to the congregation through music. The Choir Ministry consists of the Church Choir and the Youth Choir. The Church Choir is led by Ms Jean Koh and the choir committee. They sing every first Lord’s Day of the month as well as on special occasions. The Youth Choir is under Mr and Mrs Herbert Goh and they render a song item every quarter. Choir practices are held every Sunday after worship service.
Bible Study Groups
The Church has two foreign language Bible study groups meeting on the Lord’s Day. The Indonesian and the Filipino Bible Study groups are led by FEBC students as part of their ministry practicum.
Adults Fellowship
The fellowship meets monthly on the 3rd Saturday at the home of Mr and Mrs William Teo. The group is privileged to have Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo who continues to teach them on the Book of Acts (completed 16th–23rd chapters). The children are being ministered to by Mrs Jenny Kan who teaches them Bible. Visitation Ministry was started this year to reach out to the unsaved loved ones and to visit the sick and other church members to encourage them in the Lord and to fellowship with them. The fellowship celebrated their 5th Anniversary on 6th February 2010. Another highlight was the Christmas carolling on 25th December 2010 where the group visited the homes of Ms Ow Kuan Tai, Ms Agnes Beh and Ms Ong Qiaoyan to bring the gospel to
the unsaved loves ones and to minister to the brethren’s families.
Chinese Fellowship
The Chinese Fellowship was inaugurated on 13th November 2010. It caters to the congregation of our Chinese Service. The twofold mission of the fellowship is (1) to provide an avenue for the brethren, especially the old folks in our Chinese Service to come together to study God’s Word and for Christian fellowship, and (2) to provide an avenue to reach out to our unsaved loved ones, relatives and friends who are Mandarin-speaking. The fellowship meets bi-monthly on the 2nd Saturday at the homes of members. The old folks from the St John’s Home join this fellowship as well. Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo is the regular speaker with Bro Lin Yang interpreting
into Chinese.
Family Bible Fellowship
The group seeks to build up godly families. It meets on the last Saturday of every month at the homes of various members to listen to God’s Word and followed by fellowship over dinner brought by members. The group was privileged to have Rev Dr Prabhudas Koshy and Dr Paul Ferguson for the 1st half of 2010 who spoke on the theme, “Fundamentals of the Christian Faith” and Rev Park Seung Kyu for the 2nd half of the year on “Focus on the Family”. The children were blessed to have Mrs Prabhudas Koshy and Sis Tammy Ho to minister to them. The families together with the youths and FEBC students went bowling at SAFRA Yishun Country Club on 22nd May 2010. In July 2010, the FBF and AF had a combined meeting and fellowship where Eld JT Joseph spoke on “Building the Christian Home”.
Ladies’ Fellowship
The Ladies’ Fellowship meets every 1st Wednesday evening of the month at 7.45 pm at the RELC and is open to all True Lifers, and not just the ladies of the Church. The group was blessed to have Rev Dr Prabhudas Koshy who spoke to them on a series of messages on “The Faith of the Saints”. On 3rd February 2010, the ladies commemorated their 6th Anniversary and the Lord’s messenger was Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo.
Young People’s Fellowship
The Young People’s Fellowship meets every Saturday at Berean BPC. The youth have adopted the theme “Grounded in the faith” for 2010, taken from Colossians 1:23a. The objectives were (1) Knowing God’s Word deeply, (2) Holding to God’s Word firmly, and (3) Living out God’s Word completely. Besides studying God’s Word, the youth have activities like combined Bible study with brethren of Berean BPC on the last week of the month, cottage meetings at the homes of church members, combined meetings and youth conferences with the YF of other like-minded churches. The following were the highlights of the YPF: The 6th Anniversary on 20th February 2010 was held at RELC, speaker was Eld JT Joseph who spoke on “The Renewing of the Mind”. The YPF Camp was held at Calvary Tengah BPC for 5 days from 27th to 31st December 2010. The speakers were Bro Joshua Yong (Theme—“Am I Loving God with My All?”) and Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo (Night messages—“Making Godly Choices”).
Special Services and Activities
The special services on the church calendar included the Good Friday Service, 2nd April 2010, 8 pm; Easter Sunrise Baptismal Service at Labrador Park, 4th April 2010, 7 am; Christmas Eve Service, 24th December 2010, 8 pm; Watchnight Service, 31st December 2010, 10.45 pm.
The 6thAnnual Congregational Meeting was held at RELC on 25th April 2010 at 9.15 am.
The Sunday School Teachers’ Training Seminar held at RELC on 1st May 2010 was conducted by Mrs Jemima Khoo.
The 3rd Vacation Bible School (VBS) was held from 2nd to 4th June 2010 at the Boys’ Brigade campus at Zion Road. The theme was “Diving for God’s Treasure” based on theme verse, Mark 8:36. There were 50 teachers and helpers, and 74 children signed up for the activities.
The Sabbatical Jubilee Camp from 14th to 18th June 2010 was held at Berjaya Tioman Resort, Malaysia with 230 campers. Dr Paul Ferguson spoke on the theme, “Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever”.
A total of 376 (including children) attended the 7th Anniversary Thanksgiving lunch on 3rd October 2010 at the Tang Court Restaurant, RELC, after the Thanksgiving service. Every worshipper received a gift of an olive wood Bible in commemoration of the 7th Anniversary Thanksgiving of True Life B-P Church.
On 3rd October 2010, the Church held a Sabbatical Jubilee Praise Service at Calvary Pandan BPC which kicked off Reformation month at the Sunset Gospel Bible Fellowship evening service. The message “The Bible Stands, Will You?” was delivered by Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo. The True Life Sabbatical Jubilee magazine was distributed at the praise service.
The 15th Holy Land Pilgrimage, from 29th November to 11th December 2010 was led by Rev Dr and Mrs Jeffrey Khoo. There were a total of 43 pilgrims.
A Christmas Gospel Meeting was held on 18th December 2010 at RELC and Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo spoke on “The Good News of Christmas”.
There were a number of Christmas carolling sessions organised by the various fellowship groups to spread the good news of salvation in Christ.
