MINISTRIES OF TRUE LIFE BPC
As Presented at the Annual Congregational Meeting of True Life BPC, 27 April 2014
The Church is blessed by the Lord with steady attendance in its worship services as well as prayer meetings, Sunday School and fellowship groups. Average attendance at each Lord’s Day for worship service is about 440, including children.
Worship Service
The Church holds its Worship Service every Lord’s Day, 10.30 am at the Regional Language Centre (RELC), 30 Orange Grove Road, Singapore 258352. The pulpit is jealously guarded, with only preachers of the same doctrinal persuasion, i.e. of the reformed faith, taking a stand for biblical separation and standing squarely on the perfect inspiration and perfect preservation of Scripture, are invited to preach the Word. Besides Pastor Jeffrey Khoo, our preachers include Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew, Rev Stephen Khoo, Dr Tow Siang Hwa, Rev Errol Stone, Rev Dr Koa Keng Woo, Rev Nguyen Gia Hien, Rev Dennis Kwok, Dr Paul Ferguson, Rev Tan Kian Sing, and Pr Joshua Yong.
Chinese Worship Service
The Chinese Worship Service holds its service on every Lord’s Day, at 10.30 am at Tanglin 1, RELC. Chinese ministers and preachers, namely, Rev Dr Koa Keng Woo, Rev Lee Kim Shong, Pr Kelvin Wong, Pr Kelvin Lim, Pr Daniel Lim, Pr William Goh, Eld John Leong and Eld Leong Yin Chu have been invited to speak to the Chinese congregation. Pastor Jeffrey Khoo or Rev Stephen Khoo preaches every first week of the month and administers the Lord’s Supper. Average attendance is about 50.
Children’s Ministry
The children are ministered to each Lord’s Day through the Children’s Ministry. They go to the 6th floor for the Children’s Worship Hour around 11 am after joining the Church Worship Service with the adults at 10.30 am until the offering time.
Prayer Meeting
Prayer meetings are held every Friday evening at the RELC, and for the first Friday of each month, Family Worship cum Prayer Meeting is held at the homes of True Lifers. In keeping with the format of John Sung revival meetings, the study of God’s Word is led by Pastor Jeffrey Khoo and followed by a season of thanksgiving and testimonies, whereby the faith of members are fortified by hearing how the Lord has been good to the brethren. Prayer meeting has a regular attendance of about 90-100, with a good number of parents bringing their children with them to pray and seek the Lord’s blessing.
Sunday School
The Adults’ Sunday School is an important teaching ministry that seeks to ground believers in the Word of God. It is held each Lord’s Day from 9.15 am to 10.15 am. In 2013, Bro Clement Chew completed the books of Romans, Ephesians, Philemon, and Life of Abraham. Since mid-December 2013, the Book of Haggai has been taught. On average, the attendance numbered 80, with a good mix of older and younger adults.
The Chinese Sunday School is the Christian education ministry of the Chinese Service. It is held each Lord’s Day from 9.15 am to 10 am at Tanglin 1, RELC. About 10 brethren attend the class, where the book of Psalms, the Treasury of David is being taught, Psalm by Psalm, week by week.
The Children’s Sunday School is led by Mrs Jemima Khoo, and ably assisted by a committed team of teachers and helpers.
Catechism Class
Catechism class is held once a year for 12 weeks (January to March) for those who wish to be baptised, reaffirmed in their faith or join the Church as members. Basic doctrines of the Christian faith and of the Bible-Presbyterian Church are taught. In 2013, the catechism class was conducted by Rev Stephen Khoo and Pastor Jeffrey Khoo (English Service).
Evangelism
Door-to-door HDB flats’ evangelism is held at Toa Payoh every last Lord’s Day of the month, with close to 30 (including children) coming each time to share the good news of salvation.
Missions and Outreaches
The Church supports missions in Australia (Rev Nguyen Gia Hien and Brisbane B-P Church, and Rev Errol Stone and Faith Presbyterian Church, Perth), Cambodia (Sun Sokha and Phnom Penh Bible-Presbyterian Church), Malaysia (Dr Wee Tiong Soon and Kemaman Life B-P Church), Myanmar (Thang No and New Life Orphanage in Yangon), Palestine/Bethlehem (Rev Danny Awad and Baraka Bible Presbyterian Church), and Africa (Missionaries Bai Eun Young and Joshua Yong, and Bible College of East Africa in Kenya and in Tanzania).
Choir Ministry
The Choir ministers to the congregation through music. The Church Choir is 35 strong and the Youth Choir, 18 strong. The Church Choir is led by Ms Jean Koh and the choir committee. They sing every first Lord’s Day of the month as well as on special occasions. The Youth Choir is under Mr and Mrs Herbert Goh and they render a song item every quarter. Combined Church and Youth Choirs sing on special events. Choir practices are held every Sunday after Worship Service.
Bible Study Groups
The Church has two foreign language Bible Study groups meeting on the Lord’s Day. The Indonesian and the Filipino Bible Study groups are led by FEBC students as part of their ministry practicum.
Adults Fellowship
The Adults Fellowship (AF) meets monthly on the 2nd Saturday at the homes of brethren. For Year 2013, the group had completed the study of the Tabernacle of God (Rev Stephen Khoo) and Living in Brotherly Love (Pr Dennis Kabingue). The AF started studying the book of Ezekiel with Pastor Jeffrey Khoo since July. The Fellowship celebrated their 8th Anniversary on February 16, 2013 and Pastor Jeffrey Khoo was the speaker. The AFers also support missions and the needy members of the Church. Average attendance is about 15.
Chinese Fellowship
The Chinese Fellowship (CF) was inaugurated in November 2010 as a means of closer fellowship amongst brethren attending the Chinese Worship Service. The CF meets once every two months at the homes of its members where the Word of God is preached by ministers of the Word from churches of the same doctrinal stand and persuasion. What follows would be a time of testimony and hearty fellowship around the kitchen table. The CF, other than fostering greater kinship amongst brethren, is also a giving ministry; brethren are given service opportunities to exercise the gift of hospitality, as well as in worship leading, with brothers taking turns to chair the meetings. Average attendance is about 25.
The Chinese Choir was started in August 2012. The Chinese Choir aims to encourage brethren to learn the good old fashioned hymns in Mandarin, as a means of grace to aid their spiritual lives. The Chinese Choir prays that through the singing of these hymns, unsaved loved ones, family and friends may also hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be saved. The Chinese Choir meets for practice every Sunday after the Worship Service.
Family Bible Fellowship
The Family Bible Fellowship (FBF) is a fellowship group formed to cater to members of the church wishing to attend a fellowship group as a family. The FBF meets every last Saturday at a member’s house listening to God’s Word and follows by Christian fellowship. The children are also nurtured in God’s Word by experienced Sunday School teachers through a separate programme. In this way, the FBF is able to cater to members of a wide age range from kindergarteners to adults. The attendance for each meeting is about 50. In 2013, the FBF celebrated their 8th Thanksgiving Anniversary at the home of Mr and Mrs Eric Chin. The yearly FBF outing in the month of May was spent at the Botanical Garden. 2013 saw the fellowship group learning from Rev Dr Quek Suan Yew (Overview of the Old Testament) and Pastor Jeffrey Khoo (Background to the New Testament).
Ladies Fellowship
The Ladies Fellowship (LF) meets every 1st Wednesday evening of the month at 7.45 pm at the RELC. The LF welcomes all True Lifers, and not just the ladies of the Church, to come and be spiritually uplifted by the Word of God, and be encouraged by the sharing of testimonies and prayers. In 2013, the LF was blessed by Rev Stephen Khoo who spoke on “Women in the Bible”, and Pastor Jeffrey Khoo who took them through “Precious Things”. Following the exhortation first given by our beloved founding Pastor, the late Rev Timothy Tow, to give to missions, the LF has been giving to the Bible College of East Africa in Kenya. The LF celebrated her 9th Anniversary on February 6, 2013 and the Lord’s messenger was Pastor Jeffrey Khoo. Average attendance is about 12-15.
Young Adults Fellowship
The Young Adult’s Fellowship (YAF) meets on the first and third Saturday of the month at the home of its members. In 2013, the YAF had Pastor Jeffrey Khoo who spoke to the theme “A Living Sacrifice”, and Eld JT Joseph led them on the Bible study on Galatians. The YAF celebrated their 1st Anniversary Thanksgiving on October 19, 2013 at RELC. Year-end Reflection was held at Eld and Mrs JT Joseph’s residence on December 28, 2013. The average attendance is about 16.
Young People’s Fellowship
The Young People’s Fellowship (YPF) ministers to all the young people (30) ranging from primary school to tertiary students. It meets every Saturday afternoon at Berean BPC. The YPFers adopted the theme “Running the Race” taken from Hebrews 12:1 for 2013. The YPF was not only blessed to have Pastor Jeffrey Khoo speaking to them every month from the Book of Hebrews but also had other faithful speakers who spoke on salvation, contemporary theology, and other topics pertinent in the lives of the young people. Besides studying God’s Word, the YPFers have activities such as Combined Bible Study with brethren from Berean BPC every fourth week of the month, sports day, cottage meetings at the homes of Church members, and combined meetings with the youth fellowship groups of other like-minded churches. On March 2, 2013, the youths commemorated their 9th Anniversary and the Lord’s messenger was Pastor Jeffrey Khoo. Pastor was also the theme speaker at the YPF Camp, which was held at Calvary Tengah BPC from December 16-20, 2013, on the topic “Watch and Be Sober”.
Special Services and Activities
The special services on the Church calendar included the Good Friday Service March 29, 2013, Easter Sunrise Baptismal Service at Labrador Park, March 31, 2013, Christmas Eve Service, December 24, 2013, and the Watchnight Service, December 31, 2013.
The 9th Annual Congregational Meeting was held at RELC on April 28, 2013 at 9.15 am.
The 3rd Anniversary Thanksgiving of the Chinese Service was held at RELC on May 5, 2013. Pastor Jeffrey Khoo was the Lord’s messenger.
The 6th Vacation Bible School (VBS) was held from June 5-7, 2013 at Calvary Pandan BPC. The theme was “Walking with Jesus”. There were 60 children who signed up for the activities and an almost equal number of volunteers to assist in teaching and running the event.
The 10th Church Camp, from June 10-14, 2013 was held at Khao Lak Seaview Resort & Spa, Thailand, with 253 campers. Speakers were Pastor Jeffrey Khoo (English Service) and Rev Lee Kim Shong (Chinese Service) who spoke on the theme, “Faith Alive”.
Rev An Yohan, the blind Korean pastor spoke at the Friday night prayer meeting at RELC on July 19, 2013.
National Day BBQ Fellowship was held at East Coast Park on August 9, 2013 and about 150 True Lifers attended this event.
FEBC’s 17th Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, from September 4-14, 2013 was led by Pastor and Mrs Jeffrey Khoo. There were a total of 39 pilgrims.
In thanksgiving to God for True Life BPC’s 10th Anniversary, the Church, Chinese, Youth, Children’s and FEBC Choirs rendered to God a praise item “Our Journey of Faith” on October 6, 2013. The special commemorative CD entitled, “He Being Dead Yet Speaketh”, containing interviews, sermons and writings of our late founding pastor, the Rev Dr Timothy Tow, was distributed to commemorate the event. A total of 390 (including children) attended the Thanksgiving lunch at Ban Heng Restaurant, RELC, after the Thanksgiving Service.
The Philippines Bible Conference (organised by Bro Jose Lagapa) was held from December 9-11, 2013 at the Word of Life Seaside Bible Camp in Opol, Misamis Oriental, attended by 170 pastors and church workers coming from the different provinces of Mindanao. The theme of the conference was “Identifying God’s Inspired Words: Textual Reception or Textual Criticism?” and the guest speaker was Pastor Jeffrey Khoo.
The Christmas Gospel Meeting was held on December 21, 2013 at RELC and the speaker was Pr Joshua Yong.
There were a number of Christmas carolling sessions organised by the various fellowship groups to spread the good news of salvation in Christ.
