My Feelings about the Concept of the Deaf
Church
Ministry
for the Hearing Impaired
17th
August 2001-08-17
The
concept of a Deaf Church crystallised somewhere between end 2000 to the
beginning of 2001. It coincided roughly
with the opening of the MHI Drop In Center which was in February 2001. The idea was briefly mentioned, but a non
official meeting was held amongst the hearing members of MHI one night in June
at Park Mall.
The meeting actually started
innocently when 3 thoughts were brought up at the same time. MHI was facing a perpetual volunteer shortage
as well as a direction crisis. A) We thought about putting MHI under the
supervision of Methodist Welfare Organisation. MWS being within the umbrella of
the Methodist family under TRAC seemed like a likely organisation to be
affliated with. It is a structured organisation providing for the social needs
of the community with the intention of outreach. It has full time staff and a regular budget
provided by the Methodist churches in Singapore.
B) We thought about doing a year
long publicity and recruitment campaign for MHI in the hope to expand our
awareness of MHI as well as encourage other Methodist churches to be part of
the vision of MHI. We thought about going
ahead with a Mobile Deaf Awareness which seeks to organise a mobile recruitment
campaign as well as public deaf awareness promotion. It seeks not only to help the Methodist
churches become aware of the needs of the Deaf in Singapore, it also helps us to
give them some idea of what MHI provides. Finally, recruitment of volunteers
can be done along the way.
C) The thought about doing the same
outreach activities over and over again for the last few years. MHI is going to 10 years old by next
year. Still, we belong to the Christian
Outreach and Social Concerns Department within Wesley. Our direction has to be in line with the main
department and also there seemed to be no special direction in terms of the
spirtual maturity of the Deaf in MHI.
The hope is to allow autonomy by
the Deaf and leadership provided by a Deaf pastor.
The latter was taken up and thought
about carefully. The meeting was also to
make sure that the hearing volunteers in MHI agree to initiate and follow up on
the concept. There are sensitive
implications should we achieve autonomy.
Currently, MHI is seen differently by different people. To most of the hearing volunteers, we feel
that we are Wesley members and we are taking time off to volunteer in MHI which
is a ministry, like any other ministries in Wesley Church. For those HI who have become Christians, no
attempt is made to help them become members of Wesley Church. We do however provide a chance for them to
integrate into the 9am Prayer and Praise service each Sunday.
For the Deaf who come to MHI, many
feel that it is like any services in Singapore providing for the needs of the
Deaf, a welfare organisation. They
eventually become members of MHI by utilising the services provided by
MHI. Unfortunately there is really no
system as to identify who is or who isn’t a member. For some who has been in MHI long enough,
they are identified by Committee members as Deaf volunteers. Only some respond to the evangelistic
activities to become Christians.
Should a Deaf Church be realised, it
would mean leadership is from a Deaf Pastor. Worship, prayer and preaching will
be done in sign language. Hearing people
will take a secondary role in terms of leadership. We will be part of the manpower
provision. Direction will be initiated
by members of the Deaf church themselves.
Autonomy will come with responsibility.
They will be directly responsible to manage their own budget and
finances, logistics, management, etc.
The idea was presented to Sunday
Fellowship as well as the Ladies Fellowship. It drew mixed reactions. Some were keen for independence and
autonomy. Some see it as an additional
burden to the already stretched Deaf Volunteers. Some see it as a redundancy because there are
many Deaf ministries present in Singapore already.
The meeting was held during the Thursday
Ladies Fellowship time on 16th August 2001. Evelyn was there to help those who were
present during the meeting have a better understanding of the things yet to
come should Deaf Church become a reality.
A summary of what Sunday Fellowship
has been for the past years were highlighted. Sunday Fellowship started as a
group concentrating on Sunday School or Bible studies and Fellowship. The fellowship involves getting the people to
do things together such as activities like having a meal together. Later on, Sunday Fellowship develop on to
include small groups.
The Deaf Church will be run by a
group of people who are touched by the Holy Spirit and there is no real system
nomination or election. Those who felt
called will volunteer their services to the positions which are opened. There is also no time limit to rush to fill
all the positions. The focus of Deaf
Church will be on God and Serving God.
The following are positions
suggested:
a)
Worship Coordinator
b)
Prayer Coordinator
c)
Program Coordinator
d)
Treasurer - He will be in charge of tithing, which goes
back to Wesley Methodist and petty cash which is money to run certain
activities in the Deaf Church.
e)
Logistics
f)
Bible study coordinator
(presently to be run by hearing)
g)
Performing Arts Coordinator
h)
Missions/ membership
Coordinator
This part of the essay is written on 10th September 2001.
Some new developments have occurred.
Evelyn Yong has expressed that her husband has felt the call to take up
full time ministry and he will be helping to set up a new church in Tiong
Bahru. This will mean that she will most
likely have to follow him the new church.
This created a lot of
uncertainty amongst the people in Sunday Fellowship. But Evelyn has already decided. The meeting I had with her on 7th
September 2001, she revealed to me her plans.
She has been sharing with the Chairman of MHI, Mabel Chia the requests
of developing the Deaf Church. She hopes
to be able to get another full time worker to meet the spiritual needs of our
HI. This will be the initial stage to
formalise the structure of the Deaf Church.
I
believe ultimately, that the Deaf Church will become separate from MHI. MHI will still fulfil its function as a sub
ministry for the Christian Outreach and Social Services Department in Wesley Methodist
Church. It will concentrate on outreach
to the Deaf Community and providing Christian care and concerns in terms of
social services.
My feeling about the Deaf Church is
that is will eventually be part of the TRAC linked churches. I feel that Deaf Church must not come under
MHI because it has different directions and different mission. Furthermore, should it be at the level of the
Korean Fellowship, Mandrin Service or the Filipino Fellowship, it will not get
the autonomy it needs for Deaf people to develop independent of Wesley
Methodist Church.
The development of Deaf Church has
many methods. But I would suggest a few
things. Sunday Fellowship must have more
autonomy from the MHI Committee except for the budget to run its programs. Sunday Fellowship will concentrate on nurture
and discipleship. Thus in terms of the
outreach aspects, it does not need so much money to run programs.
When Evelyn has indicated that she
may be absent from her role as a coordinator, I expressed my fear that most of
our volunteers are very young and new to MHI. The last thing we need is a good
Bible teacher, but no vision for the development of the Deaf Church. We should also not allow such Bible teachers
to think that Sunday Fellowship is a Sunday School; the Deaf forever the
students and them forever the teachers.
Such thinking will be destructive
for the whole group. On the other hand,
I feel that the Bible teachers should know the ultimate aim and then be
prepared to share their lives with the Deaf for the rest of their lives. Their role is to help as many HI realise
their role and responsibilities as Christians and help them fulfil the dream of
establishing their own church. Whether
the Bible teacher will become a member of the Deaf Church in the future, it
will be up to the individual.
Furthermore, I think that the
Sunday Fellowship is being touched by the Spirit. There is much obvious change in the lives of
the HI who visited the Fellowship. Their
enthusiasm can be seen by their willingness to volunteer and serve including
teaching of the Gospel to help the rest understand. Whatever is happening in Sunday Fellowship,
it is supernatural. This change in
response has been especially strong after three of them has gone to the TRAC
youth leadership Camp at Malacca. When
they come back, they seemed to have a new incentive to serve in MHI. Suddenly there is a new spirit, a new
enthusiasm to share the Gospel with the rest. Some were actually preaching.
Following this, the number of those
who joined the Ladies Thursday Fellowship increased. This was followed by the start of the Men’s
Bible Study Group led by David Tan.
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