Singapore
___________________________________________________________________________________
Demographics
Population: 4.5 million
Ethnic Groups: Chinese 77%, Malay 14%, Indian 8%, other 1%
Religions: Buddhist 43%, Muslim 15%, Taoist 9%, Catholic 5%, Hindu 4%, other Christian 10%, none 14%
Languages: Mandarin, English, Malay, Hokkien, Cantonese, Teochew, Tamil
Industry: Manufacturing, Construction, Transportation and Communication, Financial, Business
___________________________________________________________________________________
Missions @ SG
From its inception, Cornerstone Community Church has always been a mission-focused church. Besides our ministries in the nations, we also serve the nations in our home country – by having International Congregations. The following are descriptions of the congregations that we have. It is indeed having the Nations in Cornerstone.
To read more about Cornerstone Community Church, please visit our website www.cscc.org.sg.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Mandarin Congregation
Cornerstone’s Mandarin-speaking congregation has been a great strength to the church since its beginnings in 1997. Led by Pastor Samuel Wong, the congregation is aimed especially for those who are most comfortable with the Mandarin language. A faithful congregation of more than one hundred attends every week. The congregation is also active in missions to mainland China
China Alive Ministries is the mission arm of the Mandarin Congregation. Almost 11 years old now, China Alive Ministries is a key part of Cornerstone’s heart for the nations. Run under the direction our Mandarin congregation, China Alive’s vision is to raise an army of intercessors and missionaries to win China for Jesus. Every Monday evening, the ministry comes together to pray for the nation of China and to train those who have a heart for God’s work there.
Telugu Fellowship
Over the last few years, God has laid a burden on the leadership for a work amongst the Indian community that resides in Singapore. This is particularly towards the many foreign workers from India and Bangladesh. This year, God has graciously opened a door for us to begin to work amongst the Telugu speaking community that comes predominantly from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.
With effect from April 2009, we now have a Telugu-speaking service held every Sunday evening at 7:30 pm at Jurong East. We are privileged to have Pastor Nelson David and his wife Malika to helm the work here, and together with their team of leaders, they are seeing about 80-100 people coming weekly to the service.
In order to facilitate the members coming for the service, we have busing services from 5 different places that brings the people to the meeting hall. These workers come each Sunday evening and are fed both spiritually and physically, and this is part of our efforts to reach them and to minister to them.
The team of leaders also runs several cell groups during the weekday evenings and they labor tireless to minister to these workers who find themselves in a foreign country without anyone to turn to when they fall ill or encounter problems in their lives. At the same time, we see many turning to the Lord as they encounter the love of God through the ministry of the leaders and the believers.
African Fellowship
In the year 2006, we started a congregation for the African people as we noticed that there were more and more African people attending the church. In that year, we invited Pastor John Ekundayo to help us get this congregation started.
Pastor John has had numerous years of experience as a pastor in Nigeria and together with his wife, Mary, they started the congregation.
They focused on the main gathering places of the African community and did weekly outreaches in those areas and invited them to come join us for service. Each week, we have a bus that brings about 30 African people from the Mustafa area to church for service.
Due to the transient nature of many of the African people that come through the church, the attendance of the service has fluctuated. However, there have been many testimonies in the congregation of how God spoke to individuals and touched their lives so that they were able to move on with God and be established in other places. The congregation has definitely planted many good seeds in the lives of the people that have come through their doors.
At the start of this year, Pastor John felt the leading of the Lord to make a shift in the direction of his ministry. Since then he has been accepted into a doctorate program in New Zealand and will be moving there with his family. In his place, Pastor Daniel Kisa will be taking over the leadership of the congregation.
Pastor Daniel is married to Keddy, a Singaporean, and he had pastored in Uganda for over 7 years previously.
Myanmar Fellowship
There is an ever-growing number of people from Myanmar in Singapore, and the Cornerstone leadership felt a need to reach out to these people. Thus, in October of 2008 the Myanmar Fellowship was born.
Pastor Saw Thiha leads the fellowship. He is married to Susanna Min, and they have two sons. Pastor Saw previously served as the Youth Pastor at Cornerstone Community Church in Yangon, where his father-in-law, Pastor San Min, is the Senior Pastor.
The Myanmar Fellowship currently has about 20 people attending each week. It has grown from a size of 6 in their initial service and continues to see new visitors each week.
The vision of the Myanmar Fellowship is to bless the nation of Myanmar. They first accomplish this by preaching the Gospel to the Myanmarese people here in Singapore. As they are brought to salvation, they will return to Myanmar and carry the Gospel there as well. The Myanmar Fellowship also wants to bless the nation of Myanmar financially, responding to the various humanitarian crises that exist there.
Bahasa Fellowship
The Cornerstone Bahasa Fellowship was started in 2003 in order to reach out to the large number of Indonesian men and women in Singapore. It was faithfully led for several years by Lynda Peter. Pastor Freddy Rumy became pastor of the fellowship in February of 2009. Around 40-50 people attend each week.
The vision of the Bahasa Fellowship is to equip their members with Christian basics and the power of the Spirit so that when they return to Indonesia they can be powerful witnesses in their land. Many of those in the fellowship are domestic helpers who only stay for 2-3 years, so the fellowship has a training program to prepare these new believers to be strong in their faith. They welcome Indonesians to attend the service regardless of whether or not they are Christians, and they very often see people from other religions coming to salvation within one to two months. A large number of these converts have been baptized in Cornerstone.
The Bahasa Fellowship has also started an outreach to Indonesian professionals in Singapore. They have a special meeting each Saturday, aimed at meeting the specific needs of the professionals and providing an atmosphere of fellowship.
Filipino Fellowship
The Cornerstone Filipino Fellowship is a vibrant and growing congregation made up of Filipino professionals and nationals. It has a team of dedicated members who faithfully work and serve alongside the vision of Cornerstone Community Church. The goal is to encourage its members towards a strong and intimate walk with the Lord, to strengthen them for effective service in the Body and to equip them towards the fulfillment of God’s purpose for their lives.
The Filipino congregation also has small groups to encourage their people to take a break and connect with friends in a relaxed setting. These are not conventional cell groups but a chance to come together and have fun.
The Filipino congregation believes that life-change happens best in the context of relationships. They desire to see individuals come together to form lasting friendships and walk through life together by His grace and in the fear of the Lord. Support groups are the heart and soul of the congregation. It’s through this support system that they see love in action. They know that we do not have all the answers, but have just learned that life is more vibrant when you have God-fearing friends walk with you and help you through the challenges we face each day.
The Filipino congregation that started in 2005 with 12 members has grown to more than 200 members under the leadership of Pastor Hazeil Minosa.
Japanese Fellowship
The Cornerstone Japanese Fellowship was launched on 26 April 2008, with the vision to reach the Japanese who are living in Singapore with the gospel of Christ, and eventually, the nation of Japan. Besides evangelizing the Japanese in Singapore, the fellowship serves the objective of providing a community to the Japanese who had received salvation in our English congregation. The little community comprises of both Singaporeans and Japanese who meet monthly for bible study, prayer and a bilingual Service.
