Singapore

  • Church growth was very strong from 1970 to the 1990s. The responsiveness of Singaporeans, active evangelism of churches and agencies and the concentration of committed, giving Christians played a big part in this. Church growth has since slowed.
  • Major challenges facing the Church:
    • Coping with affluence, materialism and commercialism.
    • Handling restrictive government legislation limiting outreach.
    • Maintenance of adequate family life and witness.
    • Unity among the various churches and denominations.
  • Young people:
    • Young people are open to the gospel and a significant number of students are Christians, yet the dropout rate is high.
    • Pray for the effective integration of young people into local churches and for their mobilisation for world evangelisation.
  • The less-reached:
    • The Malay population.
    • There is little consistent outreach to the older Indian community.
    • The lower-paid and non-English-speaking Chinese.
    • Migrant workers: Filipinos, Thai, Indians, and others. There are some lively congregations of Koreans, Filipinos and Indonesians.
    • Drug addiction is a growing problem with young people, notably among the Malay population.
  • Singapore’s seminaries and missions training schools are becoming a key ministry for Christians all over Asia. Many churches run their own theological training programmes. A high number of churches run an active missions programme.
  • Christian books are widely available, and much Christian literature is printed in Singapore for worldwide distribution.