By Bishop Dr. Ong Hwai Teik

As we enter the new year, the Church is already facing challenges, such as the use of the word “Allah” issue(see the CFM statement appended) We shall continue to face challenges to our life, ministry and mission as God’s people – and the key question for us in the Methodist Church in Malaysia is how we exist as the Church that is after the Sovereign Lord’s own heart.

I am reminded of the first Gentile church that was birthed by the person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit found in Acts 11. The church at Antioch was the launching pad of the worldwide mission of the Gospel, being a vital commercial centre and the gateway to the eastern world for the Roman Empire. Up till then, the Christian faith had been linked only to Judea and to Jews. So we read in Acts 11:19 - "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. ²⁰ Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus”. Earlier on, Philip had preached in Samaria, to a people associated with Judaism, and to Cornelius, a God-fearer. It was in Antioch that the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians, ostensibly by others who could not help but notice that by their lips and their deeds – they were people who belonged to and lived for Jesus.

It was a church birthed and born after God’s own heart. The persecution of the early church became a growth dynamic, for under the sovereign control of the Lord, the church grew in its outreach and mission. Throughout history, that was seen repeatedly. God’s outnumbered people, a minority who encountered His reality under such trying circumstances, became paradoxically, His powerful witnesses. Under such “purifying circumstances” they increasingly demonstrated the reality of Revelation 12:11 – "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death”. They were then people "full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” It is therefore not difficult to understand why “in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26).

It was a church after God’s own heart that spoke the Word and lived authentic lives of holy discipleship. These courageous but nameless disciples responded with spiritual integrity empowered by the Holy Spirit in the face of persecution - that “the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:21). In the hand of the Sovereign God, the persecution did not finish them off - in fact it made them shine!

It is my prayer, and also that of many, that the Methodist Church in Malaysia will be a church after God’s own heart. We will not let adverse circumstances “finish us off”, but with humble dependence on the Lord, be salt and light that shines for the Lord. There have been many courageous but nameless disciples in the family of the Methodist Church in Malaysia in the past 127 years of our history.

• In this season of the history of our nation and world, let us never let the external inimical forces be larger than the God of the Gospel; that adversity will not finish us off, but make us shine for the Lord Jesus by living lives of holy discipleship in dependence on Him.

• In this generation may we, like the Church in Antioch, follow after God’s own heart in the fulfillment of His Abrahamic promise – where nations and peoples are brought into the family of God as they come to believe in Jesus the Christ.

• In this new quadrennium, let us personally and communally, as individuals, local churches, Annual Conferences – as a people called Methodists in Malaysia, remember our Methodist Church in Malaysia Road Map launched at our 125th Anniversary Celebration (2010).

“A. Evangelism and Church Planting” key objectives are:
#1. To remove the apathy from the church and to restore the passion for evangelism. Our love for our neighbours and our obedience to Christ’s Great Commission require this of us.  

#2. To put prayer at the heart of the ministry of the church in order to seek God for revival and empowering (by the Holy Spirit) for the advance of the Gospel.

#3. To actively promote church (and congregation) planting in both rural and urban areas as a key means of evangelism and church growth.

#4. To make special efforts to reach the children and youths, both in and outside the church.

#5. To build strong local churches (and congregations) throughout the country so that they become centres of Christian communal life and effective outreach.

#6. To strengthen the bumiputra churches, especially the SIAC and PMSM, so that they become fully self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating.

Let us together respond to the Lord as David did, of whom God testified and said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ (Acts 13:22).

May the Methodist Church in Malaysia truly be a church after God’s own heart; and may the blessings from God’s heart be yours as you delight in Him in this new year.