Reflection on recent elections
It has been just a week since Singapore held its General Elections and the dust of who won and lost in the various constituencies are slowly settling down. A local Christian website, Salt & Light, has a blog post which serves to remind us of our Christian civic duty to reflect, confess and repent in view of all that has been done and said. The author of the article said, “We do not put our trust in political systems, parties or personalities … Our charge is to honour the authorities (Romans 13:1-8)” and to “teach the next generation how to make sense of the topics of passion of their day through the lens of Scripture.”
Have a good read of today’s #SaturdayGoodRead and a blessed weekend!
The author, Ng Zhiwen, “is a connector. His passion is to see the Church united for the mission of God.” Read the article here.
Alumnus: New Confidence through Love and Patience
“At EAST, I see God restoring my confidence to serve Him on the mission field,” says Peter Lee, an EAST alumnus. “My wife and I were both totally exhausted after serving for ten years in East Asia.”
Read on to find out why Peter feels that EAST has provided the shelter for him to renew his strength to serve, and courage to lead in his life, family, and ministry.
Christ-like leadership: Considering the Question of Character
In the recent Singapore General Election, the concern was about electing the “right” political leaders to govern the nation for the next five years. As Christians, what are biblical qualities of leadership that God would deem essential for those who are followers of Christ. Dr Lewis Winkler, an EAST resident faculty who teaches theological studies, shares his thoughts from the Scripture.
“Leadership is influence”(Maxwell 2007, 13). John Maxwell’s well-known dictum captures a profound but simple truth: People who influence others are leaders. For Christians, two crucial questions arise. First, what kind of influence are we talking about? Is it coercive and manipulative or persuasive and empowering? Is it accidental and piecemeal or thoughtful and intentional? In short, what kind of influence is exercised upon others, from where does it come, and how it is properly obtained and developed?
This leads us to a second and more important question for Christian leaders. What does Christ-like influence look like? The church talks a lot about leadership but too often takes its models from primarily non-Christian sources. Christians can glean wisdom from such sources, of course, but failure to give adequate attention to specifically Christian concerns regarding leadership can end up diminishing or even opposing a biblical vision of what a Christ-like leader should look like.
Alumnus: Japanese TCK Tak
Takashi (Tak) Funatogawa (japan) came to Singapore through the encouragement of Rev Edmund Chan to serve as an intern in Covenant EFC, and, a year later, to study in EAST. While studying, he and his wife, Suzuko, worked with a team of locals and Japanese to reach out to 32,000 Japanese expatriates and their families, through outreach and informal home meetings.
The former EAST Student Council President (2015) spent most of his formative years in the UK, and the USA. “As a third-culture-kid,” he says, “I know what it feels like to be an outsider.”
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