It’s a Family Affair!
By Alex Lum
Life Groups Coordinator
75 members from our congregation participated in Life Groups (LG) Convention 2025 on 1 May. We were particularly delighted that many from our Filipino Fellowship and Youth Ministry were able to join us! Truly this is in keeping with the Convention’s sessions:- ”The Church as a Family”, “The Multi-generational Church” and “The Church in the Community”.
Some of the participants share how they benefitted:
“This year's LG convention really had an impact on me. The first takeaway was to love one another sacrificially and unconditionally, giving up our pride and other worldly things, for each other.
Secondly, our God is the God of all generations, and we, as a church, need to put aside our differences, to grow and be united as one. Another takeaway was that we should have an impact on our community. The question posed by the Conference speaker, Pastor Ernie Song, “If HVMC was removed from Holland Village, what would the impact be?” was really significant because it made me realise that we, as a church, need to do more for our community by reaching out to bless others as God has blessed us.”
- Elizabeth Khor (Youth Ministry)
“Every person whom God has placed in our lives, is there not by chance, but represents an opportunity for us to be transformed. Our youth are the ‘present’ generation of the church, not the ‘future’, therefore we must be more intentional to involve them in our activities, and to exhibit patience and encouragement towards them.”
- Gan Soh Huan
“What stood out for me was that our church is a place where we provide a safe space for one another to grow as children of God. We come to church not to meet our own individual needs but to build up the family of God. Our Lord Jesus commanded us, in John 13: 34-35, to love one another as He has loved us with His sacrificial love. One simple way of doing this is to actively build strong relationships through LGs. By imitating Christ and showing Christlike behaviour together, we can reach out and minister to fellow members, regardless of generation gaps and differing social backgrounds.”
- Lawrence Che
“The Convention highlighted for me the importance of seeing our church as family and the need to strive to love each other as God loves us. This love should overflow into the community we are in and we should look to help the poor and needy who could be at our doorstep. Also, we were reminded to recognise the difficult role of our pastors and leaders, as shepherds.”
- J Balachandran
“Everyone is special and has an important role in the church family. We should embrace, support and sympathize with each other regardless of our differences and flaws. Christ is our ultimate role model of sacrificial love, who treats everyone equally with unconditional love.”
- Alpha Grace
Alex presenting a token of appreciation to Pastor Ernie Song.
“I'm so glad my family and some of our LG members attended the Convention together. Those seven hours truly flew by as we spent time ‘doing church as a family’. The worship, led so beautifully by our youths, was truly encouraging and moving. The tears in my eyes and those of so many brothers and sisters, was a testament to the genuine connection we felt.
Pastor Jeremy laid the groundwork for us to see our church as one big, loving FAMILY. Pastor Ernie Song then built upon this, gently reminding us of the generations of brothers and sisters within our church, and the expansive way that family was understood in Biblical times. During lunch, we consciously sat with brothers and sisters from other generations, and it truly felt like spending time with our extended family.”
- Domingo “Jun” Vicente, with Hazel and Aiana
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