Speaker 1 Mr Felix Ling

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Speaker 1Mr Felix Ling

• Felix LING is currently an in-house specialist
• consultant to the Government in areas of
• tourism markets and resorts development.
• Felix has been working in senior management
  capacity both locally and overseas assignments.
  He held senior regional positions such as general
  manager, vice president, managing director, etc.
  with international business organizations
  operating in Singapore and in Asia. He was also
  a founding CEO of a financial-planning services
  company under Great Eastern Holdings.

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Speaker 1Mr Felix Ling

• He holds a masters degree in education
• training, as well as member of the Harvard
• Business School alumni and member of the
• Association of HBS in Hong Kong.
• Felix has been serving in the management
  committee of Chen Li Church Kindergarten for more
  than 10 years, currently as its chairman.

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Upgrading in Strength

• Structure for
• Healthy Growth Church

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A Structure/Framework That Holds Things Together

• There are four (4) dimensions that form the main
  constructs of the proposed structure/framework
  for Healthy Growth Church
• Crystallized Experience
• Principal Guidance Criterion
• Strategy Process Management
• Needs Aspiration
• At two levels both Synod Individual
  churches

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Proposed Structure for Healthy Growing Church
Guidance Criterion
Strategy Process
Needs Aspiration
Crystallized Experience
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Crystallized Experience(1)

• Presbyterian Denomination has been rooted in
  Singapore for 128 years. The Church has come a
  long way, survives grows from strength to
  strength, with blessing from God.
• Now its time to look forward, to reflect from
  its established history hence, take pride at
  the same time, ask questions like Are we still
  on the right track?, Whats the vision God
  wants us to see act upon it?

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Crystallized Experience(2)

• History is a mirror, and the history (as
  crystallized experience) of Presbyterian in
  Singapore remains a source of faith inspiration
  that provide enlightenment lessons for making
  bold moves into the future.

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Crystallized Experience (3)

• Crystallized Experience brings about important
  ingredients of various aspects of Presbyterians
  worship ministry work into greater meanings
  through the following self-examination. In a
  way, provide answer to Ingredients purpose.

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Crystallized Experience (4)

• Take stock fully understand where we come from,
  where we are now and where we should be heading
  to
• Better understand the magnitude of challenges
  ahead
• Establish common understanding of Focal Issue
  (Thresholds of Pain)
• Establish clear positioning of the Church in 21st
  Century Singapore
• Realize the power of experience-sharing among
  churches for progress

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Principal Guidance Criterion(1)

• Organizations need to set boundaries in order
  to manage activities, change and transformation
  for desirable results/outcomes. Purposeful things
  will not happen by incidents. Avoid strolling in
  the discovery park syndrome.
• Examples of principal guidance criterion The
  Eight (8) Dynamics of Natural Church Development
  and, healthy church growth criteria supported by
  training and consultation on strategy
  implementation.

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Principal Guidance Criterion(2)

• One of the purpose for establishing principal
  guidance criterion is for Risk Management.
• Ensuring that strategy and implementation are
  managed well with great consistency and harmony,
  so that it is confirming to the Word of God and
  essence (core values) of Presbyterians DNA

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Principal Guidance Criterion(3)

• What can go wrong?
• (Managing risk of principal failures)
• It is known that principal failures (of major
  events) are mainly attributed by
• Wrong strategy or no strategy
• Poor implementation
• That reflects a great deal importance of
  Leadership and People

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Strategy Process Management(1)

• Strategy process management are closely related
  to Context.
• Formulation of strategy at Synod level should be
  synchronized with churches. Bearing in mind
  diversified needs aspiration of different
  churches, in the context of size, members
  demographics, resources, strength weaknesses.

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Strategy Process Management(2)

• Strategy should heighten and leverage on
  qualities and talents of Presbyterians in
  particular, member churches prioritized needs
  shared resources
• Implementation processes may adopt benchmarking
  principle based on experience-sharing within
  Presbyterians as well as external worthy
  parties (if appropriate)

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Strategy Process Management(3)

• Well synchronized strategy for transformation of
  Presbyterian Church has been highlighted in
  focused group discussion and will bring about,

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Strategy Process Management(4)

• Greater buy-in from the churches
• A strategy formulation process that emphasizes
  two-way communications and expert consultation
• Allow valuable inputs from member churches
• Allow greater degree of strategic freedom for
  churches, e.g. larger congregations aspiration,
  church with special expertise in evangelism, in
  community service, in discipleship, in youth
  leadership, etc. etc.

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Strategy Process Management(5)

• Implementation processes management involves down
  to earth details. This area of work remains most
  demanding, it is the actual running of the laps.
  Many of the teething issues will continue to
  surface. Critical success factors (KSF) are

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Strategy Process Management(6)

• Collaboration of senior church leadership
  ministry leadership
• Collaboration of Synod churches (reinforce the
  roles interactive process between Synod
  churches for healthy church growth)
• Commitment shared resources (including
  training, expert consultation etc.)

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Strategy Process Management(7)

• (4) Leadership renewal
• (5) Performance management analysis
• (6) Experience-sharing learned benchmarking
  (avoid plainly copying act)
• Churches should be encouraged to step out of
  certain locked-in mindset in order to progress as
  Learning growing organization.

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Needs Aspiration(1)

• Internally,
• diversified needs aspiration will exist among
  the Presbyterian member churches in Singapore, as
  the churches are not of homogenous in the context
  of size, demographics, expertise, resources,
  leadership style talent etc.

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Needs Aspiration(2)

• Externally,
• faster pace of changing social economic
  environment coupled with new wave of migrants and
  continued growth of foreign workers into
  Singapore will bring about fairly significant
  changes to the society including more diversified
  cultural faith.
• It is this area that concerns all churches the
  most as the subject matters are close at heart to
  all.

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Needs Aspiration(3)

• Prioritization of Needs becomes an important
  realization of current status and the required
  resources for implementation of Healthy Growing
  Church and its transformation.

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Needs Aspiration(4)

• Individual churches will formulate their wish
  list but also to identify and synchronize some of
  their needs with the overall development plans
  committed by Presbyterian community (Synod) so
  that major milestones and focal issue will
  receive collective attention and most likely,
  achieve a common platform for experience-sharing
  and optimal resource management among the
  churches where appropriate.

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Needs Aspiration(5)

• Issue of Resource Management has great impact on
  Needs Aspiration of churches. Larger churches
  will face different scenarios as with smaller
  churches.
• Smaller churches will have to grapple with church
  and ministry and leadership renewal as well as
  lack of growth. As a result, aspiration is much
  hampered by greater constraint.

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Needs Aspiration(6)

• Larger churches are encouraged to play a
  complementary role in identified areas of
  ministry works and teaching of the Word, together
  with Synod to lay out platforms that smaller
  churches could participate and benefited from
  such complementary partnership system (such as
  shared resources, training expert consultation)
  in order to move ahead together, under a common
  vision

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Needs Aspiration(7)

• There will be constant struggle between attention
  to short-term (immediate urgent) needs vs
  long-term aspiration
• A complementary partnership system to be put in
  place for greater alignment of churches towards
  an identified long-term aspiration (goals),
  otherwise it is difficult to achieve a
  collective effort that will bring along at
  least 90 of Presbyterians onboard

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In Conclusion(1)

• A healthy growth church (HGC) has a structure to
  support growth changes as time changes,
  maintaining HGC initiative as well as for risk
  management.
• The HGC structure should be encompassing for
  Synod and member churches for them to create
  synergy and it supports alignment of needs
  aspiration.

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In Conclusion(2)

• The HGC structure will facilitate not only
  two-way communications between Synod member
  churches and also, among member churches to
  maintain collective support effort.

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Growing on Strong Foundation
Vision Goals (Healthy Growing Church, Plausible
scenario / Story)
Crystallized Experience History of
Presbyterian The Word Theological
Base Ritual Core Values Identity
Guidance Criterion
Strategy Process
Needs Aspiration
Foundation to build upon
Starting Point