STOP IT!!!

That was the strong 2-word warning from Rev Dikran Salbashian in his sermon yesterday at Calvary Church’s Sunday morning services.

Preaching from 1 Corinthians 3, where Apostle Paul taught on the subject of divisions in the Church, Rev Dikran warned against rumour-mongering, gossiping and quarrelling in the Church. He lashed out at gatherings and meetings where the prayers said and agenda were nothing more than gossip in disguise.

This is indeed a timely and apt message to our Pastors and Deacons who have been feverishly conducting countless small group meetings for invited church members in the last few weeks (and more in the next 2 weeks) which have caused much confusion, strife and division in our already embattled and hurting church. These meetings have resulted in even more gossip circulating around.

The meetings have also caused problems among some husbands and wives who were invited to attend the meetings separately at different times, for reasons best known to our Pastors and Deacons. Some interpreted it to be an attempt by the church to ‘divide and conquer’ the minds and opinions of the members even between husbands and wives.

Adding to the confusion, in one of the meetings, a lay leader (nominated for deaconship), a Deacon and a Pastor gave 3 different answers to 1 question by a member. So not only are the members confused, our leaders themselves are equally confused if not more confused than the members.

These meetings were designed with a single agenda which is to explain our Pastors and Deacons’ side of the story to the many ethical, moral and legal issues raised by our ex-deacon, Dr Lum in his private resignation letter to Senior Pastor. Most of these issues which were actually disclosures of weak governance, poor stewardship, wrong-doings, misuse of funds and abuses of position and power in our Church, were also subsequently highlighted in Dr Lum’s interview on CalvaryToday (http://calvarytoday.blogspot.com/).

These small group meetings by our Pastors and Deacons are the only meetings currently being organized and held in our church for the members. The TTG group, on the other hand, has not held any meeting for the members since the last one on 26 July 2008, almost a year ago. Obviously, Rev Dikran’s message must be directed (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) to our Pastors and Deacons.

As far as the TTG group is concerned, both sides of the story to the issues raised by Dr Lum have already been made known to the members. Our Pastors and Deacons already had the opportunity to present the findings of the Auditors on some of the issues at the recent EGM on 4 April 2009. Dr Lum has already been unfairly and arbitrarily sacked as a member of the Church after refusing to subject himself to a Kangaroo Court set up by the Deacons. He no longer has any more avenue to speak. There is no need to further “bury” him. There is, therefore, no need to hold these small group meetings to explain the same issues.

Although Dr Lum was denied the opportunity to defend himself at the recent EGM, the TTG group has already concluded that it is best to leave the issues to rest as continued fighting over these issues will not benefit anyone but only serve to create more strife and division among the members.

And although the TTG group has submitted a resolution to be tabled at the coming AGM for the reinstatement of Dr Lum’s membership because it is the right thing to do, they will not be distracted from the actual issues which can destroy our Church.

The issues facing our Church are the lack of transparency and truth, poor governance and bad stewardship. Dr Lum’s issues have highlighted and emphasized the need for greater transparency, truth, better governance and good stewardship. These ARE the Real Issues! These issues are what the whole Church should focus on. Bro Hong Meng had earlier written an article highlighting some of the real issues that should be addressed by the Church Leadership but sadly, in all their actions and meetings so far, they have avoided addressing the real issues of Truth, Transparency and Godly Governance in Calvary Church. (Read Bro HM's article entitled "What is it all about?" at http://calvarytoday.blogspot.com/2009/04/what-is-it-all-about.html).

So, dear Pastors and Deacons, please STOP IT now!