Historic Groundbreaking Ceremony of Jurong Christian Church (LCS)

In the Republic of Singapore, land is scarce and very expensive to acquire. The construction costs are also astronomical due to high costs of labour and imported materials. Thus building or rebuilding church premises is out of reach for most medium or small churches’ budgets. Some churches have now grouped to together to build church hubs, that is, a few churches sharing the costs for building and sharing the same building. The Singapore government on its part has also graciously heard the feedback of churches on this issue and loosen up restrictions on building plot ratio and other regulations to enable small churches to be able to be housed in proper religious buildings. Thus they need not have to rent spaces in hotels, flatted factories or warehouses for their worship.

Jurong Christian Church (JCC), a congregation of the Lutheran Church in Singapore (LCS), has also been a beneficiary of the relaxed government regulations on plot ratio and other rules. It is also a closely watched pilot project by the government authorities being the first such church hub to be built.   

A memorable and historic rebuilding groundbreaking ceremony for Jurong Christian Church was held at 2 Tah Ching Road on Saturday 24th January 2015. This ceremony was graced by the presence of Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, LCS Bishop Terry Kee, pastors and councilmen from various LCS congregations, and local community leaders. Bishop Terry Kee in his groundbreaking message spoke on loving the neighbours as a Christian congregation in the community of Taman Jurong. The Deputy Prime Minister in his speech welcomed the call by Bishop Kee and look forward to the positive contribution of JCC to the local community. With a press of the button a boring pile machine was activated to symbolise the start of the rebuilding followed by fellowship and refreshment. We were glad our pioneer missionary from America, Rev. John Nelson, was able to be with us for this ceremony. He was also present for the first building's ground breaking almost 50 years ago.

This was an important day in the history of the Lutheran Church in Singapore. We also give all thanks to God for the favours shown by various government authorities to facilitate the rebuilding and temporary housing of the church and its kindergarten in an old school premise which is another miracle in itself.

To God be the glory!

Rev. Martin Yee is a LWF News Liaison, Singapore