From Jonathan Tan

Title: “12 Strong Pillars”

On the first night of the conference, Pastor Khong defined the G12 cell and Pastor Cesar spoke about a G12 Ministry needing to have a complete 12 who are running in the vision. I took this word home with me that night and the Holy Spirit gave me the peace to make changes to my direct 12, for the first time ever in almost 5 years of G12 ministry since I first formed my 12.

With the few changes made, I realised that things are different now because everyone involved in the changes benefitted or are benefitting. I raised up one of my strongest members of my 144 into my 12 because I can see him as a spiritual son and he can look to me as a spiritual father. Also, a couple of those who were once in my 12 will do better under the leadership of someone else (one of my 12) who connects better with them. I realised the need to be able to see each of my 12 as my sons. Now that I have firmed up my 12, I see a true G12 family and know in my heart that I have 12 young men who serve side by side with me, fully committed to my success as a Warrior for God. As what Pastor Cesar said about the 12 being like pillars of a building, I know that now I have 12 pillars which are strong and supporting the building, which represents our service to God. Using what the Lord spoke to me through Pastor Cesar in this aspect, I can now see a clear direction that my G12 family can take to fulfil our 2007 Vision to become a full G12 cell (as defined by Pastor Khong) with 12 Open cell leaders by the end of 2007.

I, a man of few words, share this with you all to encourage each of you to find your 12 with the mindset that you will raise them as your spiritual sons/daughters. Serve the Lord hand-in-hand with them, your G12 brothers and sisters, as well as your G12 parents, all the days of your lives – This is your calling. The key learning point for me after all these years of serving the Lord in FCBC’s G12 Family is that… the vision is easy.

Jonathan Tan

“从小到大，我都没有爸爸。天父是我唯一父亲的模范。”
Before I carry on writing, yup, that’s often the opening line to my testimony to pre-believers. J God has been good in my life. Despite my parents divorcing before I was born and therefore, not having a father in my life, God became my father. I never had a void in my heart, growing up, as God the Father filled it to the brim with His love, His truth and His provision for my life.
However, growing up, I begin to experience tension. What sort of tension? The tension arising when a young man become a Man – I did not have a proper role model in my life. I had this problem til I came back to God in TOUCH NUS, and placed me in this spiritual family.
Why share all this? Because the highlight for this year’s G12 conference for me, though i receive a lot from the pastors’ sermons, was I got to HUG my HERO for ONE WHOLE MINUTE! Who’s that HERO? None other than…
Pastor Tan Hee Guan.
I have so much to tell him then, I wanted to tell him how blessed I am to be in the kingdom of God, to be blessed beyond every curse by my Savior, to have the privilege to serve my King by running the vision, so blessed to have him walk through Marriage Preparation with me and my wife, to have him conduct my wedding, to be part of a spiritual family that’s in the vision!

And it is in no small part I am blessed through the ministry of this man.
Thank you, Pastor.

For me, there is often an issue in the youths today. The issue of commitment. There is a test in the G12 vision. The test of Loyalty, the test of Sonship. In this journey, the temptations and pitfalls are many. Some feel, “My leader does not care for me”, Some feel, “I can’t seem to communicate with my leader”. Some feel,”I wish he will do this and this”. Some feel, “I don’t feel close to my leader or my spiritual brothers”. Some feel, “Another person can help me grow in this and that”. Some feel, “I feel misunderstood when he says certain things about me”
More often than not, these feelings are more than justified. Though real, they often mislead us to a road of rationalising what we think God is saying to us. More often than not, they focus on the “ME”

I had this journey with one of my sons lately. Am i saying deny your feelings? No, but i realise in my own journey this is true – Get your heart right with God. Yifan, can this be the simplistic answer? Well, really no, This is the ANSWER! Spend time to get right with God and you will realise that is the answer in your relationship to your fellow brothers and your spirtual father. He brings us to focus on the blessing not the inadequacies, he lay bare our self-focused heart and disciple us to serve and love. He is the ANSWER.

My key takeway from G12 personally that i want to bring back to my sons is: Get right with God, Graft yourself into the family, Rein in our wandering hearts and Conquer in the Vision. All these I saw in the lives of Pastor Caesar, Senior Pastor and our dear pastors – Loyalty and Commitment. I am convinced without these qualities, it is impossible to run the vision.

Are we a generation of people that can pass this test? When God test us, will we be found faithful?

G12 – the government of 12. 12 warriors of light, 12 disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, 12 spiritual children.

As I attended G12 conference for the 6th time, I find myself grasping the core of G12. To me, I sum it up as “transformation”! It is very simple. It is about us being won, being consolidated, being discipled first ourselves, before being sent out to win.

When I heard about how Pastor Claudia could share powerfully on the Word of God and teach her 12 to walk right with God, I told God in my heart that I want that. I realise that G12 is not about others, but ourselves too. It is about allowing God to transform our lives and with it, gives us the authority and freedom to partner the Holy Spirit to transform the lives of others.

We! We need to take the first step! We need to breakout. We need to go deep. We need to look far. We need to ask big. I find that more and more, G12 looks into our life. Is our life changed to be more like Jesus?

If we want to win and impact lives, our life must be impacted through ongoing personal encounters with our beloved Saviour, for Phi 2:12-13 teaches us to “continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

I am convicted to be serious in my devotion with God. I do not want to give to God my leftovers. I want to give Him my best – my best time of the day! Even as I walk right and close with God, the assurance is that my leadership, my ministry and my life will be empowered by the Holy Spirit. When this happens, it is no longer me who speaks, but the Spirit of God that lives in me. I can then speak with authority when I teach the word of God or when I reach out to others.