“A church on God’s mission”: How Bethany Evangelical Free Church embraced mission on its renewal journey

When Pastor Desmond Soh first joined Bethany Evangelical Free Church as Senior Pastor in July 2020, he joined a church in crisis. 

Like many other churches, Bethany was struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic. But other problems at the church ran deeper. 

There was a greying and declining congregation, made worse by a recent departure of many young people. Certain unhelpful theological beliefs had taken root in the church. Church finances were shaky. Church volunteers were exhausted with crisis management. 

Bethany was a church at existential crossroads.

Misunderstanding mission

Faced with all this, Ps Desmond set out to understand the source of the crisis. Through prayer and many conversations, he identified the major root cause: An inadequate understanding of the church’s mission.

For example, many church members understood discipleship narrowly as just personal spiritual formation and evangelism. Thus, even though they conscientiously studied the Bible, their lives lacked vocational application.

“Missions” was only viewed as cross-border evangelism, something done by missionaries, rather than being the task of every member of the church. 

As a result, the church became insular and inward-looking. Most of the church’s ministries were geared towards an internal audience; external outreach and mission trips were rare. 

Missional roots and the return to missional foundations

However, this was not how the founders of Bethany had envisioned the church. 

Founded in 1961 as the first church within the Evangelical Free Church of Singapore (now 11 churches), Bethany had begun with a vigorous and holistic missional outlook.  

Early years saw Gospel rallies conducted frequently, both within the church and in public areas within the neighbourhood. 

Opening ceremony of Pulau Tekong clinic planted by Bethany Evangelical Free Church.

In the late 1960s, the church established a medical clinic on the island of Pulau Tekong for Christian outreach through medical mission. 

This was mirrored by the use of the church building in Fidelio Street as a community clinic in the 1970s and 1980s. Medical consultation and medication for the residents of the surrounding Opera Estate area were offered, often for free. 

One of Bethany’s founders, Dr Tan Kai Kiat, was even sent out in 1964 by Bethany to Hong Kong as the first missionary of the Evangelical Free Church of Singapore. 

Immediately, Ps Desmond set out to restore the church’s missional foundations.

Drawing on his previous experience as a tentmaking missionary in Indonesia and as a missiology lecturer in a local seminary, he guided the church through a gradual transformation process. 

He guided the process using the paradigm of integral mission, which understands missions as God’s holistic renewal of all creation. In particular, integral mission emphasises Gospel proclamation through both word and deed in balance. 

While grounded in evangelism and discipleship, integral mission also champions the importance of stewarding God’s creation, loving service to others, and structural transformation.

Reform efforts 

It was the last of these – structural transformation – that Ps Desmond next focused on within Bethany. He led the church to reform her organisational structure to ensure clearer roles and responsibilities for different groups.

These changes clearly delineated responsibilities and accountability amongst the different parties in the church, smoothing out logistical bottlenecks, reducing workload, and minimising disruptive interpersonal conflicts.

Ps Desmond also strengthened the pastoral team by recruiting two younger Pastors, whom he mentored. 

Together, the refreshed pastoral team then complemented the structural changes with a strong focus on discipleship.  

Heavy emphasis was placed on biblical teaching. A multi-year pulpit calendar, focusing on expository preaching, was implemented to ensure that the pastoral team would systematically preach through the Bible. This would ensure strong biblical literacy and address incorrect beliefs within the congregation.

The small group ministry in the church was renewed as well. Small groups were encouraged to become more outwardly-oriented. For instance, they were trained and rostered to take part in the church’s Befrienders’ ministry, so that welcoming newcomers would become second nature to every small group.

Every small group was also encouraged to lead and own a “missional project”. One small group, for example, started Zumba sessions and nature walks that pre-believers could be invited to. Another small group volunteered to run an intergenerational ministry that would encourage dialogue between the different generations in the church. 

Small group members of Bethany at a pre-believer friendly nature walk.

These changes ensured that small groups would not see themselves as an island but rather as part of the church’s mission force. At Bethany, discipleship would be practised, not just discussed.

Investing in mission

As the church’s discipleship efforts strengthened, it was then possible for the church to become more explicitly mission-focused. 

The church started to regularly teach on missions. A yearly mission month was organised, where mission partners would be invited to preach. This would then be complemented by another pulpit series on “the Bible and current issues”, tackling salient topics such as mental health, sexuality, and cultural awareness.  

Since Bethany was a small church, the pastoral team also entered into partnerships with mission organisations to help the church “punch above its weight” to deliver greater impact.

For example, through a partnership with Pusat Penerjemahan Alkitab (an Indonesian Bible translation centre), Bethany supported a Bible storying and translation work in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Through this work, Bethany helped to make oral Bible stories accessible to half a million people in three language clusters. 

Bethany was also the first supporting church for KIN, a mission organisation that enables churches to be missional towards people with special needs. The church provided financial support and volunteers for KIN. The church also allowed KIN to use her church building as its office for free. 

These partnerships made a difference. Jesselyn Ng, KIN’s Executive Director, observed, “Bethany’s strong support allowed us to grow our ministry rapidly, especially in our early days when churches were still unfamiliar with us. We could not be where we are today without the church’s support.”

Elder Ng Ah Kong (Bethany’s former chairman) and Jesselyn Ng (KIN’s Executive Director) holding a partnership agreement between Bethany and KIN.

As iron sharpens iron, Bethany herself also benefitted from such partnerships. For instance, KIN equipped the church’s Sunday school teachers with skills to welcome children with special needs. This was much needed as the number of children in Bethany had started to grow. 

A harvest of growth

Though one may plant and another may water, it is “only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7). God saw it fit to allow the reform efforts to yield a harvest at Bethany. 

The first sign of God’s blessing was spiritual growth. Bethany’s members matured spiritually and grew more committed to discipleship. The number of small groups increased and many of them became proactive in reaching out to pre-believers.   

Church membership also grew significantly. Existing members stayed while more people – both young and old –joined the church. The children’s ministry more than tripled in size. The 2023 State of the Church Survey identified Bethany as among those churches that grew during COVID.

The church volunteer pool also grew, with over 90% of Bethany’s members now volunteering in the church. Operations stabilised and financial giving steadily increased. 

Crucially, giving to mission work also rose significantly. Today, the church has partnerships with six mission organisations. Bethany also established a community collaboration with a neighbouring primary school to provide free school bags packed with stationery for students who have financial needs.  

A church that is always reforming

To consolidate the growth, the pastoral team used 2025 to launch a revised vision statement for the church: “A church on God’s mission”. This statement emphasises the leadership’s commitment towards developing a church where every member is on mission for God.

Nonetheless, Bethany is still very much a work in progress. Many systemic issues remain to be solved. 

For example, despite the numerical growth, Bethany is still a small church of about 110 regular attendees, with limited resources to draw upon. Yet, the pastoral team is optimistic: It is their conviction that a missional and disciple-making church will grow. 

Also, while many young people have joined the church, the congregation is still, on average, aged. Thus, a key goal for the leaders is to help members to welcome younger newcomers, while still caring for existing senior members.  

Finally, the church’s ageing building (more than 65 years old!) no longer fits the needs of the growing congregation. The building is in a residential estate and cannot be redeveloped. Thus, should the leaders pursue a strategy of relocation? If so, what kind of location can maximise the church’s missional impact? Bethany’s leaders continue to pray for God’s guidance to make a wise choice. 

65 years of commitment to God’s mission

Today, January 28, 2026, Bethany celebrates its 65^th anniversary at a celebratory gala dinner. As a sign of her continued commitment to being missional, a book written by the pastoral team has been launched.

Entitled A Church on God’s Mission: Integral Mission as Church Life, the book captures lessons from Bethany’s revitalisation journey of making mission central to her DNA. 

It is the church’s hope that her story of revitalisation will encourage other churches, especially small churches. If God can revitalise Bethany – a tiny, historic church – to make an outsized impact for His mission, surely God can work in other churches as well!

Indeed, as Zechariah 4:6 proclaims: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, Says the Lord of Hosts.”

Watch Bethany’s anniversary video below:

Read more about Bethany Evangelical Free Church’s journey in their recently launched book, A Church on God’s Mission: Integral Mission as Church Life. Get the book here. This article adapts several excerpts from Chapter 4 of the book.

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