Recently we have heard the bravest amongst us say, “It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all!” Referring to the many endeavors we are “cooking up” in our church plant.

“Enterprise” in Singapore has been constraint for a long time because of the stigma attached to failure. The maxim is, “You better not fail, because you won’t have a second chance!” There is also the related concern about “losing face”. The corollary of failure is losing face; You lose face because in the eyes of others you have lost all “standing”; after all having failed your opinion should now count for nothing.

There is very likely to be a controlling spirit (or related spirits) behind these behavior and mindsets of Singaporeans. That is another story and subject of another posting. For now, we would exercise authority as pastors of this church plant, and speak in the name of Jesus, to forbid the activities of the enemy in this area: “You have no authority over any one of us in this fellowship, because we belong to Jesus and this is what He is building. You will immediately cease your activities against us.”

Jesus, you are our wall of fire. We claim protection from all attacks, wiles and works of deception of the enemy.

Holy Spirit, “Won’t you continue to pour out the love of the Father upon us and fill us increasingly with the knowledge of God. Guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Work powerfully through us to demonstrate the kingdom of God.”

On our willingness to try, to go against the fear of failure and losing face, and generally to people who are prepared to step up and be counted, and risk success, Theodore Roosevelt has aptly said:

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man, who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly. Who errs and comes short again and again; and who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotions. Who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly so that his place will never be with those timid soul who know neither victory nor defeat.

It is right to spend ourselves in this cause.

We have the standard model answers. You have probably heard or read some of them already: It is inherently who we are – Vineyard is a church planting movement. The brief history of Vineyard has been described as “one thread in the rich tapestry of the historic and global Church of Jesus Christ. But it is a thread of God’s weaving.” At Vineyard we basically seek to be “ordinary people who worship and serve an extraordinary God”. And because of who He is, we will be passionate about:

- Clear, accurate, Biblical teaching
- Contemporary worship in the freedom of the Holy Spirit
- The gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation
- An active small group ministry
- Ministry to the poor, widows, orphans and those who are broken
- Physical healing with emphasis on signs and wonders as seen in the book of Acts
- A commitment to missions – church planting at home and world missions abroad
- Unity within the whole body of Christ; a relationship with other local churches
- Evangelistic outreach
- Equipping the saints in areas such as discipleship, ministry, serving, giving, finances, family, etc.

All of our movements (such as leaving the established haven of our previous denominational church and the safe moorings of our Vineyard sending church) have had the blessings of the people in authority over us. So don’t mention or even think about “church split”.

Nowadays to the question, “Why, you feel that there is need for another church in Singapore?” we simply say, “Yes, there are still many people who do not know Jesus. We believe that there are many (many, many, many people) whom we will able to reach out and save, and connect to Jesus because of who we uniquely are, and what we are called to do. And so it is a worthy cause (and worth the cost) because of the awesome price paid by Jesus to save the sinner!

Finally, for those of you who are with us on this adventure, we say, “Good for you!” Truly, you have very little to lose and so much to gain. Tongue in cheek, from a YWAM website:

If you want something to last a season: Plant flowers!
If you want something to last a lifetime: Plant trees!
If you want something to last for eternity: Plant churches!

But it’s not just gains in terms of eternity when doing kingdom work.

For the young adults with us, consider yourselves as “interns” learning first hand about “Enterprise” and Risk Taking. (It’s better than watching a TV reality program. We are going to make it or die trying ha ha ha!) Seriously, your experience with us will stand you in good stead since the workplace that you are being thrust into will place a premium on creativity/innovation (your “improvision” index), increasingly require you whether you like it or not to adopt a change mentality lower your “change” resistance) and develop a capacity for risk taking (your “fear” factor).

INNOVATION magazine is a joint publication of The National University of Singapore and World Scientific Publishing Co. They had an article that featured Guy Kawasaki (entrepreneur extraordinaire, famous for his role in making the Macintosh computer a cult-like worldwide phenomenon). From it, we glean and present below a number of realities about “entrepreneurship” in Singapore and explain how your time with us will serve you well.

Reality # 1: Singapore leadership has been visionary and strong and as a result have developed the strategies and tactics for the growth of the country from the top down. As a result, the whole system has encouraged the society to learn and pick up knowledge and facts but not necessarily to be creative, which is a key factor in entrepreneurship. Singapore has based its educational system on the expectation that its graduates will work for the government or multinational corporations (MNCs), neither of which prepares one for entrepreneurship. We should of course include the premier administrative service (top civil servants) and the GLC’s (government linked corporations). In America, if you work for a large company for a long time, people ask why. In Singapore, if people leave a large company, people ask why. This is a huge area that works against you, diminishing your improvision index and fear factor, and raising your change resistance. Your chances for long term survival are lower if you stay too long with a “big” organization. For the moment we are small and beautiful and offer huge opportunities for learning and participation. (Our philosophy of ministry should ensure that even with growth we will remain flexible and a vibrant, if not new, wineskin.)

Reality #2: To prosper, Singapore needs to evolve to adapt to the changing global conditions. Imagine, there are resources are being allocated towards programmes for developing entrepreneurism in Singapore. But entrepreneurship and its necessary companion, risk taking, may go against current thinking and “the system.” We highly value collegiate relationships and people rather than worry about (the breaking of) rules and regulations or programs. This will be very “counter” your existing work place culture. Government can only slowly mobilize and adjust policies to promote these changes (e.g. despite all the speeches about U turn signs, how many people are daring to do something that is not expressly permitted.) We are a safe environment to experiment and learn, and accordingly you will get a head start!

Reality #3: From day one, Singaporeans have to think “international” because a population of three to four million people does not provide a large enough market. Israel proved that this can work. It has clearly created great technology that has been exported around the world. Israel has five million people, six million entrepreneurs, and fifteen million opinions. Singapore has five million people, six entrepreneurs, and one opinion. If Israel can do it, why can’t Singapore? It will take changes in social conventions. If Singaporeans are raised to think that the best people work in government, education and large companies, change will be slow. Singapore needs a few technology entrepreneur heroes – for instance Creative Technology’s Sim Wong Hoo. Vineyard is a leading player in the global church planting movement and we have access to tested and tried “technology” and also continual feeds of creative ideas. We may have come out of a “big church” organization but we have the ability to be local and yet think and act “international”.

We kind of started with the idea that it is better to have tried and lived than not to have tried at all: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. It is a worthy cause! Together we will overcome whatever challenges lie ahead.

And then for our young professionals: It’s not so much a matter of choosing to be “career” entrepreneurs as much as facing up to the reality that the future workplace/market will reward those possessing enterpreneurial knowledge and skills. Have we strayed from the straight and narrow and become of the world, when we say this? The truth is that church planting is extreme entrepreneurship. A church planter will not last very long if he or she doesn’t recognize that. Lye Heng with his investment banking experience and successes in venture capital says, “This is really a good deal for you. Lots of upside, and yet so little to lose, going with us on this adventure of church planting. It’s really quite unique that so early on in your work life you have a place to learn, experiment, participate and enjoy the process of accessing technology and introducing innovations, adopting changes, and accepting risks”.

Go for it, get into it!