A life of 9s – 2009
Previous posts in the Life of 9s series have spoken of my coming to faith
(1969), entering on pastoral ministry (1979), transiting to educational
ministry (1989) and moving back to pastoral ministry (1999). This post tells of
the years 1999-2009 and then of a further transit back to educational work.
One Friday morning in late 2009
It was a normal Friday in Singapore which meant drafting and rehearsing a
sermon, lunch and then an afternoon at the church office. The phone rang in mid-morning. It was the new
Principal of Presbyterian Theological Centre Sydney (later Christ College)
asking to speak about an upcoming staff vacancy that he thought might suit me.
The call was unwelcome as I hoped and expected to stay in Singapore when my
contract came up for renewal in mid 2011.
A now-familiar feeling followed as he spoke. I could see why he was
calling, felt some interest and had an unwanted intuition that this would come
to pass. And so, it did. The story of that will be told later in this post, but
first I speak of the years in between.
Senior minister of Orchard Road Presbyterian Church (ORPC) in Singapore
ORPC had been established in 1856 to serve the Scots in the colonial
settlement and remained very Scottish until after WWII, when a NZ senior
minister led the way to localise. The church buildings were a charming mix
located on a main shopping street and not far from Istana and other public buildings.
When I arrived the church had English, Mandarin, Indonesian and German
language services at the main campus and English, Mandarin and Indonesian
services at the recently-established Bukit Batok branch church. A typical
Sunday saw a large number of people spread over five services from 9am to a
last service at 6pm. The English
congregation was overwhelmingly Asian in composition and many members were globalised
high socio-economic people. After the Scottish years, there was a period of
significant American influence in the church which helped turn it in an
evangelical direction. About 27 pastoral staff and a range of administrative
and housekeeping staff served this busy community. The church had ample
finances and a sizeable set of buildings.
The remainder of the pastoral staff were Asian, but the senior minister
had always been Caucasian. My brief was to be the last Caucasian senior
minister and to help identify a local for the role. On arrival I could see why
a local senior minister was desirable. As I came to know the history,
complexity and culture of the church over the next year or so, I could see why
it was difficult to achieve. 12 years or so later, my immediate successor was a
Singaporean and his successor was a Hong Kong born Chinese-American – which was
a sort of win.
My role was moderator of the whole church and senior minister of the
English language congregation. The former involved chairing some meetings and
combined services, some overall staff supervision and general responsibility.
My main function was as senior minister of the English congregation. That being
said, the annual Christmas Eve combined congregations’ communion service was a
worship highlight as a large number came together to sing carols in their own
tongue and share the symbols of atoning grace.
The English congregation had 9am and 6pm services and I did most
preaching – often preaching two separate sermons. I had to adjust to a
traditional Presbyterian liturgy with a magnificent pipe organ, robed choir and
all that went with it. It was a thrill to preach to such a congregation and to
stand behind the communion table (with the whiff of hundreds of tiny glasses of
best Portuguese port floating up) and look across at people in whose lives I
had invested and seen God at work.
I led an English pastoral staff team of five when I arrived and eight
when I left. All bar one of the staff turned over during my watch, so staff
selection, orientation, oversight, development and such like took much time. I
enjoyed being part of a multi-member team. As I chose staff, I looked for
people who would both fill gaps in the staff skill set and who showed promise
of contributing to the team dynamic. I enjoyed these colleagues and have
continued to take an active interest in them since leaving Singapore.
A year or so after my arrival I realised the need for a staff
restructure. I developed a system where all staff except myself were attached
to our various ministry committees (Christian education, congregational care,
worship, missions and outreach, small groups). The committees were led by
elders and deacons and the staff served as ‘key staff’ to support the ministry
area with focussed attention. This helped develop ministry and gave all staff a
discrete area for which to take responsibility. I took a selective interest in
these ministry committees and sought to honour and respect the expertise of the
relevant staff. I met with all staff on a regular basis (bi-monthly for most)
to review against goals, set new goals, along with provide encouragement and
guidance and work on staff development. Periodic staff retreats off-site gave
opportunity to develop our bonds and cement team values.
I chaired the key English congregation governance meeting – firstly
styled the Board and then the Session. This involved working with deacons and
elders in the main meetings and in various committees. Presbyterian governance
and ministry involved a careful balance between elected leaders and employed
staff and, as senior minister, I was involved in more than a few moments of
attending to that balance! Let the reader understand. I also took an active
interest in the selection of new deacons and elders and spent many one on one
hours with individual leaders.
Another significant act of leadership was to transform an old-style
ladies fellowship into three discrete ministries of Events for Women;
Activities for Women and Bible Study for Women. Each of these opened new
avenues of service and usefulness. Another significant change was to oversee
restructure of our small group ministry. The new scheme saw small groups sync
with the overall mission of the church; parallel the pulpit in learning focus
and recruit, develop and support a new generation of small group leaders. The
number of groups expanded, and wider section of the congregation became
involved.
Before going to Singapore, I attended a Melbourne course on church
leadership to help me re-tool for ORPC as I realised some of the challenges
ahead in a return to pastoral work after a 10 year gap, going into a large and
complex church organisation and serving in a cross and multicultural setting.
One fruit of this course was a decision that I would not try and be at
everything that happened in the church or micro-manage.
Key functions of a pastor are to feed, lead and care for God’s people. I
have described my feeding and leading activities at ORPC above.
What of caregiving? We had a congregational care pastor who took the lead
in this area, but I invested selectively. I did my share of funerals (there
were many such in a large church) and had a range of individuals whom I visited
when ill, or as frail-aged homebound. My regular ‘list’ included some people
with special needs, a young homosexual man imprisoned for drug offenses, a young
woman with complex medical needs and a family troubled by mental health issues.
Much of this was unseen and I know I was criticised for not doing more routine
pastoral care. Indeed, I did not do as much as some, but in such a post I had
to be selective in focus and my main pastoral care role was to ensure that
someone one was doing routine pastoral care.
And now some ransom significant moments from the ORPC role:
·
- The earth moving beneath one wing of our building and having to relocate
to the church hall and a tent for some months;
·
- The many late-night calls to hospital to baptise late-life conversions of
the parents of church members whose funerals I conducted soon after;
·
- The tragic case of a man who said he would convert after his father’s
funeral and who had a fatal seizure at that funeral;
·
- The dreadful and frequent drive to Mandai for funerals;
·
- The shock of seeing a pastoral staff collapsing while conducting a
funeral that and dying a few days later;
·
- A wedding that was cancelled just a few hours before it was due to
happen;
·
- The thrill of forming new families as brides walked down the aisle to
their waiting husbands;
·
- Membership services where up to 40 new people would be received at one go
by adult baptism, confirmation or transfer;
·
- The occasional monkey intrusion to church buildings;
·
- Baptising the first convert from Islam in the history of ORPC;
·
- Seeing the grace of forgiveness, reconciliation and renewal in the lives
of many;
·
- The grandeur of the 150th anniversary celebrations in 2006;
·
- Feeling overwhelmed at the flow of money through the church and the
remarkable generosity of some people;
·
- The circumstances around leaving ORPC and the last moments on the
day we flew out.
Extra ministries
As is normal in any ministry, several extras crept into my schedule.
These includes adjunct teaching of whole courses at Trinity Theological
College, Singapore Bible College and occasional teaching at Discipleship
Training Centre Singapore – along with a pop-up seminary for EAST in Chiang
Mai. I taught a Christian Education workshop in Hanoi and did some preaching in
Batam (Indonesia) and Pontian (Malaysia), along with church camps in Indonesia and
Malaysia. Other activities included writing a regular column for the
Presbyterian Church of Singapore (PCS) periodic publication and speaking at PCS
seminars.
These all involved extra work in preparation and delivery but were
personally fulfilling and kept my wider gifts in use.
In late 2009 I made my first teaching visit to Timor Leste at the request
of Australian Presbyterian World Mission. I was to teach a week long course on
Presbyterianism to the newly-forming Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Timor
Leste. I flew overnight into Darwin one Sunday and then an early morning flight
into Dili where I was greeted by Australian soldiers with guns at the
ready. Timor Leste was still in its
fragile post-independence state and the church even more raw. I taught for a
week at Liquica, west of Dili, where we were accommodated in the house of some
Portuguesa missionaries. The teaching was in a basically-equipped church
building with no teaching aids and involved translation into Tetun. We ate on
site, drank copious quantities of water and ate local foods including a salad
gathered from under the ocean. This was to be the first of what proved to be
many visits to Timor Leste over following years.
Family
For Glenda and I these were significant family years.
We left two children in Australia and took one with us for the first 2.5
years. It was our first experience of overseas living. We had to adapt to a new
setting. We had to manage home contact with two widowed mothers and our
children as they transited through various early-adulthood stages and events.
Glenda went through cancer treatment and our youngest son went through some
sport’s injury surgery. Our first grandchild was born, and my mother died. We
became empty-nesters at the end of 2001.
Singapore was an easy place for us to live. My workplace provided good
support as we settled in. English was widely spoken, and traffic drove on the
same side of the road as in Australia. It was safe, stable, clean and
predictable. Singapore just ’worked’, in notable contrast to some regional
countries. We enjoyed local food, managed the tropical climate and enjoyed the
freedom of condo living. I enjoyed daily year-round swimming and we learnt to
navigate public transport and local roads (my contract included a car).
These were also marvellous years as we made new friends, enjoyed local
culture, lived a privileged lifestyle, had the buzz of significant work and
enjoyed easy and regular travel within Asia and to Europe. We had never
expected such global access. We both globalised to some extent and I went-local
to some extent.
Personal
My ‘going local’ was partly symbolised by becoming a Singapore Permanent
Resident and coming to like Durian. The PR thing was done so I could solemnise marriages
but was a surprisingly emotional moment for me as I realised a sense of
belonging. I found myself looking disdainfully at Australia and has less
interest in events there. Locals told me that I was one of them and I felt it
to some extent. But only to some extent – there would be regular occasions when
I knew I would always be an outsider who would never understand local ways from
the inside. Craig Storti speaks of various stages of cultural adaptation and at
the odd moment when I felt that I had obtained unconscious competence I learned
to expect that an episode of unconscious incompetence was not far away.
I mention local friends. It can be hard for pastors to make and maintain
friends as you move about and there is ongoing debate about the wisdom of
forming friendships in the church you pastor. My view is that it is odd not to
form friendships in the church that you pastor, but that there are natural boundaries
around these friendships and many of them will end when you move on. Through
Glenda’s work at the Australian International School (where she was Head of
English) we formed contacts in the expat Australian community but few were real
friendships. We had plenty of acquaintances in church, but it took a few years
to develop friendships that went beyond my role. It was a big moment when some
started to know and treat us as people separate from our roles. I made some
close local friendships that continue many years later.
Singapore represents the longest ministry I have had and the longest I
have lived in any one location. It has significantly formed my identity is a
place that I expect to love and take an interest in to the end of my days.
There is a strong sense of home there and I had to grapple with homesickness
and a sense of lost identity when we left.
The ORPC post prompted much growth in my pastoral skills as I had never
seen anything like it before. The church was generous in providing annual paid
conference leave. I attended a conference in the UK and did a 10 days
internship at All Soul’s London which I saw as a model for what ORPC could be.
For several years I attended Spurgeon Sabbatical at Gordon-Conwell seminary
north of Boston. It was a long trip over there with an 11pm departure after a
busy ministry Sunday, but Spurgeon became a real lifeline in my self-care and
development routines. Other elements of self-care were regular exercise
(swimming and running), well-guarded weekly days off; a private home life and
taking annual leave.
I worked long weeks at church but don’t think I suffered unduly for this
and certainly enjoyed the buzz. All pastoral ministry is hard and ORPC
certainly had many times of heartbreak and heartache, coupled with constant
stress and pressure. But really, I had the time of my life.
Moving on
Unknown to me, that Friday phone call in late 2009 was to result in a
change of direction. As 2010 unfolded there were two clear paths ahead – the
teaching post at PTC Sydney or staying at ORPC. My wish was clear and strong –
to stay at ORPC. But PTC persisted to the extent of setting the closing date
for applications to fit with a key ORPC meeting. I prepared an application for
PTC but neither expected nor wanted to use it. To my surprise, local events in
late March 2010 made it clear that the application for PTC should be lodged. I
recall taking phone calls from Sydney about the appointment when in a hospital
ward with a dying church member and thinking how absurd this all was.
And so, in God’s timing, the decision was taken that I leave ORPC at the
end of 2010 and move to the PTC teaching role. Once again, God was guiding my
steps and using the present to prepare for the future.
