A Pioneer’s Reflection – Rev. Canon Dr James Wong

The vision and idea of establishing a charismatic training school in Singapore was first mooted during a meeting among three brothers from New Zealand (they were Colin Campbell, Gordon Moore and Des Short) in September 1977. At that time, the charismatic renewal of the churches had already begun in Singapore. The fire of the Holy Spirit first fell upon the Anglican Church at the beginning of 1973 and soon spread to many other denominations, including the Methodist, Lutheran, Roman Catholic and various independent churches.

Over the next two decades of the 1970’s and 1980’s, many from the mainline historic churches were revived. The Gospel was proclaimed and many families as well as young people in our church schools came to know the Lord. In fact, the revival first began in two mission schools – Anglo-Chinese School and St Andrew’s School.

The fruit of the revival soon manifested itself. Looking back over these past 30 years I see a five-fold contribution with lasting results from the Charismatic Renewal in Singapore. The establishment of the Tung Ling Bible School in 1978 was definitely one of them. In order to conserve the fruit of the revival and raise up more workers for the work of the ministry, it was felt that a short term Bible School was needed to equip and train Christian workers to lead these churches that had experienced spiritual renewal by the Holy Spirit.

We are indebted to the brothers from New Zealand who offered their valuable service to lead this Bible school. During the first half of the history of Tung Ling these New Zealand missionaries like Des Short, Percy Campbell, Gordon Moore, Neil Patterson, and many others came to teach and train the students.

Tung Ling graduates have been a blessing to many churches in Singapore and South-east Asia; many have become pastors, church planters and full-time workers in these countries.

As far as I am aware Tung Ling is the first and only trans-denominational charismatic Bible school in this region. It has made a significant contribution to the life and witness of the Church in South-east Asia.

Besides the founding and establishment of Tung Ling Bible School there were other fruits which resulted from the move of the Holy Spirit.  I think of four other significant outcomes which impacted the Church in Singapore. They are as follows:

1) The Spiritual Renewal Seminars and numerous charismatic conferences.

These conferences, which began in 1974 through the ministry of Ralph Mahoney and Brian Bailey of the World MAP from the U.S.A., have contributed to the strength and growth of the Church in Singapore. Their strong and faithful teaching of the Word of God has helped many new Christians in the churches to grow in the Spirit.

2) The establishment of Christian bookshops which distribute and promote Charismatic books and worship songs to spiritually hungry Christians.

These bookshops together with the annual Festival of Praise events over the past 22 years, have introduced many contemporary and charismatic worship songs to our churches for their Sunday worship services.

3) The development of an active market-place ministry by “full-time” ministers and missionaries in the work-place.

Two dynamic charismatic organizations, Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship and the Singapore Chapter of the Women’s Aglow were formed in 1974 and 1977 as a result of the Spiritual Renewal Seminars. These two spiritually-initiated and lay led organizations have been used by the Lord to spearhead the marketplace ministries in the nation of Singapore.

We have talked much about the 7 spheres or pillars of society which the Church should penetrate. However, this cannot be left entirely to the ordained pastors of our churches but can be effectively undertaken by the businessmen and professionals in their workplace. Tung Ling Bible School offers short-term courses to help to equip and train these lay ministers. This will give them confidence to serve the Lord and engage in effective evangelism and discipling of Christians.

4) Church-growth and church-planting in unreached areas of Singapore.

Singapore is known in many parts of the world for its rapid church growth and its impact on the youths. Many mega-churches were started in the 1980’s and all of them are either Pentecostal or Charismatic. They are a testimony of the dynamic power and work of the Holy Spirit contributing towards church-growth. Although these new churches and ministries were birthed by the Holy Spirit it is important that they continue in the fullness of the Spirit.

The Christian life is not a 100-metre sprint but a long marathon race. It is not how well we have started but how well we will finish that counts. Led by the Spirit we need to grow into maturity and continue to advance in the Spirit. Time will tell whether the fruit will last. Thirty years is not a long period. May Tung Ling Bible School go on from strength to strength in the next ten to twenty years and contribute to the growth and mission of the Church.

The blessings of God upon Singapore can be linked to the spiritual vitality and witness of the Church in the nation. God will bless the nation because of the faithful testimony and Christian living by the believers in the nation. Singapore is celebrating its 43rd birthday this year and our prayer is that God will continue to bless and strengthen the Church so that it can fulfill the mandate to advance the Gospel and transform Singapore for Jesus Christ.

Rev. Canon Dr James Wong