A Journey of Adaptability
美佳之窗 His Window 96（ Oct - Dec 2021 ）
Text by Pastor Matthew
2021 has been challenging, not just for MEC but for the whole of Mega CMC. However, with the experience of 2020, one word to sum up MEC congregation’s response to the pandemic in 2021 would be: adaptability. We learned to adapt to the various changes between online worship and physical worship. We learned to adapt our ways of reaching out to the congregation based on the current needs and context. We learned to adapt as a church being locked out of the church building but still needing the fellowship and togetherness. And through the various seasons of ups and downs in 2021, we give thanks to God that MEC continues to thrive and grow in maturity.
We began 2021 with a renewed hope that this year would be different. While most of our 2020 plans were put on hold due to Covid-19, most of us had the expectation that we would be able to resume most of our plans in 2021. However, Covid-19 changed our 2021 plans. While we enjoyed a short period of physical worship in the months of March to April, we were very quickly forced to worship in isolation via live broadcast. When cases started getting worse after May, MEC unanimously made the decision to switch our broadcast platform from Youtube and Church Online to Zoom. The reason being that we are a smaller congregation and Zoom would allow
greater interaction and fellowship amongst our worshippers. Also, with Zoom, there is a stronger feeling of togetherness each Sunday as we gather to worship. We could actually see faces worshipping together, chat with someone, and interact together as a church. Once we started using Zoom for our Sunday worship services, we knew this was the right decision. However, we did not just stop there. There was still a big part of church life missing out - fellowship. The post- service chit chat was an integral part of church life pre-pandemic. It was a time where we caught up with the happenings of each other throughout the week, and prayed together. We started planning how we could incorporate this aspect of church life into our online sessions. Hence, the birth of MEC post-service fellowship and prayer time came about. Every 2nd and 4th week, our worshippers would stay back after the service was ended and in breakout rooms, we would chat and pray together. To date, it has been almost 20 weeks on Zoom, and we are still maintaining this element of fellowship.
Worship aside, spiritual maturity is an important part of a believer’s life. A believer needs to grow in knowledge and wisdom of God and of the faith. And of such, both pulpit preaching and Christian education is important. With the multiple movement control
orders implemented this year, MEC used the time to introduce courses to our congregation to equip them with tools to understand their faith better. Earlier this year, we had the privilege of inviting the Bishop of the Chinese Annual Conference of the Methodist Church of Malaysia, Rev. Dr. Wong Tik Wah, to MEC to teach us about what it means to be a Methodist. This course certainly helped many of MEC’s worshippers understand their identity, role, and responsibility as a wider member of the Methodist Church of Malaysia. Apart from that, Ps. Matthew Samuel Cho also took the time to run 3 Bible studies on three minor prophet books. Each of this sessions lasted 2 hours and it covered the main ideas within each of the Minor Prophet books, giving the listeners the tools to be able to understand the meaning behind the prophetic books.
Another aspect of spiritual maturity is asking questions regarding the faith. It is a known fact that many Christians have questions big and small, about the faith. MEC decided to provide a platform for our worshippers to be able to ask questions regarding anything about the faith and life. Every fortnight, we would compile these questions and answer these questions via Instagram TV. Since the inception of this platform, we have received many questions from the simple questions of the faith, to the more complicated questions about doctrine, theology and ethics. Such a platform is certainly necessary as the questions that we ask about our faith, can lead to a deeper and better understanding about God and faith. In the future, we have plans to further expand on this platform to reach out and help many more people navigate through this world with their questions.
Member care is something that we are constantly working on throughout the year. However, with the stricter lockdowns happening in May this year, MEC felt the
need to step up and contribute to the society, many of whom were struggling to make ends meet. Our Social Concerns team decided to team up and work together with Mega CMC’s Meal Box programme and we actively encouraged our members to contribute either by cooking a meal, once a week for the underprivileged, or to contribute financially for this programme. We give thanks to God that MEC’s worshippers took up this challenge and contributed financially to this programme. Through this initiative by Mega CMC, we saw many lives blessed through a box of freshly cooked hot meal and it also sparked in us the desire to continue to be a blessing to the community around us. MEC Social Concerns team will certainly be actively on the look out for ways we can coordinate, or participate in plans to help out the poor and suffering in the society. Member care also is directed to our own worshippers. While the movement restrictions has certainly separated and isolated us, we thank God for the various platforms that can be used to reach out to our members. From delivering meals to members, occasionally, to calling up someone in need, all the way to arranging for Zoom visitation and prayer time, MEC’s leadership team continued to provide member care to or worshippers even during the pandemic.
All in all, 2021 has not been a great year, but, it has not hindered the work of God in the church. While many other bigger plans had to be postponed, we took the opportunity to grow in different ways. While many would say that 2021 is another wasted year, I would beg to differ. By the grace of God, we managed to adapt to the times and continued to be a blessing to people. What lies ahead in 2022? While, the road ahead is largely unknown, we know that God will make a way for us. Ultimately, it is His plan not ours. And if it is God’s plans, then I doubt, no human limitation or crisis can stop the work and plan of God.