At the Crossroads (Part 1)

Monday 18th August 2025

Regular followers of my blog would be aware of how my looking for answers to my son's kidney condition resulted in me giving up decades of Methodism to officially make the move to New Creation Church at the start of 2018.

Having spent the past 7 years in NewCre, I have come to realise that there is indeed no perfect church, because we are all men with feet of clay, and our focus should always be upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

My dad passed on to glory on 2 July 2025, and so much has happened since then.  While I was my mom's favourite, I was never really close to dad growing up.  I felt the heavy weight of expectations upon my shoulders, and my response was one of avoidance.

In particular, there were 3 areas that I felt I had let dad down.

Firstly, in the choice of my career.  He was a doctor, while I chose to study accountancy.  Had I followed in his footsteps, he would have "handed over" his clinic to me when I graduated, and allowed him to stay on as a sleeping partner till his dying day, ie. "be like a cowboy who dies in his boots" as he once said.

Thankfully, in his latter years, he said to me "Son, it is better for you to be a good accountant than a bad doctor", which was his way of assuring me that he had accepted what God had willed for me.  It also helped that his youngest daughter (and favourite child, I might add) Yvonne followed in his footsteps, thus taking some pressure away from me.

Secondly, in the choice of my church.  At the peak of his service to the Lord, my dad represented Paya Lebar Methodist Church ("PLMC") at the Annual Conference as TRAC Layleader.  

At the raw age of 23, I was already fast-tracked. Dad roped me into the LCEC and I was first approached to become Treasurer at just 26 years old.

Had I "obediently" followed in his footsteps, it would not be unfathomable for me to surpass his achievement, and be sat on the GC's Finance & Admin Council, or even as SoT of the Methodist Church.  

But yet again, God had other (greater) plans for me, and I am very honoured to serve him as a truck driver in NewCre, just like Obed-Edom the Gittite was honoured to be a gatekeeper of the Ark of the Covenant.

Unlike the first area though, dad never came to terms with my choice of church.  As recent as 2019, he said to me, "Son, I missed you... in church."  His definition of "church" was PLMC, and that is why my own son never dared tell him that he had also changed church in 2020.

I would talk about the third area in another post.

At the time of his passing, 2 of the 3 areas remained unresolved, and that was why I sobbed uncontrollably at his cremation service on 5 July 2025. A deep sense of regret had overwhelmed my innermost being. 

Was I the proverbial prodigal son who was to return home?  Was my daughter the proverbial remnant left in Israel, awaiting her diasporic family to one day embark on Aliyah?

Or was I part of the proverbial Israelites who had finally settled in the Promised Land, after having wandered in the wilderness for decades?

I was at the crossroads, whether to stay on in NewCre or return back to PLMC, and needed to seek answers through serious Godly counsel.

Well, praise God because He answered my prayer through 2 men I truly respect, namely Rev Reuben Ng (currently TRAC President of the Methodist Church) and Ps Edwin Lim of New Creation Church (who is currently the Pastor in-charge of my Care Group).

I met Rev Reuben on 17 July 2025 and Ps Ed on 20 July 2025, and really thank God for their inputs.

Stay tuned for Part 2, wherein I will blog about my discussion with Rev Reubs.

Afternote: 

Take note that God is ok with us changing jobs or changing church.  There was no covenant that we signed with our employer or our pastor.  But God is not ok with us changing spouses.  We made a covenant before the Lord and God takes covenants very seriously.  

We read in Joshua 9 about how the Gibeonites deceived the Israelites into making a covenant.  Yet Israel had to honour that covenant 

https://www.gotquestions.org/Gibeonites.html