Great Commission Has Generational Aspect: Pastor
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- Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 August 2011 08:10
Attendees praying during pastors' tea fellowship held Thursday for the upcoming Global Day of Prayer.
There is a tendency to think of the Great Commission merely as a call to preach the Gospel to the nations worldwide.
A Methodist pastor believes that there is also a dimension of preaching to future generations.
"The Great Commission is not just geographical - it is also generational," said the Reverend Malcolm Tan.
He urged his 60 listeners, mostly pastors, not to neglect the second dimension.
"We don't want to fall into the trap of sending missionaries out to other nations and then we forget to evangelise and reach the next generation in our own land," he said.
Generally, Churches in Singapore are seeing a relative decline in the number of young people. A few churches may have already lost the next generation.
While many churches appear full, in some congregations churchgoers are middle-aged and older people. If the trend is uncorrected, many churches may become empty by the next century, the Rev. Tan speculated.
The Pastor-in-Charge of Barker Road Methodist Church (BRMC) was giving a short reflection on Psalm 22:27, 30-31 on Thursday at the Methodist Centre.
This is the text: All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!
He was speaking as part of a pastors' tea fellowship held for the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP). BRMC is the anchor church for GDOP this year.
Psalm 22 is the cry of a desperate man whose fate is transformed by the deliverance of the Lord. Christ applied the psalm to Himself as He hung on the cross, the Rev. Tan highlighted.
His resurrection from the dead and appearance to His disciples can then be seen as a greater fulfilment of the promise in this psalm of deliverance from the dangers of death.
The two prophecies of the salvation of the nations and of the future generations at the end of Psalm 22 can be seen as a description of the two dimensions of the Great Commission.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore (EFOS), which organises GDOP, uses the pastors' tea fellowship to give announcements about the event and to feature its new tracks. This year, a separate track will be held for Tagalog speakers.
The 2011 theme of GDOP is: To the Coming Generations - For the Sake of the World. It will focus on four areas: Faith, Families, Father and the Future.
A first focus will be the transmission of faith and values to the coming generation. The second aspect is the healing of broken families. Thirdly, there will be a focus on the healing of wounded men aimed at restoring them as fathers. And finally, the event will focus prayer on the rebirth of new ministries to children and youth to the coming generation and the future.
"I think those of us who sense the times and seasons that we're in, know that these are the issues that we face today," said the Rev. Tan. "And before we dare to do anything, we need to pray together!
He appealed to pastors and ministry staff to spread the word on GDOP 2011 and its theme.
"The body of Christ must be healthy in Singapore, so that it will be strong to fulfil our Antioch calling," he said. "And we want to pass down that calling to the next generation."
This is the reason for the theme, he added.
GDOP will be held at five separate locations.
- The Filipino GDOP will be held at the ACS (BR) Concert Hall at Barker Road at 2 p.m.
- GDOP in Chinese will be held at the ACS (Independent) Auditorium 2, Dover Road at 3 p.m. The Chinese Children's Track will be held at the ACS (Independent) LT, Dover Road at 3 p.m.
- Youth-Led GDOP will be held at the Singapore Expo Hall 3, Changi at 3 p.m. sharp.
- GDOP's Main Programme will be held at the Singapore Expo Hall 3, Changi at 7 p.m. sharp. A Children's Track will run concurrently at the same venue.
- Indian GDOP will be held at Smyrna Assembly at 3 Yishun Street 11 at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 29. Other GDOP programmes will be held on Pentecost.
Details of Singapore GDOP 2011 are available at: www.gdop.sg.
Edmond Chua
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Source: The Christian Post
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