Sunday, January 31, 2010

Dear Church,

Greetings in the blessed name of Jesus!

How are you doing? I pray that you have had a good week and a better one to come. This is the last weekend of January and I trust that you have put all your plans for 2010 in place. Always remember that if we fail to plan, then we are only planning to fail. So, don’t take your goals and visions lightly, for they add values to our lives. And this weekend is the first weekend I am away from church for this year. By the time you are reading this, I am already in Singapore speaking at a Methodist church. I am very excited about this conference as I will be inspiring them to lead the next 10 years with faith and courage. The band is also here with me. So church, please continue to pray for us. I covet that. And right after that, I will be leaving for Moscow to speak at the Malaysian Fellowship Winter Conference entitled, ‘Change Begins with Me.’ This year, they are expecting 300 participants and I will be challenging 200 of them to participate in one of their medical relief works. WOW! It is very challenging indeed but I know with faith and your intercession, I am sure I will achieve that goal.

On another note, I want to express my most sincere gratitude to all of you who gave generously and willingly to the Haiti Earthquake Fund last week. All of you guys are just simply amazing. Already, we are in our Arise and Build season yet you gave above and beyond. Last week, in both of our services, together with our Chinese church we collected a total close to RM30K! Amen! With that, it allows us to send at least 2 more doctors. I pray we will able to find more doctors to be sent to Haiti to help those who are suffering and are in need. Church, let us not lose heart in doing good, for we know that whenever we do something for anyone who is in need, we are doing it unto the Lord. Let’s pray that the situation in Haiti will continue to improve as the days go by.
Well, I think that’s all for now. Till then, take care guys and seize the days ahead.

Running with you,

KEV

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Dear Church,

Greetings in the blessed name of Jesus!

Another week has come and gone. I trust that you have had a fruitful one. A lot of people told me that they learned a lot from last week’s sermon. I was so happy when I heard that because it is always my desire to teach all of us to be practical yet God-fearing at the same time. Perhaps one of the greatest dangers of a modern church is being out of touch with reality. We cannot lead what we fear, neither can we change what we are not familiar with. This year, I really want to encourage all of us to be relevantly engaging. But in order to do that, we need to first know the needs and the conditions of our present society. A doctor will not know what kind of treatment to use if he does not know what is wrong with the patient. If all we have is a hammer, then all the problems are nails. So, may I encourage all of us to be a creative problem-solver, a genuine relationship-builder and a fervent disciple-maker of Jesus Christ!

On another note, I want to talk about Haiti. As we all have known, Haiti was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Ritcher scale on Jan 12, 2010. The earthquake destroyed scores of houses, shops, lives and families. On Jan 20, 2010 another strong aftershock measuring 6.1 hit the tiny nation once again. This has hampered the rescue work and medical relief currently being carried out. As believers, we cannot lie idle. We need to do something about it. We need to pray for them and do whatever we can to help them during this dark moment of their lives. At this point of time, I am trying to assemble a team to go to Haiti. This weekend, we are going to collect a special offering to help the Haitians. As your pastor, I want to ask you to give generously to this cause. I know each one of us have our own needs, but can we set that aside for the time being and do this to help alleviate their pain and sorrow?
Church, let us arise for such a time!


Believing with you for a better future,

KEV

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Dear Church,

Greetings in the blessed name of Jesus!

How are you doing? I pray that this week’s Pastor Writes finds you blessed and in the best of health. 2010 has just begun. I know many of you are still in the midst of writing and fine tuning your New Year resolutions. It is perfectly fine. It is better to pen down well-thought resolutions than simply scribbling and doing it because we have to. For those who are still working on your list, let me share with you some pointers here. One of the principles that I have learned over the years when it comes to writing down my goals is to adopt the S.M.A.R.T principle:

i. Specific
Be specific and try to be as accurate as possible. Don’t have a general goal. It can be meaningless. If your goal is to lose some weight, then it is better to set a target of say, maintaining our weight at 75kg. It is more effective that way than just by wanting to slim down.

ii. Measurable
Our goals ought to be measurable. If we want to be on top of our finances, then we need to have a plan of how much we want to save by which month. That way we will know if we are on track.

iii. Action Plan
What is your strategy? How are you going to achieve your goal? Are you going to invest your money or are you going to sign up to a gym membership?

iv. Realistic
We ought to be people with high ideals and big visions. However, our goals have to be realistic at the same time. We cannot aim to save RM1 million if we have yet to learn how not to live in debts!
v. Time-Conscious
Every vision is a goal with a deadline. We do not have forever to do something. We cannot take our own sweet time to do a simple task. We need to work within a reasonable time frame. If our goal is huge, then we may need a few years to achieve it. However, every year’s hard work must contribute towards that goal.

Church, let’s be smart when it comes to goal-setting. Let’s be practical. When we know how to strike the balance, I believe we will look at each new-year with new zeal and new excitement!

Let’s make 2010 a fun and fulfilling year.

Blessings,

KEV

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Dear Church,

Greetings in the powerful name of Jesus!

First and foremost, I would like to warmly welcome Ps. Derek and his family into our church. This is the first time Ps. Derek is here at our church, therefore I want to ask all of you to come prepared and expectant to draw from the man of God. Besides, I also want all of you to make Ps. Derek and his family feel as welcomed as possible. This is our City Harvest heritage and we ought to do well in it. On top of that, we are also having the crew from Singapore’s O School with us! Woo hoo! They are going to do a workshop on Sunday afternoon. At the moment, there are already more than 100 people signed up! I believe it is going to blow all of our minds away! What a great weekend indeed! This is just one of the indications that 2010 is going to be our best year yet! So church, do come ready to receive and participate.

As this is the second weekend of the year, I would like to find out whether you have made your New Year resolutions. If you have yet to do so, I want to encourage you to do it as soon as possible. This is an important exercise because it helps us to focus and concentrate our energy. I am sure none of us want to aim for nothing and achieve anything. And if you have done so, I want to give you some pointers to help you stay focused. Firstly, we need to have goals that will stretch our imaginations. However, it should not be beyond our reach. Otherwise, it will discourage instead of motivate us. Secondly, we need to develop the habit of reviewing our goals on a regular basis - once a month is a good practice. That way, we will not stray away from our initial target. Having said all this, we need to realize that goals are set to help us stay focused. If we have achieved them earlier than expected, we can always add to it or increase the size of our dreams. Goals only serve as a guideline for us. But please do not reduce your target especially when the going gets tough. That is when we need to have the strength to keep going and the faith to keep believing.

Which is better… a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? Think about it…

Have an awesome week ahead,

KEV

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Dear Church,

Greetings in the powerful name of Jesus!

Welcome to an exciting and brand new 2010!

I am sure all of you are very expectant and looking forward to what God has in store. Personally, I am very confident that this year is really going to be our best year yet because God has given us so many new assignments.

Firstly, we need a lot of wisdom and preparation to plan and build our new building. With our limited finances, we still need to construct a sanctuary that will make Him proud. Not only that, my dream is to create a functional 3rd place that will attract both Christians and non-Christians alike. The church of the living God ought to be a place of blessing. It ought to be a place of refuge and a place of restoration. I want to see our church meet the needs of the needy and heal the wounds of the sick and broken.

Secondly, I also want our church to be a place where lives can be empowered! I want to organize more training sessions in the coming year that will equip our members to be more productive in the marketplace. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all encompassing; therefore we should not only cater for the spiritual needs of our members. We need to strategize and plan more workshops and activities that will help one another to earn more money and be more productive. The socio-economic condition of our members should improve as a result of the work of God in their lives. And it is our responsibility as leaders of the church to make this happen. I pray that God will give us wisdom to do this well.

Finally, I want our church to be a happy and fun place to be. God is not only a good God but He is also a happy God. He is not angry with us. He wants us to be able to freely enjoy all that He has given to us. He wants us to be as creative as possible and as colorful as possible.

Hence, let’s make 2010 the most exciting year yet!


Running with you,

KEV