Christians In Muslim-Majority Malaysia Have Freedom To Worship But Face Challenges
Kenneth Gong welcomes worshipers to the Seremban Church of Christ’s Sunday morning service. (Photo by Erik Tryggestad)
SEREMBAN, Malaysia — The Seremban Church of Christ meets in a predominantly Muslim nation with strict anti-conversion laws.
But it doesn’t meet in secret. Far from it.
In bold letters, a sign in front of the church’s building reads “GEREJA” (“CHURCH” in Malay) and lists the times for the congregation’s three Sunday services — in Mandarin, Tamil and English.
The church, about an hour south of Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, also hosts events for Christians from across Southeast Asia, including a recent retreat for those who work in ministries that serve underprivileged children.
Malaysia’s constitution states that “Islam is the religion of the Federation; but other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony.” It also defines ethnic Malays, who comprise 55 percent of Malaysia’s 35 million people, as Muslim from birth. The law prohibits proselytizing of Muslims by other religious groups. Penalties include lengthy jail sentences.
Malaysia’s other predominant ethnicities — Chinese and Indian — comprise most of the Seremban Church of Christ’s 50 or so members
The church itself dates back to the early 1960s, when a handful of Malaysians answered an ad in a newspaper for Bible correspondence courses.
One of those students was John Loh, now 80 and the longest-tenured member. Before worship on a Sunday morning, he spoke with The Christian Chronicle.
Loh was christened as a child in a Methodist church but decided from his studies that he needed to be baptized “in the water.” A missionary in Singapore, Don Green, arrived to do just that.
“Everyone here is very friendly,” Loh said. “We can mix with each other, support each other.”
Growth, division and nationalism
In the past six decades, Churches of Christ in Malaysia have weathered storms from without and within.
Kenneth Gong, a member of the Seremban church, produced a 19-page document detailing the history of the congregation, which will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its meeting place next April. Ong Kok Bin, a longtime minister for the church, wrote a 350-page book about the history of Churches of Christ in Malaysia and Singapore.
Ken Sinclair died Dec. 2, 2015, after contracting dengue fever during a trip to Singapore to encourage churches and officiate a wedding.
Both writers noted the mission work of Ken and Estelle Sinclair, who served the church until the late 1970s, when the Malaysian government closed the door to foreign missionaries. Look Yu Sang, who trained with Ken Sinclair, became the church’s first native, full-time preacher.
By the late 1970s, the church had 75 members and was involved in prison ministry and church planting. An outreach work in nearby Port Dickson grew to 30 members. But disagreements and doctrinal disputes hindered growth in the years that followed.
Malaysian church members told the Chronicle that their country is in the midst of a wave of nationalism tied to Islam. As a result, fewer Malaysians are conversant in English than in decades past, Gong wrote, instead relying on Malay and Mandarin.
These internal and external factors, plus job opportunities in other countries, have impacted the Seremban church, said Dr. Naveen Vikraman, a physician whose father preaches for the church’s Tamil and English services. Of the 12 young men in his peer group, only four remain in Malaysia. The others pursued careers in Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and England.
“Oftentimes, younger people are blamed for being disinterested in church due to being enthralled by worldly cares.” Vikraman said. But, from his perspective, “there are so many young people desperately searching for a church that simply is what it was meant to be. Many are lifelong Christians who, seeing the way church is done now — hypocrisy, division, lack of forgiveness — find church no different than the world and lose hope that it can grow out of what it has been.
“Matthew 9:35-38 holds true now more than ever,” he said, referencing the compassion Jesus had on the crowds he encountered, who were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus told his disciples: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Hope despite the chasm
Alongside the challenges for the church are opportunities — and “blessings in disguise,” Gong said.
Southwest of the city of Seremban is Seremban 2, a satellite community of apartments, shops, restaurants and parks. The Seremban Church of Christ applied for a plot of land in the new development with assistance from Tony Lee, a member of the church and a real estate agent. Local authorities approved the application but later withdrew the offer and allocated the land for a mosque.
Then a developer, with state approval, gave the church a building in a strip mall with a large, upstairs room that the church turned into an auditorium.
“With God’s blessings, the church managed to raise sufficient money — within the church and with assistance from sister churches in Malaysia and Singapore — to furnish the building and to add classrooms and a kitchen,” Gong said.
The new facility has more square footage than the Seremban church’s building, but the Christians do not plan to relocate. Instead, church members hope to plant a new congregation — the Sendayan Church of Christ.
On a recent Sunday evening, about 15 Christians from Seremban and visitors from Singapore gathered in the new building for worship. Naveen Vikraman taught the group hymns, including Phil Wickham’s “Living Hope.”
“How great the chasm that lay between us,” the song begins, lamenting the estrangement of God from his creation. It ends in praise, giving glory to Jesus for bridging the gap. “There’s salvation in your name. You have broken every chain.”
“Whether new songs, songs of hope or songs of lament, we try to sing from the heart,” Vikraman told his fellow Christians.
Among the Sunday night attendees was Eeli Yu, a pharmacist who grew up in Seremban. She encountered Christ when she went to university in Queensland, Australia, in 2010 and a Christian woman invited her to a barbecue.
She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to find a church when she returned home. Then she came across the Seremban Church of Christ website.
“Thankfully, they had a map,” she said.
Now she loves her church home.
“Even though it’s a small church,” Yu said, “everyone puts effort into it.”
This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.
Erik Tryggestad is president and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.