Prequel (the Call if you like)

Pastor Stuart Gurnea first articulated God’s call for me, when he invited me to join in the work of the Vineyard Singapore church plant. That was in 2000.

Actually Stuart and I had met much earlier, in 1998, and together we organized a Vineyard Christian Fellowship Conference in Singapore for the Methodist Church. We got a Vineyard team from North Dallas including Blaine Cook. We had workshops on healing, and a lot of other teaching. The team also led worship using Vineyard music and ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

After the conference there were many testimony of healing. I personally knew of migraine headaches, rashes and a lump on a hand that got healed. A lady, Alice Chu, had pressure and pain in her ear due to diving. After prayer, there was a pop in her ear and it was healed.

Before Stuart had spoken to me I never contemplated going into the pastoral ministry. We were so comfortable in our former church! Susan attended Sunday school and grew up in that church. Her relatives and her favorite aunt are members. Susan made me became a member in 1980 when Shawn was born. We wanted a church to belong to, and where we could go as a family.

I said Susan made me, because I was saved as a teenager in a Baptist church but had backslidden by then. Church had no meaning for me.

My only concern was to get ahead in life, in my career.

It did not bother me that my wedding was totally traditional – my mom consulted the Taoist almanac for an auspicious date – the 8th day of the eighth lunar month. And the ceremony involved our offering prayers to my ancestors.

But I got filled with the Holy Spirit in 1986 and everything changed after that. I got a spiritual heart transplant.

Instead of going to church two or three times a year, doing it just for show, I really began to enjoy worshiping God, experiencing peace, joy and healing coming into His presence.

The Bible suddenly made sense to me, and God’s word began to direct my life. God Himself became so real to me in His word. And I found myself challenged on a moment-by-moment basis to make choices for Him.

This invaded every aspect of my life: what I did at work. How I behaved with children, how I related to my wife, my definition of success and what I considered of real value.

When I started researching Vineyard, how they did the stuff, or do church, I found that it was like coming home:

Vineyard’s value of being Spirit reliance was good. I could empathize with the practice of asking the Holy Spirit to come, for God’s Kingdom to break through. I was comfortable about exercising authority to cast out demons and healing the sick as Jesus had commanded his disciples.

Vineyard’s priorities of worship, the word, fellowship, equipping / service, evangelism and making disciples mirrored mine.

But I had been in my former church core leadership team for about 10 years and it was fulfilling work. As the lay leader and chairman of the board, I exercised a lot influence over the directions of the church. There was certainly no push to leave.

I was already functioning as an elder or pastor yet I never saw myself as one. Stuart opened my eyes to this. The desire to pastor a church on a full time vocational basis was conceived in me. The conviction grew and would not be allayed.

It was another two years, in February 2002 when I heard for myself the Lord’s calling.

My heart jumped at the words, Close the door behind you and step into the new. The fields are white unto harvest. Who shall I send? You are a mighty man of God and I have called you. Seek only my purpose, my will and my glory and keep your eyes on me.

If you have no reservations you will have victory over and over and over and over and over and over again and will completely destroy the enemy. (Unlike the experience of Jehoash, the King of Israel described in 2 Kings 13:14-19.)

These words were added to what I felt the Lord had said to me when in a very quiet moment I had asked Him why I should answer the call. His short and sharp answer was, I will be in it!

Soon after that I spoke personally with my pastor and co-leaders at Christ Methodist Church.

There was affirmation, and I recall that one of them, Winston Wee, wrote to me after our meeting saying, Last night I sat up to pray at 3.40 a.m. as I could not sleep. One of the items I prayed for was your direction in the Vineyard project. I asked the Lord what is His direction for you as a pastor in Vineyard Singapore, and He replied that it is a calling. And are you equipped? The Lord replied that He will provide, just as He had made the weak strong. May our good Lord bless you in your new assignment.

Around this time, the consulting firm that I had co-founded was going through a crisis. By May 2002 the result was effectively, a break up of the business partnership. The break up was achieved amicably and I could see that God’s hand was at work to lead me out.

The change paved the way for me to go into “tent making”. The new arrangements allowed each of the four partners to separately develop his own business and interest. We could cross sell, and would continue to share the brand name, the premises and some expenses.

To be prudent we sold our Goodman Road home in July 2002, since we realized that it would be difficult to continue with its upkeep.

Interestingly, Pastor Kirk Delaney of Vineyard Christian Fellowship Pine Rivers, Brisbane was visiting when we were trying to sell our house. Kirk had been given the curious anointing to pray for houses to get sold. He shared with us that several of his neighbors were able to sell their houses within a short time of his praying for them. It’s another testimony of God’s hand at work in our lives, bringing Kirk to us at that moment. Within a couple of months of Kirk praying for us, we managed to sell the house at a decent price, despite the market being soft.

Praise God we were able to make the move to our new home largely using CPF, and with some residual debt!

At the end of August 2002 I stepped down from Christ Methodist Church’s core leadership. The stage was set for us to embark on church planting!

Vineyard ministering at CMC (1998).
Can you spot Lye Heng?

Stuart, in a suit!!!

Blaine Cook

How different we all look…
CMC Leaders and the North Dallas Vineyard Team