2026: The year we bring the Church Out There

As each year comes to an end, we pause to take stock. On a personal level, this may result in new resolutions for the new year. We decide to stop bad habits, and start good ones, and hope they will stick. At Salt&Light, we do the same – seeking the Lord each year for what […] The post 2026: The year we bring the Church Out There appeared first on Salt&Light.

Religion Jan 4, 2026 0 2 Add to Reading List

2026: The year we bring the Church Out There

As each year comes to an end, we pause to take stock. On a personal level, this may result in new resolutions for the new year. We decide to stop bad habits, and start good ones, and hope they will stick.

At Salt&Light, we do the same – seeking the Lord each year for what His heart is for the Church in Singapore.

What was 2025 for churches and Christians? To our view, it probably marked the final year of the post-COVID era, when we – as nation, church and individual – were no longer defined by recovering and regrouping, five long years after the pandemic.

This means we have no more excuses. We are well into the New Normal, and we must sink or swim. We must go beyond merely hoping to survive, but looking to thrive.

What does a thriving church look like? From Acts 5:40-42 –

They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

WHAT DOES THE THRIVING CHURCH LOOK LIKE?

**1. We teach the church.**

Back then in the temple courts, now in church buildings or in homes at cell groups, we teach the Word of God. From the Word, we bring believers comfort, hope and strength. Through the Word, we edify, exhort and equip.

Why do we do all this? So that …

**2. We reach the world.**

There is no true discipleship without evangelism. That is clear from the Great Commission, where we are called to baptise and make disciples.

But the reality is that church life today is often structured not to make new disciples, but to engage existing disciples.

It is easier to cater to insiders. It is easier to deal with those who are already like us. It is easier to teach and preach in Christianese, forgetting that it is a language foreign to non-Christians.

But we are not called to take the easier path. If anything, we have become too used to taking the comfortable option.

Evangelism is hard. It takes strategic prayer; additional creativity; time and resources – all with no guarantee of success. Sometimes you sow, and it takes decades till the harvest. Sometimes you water, and some other church reaps the harvest.

Because evangelism is hard, we find that many churches and Christians pay lip service to outreach. We know we should, and we say we will, but the actual efforts are often minimal, piecemeal and ineffectual. We prefer to stay well within our comfort zone. We prefer to talk to people just like us. The church stays within church walls.

But that is not what the church is called to do. No, to thrive as a church …

**3. We breach the walls.**

To breach is to break through. In battle, sometimes a particular defensive front must be breached to allow troops to flood in.

There are walls between the church and the world. Here the apostles find some walls are built higher than others. These walls are guarded fiercely, with threats and floggings should they try to bring the church into the world.

These walls look like persecution. Our natural instinct to such suffering is to run away. But Acts 5:41 takes it one step further – when you suffer disgrace for His Name, rejoice that He counts you worthy of such an ordeal! Consider it pure joy, for persecution for Christ’s sake is a spiritual compliment.

While the persecuted church is very much a reality worldwide, this doesn’t bear out in Singapore. Here, we’ve been so blessed by the freedom to practice our religion, including the right to proselytise, that I wonder if we’ll be able to handle any degree of persecution for our faith.

Will we falter? Will we abandon the cause? Or will we rejoice because God has counted us worthy to stand up for Him?

Take the lead of the Apostles. Don’t run away. Run to the next part of the wall and keep going.

If the temples are shut down, they move to homes. If they are chased out of their homes, they regather in the next town, or the next country. Whatever the situation they find themselves in, they never give up until they manage to breach the walls – bringing Christ into new spaces, to new lives.

We must go all out to bring the Church beyond church walls.

A phrase to encapsulate all this: Let’s bring the Church Out There.

LET’S BRING THE CHURCH OUT THERE

Whether in the marketplace, in recreational spaces, in neighbourhoods and communities, or even to the nations, we believe that in 2026, there must be an intentional move by the church to leave our comfort zones and breach the walls.

Wherever the Gospel is most needed is where the church is most needed. We assume 100% of people in church have heard the Gospel, but in Singapore, 81.1% of citizens are not yet saved.

“How can they believe in Him whom they have not yet heard? And how will they hear without someone preaching to them?” (Romans 10:14)

Who will preach to those closest to us? If not us, then who?

One effort we at Salt&Light and the Thirst Collective are spearheading in the coming season is a movement to GROW the Marketplace. In a nutshell, just as the rise of the Cell Group changed the landscape of church life in the 1980s-1990s, we believe that believers should form workplace groups – we call them GROW Groups – ultimately for the sake of marketplace witness.

… AND ONE MORE THING

In 2016, we launched our first website, Thir.st. Since then, we’ve launched Salt&Light and evangelistic websites Stories of Hope and 还好吗 hhm.sg.

That means that 2026 will mark the 10th anniversary of the Thirst Collective!

We thank God that He has enabled us to reach millions of readers each year, with a following of more than half a million followers across all social media platforms. We are humbled to know that many of you continue to engage with our content, day after day. From the bottom of our hearts – thank you.

We’ve been through a lot … but we aren’t stopping here. We’re only just getting started. God has put dreams and visions into our hearts, some of which are already in the pipeline.

All of this will require additional funding. If you have benefited from the work of the Thirst Collective, we ask that you prayerfully consider supporting us through a financial donation.

Thank you for your partnership, and stay tuned for more Thirst Collective’s 10th anniversary announcements in the coming weeks!