Held on 22 to 23 May, the Fresh Fire Conference 2024 saw us empowered and refreshed for God’s work.
“It has been a while since God’s people can gather post-COVID and let’s experience the fire of God to bring revival in you and through you.” as Rev Dominic Yeo rallied all Assemblies of God (AG) churches in Singapore to come together for the Fresh Fire Conference 2024. Our last Fresh Fire Conference was in 2015 with Ps Samuel Rodriguez. The conference opened with more than 600 delegates pouring into Trinity Christian Centre to worship God passionately together.
Our General Superintendent and Chairman of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, Rev Dominic kicked off the plenary sessions in the morning by exhorting us to move from the Cross to Pentecost. It is not enough to be saved by the Gospel but we need the Holy Spirit to empower us for supernatural living and world evangelization. Rev Alan Hewitt, Assistant Pastor of Hope Church preached next on high cost of low passion in our life and ministry. It was a sobering message that God wants to do so much more but we are often satisfied with status quo and miss out on his greater outpouring.
We had three tracks namely Next Generation, Evangelism and Discipleship tracks in our afternoon Application Sessions. The format for each session had about three panellists sharing their experiences and was facilitated by a moderator with questions and answers from the participants. It was wonderful to hear from different local AG church pastors as they shared and dialogued on key practical ministry issues and solutions together.
During the night sessions which was free to the public, it was awesome to see the youths packing up the altar area jumping and dancing to worship God. The presence of God filled the room as AG churches came together to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Rev Chris Cartwright, General Superintendent of the Elim Pentecostal Churches shared on the first night of how God can come to us suddenly as we come to the end of ourselves, just like Moses did in the encounter of the burning bush. He also shared on Day Two morning about how we need to experience God’s fire in the room (Pentecost) so that we will have His fire for the road (ministry). He shared many inspiring stories of revival and miracles of what God is doing around the world.
The climax of the conference happened on the final night as Rev Alan Hewitt preach a message entitled, “Throw Away the Matches”. It was a prophetic message of how we try to create artificial fire to get our ministries going by running many programs instead of depending on God for real revival fire through prayer and seeking his face. The tangible presence of God was so strong during the altar call that people were just kneeling and weeping to God in repentance and hunger. God showed up and that was what mattered most! We began to sense that God wants all AG churches to unite and He wants to do much more through us as an AG movement in the power of the Holy Spirit. This conference is indeed the fire starter and this is our prayer, “Lord, unite and use us as an AG movement to reach Singapore and beyond! Amen!
We want to thank the AG Executive committee, all speakers, Trinity Christian Centre, Organising Committee and all the volunteers who made the conference a success! Here are some testimonies from the participants:
“I have been blessed by the sharing by the speakers, especially the very authentic sharing by the youth pastors at the Gen Z + Alpha app sessions for both days! There are certainly many relevant learning points to bring home and apply.” Yew Qiu Leong, The Harvest Force
“One thing God is speaking to me about my life: I learned that it is not about how big or small your ministry is but your attitude towards the Kingdom of God and the talents (parable of the talents) He has given you. You can either choose to hide the talents or multiply them double fold. Church is not about chasing the numbers of the church but mentoring and discipling the people. And the double-fold blessing will come through the power and might of Jesus Christ. One thing God spoke to me about our church: the youth pastors who shared about how to connect with the Gen Z and Gen Alpha showed that a lot of trust between leaders was important for good shepherding of the youth. I believe that in Amplify*, we need to begin to discuss more openly about how we and our youth are doing spiritually, mentally and emotionally, in order to look out for each other and disciple each other better.” Isaac Lee, Faith AG (* Amplify is Faith AG’s youth ministry)
“The Digital Discipleship App Session was very good and thought-provoking. It also introduced me to other pastors from other churches and was surprised by how good of a communicator some of them are” Alex Ang, Emmanuel AG
“I came with an expectant heart to be touched by God. God never fails. Every word from the morning sermons spoke to my inner man. It renewed, refreshed and empowered me to move forward with God. I attended the App session- Community Outreach. I learned so much from the experiences of the seniors pastors. I’m so glad that I came to Fresh Fire Conference 2024. Just being there with so many Brothers and Sisters- in-Christ, feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit, it’s awesome!” Ling Ling, Moriah AG
“God has blessed me by giving me confidence in the gift that He has given me, the gift of tongues. I have always been very sceptical about whether I have been baptized by the Holy Spirit or not, I never knew whether I speak in tongues or not. But when I came to this conference, I had no real idea why I was coming, I just wanted to receive something. So, God in His divine plans show me in the first day morning when there was an altar call, I went up and was immediately touched by God and I just started speaking in tongues and I couldn’t stop. He has really changed me and I feel more confident in His gift to me.” Eddy Huang, Sembawang AG
“The Fresh Fire Conference ignited the passion in my heart. The Lord called me in my desperation. The Lord showed me the high cost of low passion. The Lord has spoken to me through His words on how we should focus on His goal which is higher than my goals. His amazing grace and words stirred our hearts (me and my team) to do more in doing community outreach. We found people who have the same heart as us and that was the confirmation from Him that we are on the right track. Indeed, God is the source of the fire, the passion and His fire is always fresh. To God be the glory!” Merry Jane Fregillana, The Living Word Fellowship
Link to selected photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1U3VbZ7nMN0d9PjiKdpT3vmhtj76COnxV?usp=drive_link
