GROWING AND STRENGTHENING OUR CHURCHES

[Photos: Hope Prague, Czech Republic New Year camp]

Dear brothers and sisters around the world.

I want to greet you again in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. Let me share my heart with all those who are away from us and whom we don't get to see that often. I want to update you and also to share my heart about what's going on in the development of the movement at this stage.

Pastor Simon Eng Message (Video)

International Leaders meeting in Manila

In Manila over February, the international leaders met together. We had a heart to heart sharing, we put our heads together, we came up with some good decisions, and we had made some key strategic moves on how we are going to continue to move on for our movement.

We also made key steps in how we are going to strengthen our governance: we are going to be more open, transparent as well and we decided that we are going to have a higher level of accountability.

All this will be communicated in the months to come as we put things in place. We are definitely committed to making our movement and our governance much, much stronger. We are hopeful and we are confident that these steps are procedures that will bring greater transparency and build confidence and trust among each one of us, in our family of churches around the world.

North America Pastors Meeting in Seattle

After Manila, I transited across Singapore and I went with Ps. Ben and Dinah over to our North America region. We met together in Seattle with our North American pastors. They all came from Chicago, New York, Vancouver and Los Angeles. We met together in Seattle. And in that meeting, we really had a heart to heart talk; we shared about the developments that had happened, the major development, the major shake-up that happened afterwards. We resolved issues and misunderstandings of the past. The conclusion saw us have a very good time of consolidating and uniting of our hearts together and the North American pastors are really happy to stick together with us, to move on in the family of churches and in God's vision given to us.

So on the North American side, we are confident, we are united and we are looking forward to what God is going to do further in our movement as well. And looking forward to that also, we are consolidating and deciding how to strengthen the churches.

Pastor Ben and Dinah continue to serve as RMC, they will consolidate our churches, develop our pastors. I have listed down the work they need to do and the North American pastors as well.

We will work towards growing our churches and towards strengthening our church pioneering and planting South American churches and to help strengthen and to grow the churches there as well. So I am really glad the time we took with the North American pastors was fruitful and each one went back with a confidence that they look forward towards what God is going to do. Putting the past behind, we are looking forward to the new wine skin, we are looking forward to the future years of what God can continue to do in the North American region.

We are glad that we were finally able to talk face to face, we shared our hearts out, we resolved issues that were outstanding etc., but things has been resolved. And it's clear in the North American and South American continents, we are moving ahead together, together. And the pastors are with us. We are solidly planting and moving together.

[Photos: Group photo of Hope Seattle & Hope Chicago ]

Greetings to North America Pastors & Coordinators

I would really like to really thank God for all the leaders, our pastors in North America. Ps. Chai in Los Angeles, JR over Seattle, and the supporting team Vern and Eureka, David and Ann in Seattle, I really greet you in the name of Jesus. And we also have over in Vancouver, Brother William and Lan. We thank God for the work you are doing over there; and over in Chicago, David, Malay; and over in New York, Albert and Doreen, we really praise God for all of you. Strengthen your churches and put your hearts and heads together and we can truly believe God can really touch and break through over in North America.

I greet all of you guys there for the good works that you are doing and you are pioneering and planting and growing of God's churches.

Combined Church Service in Singapore

[Photos: Pastor Simon Eng praying for Pastor Jeffrey & Claudia]

After that we came back, Ben, Dinah and I came back to Singapore, and that weekend on a Saturday, we had another significant meeting where two services combined together. The leadership in Singapore: Pastor Jeff and his team and of course with Ben and Dinah, they are moving towards combined meetings together.

There was over 4000 people gathered together. Wonderful time of celebration, wonderful time of hearing the Word of God, on Pastor Jeff shared about what he sees for the year, what he likes to move the church towards as well. Indeed it was a significant time.

Praying for Hope Singapore Leadership team

In that meeting on Saturday, February 21st, I also had the significant opportunity to pray for two significant couples in our leadership in Singapore. I prayed for Pastor Ben and Dinah to move towards the Americas. They will be uprooting from Singapore and be based in the Americas to help our churches, both in North and South America. Ben, Dinah and I also prayed for Jeff and Claudia, for them to take over the church, so that they will continue the legacy, they will continue the strong work, they will continue to grow from success to success of what has been done in Hope Singapore.

[Pastor Simon Eng commissioning Pastor Ben & Pastor Dinah]

We are really hoping and praying that Hope Singapore will grow to be a church that will surpass the 5,000 people mark and move towards 10,000 people. God can bless our church there.

The people are excited, in both the congregations: young and old, they are really fired up, wanting to do more for the Lord. It has been a great time.

So these few weeks has taken me to many places: Manila, where we got together and shared; Singapore, where we talk about the future of the church and leadership; in North America, whereby we consolidated the whole situation and moved forward as well.

A Holistic Church Bible Conference in KL

[Photos: Pastor Simon Eng sharing bible Conference]

After the Singapore commissioning, I came back to Kuala Lumpur and it was again a busy time, a hectic time, in just tidying things up in our local church, and preparing for our bible conference, which we just had over the first week of March weekend, from the 6th to the 8th of March.

We had over 400 people turning up for the bible conference. The theme that we touched on and talked about was ‘A Holistic Community’, whereby we share how God is interested in building and using every part and component of ourselves: our spirit, our soul and our body.

[Photos: Pastor Moses Wan sharing bible Conference]

It was a wonderful time. Peter Truong was among us, praying for the people. We had times of teaching and the response was very good. We had times of ministering, and the response was great as well. We saw the people being really excited as they went back to their respective daughter churches, went back to their home churches. The worship was great, the celebration was great and it has made a great impact to our people, in hearing the Word, in being ministered to, in being encouraged in the ministry to reach forth further towards what God can do through us. So it has been a wonderful time.

So these few weeks has been a busy travelling period into various parts of our regions, in consolidating things, in strengthening the churches, the leaders and the pastors, so that we put the past behind us.

Oceania Convention in April (Melbourne, Australia)

[Photos: Oceania Convention 2007, Philip Island]

Coming up in April, over the Easter period, I will be travelling to Melbourne. In Melbourne, it will be our Oceania Convention, whereby Australian and New Zealand churches will come together. We are expecting about a thousand people and God is doing a wonderful work there. Again, we are looking at consolidating, to tell our pastors, to tell our leaders, that we are moving ahead a new chapter. We are turning a new corner, whereby God is doing a new thing among us. We really believed what has happened in the past month since the end of last year til now; we really believe God through the Holy Spirit is doing something significant.

The Oceania Convention is about moving in the Holy Spirit. And we are looking forward what God will do in our lives through the empowering and moving of the Holy Spirit.

It will be a great time of learning, it will be a great time where our spirit will be made to quicken and we will know more about how to move in the spirit powerfully, growing our churches, ministering to our people, touching the community. I believe it is going to be a significant period of time.

Leaders Conference in May (Kuching, Malaysia)

After the Oceania Convention in April, I will be coming back, and we will be preparing again for the May Leaders' Conference. May Leaders' Conference will be ‘Leadership that Lasts’. We decided to do this topic to remind and refresh our leaders again.

Our pastors need to know how to build solid foundations and put principles into their ministry, to their pastoral leadership, in order that their own ministry, their own leadership will last for the long, long term.

Perhaps we’ve become too accustomed to the status quo or too presumptuous about some of the practices, some of the principles. Perhaps we’ve grown too complacent and forgotten about some of these key things.

We are going to remind ourselves again. We are going to look into some of the key teachings, so that we will be able to really put principles into our lives that our leadership will last.

This time, we are varying our LC: the teaching and the style of teaching a little bit more.

• We are incorporating dialogue sessions,
  
• We are incorporating workshop sessions,
  
• We are incorporating an informal lunch,
  
• The pastors' meeting, there will be a Q&A time as well.
  
• There's not going to be just formal teachings, we are modifying the LC.
  

We are coming up with a new system of running the LC, so May is going to be the first change.

[Photos: Hope Stuttgart, Germany camp]

New Eldership Team

Come August, the venue is going to be in Hope Singapore, and again we are looking at making key changes to the LC. It's going to be LC with a difference. Brothers and sisters, look forward to all of this as well, through the whole of this year, we have various key things that we have to decide.

We have to look into a new eldership team, and we are praying from now towards end of the year that we can put this into place.

We are also looking at governance whereby we are going to have a finance committee, we are going to have a human resource committee, to strengthen this processes that we know need greater improvement.

New name and Logo for the movement

We are also going to look into our identity; we are going to look into a new name for our movement. We are going to look into a new logo as well, a new look and a new tag line.

All these things are going to be in place some place from now, we hope by the end of the year. We're looking forward to really expecting God to refresh us, God to recharge us, and we are really looking forward for God to put a new move in our family of churches international.

Over this period of months, various people had sought God; they had heard from God, they said that God is doing a new thing. They said that God is bringing a new wine skin, so that we are able to capture the new wine coming in the years to come. Many had prayed and sought God and they really feel that what has happened is necessary. It is of God. It is to revitalise the church, it is to cleanse the church as well, on things that we need to get rid of in our lives, things that we had not done so well. But we believe it is going to be a tremendous and a great time.

Apology on behalf of the leadership team

Finally I would like to say this, over the years that we had admittedly made some management errors or we have neglected certain strengthening or certain procedures, I would like to say on behalf of our international pastors as well, we talked about this, and we prayed about this in Manila when we met in February.

We want to sincerely, out of the depths of our hearts, apologise to each one of you, for these mistakes. We have, in hindsight, failed to exercise greater care and greater accountability towards one another, and including of course, our international leadership.

We have realised our weaknesses and also we realised what we need to do better. So I can confidently say this is going to be a better season, and a better period to come, whereby we are going to strongly put things into place, hopefully by the grace of God we would learn from the past, and we will indeed move on stronger in the future. God bless you guys and I hope to see you either face to face or see you in the next communication time together. We are rejoicing in the Lord, we are confident that God is with us and we sincerely look forward, we believe with all hearts. God will continue to help us to grow and multiply.

God bless you all and have a wonderful time in Christ. Amen.

Pastor Simon Eng
Elder of HGI