PASTOR SIMON ENG MESSAGE

[Christmas Celebration in Hope Singapore]

Greetings, once again, brothers and sisters in our HIM family. I want to greet you in the name of Jesus. In this time of sharing, I would like to share with you; share together about another core value in our movement and that is about disciple-making. We have taught this topic in our Global Conference.

Ps Simon Eng Message

Transforming community through discipleship

Let me just share with you again from my heart what we value about disciple-making. Jesus invested into 12 disciples, we are clear about that. For three-and-a-half-years, he took 12 disciples with him, poured his life into them and showed them every aspect of the ministry; they were with him. They learned from him, they observed him and they studied him, and at the end of three-and-a-half-years, when he went back to Heaven, Jesus literally gave the entire ministry to these 12 disciples. Of course, we know Judas betrayed Jesus, but someone else replaced him. From these 12 disciples, almost 2000 over years ago, the work of Christianity, of spreading the gospel continues til today. These 12 disciples were so effective that they multiplied the work of God throughout the entire world.

Brothers and sisters, discipleship-making is important; it is essential. It is a core value; it is biblical for us to multiply disciples in our movement.

Let me share with you three main areas of what I want to see. We could share a lot of areas about disciple-making, but let me focus on a few, three areas.

[Christmas celebration in Kuala Lumpur]

Disciples are committed to Jesus Christ

The first is disciples are committed to Jesus Christ. There is a level of commitment; there is a whole-hearted commitment that God is looking for. When we are whole-hearted in our commitment as disciples, we will be able to do much more and fulfil the work of God in our life. God is looking for committed disciples. There were multitudes that followed Jesus, but in the end, it was 120 that stayed in the upper room and prayed until they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, God is looking for committed disciples; not half-hearted disciples nor people who stay on the fringe, but they go through all the way with Him.

They are water baptised, they learn the Word of God, and they obey in every aspect of the Word of God. These are the true disciples, the committed disciples that God is truly looking for.

[Christmas celebration in Chicago, USA]

Disciples of Christ are passionate people

The second aspect I would like to share about being disciples of Jesus Christ is there are certain characteristics, there are certain values and there are certain areas that we want to see arising in the disciples of Jesus Christ. Let me just share a few areas.

Firstly, we know that the disciples of Jesus were passionate people.

They were passionate disciples: passionate about God, passionate about the Kingdom of God, passionate about expanding the Kingdom of God, preaching, discipling other people and multiplying the work of God as well. There was a quality of passion in them.

[Community Christmas Project, Hope Brisbane]

Disciples of Christ are Kingdom-focused people

We also know that the disciples of Jesus were kingdom-focused people. They lived a lifestyle that was kingdom-focused.

They were not entangled with the world; they were not entangled with many other things that distracted them away from what God called them to do. They were kingdom-focused and they lived a kingdom lifestyle. They were kingdom-focused and they multiplied the Kingdom of God wherever they went as well. Then we can talk about the disciples having attitudes that glorified God. They were humble, they were submissive in their attitude and they were sacrificial in their lives. This was the lifestyle, this was the attitude that we see in the disciples of Jesus. I would like to challenge every one of us, brothers and sisters; God is looking for such disciples.

[Christmas celebration in Hope Hatfield, United Kingdom]

Disciples of Christ are submitted to God's Word

I would like to also talk about disciples who also submitted to the Word of God. Their lives were submitted to the Word and their lives were submitted to the leaders.

They worked in unity and they worked in the teams together. Their lives were also linked together in covenant, submitted to one another as well. These were the characteristics that we see of the Christ-centred disciples. They followed Jesus, their lifestyle glorified God, the way they served together glorified God as well and that is why they were so effective in being able to multiply the work of God as well.

One-on-one Mentoring

Finally, I would like to talk about our discipleship, our mentoring, and our one-on-one in our HIM family. Brothers and sisters, we believe in one-on-one discipleship. We believe in one-on-one shepherding of our people. You and I must place a strong emphasis and effort on shepherding our people one-on-one. There is so much value, so many benefits when we give personal attention to our disciples. I have done it over the years and I can certify, and I can affirm that when we give one-on-one shepherding with our people, they will grow. They are streamlined, they are taught the Word of God, and they are transformed in their life as well. They know how to live their lives purposefully and fruitfully for the Kingdom of God.

One-on-one attention, giving our people that shepherding attention will develop them just as Jesus was able to develop key 12 disciples that transformed the world.

[Christmas celebration in Hope Manila, The Philippines]

Building people within local churches

Brothers and sisters, this is a core value in our church, this is a core value in our movement that we must not neglect and we must not forget as well. Schedule your time and meet with our people. If you have not been doing it for quite a while or doing it for quite a long time, I want to urge you and I want to challenge you today, disciple-making is a necessity. It is a core principle, it is a key principle that we must multiply our people and we develop them and we are able to speak into their lives.

[Christmas celebration in Hope Tokyo, Japan]

We are able to mature them faster than just preaching to them alone. I would like us to come back to committing ourselves to see this core value being fulfilled, being done well and excellently throughout our entire movement and churches together around the world. I trust that when we look at our disciples, when we look at our people, we will be able to say “yes, I have invested in their lives just as Jesus has done. I am able to raise these people one by one because I have put in the effort to follow this biblical model”.

I trust that we will be able to see great fruits as we disciple our people.

[Christmas celebration in Hope Auckland, New Zealand]

Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur (April 21-23rd, 2010)

Last but not least, I would like to invite you once again to join us for our next Global Conference coming up. That is going to be in April 21-23 and it is going to be held in Kuala Lumpur. Once again, I believe from our previous Global Conferences, it is going to be an exciting time of learning, exciting time of growing together, relating together and meeting our leaders around the world.


It is in Kuala Lumpur, date 21-23 April, 2010. Please block that out in your calendar and as many of you as possible, do come and join us. It is going to be a wonderful time of learning and we are going to share together about what God is doing in our movement for the first quarter of 2010.

God bless you. Amen.

Pastor Simon Eng
President of HIM
www.byhim.org