Central Christian Church Singapore
History / Milestones


Posted : 23 December 2005

1988 April
The Central Christain Church officially began this month. Led by a young married couple, John and Karen Louis, and a handful of faithful mission team members, the church grew from its first tiny little mustard seed meeting in a Prinsep Street Apartment to more than 100 members in its first year.

1990 March
The planting of the first mission team sent out from the Central Christian Church took place in March, ‘90. After an unusually large number of Indonesians were baptised in ‘88 and ‘89, the leaders saw God's hand at work and got a dream to evangelize Indonesia, the world's fourth most populated nation. In March 1990, the mission team to Jakarta was officially sent out. Since that time, the Jakarta church has planted six more churches across the Indonesian archipelago, resulting in an average of 2,500 worshipping God together each Sunday, with 1800 meeting in Jakarta alone.

1991
The burden of evangelizing another close neighbouring country was on the heart of the Singapore Church. In April ’91, the second mission team was sent out, this time to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where today about 500 people attend the Sunday worship service. By the end of 1991, the church in Singapore had grown to about 700 in membership in four short years. Also that year, the church saw its first major persecution in the form of a defamatory article written in a major religious magazine and two major newspapers. The church filed suit. (see related section: Legal Victory)

1992
1992 saw the official planting of the Johor Bahru Church in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Malaysia's second largest city.  History was made for the Singapore church when the Kuala Lumpur church sent out a mission team to Penang, Malaysia, making this the first fourth generation church for this region.

1993 - 1996
During these years of difficulties brought on by the persecution, several courageous young leaders rose up to guide the church during this time. These faithful couples - Teck Ming and Patrice Lee, Halbert and Bong Louis, Steven and Agnes Tan, and Mano and Lily Manoharan stood in the gap throughout these trying years to help the Singapore church to stand firm.

1997
God's hand was powerfully evident when the church won its legal case against the newspapers and magazine. Not only was history made in the church but also in the Singapore legal system (see related article: Court Case).

1998
The newspaper appealed the court's ruling, but God's church prevailed once again when the appeal was rejected. Following this victory, John and Karen Louis were able to return to Singapore to lead the church after an absence of seven years.

2000
By the grace of God the Central Christian Church grew to more than 1000 in membership. A celebration was held in Kallang Theatre with a gigantic cake. The Batam Island Church was planted in July.

2001
The church was the recipient of a special plaque as a token of appreciation presented by Community Chest's patron H.E. President S.R. Nathan for its volunteer efforts at the 2002 Christmas Light-up ceremony incorporating the Launch of Community Chest's Festive Care & Share fund raising project.  The church has received five of these awards over the years.

2003
The church won the tender for the land in Punggol to use for constructing a church building in January, and we had our Groundbreaking Ceremony in July.  In April, the lay leaders and members of the church formed working groups to explore issues of contention within our worldwide church organisation, and presented their findings during the midweek meetings from June to August, which resulted in the church signing a membership covenant in October.

2004
“We gather here to know God and make God known” is the mission statement we settled on, taken from the greatest commandments and the great commission.  Upon the completion of the new church building at the end of the year, four conferences were held: an Asian Leadership Conference, an Asian Christian Conference, a SEA Region Conference and the Grand Opening of the Church Building which included a Christmas Musical.

2005
The whole year was a milestone because it was our first year ever to be in our own church building!  In addition, the Kids Kingdom Childcare Centre opened in February. Many of our church members participated in the first ever Joint Flag Day of our adopted charity, HOPE worldwide (Singapore) in August.  It was co-sponsored by the AIN Society, a Muslim Charitable Organisation.  We also had our Mission Statement Workshops in May, August and October.  In the last workshop, we formed our small groups.  To top it all off, we received the Certificate of Statutory Completion (CSC) - the final government approval needed to permanently operate a building - for our church building in December. 


Central Christian Church, 1, EDGEFIELD WALK, Singapore 828850
Tel : (65)6343 8462 Fax : (65)6343 8463

2005 Copyright Central Christian Church