People ¢ Jason Woo is the Communications Executive at MCS Comms. / Photos courtesy of Bishop Dr Gordon Wong
Bishop Dr Gordon Wong
The Lord’s gentle leading
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ome are placed in positions of spiritual authority within the Church because of dramatic, extraordinary encounters with God that transformed them irrevocably. Others have been quite the opposite— where God walked with them from young, moulding and preparing them along the way for the day when they would be ready for His service. Bishop Dr Gordon Wong, 60, falls into the latter group. In 2013, while a lecturer in Trinity Theological College (TTC), he was elected in a closed balloting exercise as President of the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC), a position he never thought he would find himself in. In his early days as TRAC President, he had to straddle the two roles. With the Lord’s guidance, he went on to serve a second term before being elected the Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) in late 2020, assuming the office officially in January 2021. It was a touching moment to see his 98-year-old father turning up for the Bishop’s Consecration Service. “My father is a man of few words so he did not say much to me beyond congratulating me. But I could tell he was happy since he did turn up for my consecration,” beamed Bishop Dr Wong.
Journey into full-time ministry Bishop Dr Wong is the youngest of four children of Mr Cecil Wong, a respected figure in the accounting industry.
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METHODIST MESSAGE June 2021
The Consecration Service of Bishop Dr Wong in December 2020
David Wong, the eldest, holds several key board positions in the corporate world. Bishop Dr Wong’s older brother by six years, Rev Dr Norman Wong, currently serves as a Methodist Welfare Services Chaplain. Bishop Dr Wong’s elder sister, Elizabeth Wong, teaches pre-school children. Bishop Dr Wong was raised in a family with a deep relationship with the Lord. Like his father and brothers, he studied in the Anglo-Chinese schools. He has maintained a spirit of humility while nurturing a love for learning. “Growing up in a Christian environment, it seemed a natural progression for me to have a developed faith in God. It also helped that in school, since it was a Christian one, there was not a problem in having students come together for activities like Bible study,” recounted Bishop Dr Wong. “In fact, it played a major part during my junior college days in ACJC, where we had regular cell groups that met weekly. From there, we had two members who went on to serve the Lord in various capacities like Rev Dr Kow Shih Ming (Pastor-in-Charge of Paya Lebar Methodist Church) and Dr Calvin Chong, a member of Covenant Community Methodist Church, who became a lecturer in Singapore Bible College.” Was Bishop Dr Wong’s decision to become a pastor influenced by Rev Dr Norman Wong? After all, the older brother was one of the ACS Clock Tower boys, whose prayer movement sparked a spiritual revival in Singapore in the 1970s?
