One Body, Many Parts

1 Cor 12:20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body …. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Blessed Anniversary, Hermon! Today, we celebrate 37 years of God’s goodness and grace upon Hermon. As many of you are aware, we count our years from the time we were registered as a church independent of Mt Carmel BPC, in 1988. Yet, we know that the Lord has incubated us since 1975 when we began as an outreach to the newly built HDB estate of Telok Blangah.

Today, we recognise that our move from Chua Chu Kang Bible Centre to Henderson is Hermon’s fourth lap and significantly, it has led us back to the place we were first sent by Mt Carmel. As our first move to Telok Blangah and our third move to Chua Chu Kang were to new HDB estates, in God’s providence, Henderson will also have an upcoming new HDB estate – that of Keppel, which will happen over the next 10 years or so. May I thus encourage you to appreciate that all our moves have been because God has His purpose for Hermon to reach out to those in new HDB estates. And so, let us look forward to the work of the making disciples that He has called us to in this fourth lap.

As we seek to live out Relational Discipleship in 2025, our focus is “One Body, Many Parts”. This is taken from 1 Corinthians, which we are journeying through in our pulpit series. On our anniversary, may I offer some reflections of this focus using the acronym H.E.R.M.O.N.

H     Hermon and Horeb helping one another. I thank God for our leaders who decided that we were blessed with Henderson and that we should be a blessing to others. And so, we have been able to host Horeb, our sister church, at 2pm, and in return, Horeb has blessed us with a second Sunday service. Through our shared pulpit, CG, Church Camp, HIM, EDM, and Community Services ministries, we are growing inter-dependently. May the Lord help us cement this spirit of mutual help into our DNA. Our pairing, I’m sure, is the Lord’s provision for a more effective witness for the harvest field that is to come here in Henderson.

E      Every member is essential. I Cor 12:15 tells us that a foot should not say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body. No, that would not make it any less a part of the body. As every part of the body is necessary, so too is every Hermonite essential for the local body of Christ. We are not Hermonites by chance — God has placed us in Hermon for His purposes. 1 Cor 12:18 says God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. So may each of us seek to know our unique contributions to the body here in Hermon. Remember, since we are all essential, the health of the body in Hermon will be poorer when we don’t contribute.

R      Relationships are key. Body parts do not function independently. They do not exist for themselves but all work inter-dependently for the good and the health of the one body. As such, body parts relate to one another. For us as the body in Hermon, it means that when one member suffers, all suffer together and if one member is honoured, all rejoice together (1 Cor 12:26). That can only happen when we openly share our lives with one another. It also means that the challenges of our siblings-in-Christ will encroach into our lives. There will be inconveniences, there will be obligations. But our love for one another will enable us to experience the joy in serving each other. 

M     Membership is our collective identity. Membership is a modern term for the metaphor of the body found in 1 Cor 12. Scripture says, in one Spirit, we were all baptised into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). By the Holy Spirit, we each have had our spiritual eyes opened to put our faith in Jesus Christ. As we are reconciled to God in Christ, the blood of Jesus also reconciles us to one another. And the way we identify our unity as one body in Christ is through membership. And then through our membership, we affirm our commitment to journey together towards glorifying God by being and making disciples of Christ Jesus.

O     One united body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12). Our unity, our oneness is not based on nationality, ethnicity or socio-economic status. Our unity as believers as mentioned in the earlier point is due to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As redeemed sinners who are Bible-Presbyterians, our unity is further expressed in our confession of faith which is the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is taught at every Catechism class, and our expectation is that every member should know and accept it. Our Deacons and Deaconesses should embrace it while our Elders should be able to defend it. Do check out what we believe at https://www.hermon.org.sg/missions-and-beliefs.

N    Network of support from the Presbytery. Our Presbyterian system means that churches are shepherded by a plurality of Elders who are in fellowship with one another. That means it is ironic for a church to call themselves ‘Presbyterian’ and be independent. So, we thank God that the Bible-Presbyterian Churches in Singapore formed the Presbytery, of which we are one of the 11 members. This Presbyterian network has been a tremendous blessing to us not just in terms of financial support but also for the ordination of our Pastors and Elders, as well as the sharing of resources. Personally, it has been a place where I’ve found emotional support from fellow Presbyters, which has been one source of resilience for my ministry. The inter-dependence we experience within Hermon continues on a bigger scale between churches in the Presbytery.

As we look back with thanksgiving, let us also look forward with anticipation towards the future that God has called Hermon to. At all levels, within the church and within the Presbytery, let’s appreciate that we are One Body, Many Parts.

The Apostle Paul paints a wonderful picture of the goal of the whole body working in unison: ^{Eph 4:15} Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Daniel Tan