What is Truly Essential?

This is a personal reflection that I shared with the CG cluster coaches last night (18 Feb 2020) that I hope to encourage us to really ask ourselves what is truly essential for us to live out the Christian faith in the midst of this COVID-19 situation.

With MOH advisory for us to temporary suspend or postpone non-essential events, it has challenged me to reconsider what is truly essential for us to live out our Christian faith today. Or what many others have already shared, this is a time for us to “rethink church” or perhaps this might be a time for the church to “pause” from our busy programmes.


Just this recent Monday, one of our Pastoral Team Members shared three questions to us during our staff devotion that resonated with some of my recent thoughts on the implications of this COVID-19 has on our churches today.

1. Why do we meet?


2. What happen if one day we cannot meet as a church?


3. What are we as a church going to be known for?


But before we can go into that, let us reflect on Hebrews 10:23-25 to glean some insights to these questions.

Hebrews 10:23-25, "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Worship Services
Firstly, since we have been given the opportunity to carry on with our worship services with all the necessary precautions, we should always still keep on meeting up corporately to worship God together, be it virtually (if one is sick/quarantine etc) or physically (but with the necessary safeguards advise by MOH).

It is truly essential for us to keep on meeting to "watch over one another in love”, to pray with one another and to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. As Bishop Chong reminded us in the recent MCS 135 anniversary service across all 46 Methodist Churches in Singapore, he said “Religious belief not lived out in the presence of others, and not in interaction with others, has no place or purpose at all.”

Small GroupsSecondly, I believe meeting in smaller groups in homes is still essential. This is something that we should not neglect especially all the more in times of crisis where we need to encourage one another more in the faith. This is where I’m reminded of the early church in Acts 2.


Acts 2:42-47
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
The early churches started meeting in homes, the disciples broke bread together, fellowship, listened to God’s word and prayed together. These house churches are like our small groups today or here in CMC we call it Care Groups (CG). We meet in homes and we experience the gospel come alive in our meetings together.

So, going back to the 3 questions again:

1. Why do we meet?We meet to spur each other on in the faith together as a body of Christ. The church is not just a physical building, it is the people of God coming together!

2. What happen if one day we cannot meet as a church (or I would rephrase “in church”)?

To answer this, we need to go back to the first question. And that is that we can still meet together if we see church being more than just going to the “physical church building”. This is where the CGs comes in, it is even more essential that we should not neglect coming together. Yes we take all the necessary precautions even when we are coming together, but we should always still meet to “watch over one another in love” to spur each other on in the Christian faith.

3. What are we as a church going to be known for?

No church wants to be known as a virus cluster, so how can we leverage on this crisis for God’s kingdom work instead! Do we want to be a church that is just fearful, allowing our fear to cripple us, or are we going to be a church that will still carry on the mission of God’s kingdom work within all these safeguards! I believe even in our small groups, we can be a group that impacts the world just as we read in Acts 2:47, “… the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

So, let us keep on keeping on, and persevere on in the faith by encouraging each other on to love and good deeds!