The Year of the Lord's Increase

Word Foundation -- to read specific books of the Bible
Outreach -- to win one person/loved one for Christ
Renewal -- to exercise one spiritual gift
Service -- to serve in at least one ministry
Holiness -- to inculcate one good habit in life
Intimacy -- to spend at least 15 minutes a day praying daily
Purpose -- to resolve one issue in our everyday activities

The 7 key or core values arose from the CBC staff meeting held last August, 2004, at the Golden Sands Assembly in Port Dickson. For sometime, I thought through what the Lord might want to say afresh to CBC. I shared that the Lord has already spoken 2000 years ago, the message to the 7 churches. The words that seem to pop out were, "He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." The Holy Spirit has been speaking and churches do not seem to be hearing, doing bits and pieces of the 7 key things, and not all of them. This has resulted in lopsided churches and lopsided Christians! It dawned on us that if we faithfully embrace all the 7 values, then, CBC will become a balanced and an overcoming church.

Description of CBC

• Value Driven Purpose Church - CBC is a Value Driven Purpose Church
  • Value Driven Shepherd Group
    • Value Driven Preaching, Teaching and Equipping
      • Value Driven Staffing and Recruitment
        • Value Driven Community Services
          • Value Driven Market Place Evangelism
            • Value Driven Marriages
              • Value Driven Giving

1. Intimacy.
   We value intimacy as one of the core values of walking in Christ and this is achieved through sincere worship, sustained prayer, consistent devotion, disciplined meditation, quiet contemplation, periodic fasting and once-in-a-while-get-away solitude!
2. Enduring Service.
   We value enduring service as one of the values of serving God and this is achieved through consistency in our character, commitment to church, constant watch over heart issues, ownership of the vision, and helping to mentor the next generation of leaders through training, discipleship and counseling.
3. Word Foundation
   We value the inspirational word of God as infallible and authoritative in our lives and this core value will be achieved through CBC's statement of belief, our intention to learn how to study and interpret the bible, a regular examination of our doctrines and theology and these will be expressed through a strong pulpit expository preaching, a program to read through the bible in a year, and our equipping trek.
4. Holiness
   We value holiness as one of the core values in our walk with God and this is achieved through a consistent character building that will be seen in our leadership example, a strong marriage and family life and a pure reverence of the fear of God.
5. Life in the Spirit
   We value life in the Spirit as one of the core values of our life in Christ and this is achieved through the expression of the gifts and enhancing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, true fellowship, dreams and visions, and a constant passion for renewal, revival and refreshment from the Lord.
6. Evangelism
   We value evangelism as one of the core values of a Christian lifestyle and this is achieved through personal testimony, one to one evangelism, hospital visitation, community services, market place evangelism, funeral preaching and through our missions, whether at home, local or foreign and whether it is done through individuals, shepherd groups, congregational or church wide. We are committed to those who have been called by God to serve as missionaries.
7. Purpose in Life
   We value God's purpose in our life as one of the core values and this is achieved through spiritual formation of an understanding of the purposes of God, the kingdom of God, financial resources for end time purposes which includes giving and offering, the five fold governance of the church and the transformation of the locality through the people of God.

Blessings,
Richard Toh

"God will provide rain for the seeds YOU sow.
The grain that grows will be abundant
(be increased)

7. The 2.5 hour visit to the lowest point on earth, i.e. the Dead Sea. All adults behaved like children again. Floating on our backs effortlessly in the sea and gleefully patting our faces & body with the black mud. The "orang minyak" look was an effective 'spa treatment' of face and body scrub - free of charge!
8. Witnessing the baptism of Pastor Chai Hok's teenage-daughter at Yardenit, believed to be near the part of River Jordan where Jesus was baptised.
9. Witnessed the solemnisation of a Jewish wedding in a garden setting; from the hotel room balcony of one of our tour mates -an unscheduled event in the itinerary.
10. Another unplanned event was attending a Jewish Sabbath Prayer Meeting at our hotel. The Jewish Representative also came to give us a brief after dinner that night, on Pastor's invitation.
11. And of course, I also liked the food in Israel. If you like salads, cheese, ground bean soups, large hot and pickled green chillies, you'll love it too! The best meat I tasted in Israel was grilled lamb.
12. Compared to Cairo and Mt Sinai, everywhere in Israel we visited was very clean, including the toilets in the small Chinese, Korean and Falafel (cooked meat and fresh vegetables in a pita bread pouch- Burger ala Jew) food outlets.
13. The short and sweet devotions TWICE every morning, except for the morning of Sinai climb - first with my roommate, Lydia, and later, with the tour group.

    Despite the long flight and long waiting at Qatar airport, it was worth it. I hope I can go to Israel again, especially together with Shum!

    God bless all of you!
    Pat Shum
    (Pat attends CBC's SS2 Centre)