The Message for the Church

Rev. Dr. Hwa Yung, The Bishop of the Methodist Church in Malaysia
preaching God's Word with a simultaneous translation into Tamil by Rev. Laurence

Indeed it was an honor for us, the people of TMC Tamil Settlement, Ipoh to have our dear beloved Bishop, Rev. Dr. Hwa Yung preaching God’s word on our Centennial Celebration Worship Service (31st May 2008). One important point that he made in his preaching was, challenging the Church at large (TAC) and Tamil Settlement Church on three specific areas.
Firstly: Evangelism and church planting.
The majority of the Indian community in Malaysia still does not know Jesus. What are we as a Tamil church doing about it?
Secondly: Reaching out to the poor and needy around us.
The Hindraf movement is a challenge to us! Do we have the courage to take up the challenge and get into the field to elevate poor and marginalized Indian to a better living? Bishop also commented on the formation of the 'Centennial Benevolence Fund' as a proactive action towards this course. Yet there are many more ways we can help the community.
Thirdly: Men and Women for ministry.
Are we willing to give the best to the Lord? Are we willing to send our children for full time ministry? Are we willing to give our selves for the Lord’s ministry both in and out of the church?

I believe that the message and challenges that the Bishop preached on the day was indeed a prophetic message for the Church. We have been praying much for the Bishop and his message prior to the celebration so that God may speak to us. Indeed, God clearly spoke to us and challenged us.
I also believe that this message has its relevance to all the Tamil speaking churches. Church planting among the main line churches seems to be slow. We are not aggressive enough in our evangelism ministry. I believe that Christians has some how or rather slowed down in evangelism comparing to the scenarios in the 1980’s. In promoting evangelism I would also want to remind us that firstly we the evangelizers should first and foremost live the Gospel ourselves. Christ must be projected in our lives and that would bear the greatest testimony of the risen Savior. Apart from that, only Christians especially the Tamil Churches can shed hope into the hopeless state of the poor and marginalized Indians in our community. The church should take proactive measures to channel our resources for the blessing of the community rather than spending our entire fund for self-edification (of the church members only) and keep on spending millions of ringgits in property maintenance and other related activities.