Founded in 1894, KKMC celebrated her 128th birthday on 23 January 2022. Rev Stanley Chua, TRAC President, preached on The Key to Bold Witnessing.
As the ringing of the church bells overhead ended, the 128th Thanksgiving Anniversary Service opened with a flute and piano duet of “Thine Be the Glory”. The services involved KKMC members of all ages, and from all services – English, Mandarin, Tamil and Peranakan. KKMC remains the only TRAC church to conduct services in four languages.
The Cherubim Choir, which has not met physically for nearly two years, contributed an audio recording of “Tell Me the Story of Jesus”. Their delightful voices filled the Sanctuary as they sang the Choral Introit.
The Youth Ministry band led worship with a mash-up of “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow / How Great is Our God” and later, in a Song of Response, “Awakening” which saw the congregation on their feet doing the “Kampong Wave”.
God we’re asking for courage, like a lion
Lyrics from the song Awakening (Awaken Generation Music, 2021)
The strength of an eagle
God we’re asking for boldness, the faith of Elijah
The harvest is ready
And we are awakening
Preaching from the book of Jonah 4:1-11, the passage not only shows us God’s mercy and compassion towards the Ninevites, but also His desire to use His compassion and mercy to lead people to true repentance because human life matters to Him. Rev Chua pointed out that the word “great” is repeated many times in the book of Jonah, which underscores “the greatness of God’s mission to save humanity”.
Rev Chua posed this question to KKMC: Is the mission of God, which is the saving of souls, the weightiest reality in your life?
He said that if saving souls was not our priority, then we would lack the motivation to be a Bold Witness for Christ and our witnessing would be ineffective. His sermon was a clarion call for KKMC to understand the urgency and importance of God’s mission and to care for people more than the “trivial and transient things in life”.
“Unless we have compassion for people and realise that God’s great mission and top priority for us is to save souls, we will never be able to develop effective or even bold witnessing for Him.”
During the service, Pastor Kenneth Huang impressed upon the congregation that we should continue to be the church that God wants us to be, one of faithful disciples focusing on being Bold Witnesses for the glory of God. He said, “Let’s be awakened for the ministry that God has called us to. Remember that we are so privileged to be bold witnesses for Christ.”
If you missed the Thanksgiving Anniversary Service, you can still watch it at https://youtu.be/_tqGzSWii_4
