From the President's Office
Message from the President's Office
March 2025
When I accepted the offer as Executive Director of the Singapore Baptist Convention in 2006, I did not have a ready list of what I could and hoped to do, except for a compelling desire to forge a united Baptist community. There is beauty and purpose in every Baptist church being autonomous and functioning without hierarchical interference, as long as it does not lead us to isolation. I quickly learned that autonomy should lead us to offer voluntary cooperation, where we deliberately unite with others by choice. There can be unity in diversity. Unity is not uniformity, expecting everyone to be the same or hold the same views. Unity is also not conformity, forcing people to merge into a single entity or sacrifice truth to get along. Unity is about building trusting relationships, sharing resources and working together towards common goals.
Organisations see unity as a single, cohesive, and coordinated entity with a shared mission and purpose. Systematic Theology addresses the unity of the church as a spiritual body that exists among believers centred on a shared faith in Christ. Practical Theology views unity as people putting aside differences to support each other to achieve a common purpose. It is crystal clear that without unity, no one stands to gain.
BTS is part of the Singapore Baptist Convention, which serves the Baptist community and beyond. It has a strategic mission to equip men and women theologically to shepherd our churches, now and for the future. We cannot do it alone. We need the voluntary cooperation of pastors, lay leaders and church members to stay faithful to our mission.
In November, I wrote about my rookie experience caring for a potted beefwood plant. I successfully kept it alive and earned myself a beef steak dinner as a reward. I tried to grow it further because it only had a lonely stem stalk with a few leaves after I unsuccessfully tried to prune it. I chanced upon a small pot of the same plant in a market, bought it to keep my original plant company, and potted them together. Within two weeks, and to my delight, the solitary stem flourished and sprouted new leaves in tandem with the one I bought. Today, I am unable to distinguish it from the other stems. There is greater strength and beauty in growing together. As I water the plant every morning, I ask the Lord to help us stay together and help one another to flourish, notwithstanding our autonomy and independence.
I recall with fondness when the Baptist community had its Family Sports Day at the Toa Payoh Stadium. There were sporting events for the young and old. The finale was the 100m dash for pastors. As the starting horn blasted, the pastors dashed towards the finishing tape. At the halfway mark, it was evident that the late Pastor Joseph Seah was leading the pack. But at the three-quarter mark, he slowed down. Some of us on the field were alarmed, thinking he was not feeling well. But he smiled at us and gave us the thumbs-up sign, signalling he was all right. He was actually waiting for the other runners to catch up. Then, arms locked and in single file, they moved towards the finishing tape together. The crowd roared at its hilarity. What a fitting finish and an example of voluntary cooperation and unity. Although he did not express it in words, it was crystal clear that Pastor Seah exemplified the challenge and need for us to live out our unity. Why should one be happy when others are sad? Why should one gain when others lose?
We all know we need to be united. Sadly, unity is counterintuitive. It is not something that happens naturally or by association. It is the right thing to do, but we do not. The ‘High Priestly Prayer’ by our Lord Jesus Christ in John 17 is a pivotal moment where He expressed His deep desire for unity among His followers. He asked the Father to make us one, just as He and the Father were one (vv 21-22). He left us with no doubt that our unity was a wholesome witness to the world when He prayed that we would be one so that the world may believe that the Father had sent Him (v 21), demonstrating the reality of God’s love and the gospel’s transformative power. Unity clearly reflects God’s attributes, with Jesus’ prayer highlighting the unity between the Father and the Son and His desire for us to be a unified, joyful community (vv 22-23).
Just as we always long for our prayers to our Heavenly Father to be answered, may we also long to be an answer to Jesus’s prayer for us. May we rise above our differences, preferences, and indifferences to be united as one Baptist community, propelling BTS to stay healthy, innovative and progressive at the forefront of theological education. Do not let BTS stand alone. Instead, let it flourish in the warmth and support of voluntary cooperation from the Baptist community. Alone, we can do little, but together, we can do so much more. Let us support each other as we embrace our shared faith and mission to spread God’s love and bring hope to a broken world.
Together in Christ,
Peter Tang
Interim Managing Director
