Calvary Church – 40 or 47 years old? by HM

This is a SPECIAL UPDATE by HM (29.09.08)

"Met an oldie from Glad Tiding PJ recently. He laughed when he heard that we are celebrating our 40th anniversary. He said GTPJ is celebrating its 45th anniversary and GTPJ was birthed from Calvary Church. How then can Calvary be celebrating only its 40th anniversary? He showed me the GTPJ constitution which was first adopted in 1963. Apparently two years after the founding of Calvary Church in 1961, the Bible Institute was started along Jalan Gasing in PJ. Rev Osgood, its principal, encouraged some members of Calvary Church to use that location to start GTPJ. My oldie friend was one of those who went over.

He was very excited and agreed to my suggestion that in 2011 GTPJ join with Calvary to celebrate our 50th anniversary together."

" The AOG 50th anniversary book given out last year, 2007, has on page 42 this quote from Dr Guynes, "When we left in 1964, Calvary Church Kuala Lumpur was developing into a strong congregation; Glad Tidings in Petaling Jaya was gaining strength..."

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I was a little puzzled when it was announced that Cavalry Church would be celebrating its 40th anniversary in October. I remembered reading from the AOG Malaysia website the following:

“January 1961 saw the birth of Calvary Church, the English language division of the Assembly of God Church in Jalan Sayor, Kuala Lumpur. Rev. D.R. Guynes was its first Pastor. Calvary Church is now the largest Assemblies of God Church in Malaysia and has mothered several assemblies in its outreached efforts under the able leadership of Rev Dr Prince Guneratnam (our former General Superintendent) who is faithfully serving as the Senior Pastor since 1972.”

That would make us more than 47 years old, not 40. Then I checked the Calvary website and discovered the following:

“Calvary Church was dedicated to the glory of God on 11th February 1968 through the efforts of dedicated missionaries. Rev. Tan Sri Prince and Puan Sri Petrina Guneratnam was the first Malaysian couple to pastor the Church. From a congregation of 120 in 1968, the church has grown, pioneered and established 27 daughter churches. Today, Calvary Church and her outreaches minister to more than 8,400 people.”

Neither statement is untrue. Just that the emphasis and the impression created in the minds of the readers would be very different. So I decided to talk to a couple of “oldies” from those years to know a little more of our history before we moved in 1968 to the present location in Damansara Heights. How did it all start?

For starters and to help me follow the story, I was given a list of the missionaries who pastored Calvary Assembly of God in the early years.

Delmer R Guynes 1956 – 1959
Cyril G Francis 1959 – 1961
David H Baker 1961 – 1963
Delmer R Guynes 1963 – 1964
James W Jones 1964 – 1968
Victor Trimmer 1968 – 1969
James W Jones 1969 – 1972

They were assisted by the following local pastors (including Singaporeans):
Allan and Rosie Leong 1963 – 1964 as assistant pastors to Ps Guynes
Anthony Chong 1965 as special assistant to Ps Jones for Light for the Lost follow up
Fred and Rita Abeysekera 1966 – 1969 as assistant pastors to Ps Jones and Ps Trimmer
Johnny Yeoh` 1969 to 1970 as youth minister under Ps Jones

The story goes like this. Ps Guynes came in 1956 as pastor for First Assembly of God, our mother church in Jalan Sayor. He noticed that the children of the Chinese speaking believers in the Church were growing up and was making up a greater and greater proportion of the congregation. There was a need for an English service to cater to the needs of the younger generation who were educated in English. Therefore in 1957 he started an English service on Sunday evenings. The Christ Ambassadors (CA) programme was started at about the same time. This went on for a few years until in 1961 it was decided that a separate English speaking church be established under the name of Calvary Assembly of God. Although the idea of an English speaking church was mooted by Ps Guynes, it was Ps Baker who had the honour of actually officiating in its establishment. In January 1961 Calvary AOG was birthed. Robert Ng remembered that day most fondly, “It was a Sunday night service, about 50 or so of us marched proudly up to the pulpit and signed on a beautiful document - The Chartered Members Roll of Calvary Church”. Sadly it is believed that the roll is now missing although Ps Jones said he had left it in good condition in the church when he left.

It had been said that it was only a youth group. Although younger, they were by no means just youth. The oldest charter member was 28 and Robert Ng was 18. Tony Lee was 22. They had a simple charter (or constitution if you like). Robert remembered that because 70% to 80% were young adults there was even a provision in the constitution that the President of the CAs would automatically be a member of the Board of Calvary AOG. He should know as he was then the president of the CAs.

Robert remembered that during the pastorate of Guynes and Jones there were three major door to door tracting campaigns. In April of 1965 in the first campaign, 25 “Invasion Teams” saturated almost all of the residential areas of Kuala Lumpur with 50,000 pieces of Light for the Lost salvation literature. In those days there were no restrictions. Tracts were given to all households regardless of race or religion. The campaigns were the result of the massive revival in both the Chinese and English speaking congregations brought about through a series of evangelistic meetings in 1963 by a famous Hong Kong actress with the stage name of Mui Yee. The harvest would soon follow; some sow, some water and some reap but all to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was Ps Jones who felt the deep burden that the English speaking congregation must have its own church building. Together with the leadership in this young church they embarked on a building project. They bought 25,000 s.f. of land in Damansara Heights, then an undeveloped ex-rubber estate. The purchase price was $67,500.00 or $2,70 p.s.f. (In those days it was called the Straits dollar and not the Ringgit.) As Robert puts it, “The young congregation through God’s divine motivation and much sweat and sacrifices managed to raise sufficient funds to purchase the piece of church land in Damansara Heights.” I was privileged to sight the official receipts issued by Selangor Properties to the Church. There was one for $5,000.00 being the first payment for the purchase of the land dated 7 December 1965. The second payment of $25,000.00 was dated 4 February 1966.

The church building with a seating capacity of 300 would cost around $147,000.00. From the start the church was blessed. The Kathryn Khulman Foundation through Evangelist Rev Gene Martin pledged to match dollar for dollar of funding raised by the church members. And the members raised the money needed. Robert related a story when he went to sell bricks in the rich Lower Ampang area of KL. The man who came to the gate told him that he would buy some if Robert would wash his cars. Robert agreed not knowing that the man had six cars. Although it took him almost the whole day to wash the six cars he was hopeful that the man would buy at least a few bricks. The Lord was good. That man bought all the bricks Robert had. He reported back to Ps Jones the wonderful blessing of God. And as all good pastors would do, the next weekend Robert was given a double allocation of bricks to sell. Others volunteered to do overtime at work to earn overtime pay which could then be contributed to the building fund. That was how the money was raised to pay for the building of Calvary Church.

Ps Jones himself made personal sacrifices for the Church. He offered to contribute the housing allowance he was receiving from America to support the church. Instead he and his family would make do by staying in the small extension at the back of the Church. Finally the church building was dedicated in early 1968. In those days Damansara Heights was very inaccessible. The Church had to hire two buses to ferry worshippers from the Bangkok Bank bus-stop to the Church.

So are we 40 years old or 47? Both answers can be correct. It depends on whether you take it from the date the present church building was dedicated or the date when a group of young believers came together and committed themselves with their pastor that they would be a congregation of believers under the name of Calvary Assembly of God. It depends on what you value more, the building or the people making up the body of Christ. It depends on your understanding of what the Bible says is the “church”.

Without the sacrifices of the early missionary pastors and the dedication and commitment of the young believers we would not have the building or be able to celebrate our “40th” anniversary. Let’s not forget those who went before us.

Wong Hong Meng
5th September 2008