I want to say a big thank you to every cast and backstage crew member involved in the Broken production who has worked so hard in the past two months to present to us a message so powerful and stirring through drama and dance. Thank God for each of your labour of love behind the scenes and the unquantifiable amount of effort you’ve put in so that many of us can discover hope and healing for the brokenness in our own families and our friendships. Thank you for building the church today with your talents and passions, with your energies and your focus. This church is truly not built on just the gifts of a few but the sacrifices of many!

I also want to express thanks to the many who came alongside to serve as ushers, the audio-visual crew, the Praise Band, Team PICS, the video production team, the lay ministers and also the service team who coordinated the entire program and prepared the venue for us. Special thanks also to those who managed the ticketing booth and the merchandise sales. There is also the group of kids volunteers who helped organised the Dino Party program on both days of the production and served the kids in love so well that deserves much thanks and appreciation.

Also, let me honour and appreciate all the friends and family members and everyone in the audience for taking time to come down to support this production. Thank you for the love shown to the production cast and crew by your applause and gracious words of commendation. May the message of hope and reconciliation continue to speak to your hearts and let your individual stories become as how the drama unfolded – a glorious happy ending.

Most importantly, I want to thank our Daddy God for giving His heart for families to us and turning dreams into realities. Thank You Jesus for being the first to sacrifice in such radical love so we would know what God’s family feels like and do likewise. Thank You Holy Spirit for without His working together with us, every labour would have been in vain.

Credit Roll

Producer & Director: Liang Shinan; Playwrights: Liang Shinan & Angela Chew
Choreographer & Make-up Artist: Bianca Tham; Stage Manager: Angela Chew

Casts: Kathleen Ang, Darrell Tan, Lydia Lim, Roslina Chua, Mandy Lai, Mavis Huang, Joseph Heng & Heather Lim

Voiceover Casts: Dawn Teo & Bianca Tham

Stage Crew Supervisors: Joseph Heng & Ivan Tan
Stage Crews: Cheryl Tan, Leonard Tang, Chong Wei Jian & John Pang

Audio-Engineer & Music Supervisor: Eunice Foo
Lighting Designer & Supervisor: Shaun Beins; Lighting Technician: Jerome Tio

Publicity Manager, Visual Art Director & Director of Photography: Mavis Huang
Still Photographers: R.Y & Tay Yi En
Trailer Editors & Graphic Designers: Mavis Huang & R.Y

Production Administrative Assistant: Mandy Lai

Praise Band: Eishen Serra-Lee, Stephanie Yow, Francis Lee, Marc Wan & Pastor Joel Peh

Venue Coordinators: Amy Foo & J.Q

Front of House: Tan Chuan Ho, Joyce Tan, Tabitha Tan, Catherine Wong, Isabel Beins, Ng Xiuzhen, Sundy Wiliam Yaputra, Iris Ee, Doris Khoo, David Khoo, Toh Ser Nguang, Catherine Sew, Jennifer Lim, David Ong, Adeline Ong & Annie Teng

Children Care Givers:: Jessie Tan, Oktaviani Sia, Isabel Beins, Debbie Yow, Adeline Ong, David Ong, Tan Chuan Hoh, Lily-Mae, Amanda Lee, Jenny, Jan Ng, Mitchie, Malcolm Tan & Linda Wong

Lay Ministers: Alisa Choor, Dawn Teo & Teresa Soon

Media Coverage Supervisor: R.Y
Still Photographers: R.Y, Austen Chua, Harry Derkenne & Tay Yi En
Videographers: Gabrielle Soon, Harry Derkenne & R.Y

And others who have made sacrifices in secret and loved in ways that went unnoticed!

On behalf of 3:16 Pastoral Team,
Joel Peh
3:16 Church Youth Pastor

The post BROKEN: Thank You first appeared on 3:16 Church.

“The place that I went to hide in was pornography”, I shared with my youths one Saturday evening, while they were gathered in my living room. We were having a life group session titled, “Where’s your hiding place?”

We wrestled with such questions: Where do we hide when we are in pain? Do we know where to turn to for comfort and safety?

Then God reminded me that evening – He is my hiding place.

In December last year, I brought to light my “dark” secret in front of a camera, as part of a 3:16 video series on people who experienced God’s redemptive power in their struggles. Pastor Norman had preached a related powerful Christmas message on how our scandal needn’t be our story, because we have a God who redeems. I had volunteered my struggle with pornography (while serving as a Church pastor) as one of the examples of “scandals” which God can redeem.

Mixed feelings of disappointment and relief arose when my “scandal” wasn’t eventually chosen to be aired that Christmas service. Disappointed, as part of me eagerly yearned to see how God would use my story to impact the world through its release, yet relieved, because I didn’t have to confront my fears of how things would actually turn out.

But I know my God.

He always has a perfect timing and plan in mind. Recently, Pastor Ian used my video in his sermon on the topic of sex.

When I agreed to letting my video be used, I cannot say that I wasn’t afraid at all of the way people might look at me after they knew of my dark secret, but I found myself more concerned that the enemy would continue to have his way with my purity and others’.

Let me be honest: between the filming of the video interview and its actual release, I did fall back into pornography a few times. I’m thankful that I managed to confess to someone each time and receive needed prayer, yet I was angry at how I could still lose the same battle.

I found out later that God was waiting to speak life into cracks deep within my soul.

The Holy Spirit gently brought me into a place of repentance and breakthrough with Him during the first week of the 21-day Church-wide fast this February.

“You’ve had bad memories of beauty”, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper.

God spoke to me about how I am created to be a beholder and protector of a woman’s beauty, as a man. Yet every time I was hurt by a lady and felt less than a man, I valued what I was meant to protect less. I began to view beauty not as something to behold and cherish, but as something to fix and control.

Pornography’s secret appeal was a sense of control over beauty. Viewing pornography was my act of rebellion against the beauty I was made to cherish and protect. Instead of becoming a loving guardian of beauty, I turned into an abuser of beauty. I witnessed how a love of beauty, when distorted, can become a lust for beauty.

I felt a significant breakthrough and victory over my sexual sins, when I allowed the Holy Spirit to go through a list of past failed relationships in my memory. I submitted to Him every pain-related encounter that I had with the opposite sex, be it virtual or real-life, from those that were physical and sexual, to those that were emotional and verbal. Allowing myself to acknowledge every sense of rejection and hurt experienced with women in my life, I asked the Holy Spirit to heal and restore every broken piece.

I believe that God’s timing – divinely coinciding my video’s release and the Church-wide fast – was an invitation to journey into deeper healing and restoration of my identity in Him. It meant a lot as the video sealed what God had spoken to me this season with regards to my identity in Him. It is my heartfelt prayer to see God use my testimony to bring people into a vulnerable space, where they can meet the God who heals brokenness and binds up the broken-hearted.

For a lot of us, man or woman, we struggle with sexual brokenness. A distorted view of beauty has often caused purity to become like a city without walls, susceptible to invasion of an originally sacred space. To see healing and restoration in a world that is sexually broken, we need the Holy Spirit to reveal and illuminate to us the true worth of beauty.

It’s time for us to rebuild walls, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and make God our constant hiding place. I promise that the Creator of beauty will heal unpleasant memories and show us who we really are in Him.

Pastor Joel Peh

The post Memories Of Beauty first appeared on 3:16 Church.

Thank You for being so faithful throughout this year.

You know I’m feeling a tinge of surreality as I think about what has happened in the past one year. There were just so many significant moments and experiences that words couldn’t describe. I remember day one of the year 2016; wasn’t it You who put in my heart to prophesy and claim that it would be a year full of challenges but also a year full of joy? No doubt that it surely has been one challenging joyful year!

Remember those prayers we offered to you over phone calls? I know You have been so faithful to answer them. I recall the exclamations of answered prayers over our WhatsApp groups.

You really did come through for us time and again, and often in unexpected ways!

Let me think, there wasn’t any outdoor event we planned and prayed for that You failed to keep the weather ideal for us. If there was an outreach event planned, we never fail to see new friends joining us because You chose to bless us!

We did question whether we were doing things right when our life group attendance remained small. But You told us to keep being faithful with whoever You brought and to be strong in this.

We also faced discouragements when youths we invested in over a period of time stopped showing up. But You said that nothing is wasted and we can trust in Your bigger plan.

And I know God there are still pending “come home” prayers for those who had wandered away, that You are in the process of answering.

You brought us through different personal issues and battles. We laid hands over one another to pray, sang songs over different individuals, we performed prophetic acts that declare our unity and our stand with You for our generation.

We laughed and celebrated together. We also wept alongside each other.

You were there through it all.

We all do have a fair bit of battle scars to show for in this one year. How You have grown us through these!

This year, You gave the youth leadership the title “Mighty Giant Slayers”. I remember that time when a group of us stayed up till 4am to “slay” giants together in our prayers. That was one crazy morning.

Isn’t it You who wants to give us all we need to become what we have been called?

I thank You for an epic “Momentum” youth camp. On the very first day when I saw how leaders cared their hearts out for the youth participants that came, I know it was You saying to me “none of your labour was in vain!”

You have not let us down and You never will!

Oh yes, the fasting! Back in the middle of the year a group of youth leaders rallied ourselves to commit to a period of fasting. 30 days. You gave us personal breakthroughs and I remember how we saw those previously thought unreachable reached during that period. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that at the camp, we saw a total of 30 youths coming together to encounter Your Presence! God You really do give us more than we can ever pray for or imagine.

I knew it was You who wanted me to ask for Your heart and also cause me to seek understanding of our unique destiny as a youth ministry. I did keep on asking and seeking. So I see You using this “Momentum” camp to show me the “unsearchable things that I do not know of”. You showed me youths of different races, different nationality, different backgrounds, even different churches, living in harmony and dancing together to the sound of heaven! This is the blueprint of heaven!

Glory to You for all the salvation decisions made, and the steps of faith taken by individuals to follow You through this camp!

I am especially thankful for giving me a team of great people – my youth leadership team. Thank You for such a privilege to be able to journey together with them for the past one year. They have become very much my pride and joy just as they are yours. I so enjoyed getting to know each of them and being able to develop friendships that I know will last for the rest of our lives until eternity.

I am also grateful to You for the partnerships that have been developed over the year especially that with the “Young Adults” and with “The Love-Aid Project”. Behind these “terms” are names of individuals whom I have personally forged strong and precious friendships with which I so delight in. You really know how to orchestrate divine appointments and connections God.

You have been really good to put me as a member of a great pastoral team with brothers whom I really respect and look up to and whom I know is watching my back. What a year of plowing together for Your Kingdom!

Thank You for my parents who stood by me and were willing to be understanding and supportive of what I did. I never felt I deserve their amount of love but through them I understood Your grace even more.

God, I also really appreciate Mavis. Thank You for this girlfriend who was willing to make sacrifices together with me and adjustments in our relationship for the work of ministry. You saw our trying moments, our quarrels into late nights, the foolish arguments and You came to redeem these situations every-time. Thank you for being the wonderful Counsellor in our relationship and helping us to grow individually to love each other in a more Christ-like way!

My heart is made full by these hearts so dear to mine as I know mine to theirs.

I want to thank You God for those many other list of things that I know You know that I am grateful for.

Thank You Jesus for wooing me back time and again this year whenever I veered off Your path for me. Thank You for fathering me and including me in Your process of making Your church greater and stronger and more courageous than before.

I am grateful for a glorious year that has passed and a more glorious one that You are directing us into. I pray that You would prepare our hearts. Won’t You fill them with wonder and anticipation of what You would be doing in the new year? As we all take time to reflect on what You have done, let us gather treasures of memories that would remind us of who You are and what You are able to do. Let Your healing soothe wounds and Your life restore souls as we finish the year. Close the loops for us and prepare us for another lap as we see the end draws nearer and soon, Jesus, we shall see Your return!

In Jesus’s name,

Amen!

Pastor Joel Peh
Youth Pastor, 3:16 Church

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The post 2016 Year In Review: Pastor Joel first appeared on 3:16 Church.

In this year’s National Prophecy Conference I was privileged to serve as the overall worship coordinator. One of my roles included representing 3:16 Church to liaise with the different bands for them to lead various praise segments of the sessions. Acting on our desire to partner closely with other churches, we managed to invite and have a total of four bands to partner us by serving on the worship-leading platform: they were from New Destiny Church, Cornerstone Community Church, Kum Yam Methodist Church as well as our own 3:16 Church praise band.

We also had the opportunity to serve with Pastor Pete Nelson from Calvary Chapel, with him leading in a couple of praise segments on the last day and I am grateful that I could personally be on stage to serve alongside him.

What a delight it was! Not just for the fact that I had learnt a great deal from the different bands that came with regards to the technical aspects (being a musician and worship leader myself) but my heart was overwhelmed by how God divinely orchestrated the whole process from start to end.

It was God who allowed us to link us up with the different worship leaders and bands and them agreeing to come alongside to serve with us at a relatively short notice.

It was God who brought in the different representatives from the various bands to gather together to pray and minister to one another on a Tuesday night one week prior to the conference.

And finally, it was also God who caused the powerful execution of respective roles during the conference right up to the very last day!

I am sure it sounded less “divine” to you as you read this than it actually was, but I am telling you as someone who was in the front row seat of witnessing how God pulled us through different challenges and uncertainties and showed Himself faithful.

One of the most significant “God-did-it” encounters was how God resolved for us the situation we had for the last day of the conference.

I went to the conference on the first day not knowing what’s the worship “plan” for the last day. We actually did not have any band that was ready to serve on the last day until second day into the conference!

Our plan was not to go around trying to seek out for bands to “fill the gap” but to let God orchestrate for us the last day and He really did.

None of us expected Pete Nelson (an extremely seasoned and anointed worship leader and musician) to show up at the conference. He arrived in Singapore only a few days prior to the conference and it was almost on that day that he arrived that we realised he would actually be at the conference and serve as a worship leader. We only managed to gather the team for a quick practice during one of the breaks of the second day yet in His grace, God used the team powerfully for the third day sessions.

Can I tell you the most amazing part? At some point when I realised that it would be good to have a full band on the last night (which was not formed up at the start of the conference), I went around looking for band members. What was placed on my heart was for a band that comprise of different churches and ministries. Within the three days, God brought in a bassist from New Destiny Church, a keyboardist from 3:16 church, and only in the morning of the very last day, a drummer from Cornerstone Community Church.

Throughout the last day of the conference, although a part of me was felt relieved and thankful that God had gathered the band members for the final session and believed God to see things through, yet I also had this uneasy feelings – uncertainty coupled with fear, not being sure of how things would turn out for the night, afraid it would turn out bad. After all, the people who are coming to serve together on the final night had no experience of working together as a band before.

This uneasiness was elevated when I realise we only had half an hour of practice before we would have to exit the stage and come back on later for the actual session.

It did not help also when I broke the guitar string of the guitar (the one which we had been using for the conference) on the last day while leading worship with it and eventually had to settle for what was previously advised by a friend (a seasoned sound engineer) “not to use”.

I wish I could tell you that we had the most fruitful half-an-hour practice as a newly-formed team but that didn’t happen. We actually faced some trouble communicating to one another on stage and we didn’t manage to practise through all the songs.

At the end of the practice in my mind I remember thinking: am I acting on some reckless faith here? God help us!

I was glad we prayed before we went up on stage. During that prayer time, I felt God filling me with confidence and God knitting our hearts as a team through His Spirit. At least one thing was made clear in my heart, we were all there to worship God with our all and believing Him to move powerfully through us or in spite of us.

So God did move. His Presence swept through the room powerfully and hearts were opened to receive more of Him. And I am not just saying this based on what I experienced but from a number of people that came to speak to me about it as well.

God showed me one thing that night – the worship team is not just the people on stage but also those off stage. The instruments used to worship God need not be just whatever that was on stage but when the Spirit is allowed to move, it comprised that of the voices of the entire congregation of believers. It was when hearts were broken and contrite before God and desiring Him earnestly, that’s what pleases Him most!

I am not sharing my experiences here with any intention to suggest that adequate planning is not required or technicalities of musicianship etc. are not important. In fact, it is quite the opposite. There was much work and effort put into this conference and personally for me, there was really much thought and effort put into certain technical aspects (which was not so emphasised here).

What I want to make loud and clear here is that this God we trust and believe in is an awesome God. He is the Faithful One who is able to do much more than we can ever imagine or conceive of on our own. He is so good that He does deserve each of our very best, the best we can offer Him.

I believe what God is after is not just excellent outward presentations (definitely not us striving for that kind of success) but completely surrendered hearts who love Him with everything.

To love Him with all our hearts, that every one of our motives is centred on Him and His desires.

To love Him with all our souls, that every emotion and consciousness to be made aware of Him.

To love Him with all our minds, that every thought that goes through our minds is set and aligned to Him.

To love Him with all our strength, that every ability that we have is used to please Him.

Let’s seek to love Him like this everyday and seek His Kingdom first together!

Pastor Joel Peh
Youth Pastor, 3:16 Church

The post My Conference Journal: Pastor Joel first appeared on 3:16 Church.

I believe a God with an intense love for our world has His spotlight right here among the youths in 3:16 Church and the youths that we are reaching out to. It’s no longer about being nice church-goers who are satisfied with status quo but it is about becoming radical disciples of Jesus Christ who are intensely and fearlessly advancing the Kingdom of God everywhere by living out their faith in a way that matters!

We call ourselves the Strong and Courageous Tribe.

The year of 2016 is and shall be a year of formation for us. In line with this being a year of Kingly Influence for 3:16 Church, God is establishing His Kingly influence in and through us by forming a strong leadership team and a strong healthy culture amongst the youths we lead.

The mandate that I believe God has given for our tribe is for us to possess Christ Confidence, demonstrate Clear Consistency, to form a Credible Community and to be a Counter Culture to the world. This is a breakdown of what this 4-part mandate means:

Christ Confidence
We will not be constrained by “should”s and “should not”s, but we will be about breathing in the power to make faith-based decisions that produces the most confidently joyful people on earth.

Clear Consistency
We will not be about compartmentalising God, but we will be about living like Jesus everyday and everywhere.

Credible Community
We will not be about putting on a religious show, but we will be about building authentic relationships that radiate Christ to everyone around.

Counter Culture
We will not be about conforming to what the world values, but we will be about taking enemy grounds and redeeming everything we touch for Christ.

In the first 3 months of the year, we have begun the work of reaching out to the MacPherson Community by hosting various youth-centric activities (guitar classes, art jamming, sports, study groups, valentines’ day event, easter drama). God has allowed us to build and deepen new authentic friendships with a number of youths in the community and through that we started 2 gender-based life groups whereby godly friendships can thrive and God’s Word can be taught and lived out.

One of the highlights we have had so far was when we had our Easter Drama service at the end of March. God honoured our countless hours of preparation, writing and re-writing the script, rehearsing lines, filming and praying together by allowing us to see salvation decisions being made as well as the move of the Spirit amongst different individuals. There was a uniting and stirring up of youths towards God’s purposes. Thank God for bringing in adults from the church to help out in the drama, backstage work and ushering!

We also celebrated the baptism of one of the first fruits of our ministry, a fifteen-year-old Alvin during Easter Sunday this year. It was actually my first time baptising a youth in 3:16 church, together with my co-leader Joseph. It was personally a remarkable experience of joy and hope as I witness a youth’s personal decision to commit to a life of following Jesus. And through it, God had encouraged me with the thought that He will bring many more to that decision as I remain obedient to His call upon my life!

In the months ahead, we are looking at entering into a season of consecration during the June school holidays as well as intentionally establishing prayer groups in every one of our youth’s campuses when school reopens in July. Our first official youth service is set to start at the end of July and we are anticipating God to move in a powerful way through these various platforms!

So pray with us as we look towards what God has in store. Pray for leaders to be unitedly pursuing God and His purposes for this generation above everything else. Pray for effective life-on-life discipling would take place that truths will both be taught and imparted. Pray for even more open doors as we set to reach out to communities and classrooms and beyond. All glory be to God!

Pastor Joel Peh
Youth Pastor, 3:16 Church

The post Strong and Courageous first appeared on 3:16 Church.

The idea of writing this song came to me while I was attending Hillsong Conference this year. During the conference, God spoke to me about His call for me to write songs for the church and at the same time the pastors of 3:16 Church also had a confirmation from God about the theme of this year’s church camp which is “Thy Kingdom Come”. That kind of birthed forth the desire to write a song based on “Thy Kingdom Come”, something that would resonate His heart and what He desires for His people to lay hold of in this camp.

It was quite a journey for me in writing this song because to me the theme “Thy Kingdom Come” is really quite an abstract idea in my mind, and I felt it was difficult to express out in words, what more in a song.

The first thing that came to my mind was the words of Jesus prayer in Matthew 6:9-10, “Abba in heaven, holy is Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…Yours is the Kingdom…forever”, which eventually formed the pre-chorus and the chorus of the song.

I wanted the song to be sung as a prayer that the sons and daughters of God bring before their Abba, and a part of the chorus where we could declare in unison God’s everlasting Kingdom, just as how Jesus ended His prayer in Matthew 6.

The verses of the song are written to support and give meaning to what would be prayed in the pre-chorus and chorus of the song.

The first verse talks about our identification with being the sons and daughter of God, parallel to saying “Our Father” in the Lord’s prayer, and with this amazingly privileged status, we draw close to know God and His heart’s desires. I believe one big clue of what’s in his heart is in his eyes, as was described in the book of Revelation, to be “like blazing fire”. An unimaginable passion for His people. I felt it was in that place of catching what’s on God’s heart that we could really pray those words “Thy Kingdom Come” the way Jesus would.

The second verse describes what I believe are the ways that God wants to work in the Church first in answer to the prayer for His Kingdom to come. First it is unity amongst God’s people. As God’s people choose to unite in the love of God today, there would be an unprecedented power that brings about healing and restoration not just for people in the church, but for every nation. And the second thing is a discernment of the times and seasons. I believe to pray for God’s Kingdom to come is to also call for a greater sense of urgency and readiness for the church to obey God where it’s needed for Him to move through us in this generation.

The bridges are supposed to bring the song to another level where it goes from a congregational prayer and declaration to a dedication of lives in response to God’s personal revelation to us as we pray.

What I am believing God for in this camp is essentially what has been depicted in the song, that sons and daughters would be drawn in deeper into the love of Abba God, and as we get glimpses of what God’s heart is for, each one might have a deeper conviction to accomplish what God has called us to do personally and corporately, and that His Kingdom would come and be advanced in power from this camp!

Joel Peh
3:16 Praise

The post Thy Kingdom Come Song Story first appeared on 3:16 Church.