Lesson #7: On `going full-time'

For the uninitiated, `going full-time' is a loaded word for the protestant Singaporean Christian. It means taking the plunge and signing the dotted line with God – wearing the collar, toting the line, walking the talk, serving Holy Communion, conducting funerals, or whatever you want to call it.

Now the protestant Singapore Christian Church has one of the most hardworking groups of volunteer lay folk in the world, not counting the indefatigable mountain-praying South Koreans of course. No matter what month it is, something is going on: an all-night prayer meeting in the heartlands, distribution of oranges in the neighbourhood during Chinese New Year, mooncakes during Mooncake Festival, loaves of bread in ordinary time, Chinese evangelical concerts, seeker-sensitive plays, festivals of praise, church camps, healing services, leadership seminars, walk-a-tons to raise money, oh the numerous fund-raisers! Golf tournaments, car washings, flyers in the mail, fancy dinners, charity concerts, swim-a-tons, flag days, the selling of cookies, calendars, seasoned meat, pineapple tarts – you name it, they're doing it. They are so worn-out from their running around they can't tell their tail from their head.

So for many of these lay people, `going full time' is like a dream come true. They dream of a time when they don't have to rush to church for a five-hour meeting after a long and stressful day at work, or feel pressured by their secular bosses' unethical demands, or their colleague's back-biting, or the unending rat-race to the top. They think, "How wonderful it would be to do God's work full-time! 8 hours a day without any distraction! To be able to focus on the things that truly matter in life!"

Ah, but as they say, the grass is always (deceptively) greener on the other side. These good-hearted folks have some ridiculous expectations of `full-time ministry' – they expect God to speak to them every morning, that their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will be kind, loving, and above all, submissive to their own Spirit-led ideas, that the church members will listen to them 'cos they have a "Rev" in front of their names, that the church, above all, will have absolutely no politics. They completely miss the point! Just like the British forces missed the point when they pointed their loaded cannons towards the South-China Sea – because the Japanese were invading with bicycles from Malaysia.



Without the army of lay people, the Singapore church is worth nothing. I would rather they all sign up to be pastors and priests and have them completely absorbed with their local church going-ons that they forget that there is a larger world outside their four walls.