Outgoing Vicar’s Address

Outgoing

VICAR’S ADDRESS

WORDS REVD JOSHUA SHAAM SUDHARMAN

My dear SJSM Family, by the time you read this, SJSM would already have undergone a transition of Vicars. Nevertheless, the editorial team and Ps Alvin felt that it would be good for me to write this piece, because the period under review in this publication (2019 to 2021) was within my tenure. I count it a privilege to have this opportunity to share some thoughts with you that may help frame all that you will read in the following pages. These are organised within three timeframes: past, present, and future.

PAST

Two years ago in mid-2019, we informally began a one-year countdown to the completion of Project Spring-Winter and the launch of SJSM Village. Our fundraising had done scintillatingly well in the initial years (2015–2017), but donation fatigue seemed to be setting in, and momentum was slowing. We launched a concerted push to complete fundraising by end-2019, using the slogan Operation Home Stretch. The “business end” of this coincided with the period that I was away on sabbatical and Ps Alvin was Acting Vicar. How grateful we were that the SJSM Family rallied, and by God’s grace we reached the fundraising target we set by December 2019 — not a month too soon!

The very next month, COVID-19 suddenly came on the scene, and all progress on construction ground to a halt. The economy tanked, and with it, our financial outlook dimmed. Our countdown was halted until we could see through the pandemic-induced fog and work out a new timeline. Attention shifted from completing the work to caring for the welfare of our expat brothers working on our site and elsewhere in Singapore, as the virus spread like wildfire through their dormitories. Gradually, as the authorities gained a measure of control over the spread, the fog began to lift and forward planning once again became possible. We then realised that our project would likely be completed in mid-2021, smack in the middle of our Jubilee Year. We also realised that the delay in the preparation of the Village’s hardware meant we had a little more time to prepare the software, i.e. our hearts and minds.

PRESENT

SJSM’s Jubilee Year began in Advent 2020. Affter months of the majority attending online services and only small numbers attending onsite, the Christmas long weekend saw us gathering the majority of SJSMers onsite, over six Holy Communion services! It was a renewal of sorts — recovering some of the sense of togetherness that we had lost — a hopeful sign for the rest of the Jubilee Year.

The year 2021 began with a recap of the Jubilee Vision and its two parts — the collective and the individual:

SJSM to be transformed (metamorphousthe!) into a thriving discipleship ecosystem that manifests itself through:

• annual growth of one newly believing member for every 10 existing members (one for every 10)

• seamless integration with an excellent nursing home and childcare centre in which we exercise discipleship in a missional and intergenerational way (PSW)

• becoming a welcoming family for all ages and abilities, with a culture of discipling the next generation (inclusiveness)

Every SJSMer to be transformed (metamorphousthe!) into a fruitful tree that, through abiding and pruning, bears the fruit of maturity (Christlikeness of character and intimacy with God), ministry (loving others by serving them with our gifts), and mission (reaching the lost and integrating them in discipling communities).

SJSM is currently in the middle of a year-long reflection on the rich meaning and spiritual significance of the Jubilee. Jubilee encapsulates many powerful themes such as Rest, Release, Righteousness, Reliance, and Rejoicing. It is much more than just a nice round number of 50! It is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to glimpse God’s plan for our flourishing, and the power of God to mitigate and heal the destructive effects of a fallen world. Jubilee is an opportune moment to look back in wonder and amazement at God’s faithfulness over our 50-year journey as a church, through many highs and lows, and to worship. And it is a time to resolve to embrace the “new thing” God is doing in our midst (Isaiah 43:18—19), as much adjustment as that may require of us.

FUTURE

As we cast our eyes forward to the “new thing” and what the future holds for SJSM, we would do well to humbly acknowledge there is much we cannot now know. But as Larry Ford, the hymn writer, wrote, this much we know, and it is enough:

Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand, / But I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know Who holds my hand.

During the interview for the SJSM Village Virtual Open House, I expressed my thoughts about the future of SJSM in this way:

I’m really excited for SJSM. This is the Jubilee Year for the church and that already signals something like a fresh start. I think God is bringing SJSM into a whole new season, a whole new era of ministry, a whole new level of impact, a whole new level of intimacy with Him, by giving of ourselves sacrificially, getting down on our knees, as it were, to wash the feet of those whom God brings to us. And as we do that, we discover something about Him, we worship Him at a depth we’ve never worshipped before. So, I really think this (PSW and SJSM Village) is a gift. It will demand quite a lot from SJSM. It will stretch us and challenge us, but I think it is a gift to us that we are being led into this. My prayer is that SJSM will become all that God intends for her to be. She is poised to be a beacon to the community.

May this publication serve to help us lift up our eyes to the hills to see where our help comes from (Psalm 121:1). May it direct our gaze God-ward “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord... being transformed... from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). And may the various perspectives and pictures contained herein reinforce SJSM’s enduring calling as a church: “To be a witnessing community of praying and caring worshippers who base their lives on Scripture and move in the power of the Holy Spirit to reach a world in need of Christ”. May God bless SJSM, and under the leadership of Ps Alvin Toh, may SJSM prosper and thrive with God’s abundant favour and blessing! Amen!