Free Community Church

The Free Community Church, located since June 2014 at #02-01, One Commonwealth, 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[1], a non-denominational group started by 10 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 rejected outright 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 one of its gay male members. With no place to worship, that particular individual 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 the gallery's 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 had 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[2].

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[3], 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[4]. 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 of service. 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 the reporters of their own accord 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 which eventually appeared in The New Paper 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". The churches 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 opted to use a pseudonym 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 FCC. He added that they only wanted to worship God in peace.

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

Susan Tang was also interviewed by Agence France-Presse AFP regarding her work at FCC and the syndicated article was published in TODAY newspaper on 19 June 2005[5].

Yangtze Building

Although FCC operated for almost half a year at The Attic, the latter's decor, image and location were thought not to be ideal for the church, so in January 2005, it moved to a larger, more suitable premises at unit #04-02/04, Yangtze Building, 100A Eu Tong Sen Street. The new venue 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 place because the adjoining Pearls Centre, which formed part of the same L-shaped (from a bird's eye view) complex and was 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. Moreover, 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[6]. 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.

Affect 05

Safehaven, a ministry of FCC, had been in the news in mid-2005 for trying to organise a fundraising charity concert called "Affect05 – Saving Lives, Transforming Mindsets" featuring American gay couple and pop duo, Jason and deMarco[7]. However, 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.

Forum on Christianity and homosexuality

A forum entitled "Christian perspectives on homosexuality and pastoral care" was organised by Safehaven and held at 7:30pm on 10 May 2007 at the Amara Hotel. It aimed to engage the mainstream churches in a groundbreaking dialogue on the issue of homosexuality. For the first time in Singapore's history, theological heavyweights and experts in counselling and psychology came together to share their Christian perspectives on homosexuality and pastoral care. In the past, the mainstream churches would organise forums to debate the issue, but they usually turned out to be heavily one-sided affairs, ending up with homosexuality being cast as deviant, immoral, or worse. This time, Safehaven put together a fairly moderated dialogue, with equal representation from both the "for" and "against" camps, and facilitated by professional newscaster Augustine Anthuvan, Assistant Programme Manager, MediaCorp Radio.

In this video segment, Dr. Tan Kim Huat, who is the Chen Su Lan Professor of New Testament and Dean of Studies at Trinity Theological College, shares his views[8].

Other panellists who spoke at the forum were Rev. Yap Kim Hao and Anthony Yeo, Clinical Director of Counselling and Care Centre.

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. One had to take a huge cargo lift to get to the unit.

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

2012

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

2011

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

References and external links

• The Free Community Church's website:[9] and Facebook page:[10].
• Tay Shi'an, "Prayers held in a pub", The New Paper, 13 July 2004[11].
• AFP syndicated article, "No parties or sex, but Singapore's gay Christians can gather to pray", TODAY, 19 June 2005[12].
• Alex Au, "Theology professor supports repeal of anti-gay law in Singapore", Fridae, 11 May 2007[13].
• Affect05, 23 March 2005[14].

Acknowledgements

This article was written by Roy Tan.