Exalt Jesus, and He Will Exalt You

Tuesday, 22nd July 2025

I am constantly reminded of the unique situation I am currently in.  I still keep my membership with the church of my forefathers (ie. Paya Lebar Methodist Church) on the advice of the then-PIC Rev Jonathan Seet. Yet my wife and I consider New Creation Church as our home church since January 2018.

There is this fleshly part of me that tends to make comparisons between churches, and even pastors, like which are the ones that are "law"-based or which of the ones that are "grace"-based, etc.

Then God gently reminds me of the passage whereby Paul admonished the church in Corinth for having different "camps".  Back then, some prided themselves to be followers of him, while others prided themselves to be followers of Apollos.  Ultimately, what mattered was whether they were followers of Jesus Christ Himself.

1 Corinthians 3:3-8 

The Church and Its Leaders

1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,”are you not mere human beings?

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants,through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

I recall meeting up  (together with Philip Ng), with Bishop Wee Boon Hup when he was TRAC President and Peter Koh was PLMC's PIC.  He told Phil and me that the Methodist Church is unique in that there is no "official" stand regarding any doctrine, be it tongues, healing, prosperity, the rapture or the grace gospel. Each Pastor-in-charge sets the tone for his/her congregation.

So while we have the likes of Peter and Barnabas Chong on the one extreme side of the spectrum who are ostensibly and vehemently against New Creation Church and its teachings, we have others like Rev Reuben Ng on the other extreme side who went so far as to even invite Ps Lim Lian Neo to guest speak when he was PIC at Toa Payoh Methodist Church!  To be precise, it was on 26 April 2015 and I was wearing my Year of Greater Glory t-shirt when I stepped forward to say hello to her.  She probably thought I was from TPMC haha.  Ps Lian herself was from a Methodist church and even taught in a Methodist school.

Rev Reuben is truly a breath of fresh air.  I see so many similarities between him and Ps Prince. They both preach without having to refer to a script because it is the Holy Spirit giving them utterance.  They never fail to mention Jesus and His finished work.  Because both of them exalt Jesus, God in turn has exalted them.

In my humble opinion, Ps Prince is God's gift to Singapore, while Rev Reuben is God's gift to the Methodist Church. God has prospered the ministry of these 2 men of God because their message is Jesus-centric.

New Creation Church's growth from below 200 in 1984 to more than 35,000 today is a testament to God's goodness and faithfulness.  Similarly, Rev Reuben's promotion up the ranks from Member-on-Trail in Aug 2007 to TRAC President in Nov 2024 is nothing short of the spectacular.

Rev Reuben's godly wisdom shone through very distinctly right in the heart of Covid when Singapore was in lockdown.

Here is the Timeline

24 May 2020: The then-Bishop Chong Chin Chung makes an announcement that all Methodists are banned from partaking of the Holy Communion.  He subsequently issues a formal memo on 2 June 2020.

24 May 2020: That very same day, a handful of us got together to pray in agreement that Jesus would somehow visit Bishop Chong in a vision to tell him not to deprive his congregants of something so fundamental, like how Jesus visited Saul on his road to Damascus to ask him why he was persecuting Him.  And indeed, God heard our prayer and did pay him a visit in his sleep.  We even anointed his photo.

25 May 2020 to 1 June 2020: Meanwhile, God prompts Rev Reuben to come up with a solution so that his members at TPMC can continue to take Holy Communion.  The Methodist Church requires the sacraments to be consecrated (ie. prayed over by an ordained pastor) so that is what he does. On 4 June 2020, TPMC announces that her members can partake of the consecrated elements.

3 June 2020 to 5 June 2020: I write to Rev Kow, the PIC of PLMC expressing my concern about my dad and kids being deprived.  He reads my messages but does not respond. 

14 June 2020: Bishop Chong reverses his earlier decision and allows all Methodists to partake the elements, provided they are first consecrated by their respective Pastors-in-Charge.  This practice is rolled out to all other Methodist churches.

The lessons I learnt from this episode were as follows:

(1)  the prayer of righteous men avail much.  We pleaded on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Methodist churches that they would be able to continue to obey Jesus' command to eat of His body and drink of His blood to declare His death has brought us health and wholeness.

(2) God is more concerned about the well-being of His children than anyone of us can ever be.  Hence, He imparted His wisdom to Rev Reuben to get it to work within the Methodist system.

Conclusion: As long as a preacher exalts the person of Jesus and His finished work in His sermons, God will exalt him and prosper his ministry and influence.  Hallelujah!