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Likewise, we believe that
the church must be relevant to our community. As such, we have in
our local outreach efforts, programmes that serve the community
with no strings attached. New Life Community Services is such an
avenue to minister to the community, in particular, in our neighbourhood
of Bukit Panjang. Community Outreach, on the other hand, is a ministry
that helps to mobilize the church to build relationships with the
residents in our vicinity.
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A.
New Life Community Services Centre
New Life Community Services is a voluntary welfare organisation
and aims to establish a loving presence for serving the Bukit Panjang
community. Affiliated to Covenant Evangelical Free Church, and hence
drawing most of its volunteers from there, New Life is the community
services arm of Covenant EFC, providing the platform to engage the
community through a wide range of social services to enrich family
and community life.
However, New Life is conscious of the religious sensitivities of
the community and its activities are therefore non-religious, non-evangelistic,
and available to all residents. New Life desires to complement established
community services in Bukit Panjang, and to work hand-in-hand with
community leaders and residents, serving the community regardless
of race or religion.
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B. Community Outreach
The vision for Community Outreach is to build a church without walls.
Bridging the community is the main focus of this ministry. In the
past, we have organized many activities that helped the community
appreciate better what a church is, and how she loves to relate
and be a service to those around her. Some of these included an
Open House, Mid Autumn celebration dinner, Movies, Blessing of Mandarin
oranges during Chinese New Year.
In outreach, we also believe that the church must be ready to give
an answer to others for the hope that she has in Christ. Thus, we
have adopted the Alpha Course with the purpose to help our friends
find meaning and purpose in life through the gospel.
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C. The Alpha Course
A programme that originated from the UK, the Alpha Course is a 3-month
series that serves to inform seekers about the basic truth and fundamental
teachings of the Christian faith. Conducted in small groups, it
is fun, seeker-friendly, and relationship-based. Most of our previous
guests of the Alpha Course found it helpful that they could examine
the claims of Christianity with no pressure or obligation at all.
Many of these have since embraced the faith themselves when they
encountered the truth of the gospel of Christ.
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2. Missions
The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is Jesus’ last command,
and hence our first concern. We find the scope of disciplemaking
defined in the short but significant phrase “make disciples
of all nations.” In Covenant, our focus of missions is in
reaching the unreached communities in the world, and giving them
a vision to multiply indigenous movements within their own communities.
Our current engagement of missions is in the vast land of Asia,
specifically, in the 3 regions of South East Asia, East Asia and
Central Asia. In Indonesia, for example, we are engaged in a ministry
of community blessing and development. In Thailand, we have our
missionaries, Pastor Glen and Bim Westwood, serving in different
church plants as well as in marriage counseling.
In God’s time, we are trusting God for more of His labourers
to go into His harvest field – to bring the Good News of
Jesus Christ to the nations of the world.
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