Opinion ¢ THINK Dr David Ang is a member of Kum Yan MC. He is Chairman of the CAC Board of Family Life, Chairman of the Methodist Fathers Movement, and serves on the MCS Judicial Council and Discipline Review Commission. / Photo courtesy of Dr David Ang
Work, workers and worship David Ang with his family
W
hen I was 37, my church asked me if I would
power, workplaces, supermarkets, community clubs,
consider going into full-time ministry and
offices, sports hall, etc.
becoming a pastor. But I knew that it was not
God’s calling for me, as I felt that my personality, gifts
It is on this premise which that I have set out my working
and passions made me more suited to serve God as laity.
ethos articulated in a “1-2-3” guideline: one God, two
(I responded—only half in jest—that if I were to become a
assignments and three practices.
church pastor, my parish would suffer a lot!)
One God From my years in the workforce, I have come to realise
The God we worship within the church is the same God
that, regardless of their career paths, believers everywhere
who is sovereign over the Church, economies, nations,
are able to live out their Christian lives through their
businesses and the entire universe. There is no other
acts and words of love. I have seen this in people inside
authority besides Him and His ways are as important in
and outside the church community, regardless of their
one domain as another. His desires and rules are the same
vocations as pastors, church staff or in secular jobs.
in church as in the workplaces.
And as I studied what really God wants of our lives, I
A workplace, office, factory, boardroom or meeting room
was led to the beginning of the Bible: “And God blessed
is not any less sacred than a church sanctuary. Wherever
them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply
you work, you should behave as you worship God during
and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over
your Sunday worship, or in your Friday night cell group.
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens
God is deeply interested in the government, law and
and over every living thing that moves on the earth’”
order, material supplies and everything that is essential
(Gen 1:28). God’s desire is for mankind to reign and have
for people’s lives and livelihood.
dominion over what is in the world. As we are made in His image and of His kind, He wants us to populate the
Two assignments
world and represent Him everywhere in it.
Be an ambassador of God We are instructed to be the “salt of the earth” and
The prayer Jesus prayed in Matthew 6:10 reiterates His
“light of the world” (Matt 5:13–14). There needs to be a
desire for the earth to be filled with His kingdom as it
spiritual cognisance that, because we are of God and have
was in Genesis 1:28. This means that we should worship
Christ in us, we can relate, work and serve in the flow
God through and carry His heart into the corridors of
of God’s ways mirrored in kindness, helpfulness, other-
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METHODIST MESSAGE August 2021
