Combined Anniversary Service 2025
The English and Chinese Congregation of GBC held a Combined Anniversary Service on 10 August to commemorate 66 years of God’s faithfulness. Members from both congregations came together to serve and worship together.
Pastors Jeremy and Jia Yih opened the service with the call to worship from Psalm 51:15-17. We gather to worship a God who does not delight in just the act of bringing sacrifices and burnt offerings. He sees the heart, and “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, [He] will not despise (Ps 51:17)”.
The worship team and the accompanying musicians – comprising of members from both congregations – helped us to remember God’s faithfulness and the grace that He has shown to us through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. It is this gospel that has brought together the church – men and women of different ages, backgrounds, nationalities – to worship Him.
Thanking God for His faithfulness
Pastor Eugene with the 9 pioneers who have endured faithfully.
Pastor Eugene also took the opportunity to introduce 9 members who are still worshipping with us who were part of the 51 chartered members. In 1959, Grace Baptist Church was planted with 51 chartered members. It is truly a testament of God’s kindness that 9 of those continue to be faithful members with us till today: Anna, Jack , Tony, Yoke Meng, Ay Lin, Kong Wah, Jimmy, Kuan Yew and William. Charles is not a chartered member, but was saved and baptised through the ministry of the missionaries who helped establish GBC.
We thank God for his faithfulness to GBC. In every season, God has provided for us and preserved our witness to His gospel. Pastor Eugene also encouraged members – especially the younger ones or those new to GBC – to get to know them and hear of God’s faithfulness and provision to these members, and the church over the years.
It was timely then, that Pastor Eugene also led the church in prayer to give thanks to God, and to ask Him to help us persevere in Christ.
An appeal for a grace-shaped community
Pastor Andrew, with Pastor Jia Yih translating, preached from Romans 12. Check it out here if you missed it. From the text, Pastor Andrew made an appeal for us to be a community shaped by grace, to serve together under grace and to have love for one another that is shaped by grace.
We are shaped by grace and called to present ourselves as living sacrifices. As a Church, it involves us not conforming to the world but coming under the authority of God’s Word. The life that we sacrifice must also be a life that is transformed by the renewing of our mind.
The evidence of a life that is transformed is played out in how we serve one another and how we love within the body and those outside our body.
God has also given the church spiritual gifts. These gifts are given so that they can be expressed through ministries and through channels of service that focus on people’s needs.
The final appeal is an appeal to love one another and to let that love be shaped by grace. From Romans 12:9-21, Paul is appealing to the body of believers to love as people whose lives have been shaped by grace. Interestingly he did not restrict this to loving people within the community but outside as well.
In closing, Pastor Andrew reminded us that we have experienced the grace of God, and our lives have been transformed by the gospel. We are to let the gospel that transformed us continue to shape our community, to shape our culture so that when others walk in, they will see and they will experience a community shaped by the grace of God. He encouraged us to be a church that is not just known as Grace Baptist Church but to be a Baptist church that truly displays grace.
Continued dependence on God
The service ended with all singing “Yet not I but through Christ in me”, a fitting song of response for the church. Indeed, we cannot live as a community of grace apart from His grace! There are many things that we can thank God for in the life of our church. Let us continue to live in full dependence on Him as we seek to obey Him.
This was a special chance to worship with the Chinese congregation. On a regular Sunday, we may not always have the chance to see them, but when our paths do overlap, let us also seek to get to know them and encourage them. One practical thing that we can do is to continue to keep them in prayer.