Church Life ¢ CAC Highlights Stephen Yeo is the former LCEC chairperson of Bukit Panjang Methodist Church. / Photos courtesy of Bukit Panjang Methodist Church
M A K I N G D I S C I P L E S AT B P M C
in community building
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isciple-making in Bukit Panjang Methodist Church (BPMC) started when our two English pastors, Rev Lek Yong Teck and Rev Erick Tan, were posted to the church in 2017. In essence, disciple-making in BPMC is intended to develop and grow a Christian community that contributes to fulfilling the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nature of the community
BPMC strives to become a dynamic disciple-making community described in Hebrews 10:24-25, not as an aggregation of individuals like a bag of marbles but as a congregation like a cluster of grapes. Of course, we’re not fully there yet, but we’re clear about our direction and we exercise patience in depending on God to do the work of spiritual growth in our community.
Studying the Word with one another The first foundational principle in our disciple-making is that it must be scriptural. All our disciple-making leaders are actively seeking to help their members ponder and reflect on how they are going to apply the truths of scripture into their lives and learn to live as Jesus lived. We also dig into the Bible to identify and follow Christ’s model, methods and messages on making disciples.
In a world influenced by western individualism, we want to grow a community that is irreplaceable by any other in our culture—one that is always “meeting together” and touching all aspects of our members’ lives. We would like our community to worship together, pray together, learn together, eat together, cry together, rejoice together and above all, be together. Like all other churches, we hold congregational worship as a large group, but additionally, we also operate mid-size and small groups where the life-on-life touch points for disciple-making and spiritual growth mostly take place.
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METHODIST MESSAGE June 2022
Our disciple-making community is one characterised by numerous “one another” activities taking place all across the church. We don’t go to church just to be ministered to but also to teach one another, confess our sins to one another, bear the burdens of one another and pray for one another.
Spur one another To spur means to point people to answer our Lord’s call to deny ourselves, carry our cross and follow him. Spurring is not so much about running spiritual formation programmes with pre-determined start and end points. Rather it is to recognise that we are all at uniquely different stages in our spiritual journey with Christ , and then structuring the learning opportunities to take us from where we currently are and bring us to the next deeper level of walking with God. Hence, the
