ACV 23: Why I’ve Chosen To Be A Pastor (Pastor Tan Huai Tze of One Covenant Church Singapore, Part 1)

Tze is the Lead Pastor of One Covenant, a church he started in his living room (since outgrown) together with his wife, Cindy and 2 young daughters in 2016. He has a passion for preaching Christ from all parts of the Bible, and for making connections between the good news of Jesus Christ and everyday life. Tze grew up in Malaysia, and came to Singapore to study at age 15. He then went to the UK for further studies before coming back and making Singapore home.Before becoming a pastor, he worked in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and before that in IT Consulting in Accenture. A few years ago, Tze and the family spent 1.5 years in Australia, where Cindy did a medical fellowship, and Tze finished his Master of Divinity in Presbytarian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia.

In this episode, Pastor Tze of One Covenant church discusses his decision to step away from a secular job and become a full time pastor.

1. Be humble in your work – starting out, Tze put himself up for any and all odd jobs that arose in the Church. Even if they were unglamorous or outside of his comfort zone, making these sacrifices was part of working in service of God.
2.  Affinity, Ability and Opportunity (borrowed from Tim Keller) – Tze’s call to the service consisted of 3 elements: an internal call from his own desire, an external call from those around him having faith in his ability, and an opportunity to join his church as a Pastor. He says all three must be present, and you cannot have one without the others.
3. Worldly hesitations come second to faith in one’s call  – while Tze certainly had personal and financial concerns about transitioning to a Pastor, he ultimately found that he could live on less, and failure meant failing at the feet of Jesus. It requires a paradigm shift from being a success to being faithful.

• Accenture – https://www.accenture.com/au-en/about/company-index
• Ministry of Trading and Industry – https://www.mti.gov.sg/
• Singtel – https://www.singtel.com/
• Ajith Fernando – http://ajithfernando.com/bio/
• All Souls Church – https://www.allsouls.org/
• Simon Murphy – https://medium.com/redeemer-city-to-city/i-was-a-successful-church-planter-and-it-almost-ruined-me-1e4e30cfeb5f
• Redemption Hill Church – https://www.rhc.org.sg/
• Martyn Lloyd Jones – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyn_Lloyd-Jones
• John Calvin – https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/john-calvin/
• Martin Luther – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther

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