How does a non-registered church buy properties?

For churches that are not registered, consult a lawyer or a company secretary to draft a trust deed.

A trust is an arrangement under which property is given to one or more persons, the trustee or trustees, to use or apply it, and the income from it, for other persons, the beneficiaries. As between trustee(s) and beneficiaries the property belongs to the beneficiaries, in the sense that the trustee(s) can derive no benefit from it.

A trust deed can be prepared by an experienced and competent legal practitioner at the request of the church members or a committee formed for the purpose of appointing a trustee, stating precisely the purpose of such a trust, the subject matter or trust property, and the beneficiaries.

There is no law requiring that the trust-creating entity to be a registered body or a legal entity so long as the basic criteria for forming a trust are fulfilled. Immovable (and movable) property can be held under the trust.

The Trustee Act 1949 sets out the various powers, duties and liabilities of the trustees. Under this Act, trustees are given the power to invest any trust funds in his hand, power to sell property without being answerable for any loss, power to employ agents to transact any business, power to delegate the trust to any person during his absence from Malaysia, etc.

Section 2(2) says:
The powers conferred by this Act on trustees are in addition to the powers conferred by the instrument, if any, creating the trust, but those powers, unless otherwise stated, apply if and so far only as a contrary intention is not expressed in the instrument, if any, creating the trust, and have the effect subject to the terms of that instrument.

It is therefore advisable that, in the drafting of the trust instrument, the trustees’ duties and powers are clearly defined and restricted to minimize abuse. If the powers are to be exercised, certain safeguards, for example, obtaining the unanimous decision of the trustees, may be prudent. The church must ensure that the trustees appointed are capable as well as trustworthy because of the extensive power they hold.

How can a non-registered church open an account with EPF?

Under the EPF Act,

An employer is defined as a person(s) with whom an employee has a contract of service or apprenticeship.

Employer includes:

* Manager, agent or person responsible for the payment of wages to an 'employee'
* Any group of persons whether statutory or non-statutory or incorporated
* Any Government, Government Department, Statutory Body, Local Authority or other bodies as specified in the Second Schedule to the EPF Act 1991


An employee is defined as a person who is employed under a contract of service or apprenticeship. The contract of service or apprenticeship can be written or oral, expressed or implied.

Non-registered churches fall into the category of non-incorporated entities and are therefore obligated to open an account with them and vice versa.

The Anatomy of an Affair

For those of us who serve in the full time ministry we have one of the few jobs in which our moral ethics can not only crush our marriage but our career as well. Our enemy is sly and patient, he will gladly wait five to ten years if he knows he can get you, destroy your marriage, and your career. We need to build the walls to the castle of our marriage high and strong...To read more, click here

Young Pastors

During the 70s, responding to the full-time calling as a late teen (between 17-19 years old) was the "in-thing" among the churches I was associated with. Today,many denominations have shyed away from that model, prefering more matured people who holds at least a Bachelor's degree and have worked a number of years in the secular world. Theoritically, it seems to be a good direction to go but in reality, how many young adults in their mid-twenties would be able to respond to full-time calling? Reason is very simple: most of them at this age would have gone into the workforce having a car loan to service. For those who are already hitched, they would also be making plans for their big day and possibly have a joint house mortgage to pay back. basing on the present low salary that most churches offer, no sane person in this age bracket would go full-time! Hence, we still need to challenge young people to view full-time ministry as a career path. Church leaders at the same time should draft out a proper career path for them which involves training in theology, management, leadership, etc and also financial remuneration.

I would also like to highlight an idea that I got while reading Fred Smith "Learning to Lead". How can a young pastor help an auto mechanic, a stock-exchange remiser or a sales executive? It's difficult for a young pastor to have the depth of the necessary understanding that can only be accumulated through years of knowledge and experience. But he can point people to the appropriate resources i.e. older in-house advisers esp. if they are elders of the church. In business, they have staff advisers, consultants and specialists that they can call upon to meet particular needs, why can't we apply the same principle in the church? The church board must stand behind their young pastor and groom him to lead the church. Of course he will make mistakes (plenty of them!)but the wise leader will stand with him.

Shortage of Full-time Workers

NECF brought together the 3 heads of Bible Seminaries to find possible solutions to meet the shortage of full-time workers in the Malaysian Church. That was 12 years ago - Rev Dr Hwa Yung has since become the bishop of the Methodist Church while Rev Ng Kok Kee and Rev Dr Tan Kim Sai are still faithfully holding the fort at their respective seminaries.

At the request of the Leadership Commission, selected portions of that interview are being reproduced here:

What do you think are the reasons that there are not many Christians who want to enter full-time ministry nowadays?

Hwa Yung:
I would like to say that it is not only nowadays. Over the last two thousand years that there have not been many Christians entering full-time ministry. It is only in special times of revival and in special situations when many people have moved into full-time ministry – for example, in the Korea Church over the last generation and also today a lot of highly qualified people have entered the full-time ministry. That is an exception rather than the norm. Throughout history it has always been difficult to get the right people to go into the ministry. In the Malaysian context there are three main reasons:

The first reason is that going into the ministry always involves an element of sacrifice. That’s always the tough part. If you look at the Malaysian church, you will find that before 1970, there were very few university graduates moving into the ministry. Thankfully, the picture has changed over the seventies and eighties and people are coming to terms with matter of sacrifice. But that remains a big issue. ‘Why go into the ministry and have unreasonable elders/board members working over you when you yourself can become a millionaire at 30 years old?” “Why go into ministry when you are not sure whether you can send your children for university education?” “Why go into the ministry when you may not even have a house to stay in?” These are real questions involving sacrifice that people going into the ministry have to grapple with.

The second reason is the wrong notion that the full-time ministry is only for the drop-out and non-performers. I still remember one incident when a particular bishop was sitting with a group of friends when one of them complained about this son who was academically quite weak, as compared to the first daughter and second son who were doing well in their respective careers. He just didn’t know what to do with him. “Perhaps I will send him to Trinity Theological College”, he said. Of course he apologized profusely when he realized that the bishop was there. That unfortunately has been the image a lot of people have about the full-time ministry: it is meant for those who don’t do well in life.

The third reason is the negative image of the ministry as created by those of us who are already in the ministry. Ministers have failed to uphold the dignity and image of the ministry and allowed themselves to be corrupted by money, sex and power. This power can only be resolved by those of us who are full-time. We have to show to our church members that the calling to full-time ministry is something that we thank God for and something we deeply value. When people are touched by our life’s example and also by our ministry, they too will want to enter the ministry.

Kok Kee:
In my denomination some twenty years ago, there was a high percentage of people that were willing to dedicate themselves, make the sacrifice and go into full-time ministry. But I think materialism has affected the church somewhat over the church somewhat over the last ten or fifteen years and people are finding it harder to make that kind of sacrifice. A lot of my friends have become executives, driving imported cars and making their first million ringgit before they are thirty. Going into the full-time ministry means that they have to sacrifice all these and people are finding it very hard to do so even though they say that they love God. Jesus has said that it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle rather than for a rich people going into the ministry. The more affluent you are, the harder it is for you to give up. An example that always intrigue me is that when you earn $100, it is easy to give $10. If you earn $1000, to give $100 away is not so bad; but if you earn $100,000 to give $10,000 can be real pinch and struggle. I think the affluence over the last few years has really affected the church badly and many of our people are not willing to make the sacrifice.

Kim Sai:
All the factors and elements that have been mentioned are very real that made many that have been called not willing to give up. But I like to affirm what Hwa Yung has said earlier that one of the reasons why not many are willing to take up the challenge is because of the many problems, squabbles and fights that exist among the church leadership – for example between the pastor and the church board and so on. If you were to ask around, many of those who are now serving in the ministry most probably come from non-Christian backgrounds; not knowing the many problems that they have in church! They were challenged by the gospel and God’s call and most innocently and zealously took up the challenge. But if we were to make survey among the second or third generation Christians in the church, the number of them going into full-time ministry would most probably be every small –unless it is the very special work of the Lord. In the face of so much church politics, church problems and the lack of integrity and dignity on the part of pastors and church leaders, it is not surprising why second and third generation Christians are refraining from going full-time. To reverse this trend, we as pastors and church leaders must sincerely serve the Lord in all that we do and be helpful to people in general. We need such godly role models in our church today to be the motivational force for more people to enter the full-time ministry.

Poor Enrolment in Bible Seminaries

We heard that the enrolment in Bible seminaries/colleges is not that encouraging. Besides the reason that not many people are going into full-time ministry, are there any other causes?

Kok Kee:
Within my own denominational setting, there are leaders who think that the traditional bible seminaries and colleges training is just too long – they prefer to send their workers to short-term training, seminars, etc. Hence, young people are discouraged by the leaders to go for seminary training and pursue something that is easier, cheaper and faster! Sad to say, sometimes the perception of certain leaders can be rather selfish – some pastors feel that when young people go through Bible seminary training, they will not return back to the church for they will have their own vision and sense of calling. They somehow want these young people to continue the ministry under them – this is particularly true of those leaders who want to have their own mini kind of denominations and ministries. Therefore, they discourage young people from going through bible seminary training lest after they get trained and ordained, these young people would have the proper papers to do what they want to do as they feel led by God. Those who don’t go to the traditional training have nothing to show as far as paper qualification is concerned, so they are at the mercy of the pastors. This is rally selfish but this is happening. But that may not be the main reason. Most pastors feel that it is easier, cheaper and quicker to send workers for short-term bible college training. There is also this complaint by leaders and ministers that young people who go through bible seminary training lose zeal and become over critical as well. When they return to the church, they are no longer the same vigilant young people they use to be. They become very critical and cynical, finding everything wrong with the church. Thought there may be some justification but it is definitely leaving a bad taste to the local church leadership.

Kim Sai:
I would say that the reason why not many people come for bible seminary training is that it might be a reflection of the problematic state of churches around – especially that of the church leadership. As I look back, I notice this kind of phenomenon, that in a particular time under a particular pastor, there would be a good number of young people raised into the ministry. This same phenomenon also occurred in another place under another pastor during a different period of time. If we do a case study on the places where these people were raised for full-time service, you would probably identify pastors who loved the Lord, served Him faithfully and provided a good role model. So I wonder whether the unsatisfactory situation of people going into the ministry might be due to the unhealthy state of the church in our country today. If there is a problem here, it is time for the church leadership across all denominations to search our hearts and see if we have failed in this regard. Another reason is that the pastors themselves do not see their ministry as the highest calling of the Lord, thus not making a good performance on it. Hence, they are not too concerned when they do not see others going into the ministry. They would prefer to see things as they are and maintain the status quo and show themselves to be indispensable rather than challenging the church members into the ministry.

Hwa Yung:
I think what brother Kim Sai said about role models is very crucial to raising up more people into the full-time ministry and I like to say more on that later on.

Arrest the Decline

What can be done to arrest the decline of Christians going into full-time ministry?
Hwa Yung:
From the main-line church point of view, I won’t say that there is a decline in Christians going into the full-time ministry because the numbers has never been very high. From our observation, the quality of people who have come to our seminary has gradually risen. Generally speaking, more matured people and some with university or other professional backgrounds have entered full-time ministry. I would also like to point out something that Kok Kee has brought out earlier, that is rightly or wrongly, some Churches perceive that seminary training is not very useful.. They think that studying theology is the waste of time. But the quality of preaching and messages in our churches today is generally very poor because full-time workers and even pastors don’t have a solid understanding of the Bible, church history and theology. On the other hand, the seminaries have themselves to be blamed because we have locked ourselves too much into the Western model of training which is basically very academic. We are still wrestling with this problem and slowly getting ourselves out of it because it is not an easy task. For examples, there is not a single text-book on Systematic Theology which relates to Asian society, culture and the needs of our society. Most books are neither written in the Asian context nor pastorally-orientated. Hence, we hear complaints from church leaders who say that there are workers who have been to seminary for four years who cannot even conduct a proper Bible study. I am not saying that seminaries have not done their jobs but that they are doing their best within their limited resources because most of the text-books are from the West.

Kim Sai:
So in this regard, there is a need not only of godly role models i.e. pastors and preachers who have immediate influence over the potential people who may be called to serve the Lord full-time, but also the need of role models of theological educators and scholars to improve the situation.

Kok Kee:
I like to emphasise that role models are very important. The role model may not necessary be a dynamic preacher, great administrator or the person who is always up front but one who makes an impact upon the church members’ lives – the godly pastor. He is the one whose life the church members want to emulate.

Hwa Yung:
In this regard, I think of Rev Peter Hsieh. Everywhere that he has gone and pastored, many people have gone into full-time ministry. The Air Itam Methodist church in Penang alone have produced quite a number of pastors because of his influence. I think we lack such traditions of godly role models in our churches. In the West, we can think of the Guinness’ and Hudson Taylor’s families where successive generations of them have gone into mission fields. I think one test as to whether the person has a real calling to full-time ministry is whether he really desires and prays for his own children to go into the full-time ministry too. We need to build up such traditions in our country. Some of the reasons we discussed earlier on why people are not going into full-time ministry are the same reasons why we don’t have such traditions in Malaysia. I have people who say to me, “I saw what my father went through as a pastor and I told myself that I will never become a pastor.” I think it is partly the church’s fault for we have not really taken care of those who are in the ministry. It is also partly our fault – we have not shown ourselves to be godly role models. When both parties begin to take up their responsibilities, this problem can be resolved.

Kok Kee:
One way to compensate for this lack of godly role models is to challenge our people to read biographies of outstanding men and women of God and understand some of the sacrifices that they have made in serving God as missionaries and so on. Our people are reading too much ‘junk’ in the form of all these ‘bless me’ stuff.