1. What is the motivating factor in starting Antioch Christian Centre (ACC)?
The Lord laid two main burdens upon my heart. Firstly, the world needs more churches, not less. The Church has a part to play in God’s redemptive mission as she represents the tangible presence of God’s love and hope. It’s not a physical building, but the assembly of saints who will carry the gospel to a dying world.
The Gospel is more than merely saving one’s soul from hell. The core of it is about the person’s transformation as that is a testament of God’s love in a person’s existence.
Secondly, the crisis we face today—the prevalent lack of spiritual maturity in the Church. We can be Christians for decades yet in a spiritual sense, we might still be infants, not growing or maturing.
Growth and maturity don’t happen naturally; it requires an intentional decision and consistent effort. Just as in any relationship, it requires engagement, commitment to nurture and sacrifice.
Similarly, developing a deeper dependency and intimacy with the Lord must be the Church’s main focus.
With these, I was led to follow the call to start Antioch Christian Centre.
2. What strategies or approaches did you use?
ACC’s tagline: “Everyone Must Grow, Everyone Should Serve and Everyone is a Leader”.
Building the Kingdom is our priority. I believe everyone should be trained and developed to be a leader. Therefore, we practice team leadership as it advocates leading as a team.
We are gifted differently, so we capitalize on our strengths and lead the team to achieve our common objectives together without the disparities, whilst empowering individuals to excel as they perform different functions. This approach develops discipline as it demands a lot of patience and humility, given that it encourages one to forgo self and embrace the team’s objectives above one’s own.
Everyone is a leader, a teacher and an intercessor. Creating different platforms within our church allow these functions to be strengthened and provide opportunities for potential leaders to take lead while receiving proper guidance and supervision in cell groups, prayer meetings and services.
We also train and equip every person with the 5-Steps-Approach to Self-Study the Scriptures. This will enable them to teach others the scriptural text more accurately, based on the context and original intent of the biblical authors.
Finally, we pace them in intercessory prayers, both in spoken words and in spiritual tongues, with the help of scriptural prayer pointers.
3. What was one of the toughest challenges you encountered? How did God and your team resolve this?
The challenge was forging our team’s unity: how we embraced and aligned ourselves to the God-given vision. Although we had only 13 members initially, it was a great task aligning the team together as one, coupled with operational matters such as having no fixed venue for our services and to work within our means prudently as we weren’t financially strong.
Thus, we adopted the 4 “i” Impartation Approach – INSPIRE, INFLUENCE, INSTRUCT, IMPACT. This concept was inspired by how Jesus led His disciples. Each time we engage with the people, we start with an INSPIRING thought or story. Much effort is put into intentionally prepare for this. To have a lasting INFLUENCE over time, we need to constantly engage the people.
Building a new church demands faith and passion. It’s about building people up by investing in them through a discipleship journey. Programs don’t disciple people; it’s people who disciple people. It will take much time, energy, resources and even a part of our life to see another life transformed.
A leader may get things done by simply giving out INSTRUCTIONS without INSPIRATION and INFLUENCE. But there is a limit on what can be achieved without imparting the values and ministry philosophy behind the tasks. To achieve more than just the tasks, the impartation is vital because the greater the clarity, the greater the alignment will be. Taking time to impart will result in a greater IMPACT on the person.
Personal and small groups mentoring in the respective ministries are good platforms to impart, communicate and instil these important values in everyone.
When we do it correctly right from the start, then the INSTRUCTIONAL portion will serve its purpose in gaining a greater conviction and commitment from those serving together. It will result in an individual, a small group and even a community being IMPACTED. That’s what really matters. ACC is not there yet, but we are certainly striving towards it as a team.
4. One advice to give to someone who wants to explore church planting.
Pray, and pray some more. As the Lead Pastor, the need to immerse in prayer for and with the core team is vital. Consistent unity in prayer will give birth to a spiritual unity that is bonded by the Holy Spirit. Press on in prayer! God be with you.
