Chilli crab and other food for thought
There were plenty of things to notice during the week I recently spent in Singapore, speaking at some Project Timothy conferences. Not the least, of course, was the quality and quantity of food that Singaporeans shower on their guests (and on themselves as well). The highlight was undoubtedly the chilli crab, a local specialty. (Hard to convey just how good this was: the Sri Lankan crabs used in the dish were huge, and alive until shortly before they arrived on the table; the sauce in which they were served was exquisite; and the whole thing was eaten with a finger-lickin' gusto. If it was a cheap ploy on behalf of my hosts to lure me back for future events, it definitely worked.)
Apart from the food, and the other things that visitors usually notice about Singapore (the heat and humidity, the blessed ubiquity of air conditioning, the general orderliness and cleanliness of the streets), several things impressed themselves on me:
1. The ministry battles our Singaporean brothers are facing are essentially the same as elsewhere in the world, with their own local variants. The homosexual issue has now arrived, with a ‘gay-friendly’ church having opened its doors. (Roy Clements happened to be in town to speak at this church in the same week I was.) The charismatic movement is large and influential, both in its milder, mainstream incarnations, and in its big, glitzy, prosperity-doctrine forms. In the face of this, many evangelical churches are struggling to maintain their confidence in gospel ministry, and to resist the charismatic influence.
2. For evangelicals, good quality, Bible-driven ministry built around prayerful, expository preaching is still talked about more than it is practised. As in many places, nearly everyone claims to be running a ‘Bible-based’ ministry, and to be committed to ‘expository preaching’, yet few seem to know how to do it. What passes for ‘biblical preaching’ often has the loosest connection to the text being preached, and fails to come to terms with what the text itself is saying. In this environment, David Jackman gave some excellent basic instruction in biblical preaching at the minister's conference I attended. It was received by many of the delegates as manna from heaven. Some churches, like Adam Road Presbyterian, are providing a living example of this sort of expository ministry in practice.
3. A small, committed group can achieve a lot. The brothers and sisters behind Project Timothy have, in a few short years, done a great deal to promote the cause of gospel ministry in Singapore. Their energy, enthusiasm and hard work has built a platform on which evangelical theology and ministry is being showcased and promoted, and it is having an effect.
4. And finally, on a social note, it was instructive to spend some time in a society in which the average worker puts in 60-65 hours a week. The effects of this kind of work-pattern are felt not only in family life, but in church life. In the UK and Australia, where average work hours are on the increase, we need to ponder whether we want to find ourselves in the shoes of our Singaporean brothers, where it is increasingly difficult for Christians to find time simply to meet together, when the evening family meal routinely starts at 8:30 or 9:00 pm.