Essay - Hari Ini Dalam Sejarah Methodist
01 Oct 2014

From Mission Church To Missionary Church

Source/Author: By Bishop T.R. Doraisamy

Moved by the Spirit . . .
• a superintendent of the Singapore Sailors’ Home beseeched Thoburn to open up
work in 1883;
• a Scots merchant persuaded Bishop Hurst on his way to the Hyderabad Conference to send a mission in 1884;
• Thoburn in India was challenged by Hurst: “What can you do for Singapore”;
• the Conference decided to appoint Oldham on his way back to India as mission
ary to cross over to Singapore;
• Thoburn and party including Oldham set sail in faith for Singapore via Rangoon without even obtaining the agreement of the General Missionary Society;
• the same superintendent Charles Phillips was warned in a dream of their arrival and met them as the boat sailed into Singapore harbour on Saturday, 7 February, 1885 and offered them his home as their headquarters;
• the next day evangelistic meetings began with Thoburn fittingly preaching on the text: ‘Not by power or by might but by spirit, saith the Lord’ in the Town Hall, on Sunday, 8 February and on 22 February, forming a Methodist Society and on Monday, 23 February organizing a oneman official board in the person of John Polglase, the assistant municipal secre
tary;
• by the end of the year the first church
building was built at Coleman Street with local funds, the beginning of at least 200 to follow;
• Oldham who knew Tamil began work among Tamils, a catechist from Rangoon started a Tamil school and in 1887 G. W.
Underwood started the first Tamil Methodist Society;
• West started medical work among the Chinese in Telok Ayer in August 1889 assisted by Lim Hoai Toh who gave the gospel message;
• Oldham the silver-tongued orator lectured on astronomy to the Chinese members of the Celestial Reasoning Society and opened the ACS Singapore for their thir
teen sons on 1 March, 1886;
• Sophia Blackmore opened the MGS with Tamil support on 15 August 1887 and the following year the Fairfield Girls’ School
in the Teluk Ayer area with Nonya Boon’s help;
• the need for education was met by the Mission through the support of the governments, the generosity of the local people and the assitance of a host of early Eurasian teachers like Miss Hagedorn;
• education has been not only academic but also spiritual;
• Alexander Fox, a local preacher preached in Malay and distributed tracts in 1889;
• as a result of Shellabear’s scholarship and interest a Straits Chinese Malay-speaking Church was formed in 1894.

Led
by the Spirit . . .
• work was begun in Penang in 1891; and Pykett came in 1893 while Simon Peter opened work in Tamil in 1894 and Lau Seng Chong in Chinese in 1895; Simon Peter went later to Singapore and Lau Seng Chong to Malacca;
• work begun by W.E. Horley in Ipoh in 1894 extended far and wide up to Seremban and even Pahang;
• Kinsett in 1897 and later Samuel Abraham achieved great results in Kuala Lumpur, the Tamils having a brick church in 1899;
• the Methodist Publishing House (sold in 1920) was established in 1890 and the Malaysia Message (now Methodist Message) was started in 1891 to serve the religious interests of the people.

Driven
 by the Spirit . . .
• the Chinese Christian pilgrims led by Uong Nai Siong sought refuge in Sibu in 1901 and founded seven congregations by 1902 and were later guided into the abundant life by Jim Hoover from 1903 until 1936 supported by Lim Po Chin, Tai Poh Ting, Uong Ging Hua and Lau Kek Uong;
• the Chinese Christian pilgrims recruited by Luering in 1903 settled in Sitiawan;
• work was begun in Java, Sumatra and the Philippines by missionaries and two Asians; S.S. Pakianathan (to Sumatra) and Khoo Chiang Bee (to Java and Sumatra) between 1904-1912, when Oldham was Bishop of the area.

Nurtured by the Spirit . . .
• work was further consolidated between
1912 to 1928;
• the Epworth League begun in 1889 produced leaders and ministers and became a Conference organization;
• the theological school for men founded in 1898 and for women in 1928 produced full-time workers;
• schools especially smaller ones were manned by Asian headmasters with mis
sionary supervisors;
• Samuel Abraham was appointed the first
Asian district superintendent in 1913 in Kuala Lumpur.

Encouraged by the Spirit . . .
• the church had a resident episcopal leader in Bishop Edwin F Lee from 1928-1946
who had vision and action;
• local language magazines, the Southern Bell (Chinese) was started in 1928 by Andrew K.T. Chen and the Light of Salvation (Tamil) in 1934;
• Asian district superintendents were appointed S.S. Pakianathan (1931); J.A. Supramaniam (1935), Lim Hong Ban (1934) and C.E. Fang (1935) achieved good results through constant visitation;
• the new Malaysia Chinese Annual Conference was formed with Lim Hong Ban, C.E. Fang and Yau Yee San as district superintendents and experienced steady growth, being now the largest conference;
• after Hoover’s death in 1935 Sarawak had two districts headed by Lee Hock Hiang and Wong King Huo;
• the Home Missionary Society headed by Asians in 1931 took charge of the Sengoi Work and Schmucker and Lucius Mamora were sent to open Iban work in 1939.

Sustained by the Spirit . . .
• the Methodist churches endured privations and deprivation of the Japanese Occupation but they had the refining baptism of fire;
• churches developed confidence (through
schools did not function as before) and
grew in mutual sharing of resources;
• S.M. Thevathasan the first Asian presiding officer (1942) helped by Goh Hood
Keng, Ho Seng Ong, Lim Un Tien and Chen Su Lan tried to preserve as much mission property as possible and encouraged sharing of funds.
• some missionaries including H.B. Amstutz and Burr Baughman valiantly remained behind but were thrown into internment camps, where they grew in determination to build a bigger and better mission, and served thereafter in the work of rebuilding.

Restored by the Spirit . . .
• the schools were resuscitated in 1946 and church buildings some of which had been Japanese ammunition dumps were back in use within a year;
• Crusade for Christ funds helped in rebuilding institutions and began a scholarship programme that produced a long line of leaders for post-graduate training in the USA;
• responsible work went to Asians: E.S. Lau and Paul S.H. Hang in 1946 was Christian Education Secretary, T.R. Doraisamy was Secretary for MYF and Youth Work, Ho Seng Ong in 1952 was Educational Secretary, Kwee Thiam Sioe in 1955 became Treasurer of The Methodist Church in Malaya and Ee Soon Howe became Secretary of the Board of Trustees in 1955;
• with malayanization and nationalization bigger schools also had leaders like Ho Seng Ong, Thio Chan Bee, Ellice Handy, Mrs. Lim Bok Kee, T. Mori, Teerath Ram, D.R. Daniel, Loo Choo Keam, Daisy and Neliya Moreira and others;
• almost 100% of the responsible positions were held by Asians in 1964 according to
Bishop Amstutz’s report;
• youth work increased by leaps and bounds;
• the WSCS instead of being a ladies’aid society assumed a more responsible role in administration and organization;
• Burr Baughman and Lucius Mamora started Iban work after the war which blossomed into a conference in 1962;
• our training institution emerged as an ecumenical theological college under H.B. Amstutz in 1948, a dream of church leaders in the internment camp come true;
• Sarawak had its own theological school in 1956 with Ivy Chou as principal.

Strengthened by the Spirit . . .
• the churches in this area became part of the South Eastern Central Conference (from 1956-1964 with Sumatra and Burma which became autonomous) with missionary Bishops R.L. Archer (1950), H.B. Amstutz (1956) and R.F. Lundy (1964-1968);
• the churches in the present-day Malaysia and Singapore became an affiliated autonomous Methodist Church and called Yap Kim Hao in 1968 as the first Asian bishop;
• from 1968 the five annual conferences experienced growth materially and spiritually under President Ong Chaik Ghee (SMAC) who was succeeded by D.C. Dutton in 1970, C.N. Fang (CAC), T.R. Doraisamy (TPAC) who on his election as bishop was succeeded by E.J. Thoraisingam in 1974, Yu Teck Soi (SAC) who was succeeded by Eugene Teng in 1974, Joshua Bunsu (SIPAC) the first Iban minister who was succeeded in 1975
by Jerry Rabbu, the first Iban missionary to the Sengois;
• Asian women took a more leading part with persons like Mrs. M.T. Fang as area WSCS President and both Lim Swee Beng (CAC, 1961-66) and Ding Hie Huong (SAC, 1973) as district superintendents assuming administrative and spiritual responsibilities of the church;
• there have been rural health programmes in Kapit and Sitiawan, agricultural and community development service in Sarawak, counselling services for the public in Singapore and in Kuala Lumpur, participation in ecumenical life and social and political affairs by our churchmen and the dedicated prison work in Singapore by Khoo Siaw Hua, as new forms of mission;
• several church and school buildings have been made possible: some extensions of note are the Port Dickson camp site initiated by G.S. Arumugam, the two headquarters buildings of the SAC and SIPAC, the churches in housing and industrial estates in Queenstown and Toa Payoh under T.C. Nga’s leadership, and the currently rising multi-storey multi-purpose CAC building in Kuala Lumpur under the leadership of President C.N. Fang;
• lay participation in Conference appointment boards instead of the clerical cabinet, in Conference Executive Boards and General Conference Boards with Yao Ping Hua as the only layman to be vice-chairman of area councils;
• the Methodist Message and Southern Bell have laymen as editors in Peter Joe Chia and Chan Yik Keng;
• the richest resources have been in persons: the Church constituency in its 21st year included 3 Asian ministers, 2,000 church members and 5,000 students; in
its 50th year it included about 50 Asian ministers, 14,000 church members and 18,000 students and in its 90th year about 160 ministers, 40,000 church members and 85,000 students.

Filled by the Spirit . . .
• as in the Acts of the Apostles we have the duty to preach the Gospel, to proclaim Jesus Christ and to witness on the spot, to
go further afield in mission into the uttermost parts of the earth;
• we must accept the challenge to engage in the evangelization of the nations, in the life and work in which and to which we are called;
• every Christian, every church, every conference and the whole church should be committed to the Great Commission of the Risen to go out to preach, teach, heal and baptize;
• the Church that has been a mission church, then a church forced to build up self-support, must increasingly become a missionary church in spirit and in truth, in deeds and in obedience;
• the Celebrations Committee under Khoo Siaw Hua’s leadership has proposed to launch a Missionary Fund and the Area Council on Missions under Khoo Oon Teik’s chairmanship has suggested that we aim to send out 100 missionaries in the next ten years;
• we must follow where the Spirit leads us. . . into all the world.

A review of Methodism in Singapore and Malaysia, 1885-1975 by Bishop T.R. Doraisamy

Methodist Message
Vol. 79 No. 2
February 1975