A man and his church

A man and his church – A tribute from David Chay.
(More aptly put: In Praise of God for sending Pastor Lim Soon Hock to PJEFC).

I don’t know what prompted me to write this, but until it is done, I am excited (you might said all fired up in my belly) over what Pr Soon Hock said in church service yesterday.

If there is a “Man of the year Award” from our church, I believe he would have easily won it hands down!

As usual, he delivers fantastic sermons, and yesterday not unlike any other Sundays, you could say, he was at his best! The message was strong and continues to reverberate in my heart hours after I have heard it.

Until his message came on, I didn’t quite accept the fact that the greatest investment that one can make is to offer up our lives for others. After all, we have only one life to live, but with this life that we have, are we willing to invest it on others?

The call was and still is, to make a difference with people we care, and he didn’t fall short to show us how, last Sunday.

However, the purpose of this note is not to write a synopsis of his Sunday sermon despite how good it was, that can be left for another day, but for now, I want to pay tribute to the man (our pastor) who has done so much in his time to make a difference with his life for others. He is literally giving back what he has received and not holding back!

Not only were his sermons soul-refreshing and heart-warming, often they were mind-stimulating, outright witty and funny! Through his sermons, he is making us fall in love with the church again. We hate to admit it but we know it is true.

Pastor Soon Hock is the type of preacher, if you heard him once, you would want to come back for more.

Do not be deceived by his size and his unassuming nature, if there ever was a "master story-teller in PJEFC with a mission for excellence", he is the one.

Sundays after Sundays we see and enjoy his superb and flawless presentations, but how many of us can actually see the “hours of labor and hard work” he has put in? Perhaps, Suet Ling (his other half) can enlighten us, one day.

For God’s sake, don’t just look at his sermons which by all standards are very good, look at what the man has done for the church.

First, the vision and mission statements were all changed for the better I must say, then haven’t you noticed, look inside the church and see the 6 banners, what do they proclaim?

These together with the new Shalem Ministry, the Youth Empowering Programs, the ML Disciple-making courses and many others, wow, are we not going places? In fact, some of these God-filled events are moving so fast, to my mind, faster than the congregation can take!

All of these of course did not happen by chance. Someone, somewhere, somehow has thought of it and set up a team that worked. Indeed, we are blessed. Praise be to God for sending to PJEFC, a preacher like him. Hallelujah!

I think the church could do well to publish his sermons and introduce him to a wider audience through a monthly newsletter or something which can be given to the un-churched, so that the many who have not heard him would want to come to our church to hear him preach. There must be something we can do about this.

Although I am a new comer, I find that PJEFC is still a vibrant church to be in. I say this because it is led by what I see as a forward-looking and dynamic leadership, which is constantly nudged on to improve its services by a visionary Pastor, one who is always on to something new and something better. I am amazed by his boundless energy and discipline.

Talking about being visionary, a word of caution though (an analogy borrowed from the pastor himself): We had a visionary PM in Malaysia once but see what is happening in the country today, a nearly failed state, in spite of all that. I guess you know why.

I think the above has taught us something, for it is written in our current vision statement which are found in the key words, i.e. “empowering generations” which I believe the former PM had failed to do, hence our current predicament. As a church, we will fail too if we forget to do that.

Finally, after all that is said and done, I believe the church will never have credibility in the community at large without “expressed individual responsibility” (the commitment) from members.

What I mean here is this that church leadership no matter how good, is at best only one half of the “collective responsibility” in transforming our local church, the other half must surely fall on the “expressed individual responsibility” of its members.

Let us all rise to the call and take up the challenge to make our church PJEFC the best there is in the Valley. Individually and collectively, united with a common purpose, we can do it. It is really all up to us. Are you enthused and willing?

Thanks for lending me your ears or rather your eyes.