Free Community Church

The Free Community Church is a congregation of diverse individuals and families gathering to worship and grow as a Christian community. Its stakeholders' mission is to develop a vibrant heart relationship with God and a thinking-mind relationship with the Bible. They do not believe in easy answers to life’s challenging questions but in the wisdom of a great and loving God, who surpasses human understanding. They aim to nurture Christ-centred communities so that members can develop a faith relevant to the times.

The Free Community Church affirms that all individuals, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ones, are of sacred worth created in God’s image. The church affirms that same-sex and transgender relationships, when lived out in accord with the love commandments of Jesus, are consistent with the Christian faith. Indeed, it finds discrimination based on negative judgment of others, fear of differences, and homophobia inconsistent with Christian teachings.

Therefore, it welcomes all people regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or economic status to its worship services and activities.

The kind of church that its stakeholders believe the Free Community and all other churches are called upon to journey to become is one that is free, inclusive, community-oriented, relational, open, ecumenical, living, relevant and missional.

If interested parties have any questions about the church, its ministries or its activities, they are urged to send an email to info@freecomchurch.org.

=History=

Safehaven
The Free Community Church traces its beginnings to Safehaven, a non-denominational group started by ten gay Christians which had been gathering since 1997 for prayer, Bible study and fellowship. It was LGBT-affirmative and made up of people from different age groups, backgrounds and religious traditions.

Safehaven was formed because several founding members had been made to feel unwelcome or were outrightly rejected by mainstream churches on account of their homosexuality. As such, many LGBT Singaporeans in mainstream churches chose to remain closeted for fear of being blacklisted and ostracised.

A salient example of discrimination was witnessed when the New Creation Church (NCC) showed little grace in expelling a gay man. With no place to worship, he later gathered a few gay friends and began meeting weekly in one of their homes located along Zion Road just opposite Great World City. When their number grew to 10 to 15 within two months via word of mouth, they moved their place of congregation to Utterly Art along South Bridge Road which they rented from its owner.

This was the start of the fledgeling support group in which gay Christians could find solace and which provided devotees an environment to work out any conflicts they may have about being gay and Christian. Many key members of Safehaven and FCC also came from the Choices ministry of the Church of Our Savior (COOS) (Singapore's main ex-gay church). One of FCC's worship leaders joined the it after he was rejected by City Harvest Church's (CHC) worship team for being gay. In a blog entry entitled, “Homosexuality: a geographical angle” by a pastor from a mainstream church, FCC was denounced as a pro-gay space which had failed to uphold what he called “hetero-normativity” and instead only served to reinforce “deviant sexual identity”. Hence, Safehaven and FCC ironically owe much to NCC, CHC and COOS for their existence.

As attendance and confidence swelled, the group decided that it needed a larger place to worship and set up a full fledged church called the Free Community Church (FCC). The name was chosen because the acronym FREE stood for "First Realise Everyone is Equal". FCC was officially registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of Singapore (ACRA) as a private limited company in 1999. This was a strategic move which enabled the organisation to operate without any hassles from the Government since the congregation each Sunday was simply regarded as a private gathering.

FCC was also not affiliated with any other church although it strove to be accepted as a regular church. It wanted to avoid being labelled a gay church, preferring to be known as "an all-inclusive church" since it was open towards not only sexuality in its multifarious manifestations, but also to all religions and church denominations. Safehaven subsequently became one of its ministries.

The Attic
The Free Community Church moved into its first, relatively more permanent, venue in April 2004 at The Attic, a pub located on level 4, just above Mox Bar and Cafe at 21 Tanjong Pagar Road. The owners of The Attic and Mox Bar were also gay and were known by FCC's stakeholders who rented it from them. The newly located church conducted services every Sunday starting at 10:30am, lasting about 90 minutes. A resident band, which included a straight guitarist, provided musical accompaniment. The Attic was a hip location which contained 2 rotating silver balls, typically seen in discos, hanging from the ceiling and a bar to one side. For Sunday services, two nude gold mannequin torsos and several furry pink and purple couches were pushed aside to make way for rows of foldable black chairs.

Several core members including Miak Siew and Jean Chong, then 29, who worked as a freelancer in the broadcast industry, persuaded Rev. Dr. Yap Kim Hao, a former bishop of the Methodist Church in Singapore and Malaysia, to serve as the church's pastoral advisor. Rev. Yap readily accepted as he felt it was his calling to minister to a marginalised community which faced great discrimination.

Rev. Yap's daughter, Susan Tang, then a 47-year old, heterosexual mother of three who had been happily married for 19 years, volunteered to serve as one of the two vice-chairpersons on FCC's ten-member council as part of her desire to help minority groups. By then, the church was attracting a congregation of about 50 worshippers, of whom 75 to 80% were gay. That year, it also opened up to the public and began organising its Christmas Celebration service which has since become an annual tradition, welcoming non-Christians as well to partake of the event.

On 14 July 2004, The New Paper published an article, written by reporters Tay Shi'an and Tan Mae Lynn, about the church. The tabloid's investigative team were tipped off about its existence after receiving an e-mail from a mainstream Christian who was uncomfortable with the church. The e-mail contained a link to the church's website, which stated its meeting venue and time. At first, the team only had the address of the venue, so they were shocked to discover that it was actually a pub.

There was no sign on the exterior indicating there was a church service being held inside. However, once they were seated, several friendly church members approached them on their own to make them feel welcome. Once they got over the unusual surroundings, it seemed to them like any other church - there was Christian music playing, and several people in prayer.

The article they eventually wrote mentioned that the church did not regard homosexuality as a sin, making it probably the only one in Singapore to accept homosexuality. Although mainstream churches accepted gay worshippers, their stand on homosexuality was that it was wrong and their usual refrain was "accept the sinner, reject the sin". They also expected gay Christians to change and become straight, or at least remain celibate.

Interviewees who were willing to be named in the article were Peter Goh, then 31, an R&D programme manager, and Susan Tang, both FCC council members.

A founding member who declined to be named said that the 'gay factor' had drawn criticism for both the FCC and outside speakers who were invited to give talks to the congregation. Some of their speakers were high-profile in the religious world, so after word got out, they came under a lot of pressure from other Christian organisations not to be associated with them. He added that they only wanted to worship God in peace.

Shortly after The New Paper's "expose" was published, the venue of the church was removed from its website.

Suan Tang was also interviewed by AFP regarding her work at FCC and an article was published in TODAY newspaper on 19 June 2005.

Yangtze Building
After operating for almost half a year at The Attic, the latter's decor, image and location were thought not to be ideal for FCC, so in January 2005, the church moved to a larger, more suitable premises at unit #04-02/04, Yangtze Building, 100A Eu Tong Sen Street. It was a sizeable hall which could comfortably seat 200 people located between Yangtze Cinemas 2 and 3. Yangtze Building was a 23-storey commercial and residential block slated in 2013 for demolition so that the Thomson-East Coast MRT line could be built below it. The uninitiated sometimes had difficulty locating the venue because the adjoining Pearls Centre, which is housed in the same complex and is intimately linked with Yangtze Building, also contained a unit with exactly the same number but which sold Buddhist artifacts instead!

Some were additionally surprised when they found out that the church was located in the same building as Yangtze Cinema, Singapore's notorious and only R-rated movie theatre which showed exclusively soft porn sex films. The toilet on the second level of the building, the third-level toilet of neighbouring Pearls Centre and the stairwells and car park of both were well known cruising venues especially patronised by the geriatric segment of the gay community.

On 8 May 2005, The New Paper published a follow-up report to their initial article the previous year. This time, it was written by Andre Yeo and was less sensationalistic and more sympathetic.

By this time, the church's congregation had blossomed to about 200 worshippers. It included heterosexuals who constituted around 20%, adherents of other religions like Buddhism, and Christian foreigners who were working in Singapore.

Safehaven, a ministry of FCC, had been in the news in mid-2005 for trying to organise a concert featuring American gay couple and pop duo, Jason and deMarco but the Media Development Authority had turned down its application to stage the event. Lee Boon Yang, Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts later rejected Safehaven's appeal against the ban.

Gary Chan, then 30, a gay product manager in a local telco and one of the three vice-chairpersons on FCC's council, had come up with the idea for the concert featuring the gay couple. Safehaven wanted to raise funds for Action For Aids, reach out to the gay community and tell them there could be a better way to live their lives.

Century Technology Building
In the late 2000s, FCC moved to a less central location where rent was cheaper, at 56 Geylang Lor. 23, Level 3, Century Technology Building, directly opposite Aljunied MRT Station.

Visitors were sometimes astonished that the church was located smack in the middle of Singapore's infamous red light district!

In 2011, Miak Siew who had recently graduated in divinity from the Graduate Theological Union and the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, returned home to assume the mantle of pastoral advisor to FCC, succeeding Rev. Ngiam Su-lin and achieving the distinction of being Singapore's first openly gay Christian pastor.

One Commonwealth
Since its inception, FCC had accumulated sufficient funds via donations from its congregation that by 2014, it could afford to buy a space to operate in. In June 2014, church moved to its current premises at #02-01, One Commonwealth.

=Mission=

The VISION of the FREE COMMUNITY CHURCH is to be an inclusive community that celebrates diversity in living out God’s love and promise of abundant life for all. Our MISSION is to create sacred space and give voice to the lives and experiences of minority communities, recognising their potential to transform lives and the wider church for the common good and glory of God.

The character of the church that we see the FREE COMMUNITY CHURCH and all churches journeying to become which guides our priorities and actions are -

A Church that is FREE FREE in Free Community Church is a proclamation of freedom that we have in Jesus Christ. It is also an acronym for “First Realize Everyone is Equal” – the good news that we are all equally created in the image of God, equally accepted, embraced and loved exactly as we are by God.

A Church that is INCLUSIVE We see the church as a place where everyone is welcome – regardless of theological background, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, economic status, education level, etc. We see the church as a home that especially welcomes those who identify themselves as LGBTQ - lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer.

A Church that is COMMUNITY We see the role of Community as who we are to become as a Church. Not just with those like us, but becoming a true community that recognizes that those least like us have been given to us by grace and have the most amount to teach us.

A Church that is RELATIONAL We see a church where people come together intentionally on a journey to “do life” together. We see a church where people can be authentic; where people are prioritized over programmes and performance; where people grow, learn, share, cry and laugh together. We see that as the church grows larger, it also grows smaller and intimate at the same time through smaller cell groups that meet regularly.

A Church that is OPEN We see a church that is open. A church that practices the inclusion of all people around an open table – that the grace and love of God has been poured out for all and that no one should be intentionally left out in participating in celebrating the Eucharist – the Holy Communion meal.

A Church that is ECUMENICAL We see a church that is an inter-denominational embrace of the Christian faith. We endeavour to embrace and create space for the expression of the richness and diversity of different Christian traditions represented in the members who have made this church their faith community in our Sunday worship services.

A Church that is LIVING We see a church that is living out the living Word of God. A church that sees every person called to ministry as ambassadors of Jesus Christ and witnesses of the gospel. A church that is living together, loving together, leading together.

A Church that is RELEVANT We see a church that is relevant with our times – that engages and expresses our faith into the culture of today. A church that speaks and acts justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly before God.

A Church that is MISSIONAL We see a church that is without walls. Where there are no demarcations between that which is sacred, and that which is secular. Where the focus and life of the church is poured out as a blessing to the world attending both personally and socially to the needs of the afflicted in compassion, justice and love.

To understand more about how we understand the church and the role that FCC plays in the body of Christ and in the mission of God, please choose from one of the three links below.

These three sessions are also mandatory to be reviewed by anyone who wishes to be a formal member of FCC or involved in the leadership of the church.

The Free Community Church holds weekly worship services on Sunday 10.30am at 56 Geylang Lor 23, Level 3, Century Technology Building, right opposite to the Aljunied MRT Station.

The service comprise of a time of worship, communion, prayer and the sermon. Our speakers include in-house speakers as well as other leaders from the wider Christian community. Weekly sermon notes/ transcripts, where available, will be posted on our website.

Everyone is welcome to our Sunday Services.

=Past sermons=

2014

 * 23/02/14 - Be Different, for I the Lord, am Different
 * 16/02/14 - Maturing in Love
 * 26/01/14 - From Darkness to Light
 * 19/01/14 - Preparing the Way of Love
 * 05/01/14 - Awakened in the Aftermath

2013

 * 29/12/13 - Keeping Jesus Alive
 * 22/12/13 - Certainty in a Crazy World
 * 01/12/13 - Expecting Christmas: First Sunday of Advent/World AIDS Day
 * 17/11/13 - The Commonwealth of God
 * 10/11/13 - Job and the Deuteronomists
 * 27/10/13 - End of the Road
 * 20/10/13 - Wrestling with God
 * 13/10/13 - Homecoming
 * 29/09/13 - Lazarus and the Dead Man
 * 22/09/13 - Good Grief
 * 15/09/13 - The Promised Land
 * 08/09/13 - The Potter
 * 01/09/13 - What is Your Dream?
 * 11/08/13 - A New Operating System
 * 21/07/13 - Mary and Martha
 * 14/07/13 - The Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Family
 * 07/07/13 - Youth Service: Come Clean With Me
 * 30/06/13 - Why We Worship
 * 09/06/13 - Raised from the Dead
 * 02/06/13 - The Mission Of God
 * 19/05/13 - What's Next FCC?
 * 12/05/13 - Turning Things Around With L.U.C.
 * 05/05/13 - The Power Of The Holy Spirit
 * 28/04/13 - Stone Soup
 * 21/04/13 - I Shall Not Want
 * 14/04/13 - Do You Love Me?
 * 07/04/13 - FCC On The Move To Commonwealth
 * 31/03/13 - Do Not Hold On To Me

Lent

 * 24/02/13 - Seeking the Face and Heart of God
 * 17/02/13 - Knowing the God Behind Scripture

After Pentecost

 * 18/11/12 - Membership & Leadership in FCC
 * 11/11/12 - FCC's Principles of Community Life
 * 04/11/12 - The Call of FCC
 * 21/10/12 - Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord
 * 14/10/12 - For The Love Of God!
 * 30/09/12 - Salt Of The Earth
 * 16/09/12 - Tongues
 * 09/09/12 - Focus On Our Family
 * 02/09/12 - We Got It All Wong
 * 03/06/12 - Sunday Sermon by Matthew Phan

Lent

 * 01/04/12 - Palm Sunday
 * 04/03/12 - 我们 (International Women's Day Service)
 * 26/02/12 - Rainbow

Epiphany

 * 19/02/12 - The Church We Are Called To Build
 * 12/02/12 - "I Do Choose. Be Made Clean!"
 * 29/01/12 - No Slave to Our Demons
 * 22/01/12 - Welcome Home
 * 15/01/12 - A Literacy of the Heart
 * 01/01/12 - A New Year

Advent

 * 18/12/11 - 2 Samuel 7: 1 - 11, 16 & Luke 1: 26 - 38, 47 - 55

After Pentecost

 * 13/11/11 - The Parable of the Talents
 * 23/10/11 - Let's Dance
 * 25/09/11 - Extraordinary Days
 * 11/09/11 - Freedom and Transformation of the Heart
 * 04/09/11 - Romans 13: 8 - 14
 * 21/08/11 - Exodus 1:8 – 2:10
 * 07/08/11 - Walking on Water
 * 10/07/11 - Listening
 * 03/07/11 - Born This Way: God Makes No Mistakes (Youth Service)

Easter

 * 12/06/11 - Embrace Difference Celebrate Diversity
 * 05/06/11 - Standing in the Gap
 * 01/05/11 - Doubting Thomas

Lent

 * 17/04/11 - Palm Sunday
 * 10/04/11 - Of Bones and Breath

Epiphany

 * 06/03/11 - Celebrate, Commit, Connect (International Women's Day Service)
 * 20/02/11 - Holiness
 * 13/02/11 - YOU are the Love of God (Sexual Ethics Sermon Series Part III)
 * 06/02/11 - Salt of the Earth, Light of the World
 * 30/01/11 - Understanding the Sexual Ethics Framework (Sexual Ethics Sermon Series Part II)
 * 23/01/11 - Sex-God-Me-Us (Sexual Ethics Sermon Series Part I)
 * 16/01/11 - The Call

=2010=

Advent

 * 19/12/10 - God-with-us
 * 05/12/10 - Highway to Heaven

After Pentecost
 * 21/11/10 - Righteousness (of God) and

Sexual Ethics
 * 07/11/10 - Asking Our Way into Relationship

with God
 * 31/10/10 - When the Saints Go Marching In
 * 24/10/10 - The Parable of the Pharisee and

the Tax Collector
 * 26/09/10 - Luke 16: 19 - 31
 * 19/09/10 - True Riches
 * 12/09/10 - The Fool
 * 29/08/10 - Sacrifice of Praise
 * 22/08/10 - Luke 13: 10 - 17
 * 15/08/10 - Signs of the Time
 * 01/08/10 - Who's Number One?
 * 25/07/10 - Living Water
 * 18/07/10 - Luke 10: 38 - 42
 * 04/07/10 - Free to be You(th)
 * 27/06/10 - Freedom in the Slavery of Love
 * 06/06/10 - Stewardship
 * 30/05/10 - The Spirit of Truth

Easter

 * 23/05/10 - Pentecost Sunday
 * 02/05/10 - Dining with Cornelius
 * 25/04/10 - Psalm 23
 * 18/04/10 - Resurrection
 * 11/04/10 - First Sunday after Easter

Lent

 * 28/03/10 - The Self-Emptying God
 * 07/03/10 - International Women's Day
 * 28/02/10 - See the Goodness of the Lord
 * 21/02/10 - The Temptation of Christ, and Ours

Epiphany

 * 03/01/10 - New Year, New Things

=2009=


 * 08/11/09 - Let's Talk about Me - Carolyn
 * 11/10/09 - Let's Talk about Me - Jaime
 * 20/09/09 - Home and Family
 * 13/09/09 - Christian Conviction and Responsibility
 * 30/08/09 - Let's talk about me: You're Beautiful
 * 23/08/09 - What do we see... in Spirituality?
 * 26/07/09 - Entering God's Rest
 * 12/07/09 - And the spirit lifted me up
 * 19/04/09 - Faces
 * 12/04/09 - Wake up call for the World
 * 05/04/09 - The First Time
 * 29/03/09 - For the very First Time
 * 22/03/09 - For the very First Time
 * 01/03/09 - For the First Time
 * 22/02/09 - Meeting Jesus again for the First Time
 * 11/01/09 - State of 09

=2008=


 * 29/11/08 - Sista Magdalene
 * 19/10/08 - Face to Face with God
 * 12/10/08 - Jesus - Reluctant God
 * 05/10/08 - God in You and Me
 * 14/09/08 - God is Uncontainable
 * 07/09/08 - God and Religion
 * 10/08/08 - Our God of Connections
 * 03/08/08 - Mother God
 * 29/06/08 - Psalm 137
 * 01/06/08 - Psalm 13
 * 20/04/08 - Psalm 84
 * 13/04/08 - Freedom from captivity
 * 16/03/08 - No Longer Strangers, No Longer Servants
 * 09/03/08 - International Women’s Day
 * 02/03/08 - From playing hero to finding rest in God
 * 24/02/08 - Slave vs Free
 * 06/01/08 - New Year Sermon

=2007=
 * 14/10/07 - Welcome Home!
 * 23/09/07 - Building Relationships with other Christians
 * 16/09/07 - Building Relationships with the other
 * 02/09/07 - Faith & Creation
 * 26/08/07 - Christian Faith and Doubt
 * 08/07/07 - Christian Faith and Other Religions
 * 24/06/07 - The Latter Rain is coming
 * 13/05/07 - Haggai: Building the House of God
 * 06/05/07 - Prophet of Justice & Righteousness
 * 29/04/07 - Following Jesus
 * 22/04/07 - The New Wine Skin Way !
 * 25/03/07 - A Fresh Look at Discipleship
 * 11/03/07 - Ending Impunity for Violence Against Women
 * 21/01/07 - David & Johnathan
 * 07/01/07 - Our Journey: From One Beginning to Another

=2006=
 * 31/12/06 - Cultivating Courage
 * 25/12/06 - The Reason Why
 * 10/12/06 - Our Relationships in FCC
 * 12/11/06 - WWJD at Work
 * 15/10/06 - Freedom with Responsibility
 * 01/10/06 - Free At Last
 * 10/09/06 - What Matters Most?
 * 27/08/06 - The Seeker of All Seekers
 * 13/08/06 - The Unknowing Seeker
 * 06/08/06 - The First Women Priests
 * 30/07/06 - Responding to the Call of God
 * 23/07/06 - The Ethiopian Eunuch
 * 16/07/06 - A Questioning Seeker - Pilate
 * 09/07/06 - Seeker by Night
 * 25/06/06 - A Prayerful Life
 * 18/06/06 - Prayer of the Radical
 * 11/06/06 - Petitionary and Intercessory Prayer
 * 04/06/06 - The Listening Prayer
 * 28/05/06 - The Significant Prayer
 * 21/05/06 - Connecting With God
 * 14/05/06 - What Is Prayer?
 * 07/05/06 - The Victory Of The Cross
 * 23/04/06 - The Way Of The Cross: Suffering
 * 16/04/06 - Power Of The Resurrection
 * 02/04/06 - Learning From Strangers
 * 26/03/06 - Beware Of The Seduction Of Religious Evil
 * 26/02/06 - Reflexivity Through Humility
 * 19/02/06 - Let's Focus on the Family
 * 01/01/06 - The God I Miss

=2005=
 * 25/12/05 - The Light of Christmas
 * 11/12/05 - The Bible - The Heart of the Tradition
 * 27/11/05 - The Holy Spirit - The Heart of Life
 * 13/11/05 - God, the Heart of Reality
 * 6/11/05 - Introducing the Foundations Series
 * 16/10/05 - Jonah: Understanding God's Calling
 * 9/10/05 - The Beatitude on Righteousness
 * 18/9/05 - Blessed are the Pure in Heart
 * 11/9/05 - Blessed are the Merciful
 * 28/8/05 - FCC & the Spiral Staircase
 * 14/8/05 - Blessed are the Poor in spirit
 * 24/7/05 - People with a Passion for Christ
 * 10/7/05 - Esther: For such a time as this
 * 19/6/05 - Passion for Christ: Peter the Apostle
 * 5/6/05 - Passion for Christ: Paul the Apostle
 * 17/4/05 - A Living Christianity
 * 3/4/05 - Encounter with God
 * 24/3/05 - Jesus, Please Wash my Feet
 * 13/3/05 - From the "Attic" to the "Yangtze"
 * 6/3/05 - Experiencing God: A Feminist Perspective
 * 27/2/05 - How to Judge
 * 30/1/05 - Suffered, Crucified, Dead and Buried
 * 23/1/05 - Why we Believe?
 * 16/1/05 - Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord

=2004=


 * 19/12/04 - Beware of Certainty: In Defense of Thomas
 * 12/12/04 - Who is this Jesus?
 * 21/11/04 - The Immoral Church - 3 steps to success
 * 24/10/04 - You Become God's Temple
 * 26/9/04 - The Church of the Good Samaritan
 * 19/9/04 - Diversity and Community
 * 17/9/04 - The Power of Words
 * 8/8/04 - Celebration and Commitment
 * 20/6/04 - Do not Love the World
 * 16/5/04 - Walking in Darkness and Light
 * 11/4/04 - Coming out - of your Tombs
 * 28/3/04 - The Message of Psalm 51
 * 15/2/04 - Patient Endurance with Persistent Resistance
 * 1/2/04 - Are you compromising your Faith?
 * 18/1/04 - The Letter to the Church in Smyrna
 * 11/1/04 - Have you Forsaken your First Love?

=2003=


 * 30/11/03 - Building A Relationship With God / Becoming A Reflexive People
 * 16/11/03 - Our Scandalous God

=Past seminars/articles=


 * 5/10/05 - Confessions
 * 23/7/05 - My Journey
 * 14/9/04 - Mad About Madonna
 * 11/9/04 - The Bible - Nature & Interpretation For Us Today
 * 22/7/04 - Biblical Preaching In A Post-Modern World

=See also=

=References and external links=


 * The Free Community Church's website: and Facebook page:.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.