SOME THOUGHTS ON EXTENDED WORSHIP

It was really a wonderful sight to see the youths and young adults worshipping God yesterday at our first combined YaYA Extended Worship. What an awesome time of soaking in His presence and talking to our loving Father in Heaven. God speaks to us when we spend extended time in prayer and worship.

Jesus repeatedly withdrew to be alone with His Father in prayer – early in the morning, up on the mountain, in the desert, and sometime for a whole night. The apostle Paul was also a man of prayer. He may be an apostle. He may be the great pioneer of churches. He may be the remarkable writer that God used to bring the Scripture. But he was fundamentally a man of prayer. He prayed constantly, and he encouraged others to pray without ceasing. He prayed for the church because he loved them with the love of Christ.

We are convinced that Prayer will become the DNA of the young people in Covenant. Remember to pray for those who are unwell, those who are taking their exams, pray for Pastor Keith and all the leaders in Covenant, pray for all the youth and young adult leaders and pray for Pastor Eng Kiat and the church in Thailand.

Henry and Carol

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Telunas, 2010!

Ok people, it's confirmed.. Be sure to block out these dates: 

17th -20th December.
Only S$210.
SIGN UP Today!

Live, Whatever for?

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This Sunday (24 Oct) - YaYA Extended Worship !!

THE WAY WE WORSHIP by Jack W. Hayford.

"The wisdom of New Testament believers is their recognition that worship is not a cerebral pursuit, a mystical consciousness, or an emotional binge. It is the TOTAL BEING aglow in the life the Holy Spirit imparts, offering spiritual sacrifices (Roman 12:1-2, Hebrews 13:15, 1 Peter 2:5, Psalm 51:17).

Worship (proskuneo) actually means "to protrate oneself before God." But the essence of worship when we gather together is not the physical prostration as much as the breaking of the pride; the flattening of the human will which rises to assert its own dignity, ignorant all the while that our highest dignity will be the nobility of entering the presence of the King with Worship, praise, and thanksgiving, thereby giving place for His glory to dwell in our midst."

Roman 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform to the patttern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

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TMT 2010 Dec

Jesus never meant for miracles to be an end in themselves but rather an invitation into a superior kingdom, a catalyst to cultural transformation. Jesus told the city of Capernaum, "if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day” (Matthew 11:23). To the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida he said, "if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21). Our Lord’s message is clear; the most important manifestations of miracles are a world in revival. –Kris Vallotton

A Miracle 6 years in the making…..

On my first mission trip, I made a very good friend Pui. She would come to every English club and every session we had at the local church. We exchanged phone numbers and addresses so that we can to write to each other. Due to the lack of a better alternative in an attempt to make this short lived friendship last longer (because TMT usually lasts not more than 2 weeks), we soon lost contact. Some months passed. Some years went by too, the letters just stopped. I did get the occasional phone call from her but because it is so costly, it just never seemed sufficient. 

The next part was related to me by YingQi, a good friend of Pui. Just a few nights ago, Pui was surfing the net and decided to google Thachang church. That to me sounds really funny, why would someone google a church that would quite likely not have any website? I guess she missed her friends, home, family and the list goes on because she’s studying and working at the same time in Bangkok. She stumbled upon a photo posted at least 6 to 7 years ago and went on to search for us on Facebook. YingQi having a unique name saw the Facebook search and really quickly, Pui found many of the trippers and myself. Because of this God-inspired event, I got to talk to Pui for a good 30 minutes before we all had to sleep at 2am.

The greatest miracle happened to me because I was asking God to send me a big-big encouragement for me to go for the coming YAYA TMT 2010. 

TMT is as much as us going to bring the gospel message to the Thai people, it is also a time where we see God for our own faith and to express God’s love to others. 

Time to go? Sign up with Uncle Henry, Auntie Carol, or Uncle Cheng Kie.

God is definitely creative!

I found joy,

Clarence. (:

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Update on Youth & Young Adult Ministry

I recently updated Ps Eng Kiat on the merger of the Youth and Young Adult Ministry. He send me an encouraging reply, "It is a good strategy and continuity to bring together the Youth and Young Adult under one central vision. Pray that the Lord will enable and help you to lead this critical ministry of discipling the next generation at Covenant."

As part of the transition, we send 14 Youth and Young Adult leaders to attend a course conducted by Trinity Theological College on “Thinking Intentionally about Youth Ministry” – 22 Sep to 10 Nov 10 (8 Wednesday nights). This is a great time for us to reflect and think about the ministry we are doing among the young people in Covenant.

It is our prayer that we will become a community of Christ where people are valued more than things, where youths and young adults are empowered to fulfill their God-given destiny. 

A revised programme to provide a constant rhythm and pattern where our young people come together to have inter-CGs/BAGs and intra-CGs/BAGs interactions will be established (see fig).
 
Pastor Henry

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Age Of Responsibility

Recently visited the Maghain Aboth synagogue with a group of TTC students at Waterloo Street. The synagogue is beautiful and is one of the historical monuments in Singapore.

The guide who brought us around showed us around the magnificent interior of the synagogue and gave us some background to this synagogue as well as some of the Jewish traditions.


He told us that in the Torah the age of adult responsibility begins with the onset of puberty. At thirteen, a Jewish male qualifies to be a full adult member of the synagogue, with all the accompanying obligations and privileges. These are some of the privileges of a 13 year old male under Torah law:
1. He can be counted in as one of the minimum number of adult Jewish males required for the main public prayers.
2. He may lead the services.
3. He may read from the Torah at the public reading in the synagogue.

Whilst this is new to me that a thirteen year old can have these privileges because he is considered old enough to act responsibly in life, there are something we can learn from this. We generally have a mentality that oppresses the young people - that they are still young and ignorant. This can in turn make them think that they are indeed not really able to influence or make a difference. That maybe they have to wait till they're much older to influence and really do something. That is not true because the Bible says do not despise your youth; God can use someone as young as King David.

As I continue to mentor and disciple the leaders in the Young Adult Ministry, I constantly question how I could help them to step into the plan and purpose that God has destined for them. How could I help them to discover their gifting and catch the vision of what direction God has for them individually, as well as for their ministry?

How do we get them out of the overwhelming world concept of success to one who is really bold to love people and shine for Jesus? And even more than that just sharing their faith, how do we get them to believe that they can shape culture and society? How can we get our young people to start thinking like this?

I realized I have to first change my own mentality into helping our young people realize they can make a difference even right now. I am also convicted that the anointing of the Spirit will continue to give us ideas, and we need to create an environment for them to take on responsibility and given the freedom to do it.


Uncle Henry
7 Sep 10

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Prayer On Wheels (8pm, 9 Sep 10)

'Prayer on Wheels' is on next Thursday 9 September 2010 @ 8 pm.





You are invited to join us for a night of cyling from East Coast Park to Marina Bay via Geylang, Little India and Parliament House. As we cycle, we will pray for the various pillars of our society. We will meet at MacDonalds at East Coast Park.





Please sign up with Shaun, En Min, Carol or Joan on Sunday if you wish to join us.



Refer to the following link for the route to be taken:



http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=118023570040961278800.00048f31a421f3f65c635&ll=1.296619,103.881494&spn=0.033294,0.06521&source=embed

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