A Chronology: What happened in Sinagpore's Church History

1819: Raffles’ founding of Singapore

1821: The Catholics. Cathedral of the Good Shepherd along Victoria St.

1834: The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission

1837: The Church Missionary Society (CMS)

1856: The Anglican Church
1856: The Presbyterian Church. The Orchard Road Presbyterian Church (ORPC) was also founded in 1856.

1857: The Plymouth Brethren (Philip and Elisa Robinson)

1885: The first Methodist missionaries from the South Indian Conference arrived in Singapore/ Malaya, including Thoburn and Oldham. The first Methodist school, the Anglo-Chinese School, was established. In 1976, the Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) was formed.

1908: The Seventh-day Adventists

1928/1933: The Assemblies of God, began their ministry here in 1928 with the arrival of a missionary couple, Cecil and Edith Jackson.

1933: The Student Christian Movement (SCM) began its influence in Sinagpore.

1935: The Salvation Army

1948 (4 Oct): Trinity theological college (TTC) was founded

1948: The Inauguration of the Malayan Christian Council (Founding members include the Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church, Anglican Diocese of Singapore, Bible Society, YMCA, YWCA)

1950: Southern Baptists

1950: Bible-Presbyterian Church

1952: The United Lutheran Church of America started their missionary work in Singapore.

1952: Singapore Bible College (SBC) was set up.

1952: The start of prison ministry in Singapore. 20 volunteers responded to the authorities’ invitation to provide spiritual guidance to those in prison. Rev. Khoo Siaw Hua (the prison chaplain) was one of them.

1952: The Varsity Christian Fellowship was formed. (to counter SCM)

The 1950s: The Finnish Pentecostal Mission. (from mainland China)

The 1950s: The Evangelical Free Wing

Jan 1955: The birth of Bible-Presbyterian (BP) Church movement in Singapore/Malaya.

1956: Church of Christ

1956: Youth for Christ (YFC). Rev. Joe Weatherly came to Singapore at the invitation of a group of local Christians. In 1957, the YFC had their Saturday Night Rally.

1957: Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF). [Rev. Paul Contento]

1958: The Bible Church

1960: Christian Nationals’ Evangelism Commission (CNEC)

Sept 1962: The Far Eastern Bible College (FEBC) at Gilstead Rd was opened by the BP church.

1966: Wesley Methodist Church & St Andrew Cathedral jointly sponsored a project called the Churches’ Counseling Service.

The 1970s: The development of the house churches

The 1970s: The starting of Charismatic influence in Singapore. [The outburst of tongues at ACS. Anglican Bishop Chiu Ban It's experience in Bangkok.] In June and July 1973, the Anglican Church held a series of "Prayers for Healing Services". In 1974, weekly "Prayer and Praise" services were held at SAC.

1970-1980: The Assembly of God churches adopted home cell groups and enjoyed rapid growth.

1970-1978: The number of Protestant Churches rose from 186 to 261.

1974: The Presbyterian Community Services began with one centre at Bt Merah View.

1977: "Here's Life, Singapore" movement

1978: Rev. Paul Cho Yong-gi of Korea (I think his theology is not biblical and would label him a heretic!) came to Singapore to teach church growth.

Dec 1978: Billy Graham Crusade at the National Stadium

1980: The June 1980 census of population showed that there were 203,517 persons who declared themselves to be Christians.

1982: Evangelical Reformed Churches in Singapore (ERCS)

1984: The New Creation Church was founded by a group of young pastors: Joseph Prince, Henry Yeo & Joshua Lee. From 1990-2003, its weekly attendance rose from 150 to 8000.

1986: FCBC was established by 50-year old Rev Lawrence Khong. In 1988, it became a cell group church.

1989: City Harvest Church was started by 25-year old Kong Hee. From 1989-2003, its weekly attendance increased from 20 to 13,000.

26 Dec 1989: The government released a White Paper entitled Maintenance of Religion Harmony. [2 trends were highlighted: 1. Increase in religious fervour and assertiveness among various religious group. 2. Increased political activism among bt certain religious groups.] The Maintenance of Religion Harmony Bill was introduced in Parliament.

1991: The Methodist Missions Society (MMS) was set up. Rev. Clarence Lim was the chaplain.

1991: Fei Yue (Chinese Christian Mission) was set up at Bt Batok. [It now offers counseling ministry, family life education, etc.]

1991: The Trinity theological college (TTC) received its first post-graduate student from China.

1992: St Andrew's Community Hospital (by the Singapore Anglican Welfare Council) was opened.

1995: The LoveSingapore organisation was started through the initiative of Lawrence Khong (of FCBC). At its peak, 150 churches participated in its activities. On 5 Aug 1995, thousands packed the Singapore indoor Stadium for "Day To Change Our World" concert prayer. Lawrence Khong and Edmund Chan (of Covenant Evangelical Free Church) represented the charismatics and non-charismatics respectively.

1996: The 220-bed St Luke's Hospital for the Elderly was set up.

2000: The population census for 2000 showed that the population rose from 3,047,132 (1990) to 4,017,733. Reason: More relaxed immigration policy which sought to attract foreign talent.

2000: From 1990-2000, the number of community service centres increased from 22 to 118.

Sept 2000: The Trinity theological college (TTC) moved to its new campus at Upper Bt Timah Rd.

2001: From 1990 to 2001, the number of Christian congregations rose from 331 to 450. Total membership increased from 95,123 to 152,371. [Note: 1970:186 churches. 1978: 261churches.]

2002: The Singapore Bible College (SBC) celebrated its 50th anniversaries.It has a student enrolment of above 400 (from 22 countries & 4 continents).

[.... ... to be updated!]

For the past few days...

I have just updated my blog The Earliest Church in Singapore . Overall, I think there is an addition of 30% of words. Very much more can still be added. However, the section on the Bible-Presbyterian Church is still yet undone! This was not without reason. I wanted to have an overview of the church scene in early Singapore before proceeding on the individual denomination. I also wanted to know more about what is happening the major denominations then. I have also divided the entry into parts! The role & responsibility part is now in another entry. As I continue on my reading & reflection, this entry The Earliest Church in Singapore will again be updated! For people who blog, they usually add new post, but I think updating an old post is just as interesting! It gives me an opportunity to think why I wrote something in a certain way.