Grace Assembly of God
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grace Assembly (神召會恩典堂) is one of the megachurches in Singapore, led by Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. David Lim, an ordained minister of the Assemblies of God of Singapore. It belongs to the denomination of Assembly of God, under the Protestant wing of Christianity.
Contents |
[edit] Locations
Grace has currently two worship locations, Grace I at Tanglin, and Grace II at Bukit Batok. Grace I has a traditional appearance with steeple-like designs and wooden pews, built in the 1950s. It was previously the only meeting venue for Grace members, till a sister church, Grace II came into existence.
Grace II is a physical extension of the Grace I campus, and is situated in Bukit Batok. The 14.9 million dollar project was carried out by Laud Architects. The four storey building was completed in 2006 and comprises a 1200-seat auditorium, 400-seat chapel, a rooftop, a basement car park and other function rooms. Grace II was dedicated on 20 August 2006, along with more than 1400 members, pastors and distinguished guests, including DrAmy Khor Lean Suan, the Mayor of South West Community Development Council (CDC) and a Member of Parliament in Singapore. Also there were Rev. Howard Cummings and Grace Assembly's own founder, Sis Lula Baird.
[edit] Leadership Hierarchy
Grace Assembly currently has staff strength of 47, of which 28 take on pastoral roles and 19 perform administrative roles. Among the pastors some take on roles as “community pastors”, who oversee a G.R.A.C.E community.
[edit] Rev. Dr. David Lim
Rev. Dr. David Lim leads a multi-lingual church with a total of ten weekend worship services in English, Cantonese, Hokkien, Mandarin, and Filipino. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Bethany College in California and received his Master of Divinity, and Doctor of Ministry from the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Francisco He has been in full time ministry for more than 41 years. Prior to coming to Singapore, he served at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (Philippines), in various functions including that of President during his six years there. He has served as a pastor at the Chinese Christian Center in San Francisco from 1965 to 1973 and at the Christian Life Assembly, Canada, from 1981 to 1983. He has taught in Bible Schools, such as Western Pentecostal Bible College (Canada), and Asia Pacific Theological Seminary for fourteen years.
Dr. Lim is also an acclaimed author and expositor of the Bible. He has authored a book titled Spiritual Gifts - A Fresh Look published by the Gospel Publishing House, USA. In addition, he has contributed a chapter on "Spiritual Gifts" to Systematic Theology - A Pentecostal Perspective and on "Spirit-Anointed Worship" to The Pentecostal Pastor; both books published by Gospel Publishing House.
[edit] Grace Missions
Grace Assembly places a heavy emphasis on world missions. As of October 2007, Grace has planted more than 560 churches around Asia and the world in the past five years. Among the countries reached are China, Russia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, and others as well.
[edit] G.R.A.C.E. Communities
Grace Communities form the heart of the congregation which members span the island, in which cell meetings are done on a regular basis, where a small group of members meet, usually during the weekday at a member’s house for a time of worship, learning the Word and fellowship outside of the weekend service. Such a cell-based approach employed is thus effective in reaching the large body of members.
[edit] Grace Culture
Grace has a family focus which can be evidently seen from the sermons preached from the pulpit to the various ministries found in Grace, such as the Grace Family Club, as well as the REACH Family Service Centre founded by Pastor Calvin Lee, situated in the heartlands of Bishan estate in Singapore. The various ministries at Grace cater to people of every age group.
One of the notable events would be the annual Grace Retreat in June, which is usually a five-day overseas trip to Malaysia, where members can interact with one another without the constraints on a normal service. There would be a special speaker for the occasion, and he would preach for all the services within the retreat.
The youth ministry, R-AGE (Redeeming A Generation for Eternity) in Grace caters to youth and young adults ranging from ages 13 to 25. Weekly services include the youth and young adult service. An annual youth conference, the Rhema Conference, has replaced the youth camp as the annual event for R-AGE youths since 2006. The three-day conference is held in the newly built Grace II premise in Bukit Batok during the December holidays. Starting this year participants will come from churches all over Singapore, including overseas delegates. A music band competition known as T-ONE, was also held as a prelude to Rhema Conference 2007, during which the winning band gets a chance to perform in one of the night rallies. Attendance for Rhema 2006 stood at 200 odd, with more expected in 2007.
An outreach ministry, Crossroad47, was set up by Pastor Ronald Yow, aiming at the community youth in Bukit Batok.
The 1,200-strong Chinese congregation in Grace makes it one of the stronger Chinese congregations among the churches in Singapore. It comprises people from adults to elderly, and has three sub-congregations attending the Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese services. Evangelistic services are particularly frequent in the Chinese ministry, with many Chinese Christian celebrities and pastors coming to share their faith with new comers, such as Huang Xiu Ling, a veteran news broadcaster in “Channel 8 News” of Mediacorp, a media corporation based in Singapore.
[edit] Future Plans
A second English and Mandarin service in Grace II is scheduled sometime in 2008 to meet the needs of the growing congregation of more than 4,000 as of October 2007.
