A life of 9s – 2009

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 150^th 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.

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