LCS Community Outreach Committee 2023
Rev David Ng
I thank God for the opportunity to serve (once again) as the chairman of the Lutheran Church of Singapore (LCS) Community Outreach Committee. This is also my second term of service in the LCS Executive Council. I am at present holding a “3-in-1” portfolio: serving concurrently as the Pastor in charge for the Yishun Christian Church Lutheran (YCCL) Dialect Service, Pastor in charge for its Mandarin Service as well as being a member of the LCS Executive Council and as chairman of LCS Community Outreach Committee. Shortage of pastors in LCS Chinese pastor has necessitated my assumption of multiple responsibilities.
Looking back to 2009, when I first took the job in the Community Outreach Committee, I initiated the Alpha course evangelistic campaign. Training sessions were conducted in both Chinese and English with 21 pastors, church leaders and representatives in attendance. Every congregation was issued a set of course materials. During that time, our congregation did not foresee the benefits of this method of evangelism, hence failed to promote it during the “warming up” phase of the Alpha course to grow the church. When I assumed chairmanship of LCS Community Outreach Committee for the second time this year, three congregations were already running the Alpha course, and YCCL had just started.
I planned two initiatives: a celebrity testimony evangelistic event for the Chinese service and community care projects for the English service (these were soon halted due to poor responses; the reasons for which will be elaborated below).
Previously, we held “Chinese New Year Concert” annually, inviting local and overseas celebrities to testify, leading many to faith in Christ. After the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, the organising committee decided not to hold evangelistic events as such.
Many Chinese people, especially the middle-aged and the elderly who speak Mandarin, watch television shows for their primary entertainment. Extending an invitation to them to meet celebrities might therefore be easier, which potentially could mark their first visit to a church. Although we can watch celebrities testifying on YouTube, the experience cannot be compared to hearing from them live.
Celebrity testimony events can attract large crowds to the church (possibly their first visit to church as well), and while they may not immediately develop faith in Christ, the seed of the Gospel has been sown in their hearts. The expression of love from our church members can also leave a positive impression, drawing residents from the vicinity to gather in the church and to form connections for subsequent evangelism.
The focus of the celebrity testimony evangelistic event is to equip our congregants with the disposition to evangelise, to lead their friends and relatives to faith in Christ. We complemented the event with a “Spiritual Adoption” program, involving “praying”, then “caring”, and finally “sharing” our faith with pre-believers.
Take YCCL for example: in January, we asked members to name three pre-believing relatives or friends and to pray for their salvation daily throughout the month (perhaps this is something that none of us has done before!); in February, during Chinese New Year visits, we showed our care for them through acts of kindness (but not immediately sharing the Gospel to avoid resistance), instead demonstrating to them genuine loving care; in March, we invited them to the celebrity evangelistic event. Normally, if we just invite them to an evangelistic event, they might not be interested; but if they know that a familiar TV celebrity is speaking, it might be easier to invite them.
There are two scenarios for any celebrity evangelistic event: 1X100, or 100X1.
1X100 refers to 100 new friends or nearby residents attending because of one celebrity. They might “come and leave quickly” unless we can continue to maintain contact with them. As mentioned, if the seed of the Gospel has been sown in their hearts, and if they have a good impression of the church, they may return one day. It is our church’s responsibility to spread the Gospel to our neighbourhood.
100X1 means we have 100 members, each bringing one person to the event. They have already prayed for and showed care for these individuals, making it easier to lead them to faith in Christ because the “ground has been softened” in their hearts.
Our celebrity evangelistic event.
On August 26th, Saturday, we held a briefing session for the celebrity evangelistic event at Yishun Christian Church, with 33 representatives from three Lutheran congregations in attendance. Pastor Ng Wei Liang shared Yishun Christian Church Anglican (YCCA) experiences at organising evangelistic events, providing us with learning references. Bishop Lu was also among us that day.
Additionally, for our English congregation, we intended to engage in befriending outreach. Initially, I hoped to connect our congregations with St. Luke Eldercare’s (SLEC) befriender work, but due to the distance between our congregations and their centres, the arrangement failed to fall through.
Take YCCL for example: we have church members visiting residents near our premise weekly, leading them to church, where they are keen to participate in various fellowship activities.
The government, caring for elderly residents, especially those living alone, has collaborated with many eldercare centres to conduct “Active Ageing activities”, arranging volunteers for weekly visits. YCCL congregants embark on home visitations with SLEC staff under SLEC’s auspices, distributing free gifts (such as Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes, New Year oranges etc.) and extending invitations to take part in SLEC activities. This allows us to get to know the residents, make friends, and potentially lead them to church gatherings.
Although other Lutheran congregations, unlike YCCL, do not have the three SLEC centres nearby to conduct the above activities, they have their own community care activities (such as Jurong Christian Church’s bicycle repair service). These are the preliminary works that we currently need to do to soften the ground for subsequent evangelism. The church must step out of its confines to reach the people in order to win souls.
Other supportive evangelistic efforts include:
A. Furen School Fellowship: We financially support related activities, with a budget exceeding ten thousand dollars.
B. Alpha Evangelistic Ministry: Our congregations, especially the English service, has been conducting the Alpha evangelistic ministry. LCS Community Outreach Committee has budgeted $1,000 to support the aforementioned evangelistic work, hoping in particular to assist our Chinese services in starting their own Alpha ministries.
YCCL’s Chinese services participated in Queenstown Lutheran Church’s Alpha course, hoping to learn and apply it in our church. Other congregations interested in starting the Alpha course can contact us for sharing.
For Jesus has given us the Great Commission:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
The effectiveness of celebrity concerts in evangelism requires careful evaluation.
Chinese Christian celebrities have held concerts interwoven with evangelistic segments in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Examples of headlines: “Deeply moving sight of G.E.M. during her concert leading tens of thousands of fans in tearful prayer!”, “Jeremy Lin at the 2017 Life Testimony Event led 4,000 fans in the sinner’s prayer.”
Online reports suggest that both these Christian celebrities led more people to Christ in each concert than the 3,000 who converted and were baptised at Pentecost when St Peter preached.
What we must carefully consider is the extent to which fans, due to their affection for the Christian celebrities, genuinely come to faith in Christ, and what proportion of these converts truly persist in their faith. In the meantime, how many of them eventually fall away? Like any large-scale evangelistic event, follow-up and discipleship are key to initiate new converts into baptised church members.
Do celebrities have good testimony?
It’s not easy for celebrities to become Christians, even more challenging for them to bear open witness. These are their challenges:
1. Attending worship: To be recognized or not recognized;
2. During filming: To offer joss sticks or not to offer;
3. Exposure: To seek limelight or not to seek;
4. Professionalism: To play the villain character or not to play;
5. Entertainment industry: To have job stability or not to have;
6. Under scrutiny: To criticise or to give support for Christian artistes;
7. Need for pastoral care: To participate in fellowship and Sunday worship or otherwise.
We should pray for and support Christian artistes.
These artistes include Angus Tung (reportedly wanted to be a preacher), Huang Guolun (writer of “I Am Willing”), Wilber Pan, David Tao (whose testimony has been circulated online), Christine Fan, Sun Yue, Athena Chu, Gigi Leung, Tai Zhengxiao, Wu Bai, Nicky Wu (sometimes seen holding a Bible in advertisements), Jeff Chang (whose father is a pastor), MUJI (the two members met in a choir), Tsai Chin, Ah Qin and Faye from F.I.R, and Power Station.
Statistical Report of
Yishun Christian Church (Lutheran) Li Nanxing Testimony Evangelistic Event
Attendees with ticket
| Believers 219(54.75%) | Pre-believers 181(45.25%) | Total 400(100%) | |
| Mandarin service | 46 | 24 | 70 |
| Dialect service | 64 | 44 | 108 |
| English service | 39 | 61 | 100 |
| External community | 70 | 52 | 122 |
Statistics on responses
| I want to believe in Jesus | 13 |
| I want to know more about Christianity | 4 |
| Please visit and tell me more | 0 |
| I wish to attend Mandarin worship service at 2PM | 4 |
| I wish to attend Hokkien/Cantonese worship service at 1115AM | 2 |
| I wish to attend English worship service at 11AM | 0 |
| I wish to join Seniors’ Fellowship on Thursday at 11AM（Weekly） | 3 |
| I wish to join Senior’s Gathering on Wednesday at 10AM (Second week of each month） | 3 |
| I wish to join Adult Bible study on Wednesday at 8PM（Second week of each month） | 1 |
| I wish to sign up for Ukulele class starting April every Friday at 2PM | 1 |
Note: On the following Sunday, 4 persons attended the Hokkien/Cantonese worship service and 2 persons the Mandarin worship service.
We drove this evangelistic event with prayer; first, congregants prayed for their relatives and friends whom they planned to bring along. Ticket requesters are required to specify whether they are believers and the name of pre-believers must be indicated; congregants were also given a list of truth seeking pre-believers to pray for during certain Sunday worship services. Finally, we thank God for adding the number of those who are saved to our church!.
