June 2015: Fundamentals

Hi HIM Family!
It is great to be able to communicate again. I have done a lot of travelling in the last two months, covering various areas of our regions and churches. I am really thankful to God that He is indeed working among our churches and among our leaders. It is encouraging to see that God is certainly continuing to advance our family of churches as well. 

Fundamentals of Christian Faith 

What I would like to share with us is about fundamentals. Recently, in the midst of all of my travelling, God brought me to the passage of scripture in Revelation 2, where it talks about the church at Ephesus. As you know, the church at Ephesus lost its first love. In the midst of doing many things, in the midst of being able to hang on to much of the strength of the church, God said that it has lost its first love. As I meditated and thought about the first love, God brought me to the fact about fundamentals. Oftentimes, when we are busy and when we are doing so many things that we are familiar with, we forget to keep to the fundamentals or the basics. What are some of these fundamentals that I would like to share with you and remind every one of us, to not forget or not to be careless about?

1. Loving the lost 

One of the fundamentals I am impressed with in Revelation 2 is about love. Sometimes, our hearts can become careless about love. Sometimes as a Christian and as a pastor, I may become casual about love or worse, I may lose that compassion for souls and for the lost, because I am so busy with church, and just busy with Christians, until the extent that there are souls out there that I may have lost the love for, lost that compassion that drives me to see salvation in their lives.

2. Personal time with God 

Another fundamental is prayer. You know, real intimate personal time with God whereby we are talking and we are hearing our Saviour’s voice or we are hearing the voice of the shepherd speaking to us. We can be careless to lose that personal touch about just spending time in prayer. I was also brought back to read passages where Jesus got up very early in the morning, where Jesus would get the crowds to go away and He would go to a quiet place where He could hear the heart of the Father. We could lose that fundamental in the midst of our busyness. I want to encourage us never ever to forget about your personal prayer and your personal time with God.

3. Dwell in the Word of God 

Another fundamental that we may lose or we may forget is really devoting ourselves to dwell in the Word of God. We can read the word for sermon, we can be preparing sermons and you know, the word that comes and goes. We are thinking about our congregation, we are thinking about vision, we are thinking about goals, but what is the personal word that is feeding our soul and spirit that is causing us to really the love the word again, in a devotional, in a way that it speaks life to us again? We could easily forget that fundamental.

4. Power of the Holy Spirit 

The last fundamental I believe God wants to remind us is about seeing the power of the Holy Spirit at work. You know, church comes and church goes, as we realise it is already June – half the year is almost gone. But what is the Holy Spirit doing in our church? What is the Holy Spirit doing in the lives of our people? Do we see the power? Are we able to have testimonies of God’s power at work: where the Holy Spirit is actively, wonderfully and powerfully doing things in the midst of our church and our community where we are at?

I want to remind us, brothers and sisters, as we go about evaluating our half-year planning for the next half of the year, do not forget these fundamentals. They are so important. Do not lose the real and living sense of these fundamentals because these fundamentals continue to soften our hearts with love. It continues to fire up our hearts with the power of the Holy Spirit. It continues to give us that personal intimacy and that personal time with God, which we so need. I want to encourage us therefore, take that time, look into your fundamentals again, and look in the foundations and the basics again. Do not lose them as the church at Ephesus lost its first love.

May God bless us. We are going to see each other soon in our Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur. God bless you until the next time that I communicate with you. May the blessing and power of the Lord be with you. Amen.

Pastor Simon Eng
HIM President

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Ps Brendan Kirby

Brendan and Helen Kirby are the founding pastors of Hope Church in Adelaide. Brendan became a Christian in 1984, and joined Hope Melbourne in 1991. In the 80’s Brendan trained in physics at The University Of Melbourne, and graduated with a PhD in 1989. Since then he has worked as a post doctoral fellow and research scientist for about 23 years in various government research organizations. He married Helen in 1994, and in early 1998 they moved to Adelaide plant the Hope Church together while they both were working. He resigned his job as a research scientist for the Australian Defence in 2012 to work full time as a pastor.  Brendan is passionate about building and planting churches, and oversees churches in Perth, West Africa, Central Africa and India.

Ps Lance Wolter

Ps Lance & Belle were married in 2006 while pioneering Hope Church Gold Coast. As time went on they began to also become more and more involved helping with other churches in Australia and missional work (especially in Africa). In late 2018, they both took a leap of faith and relocated to Southern Africa to help churches in that region to become more fruitful in discipleship and the multiplication of churches. They are currently serving over 180 churches in Southern and Eastern Africa as well as churches in Gold Coast, New South Wales and ACT (Australia). Lance and Belle are passionate about pioneering community empowerment and social justice projects for the poorest of the poor. The family is also blessed with two beautiful children, Michael and Hadessah.

Ps Chaiyapruck Pewruangnont

Pastor Chaiyapruck Pewruangnont came to know Jesus Christ in 1988 at Hope of Bangkok church when he was a high school student. After he graduated with a Bachelor Degree of Architechure from KMITL Bangkok, he was trained and sent out to be the pastor of Hope of Hatyai church in 1996. He then moved to be a regional pastor at Hope Nakornrachasima and oversaw the North East region of Thailand. In 2000, he moved to Hope Bangkok church to join the pastoral team and oversaw the North region of Bangkok. In 2002, he moved back to Hatyai again and oversaw the Southern and North East of Thailand. He is currently the Vice President of HIM Thailand. Pastor Chaiyapruck is married to Pastor Patcharee. They have 2 daughters.

Ps Chuchat Chaisombat

Pastor Chuchat Chaisombat grew up in Payao, Northern Thailand.  After graduating in Economics, he started to serve God as a full-time pastoral staff.  He now lives with his wife Siriphorn in Chiangmai. He graduated in Master of Ministry from Bangkok Bible Seminary (BBS). He is currently the President of HIM Thailand, and leads the HIM churches in Thailand. Chuchat enjoys pioneering churches and discipleship.  He has a deep desire to inspire and help Christ-followers to be passionate for God and to serve Him until their last breath.

Ps James Loke

James Loke graduated in economics and worked in the central bank in Singapore. He then received a sovereign call to serve God in the mission field whence he travelled widely to preach and teach the Word of God. He is based in Singapore, where he serves God with his wife Christine. He oversees HIM churches in Thailand and the Philippines.  James believes that God wants His people to know Him well and to have a close relationship with Him and with fellow believers.  James desires Christ-followers to be passionate for God, mature in Christ and live pragmatic lives honouring Him.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Ps Prakich Treetasayuth

Pastor Prakich Treetasayuth received a Bachelor’s Degree of Science, majoring in Biochemistry, from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He was awarded a Master’s Degree of Philosophy in Theology from the Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society. After receiving Christ in Hope of Bangkok Church in 1988, he was committed to the church and its ministry in many areas including biblical studies. In 1995, he became a regional pastor and the Head of Publication, in charge of the church’s teaching materials. He was appointed as the Pastor over Student Ministry in 1999 until he relocated to Europe in 2004 in his new role as the Regional Pastor over Hope Europe. God called him back to Thailand in 2021 for an additional role as the General Secretary for Thailand Bible Society. Pastor Prakich is gifted in leadership, word of encouragement and as a shepherd and a teacher.

Ps Kwong Lie Ong

Pastor Ong Kwong Lie pioneered Hope Johor Bahru (in Malaysia) in the year 1993. With a humble beginning of 1 person, today the church consists of more than 200 members and is still growing. Besides pastoring Hope Johor Bahru, he also oversees daughter churches in the state of Johor and Malacca. God has also entrusted him to oversee churches in Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and India. Pastor Kwong Lie graduated from Harvest Bible College in Melbourne with Diploma in Christian Ministry in 1991. He is married to Pastor Swee Min and they have 2 sons. Pastor Swee Min supports him in his pastoral role locally and internationally.

Ps Denis Lu

Pastor Denis Lu was one of the pioneering members of Hope Kuching with Pastor Simon, in 1992. He is currently the Senior Pastor of Hope Kuching. He oversees HIM churches in Malaysia. Denis graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1991 from University Newcastle, Australia in 1991. He returned to Kuching, lectured at Stamford College and later became the College’s principal in 1995. He moved on to be an education counselor for Taylor’s College before entering full-time ministry in September 2001. Denis is married to Pastor Chong Hai Eng, who is also the Senior Manager in the HIM Elders’ Office. They have a son.

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Ps Simon Eng

Pastor Simon Eng is a Civil Engineer by training. He has been ministering for over 30 years. His experiences include pioneering Hope Kuching, mentoring leaders and pastors, and ministering in cross-cultural Regional Conferences. Pastor Simon is married to Pastor Lai Eng and they have 3 wonderful children, who are active in their faith as well. Pastor Simon is currently serving as the Senior Pastor of Hope Kuala Lumpur and an Elder in Hope International Ministries. He loves to build God’s people and travels extensively to minister and care for God’s churches.

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Ps Wilson Lim

Wilson and Lai Ling are founding pastors of Hope Church, a thriving multi-site church with its headquarters in Brisbane. Wilson is currently serving as President of HIM and oversees Hope churches in Oceania and North America.  Wilson is known for his lively, engaging expositional preaching, theological and leadership insights as well as apostolic father’s heart.  His passion is teaching, equipping leaders and building the church.  Wilson holds a PhD in Civil Engineering (Monash University) and a MTh (The University of Manchester). He was a research scientist with CSIRO. He also formerly served as a Bible College director and is currently the chairman of Australian Care & Trauma Services.  Lai Ling complements him in ministry with her passion in the areas of prophetic, intercession, pastoral care and counselling.  Together, they minister widely around the world today and founded a ministry equipping website wilsonlailing.com.  They have three adult children and 1 daughter-in-law.