WE are NOT ALONE

Col (Ret) Quek Koh Eng, Church Engagement Director, and Grace Chung, Church Engagement Manager

MMS was officially established on 30 September 1991 to become a missions agency of the Methodist Church of Singapore. Its primarily mission is to establish indigenous churches where none currently exists and aims to be a disciple-making movement that touches and transforms lives. Church Planting and Community Development are the integrated strategies that aim to transform lives and communities (cf. Book of Discipline, para 371).

This mission comes alive as a testament as shown in the past 29 years of mission partnerships with the Annual Conferences, Methodist churches, and donors in Singapore, together with missionaries and hundreds of national pastors and colabourers serving in Cambodia, East Asia, Laos, Nepal, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

MMS does not and cannot work alone

Col (Ret) Quek Koh Eng, Field/Church Engagement Director, emphasised “MMS does not and cannot work alone” as of vital importance to develop the Church Engagement Strategy (cf. his MMS Strategy for Church Engagement report). We are encouraged that God has seen MMS through the years by bringing together faithful men and women to fervently contribute and carry out God’s mission work. We are also blessed by the Methodist churches and communities that have come alongside MMS to pray, to love, and to contribute generously their time, efforts, and resources toward our ministries and missionaries.

Moving forward, as a denominational missions agency, MMS endeavours to be an agency of choice amongst the Methodist community in Singapore. While we have come some way in establishing our work in seven countries over the past 29 years, we are nevertheless mindful of our inadequacies as we journey on. However, by the grace of God, we believe we are now at a point where we need to expand our partnership, enrich our collective call, and energise our congregations in the area of missions.

The MMS Church Engagement Team (CET) desires to build capacity by enhancing stakeholder and partnership relations strategically, managing expectations, and engaging churches in a meaningful way to deepen the partnership with all three Annual Conferences—Chinese Annual Conference (CAC), Emmanuel Tamil Annual Conference (ETAC), and Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC)—, all local Methodist churches, and missions committees.

This can be achieved through a 3-phase framework of conducting a missions pulse survey, dialogues, and forums with the following key outcomes:

• Deepen the relationship and partnership with the Annual Conferences and all local Methodist churches in Singapore.

• Receive valuable and meaningful feedback to customise and realign action plans for the collaboration in mission and ministries initiatives.

• Have a greater clarity of what is expected of MMS as a denominational missions agency, and a more coherent understanding between the roles of local Methodist churches and the missions agency, and its relationship to them.

• Enhance partner relationship, improve partnership retention, and form new partnerships.

Rev Derrick Lau, MMS Executive Director, sets out one of the Strategic Direction 2025 goals as having Church Engagement as an essential initiative of MMS to engage, excite, encourage, equip, and establish mission interest, involvement, and partnership in all our Methodist churches from CAC, ETAC, and TRAC (cf. his Strategic Directions 2025, dated 2019).

This initiative provides a clear sense of direction to collaborate, encourage strategic partnerships, and establish long-lasting relationships; these are fundamentals to pave the way in achieving the God-given mission. There are still much to be done in our fields to equip, nurture, train, and strengthen the pastoral and lay leaderships to become self-sustainable one day and fulfil the call God has placed on their hearts.

As MMS enters into the new year, it is our hope that this initiative will invigorate and deepen relationships and collaborations with existing partner churches. Also, we hope to begin new dialogues with churches that have yet to become partners, to come alongside to intercede, contribute, and support MMS in big or small ways.

With one goal, one mind, and one heart, let us push forth in living out the mandate given to us: to love God, to love our neighbours, and to make disciples of all nation.

Get in touch with us now; every partnership and contribution counts towards touching and transforming lives for God.

Aldersgate Methodist Church mission team members visiting the children at Hope House, Cambodia in 2018.