Born in 1963 in Malaysia to Philip Eastus Louis and Sosamma Louis of Taiping, John Louis grew up the second of six sons. At 15, he entered an English boarding school in Devon, England. While pursuing his Honours Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the City University, London, John was invited to study the Bible and subsequently decided to become a disciple of Jesus. Upon graduation in 1985, he entered the full-time ministry of the London Church of Christ. There he met Karen McDonald, and they were married in 1987. In the coming years, he was able to reason with his whole family about God and the truth of the Scriptures and both his parents and all his siblings became disciples of Jesus Christ.

Karen was born and raised in Lubbock, Texas, in the United States of America. Despite growing up in a wonderful family and being popular among her peers, she was looking for more in life, and thus turned to seriously reading the Bible at age seventeen. The truth inspired and spurred her on to join a church planting from her hometown traditional Church of Christ congregation to Amherst, Massachusetts at the age of nineteen (that planting has since become the Springfield Sector of the Boston Church of Christ). After receiving her degree in Classics (Cum Laude) at University of Massachusetts in 1985, she was eager to grow in her knowledge of God and to help others do so. She moved to London to be part of the London Church of Christ and later joined the full-time ministry in 1987.

John and Karen Louis moved to Singapore shortly after being married in London and officially began the Central Christian Church of Singapore in 1988.  They are currently overseeing 17 affiliated churches in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia – now known as the South-East Asian Region of Churches (SEAchurches).

In addition to his pastoral work, John is also founder and president of HOPE worldwide (Singapore), and is a trained family life educator and marriage counsellor.  Both John and Karen hold a graduate certificate in Parent Leadership Education Training from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, a Master’s Degree in Counselling from Monash University, and are Professional Members of the American and the Australian Counselling Associations. They are also Registered Counsellors with the Singapore Association for Counselling.

John has been responsible for spearheading many of the HOPE worldwide initiatives in the South-East Asian region, including starting orphanages and free clinics in Indonesia and Malaysia, and pioneering Movie Therapy^TM in Singapore.  John and Karen have conducted conferences, seminars and workshops on family, marriage and parenting, in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.  They work closely with the Family Life Education programmes by Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports (MCYS), and give talks through the Family Life Education (FLE) and Family Life Ambassador (FLA) programmes; and also with the Health Promotion Board on providing public health education workshops on Mental Wellness, Smoking Cessation and the risks of Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

Together with their two young teenagers, the Louis reside in Singapore.

Contact John Louis:
john_louis@seachurches.org, HP:(65)98305882
Contact Karen Louis:
karenlouis@seachurches.org , HP:(65)97500973