HEB 13:7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

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Dr Tong started off by saying that this is a rather unique verse, with a command not found elsewhere in the Bible. After admonishing the readers not to be trapped by the love for money, the author focused next on remembering the leaders of the past. But these are not organisational leaders, because other translations refer to these people as people who have led you, or people who led you to Christ. Therefore, the verse refers to people who brought others to Christ by adopting an attitude of self-sacrifice and humility.

While speaking about leadership in a university, Dr Tong once listed 12 types of leaders. The most important leaders would be those who are spiritual or ethical leaders. These are people who continue to influence others even though they may be out of political power, or may indeed be dead. These are the people who led not with power or authority. On the contrary, they may relinquish their rights and status just to influence others via the might of their character and spirituality.

On matters of salvation, we were all saved via the grace of God. None of us could arrange the sermon, the person or the occasion at which we could be moved to received God's salvation. This tells us that it was the grace of God that granted us salvation, as Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace". This grace would reach mankind via all sorts of different manner based on God's wisdom and grace.

But the channel through which God sent His grace would be people who were willing to sacrifice, and be obedient to God's calling. These people are the channels and tools of God. This was why the author reminded us to remember these people who brought us to Christ. Dr Tong said that there are two types of Christians in church today; those born and raised in a Christian family, and those who were brought to Christ by someone else.

Dr Tong then did an interesting 'experiment'. He asked those who have been born into a Christian family to raise their hands. Then he asked those who have been brought to Christ by others to raise theirs. The result was that two third of the participants were not born into Christian families. That prompted Dr Tong to express optimism for the future of the church in Singapore. It also indicated to him that 'new' Christians are more eager to learn about the truth of God rather than 'born' Christians.

He then asked those who were born Christians to raise their hands if they had brought others to Christ; followed by those 'new' Christians who had brought others to Christ. Clearly, many more 'new' Christians brought others to Christ when compared with born Christians. Dr Tong said that this demonstrate a very important principle, that is, the gospel needs to be preached from generation to generation. Like a tree bearing fruits that have a seed inside, this seed will grow into the next tree, and on and on it goes. Once the sharing of the gospel stops, we will begin to behave like the European churches, entering into a post-Christian era when churches will become empty.

One key problem is that we often place great emphasis on leaders who are at the pulpit. We spend lots of money to mould these people, building seminaries and the like. But we have ignored another type of leaders; people who truly preach the gospel in the streets, who truly share God's love in their everyday life with others. These are the unsung heroes of the church, but they are often neglected. We often think of great evangelists, but we have forgotten that their ministry must be built upon personal evangelism, because the conversion is often not because of a single sermon, but because another life has been influencing the non-believer. Before any evangelist can make an altar call, many of such lay preachers had already paid a heavy price in commitment and self-sacrifice in order to prepare the non-believer to receive Christ.

If we were to ask those 'new' Christians to tell us their stories, each will likely relate an unique story of how the LORD moved certain people to bring them to Christ. In heaven, we will know more about these endless stories, about how the LORD had worked in a wonderful manner. These people who led us to Christ may not have been properly trained theologically. Their presentation of the gospel may not be complete and may be limited. But at the least, they have a pure heart, wanting others to believe. Dr Tong said that it is always a difficult task getting someone to believe in Christ. People would talk about anything and everything except the gospel. So it would take a great deal of effort to preach the gospel to someone. Somehow, we do not remember these unsung heroes of the church, and barely remember to pray and give thanks for them.

Dr Tong then related about how his family came to know the LORD. Dr Tong came from a large family, and her mother had 10 children. She was an Indonesian who underwent Dutch education, and married Dr Tong's father who brought her to China. Once, one of the sons had a high fever that would not subside for many days. Dr Tong's mother went to the doctors and even consulted temple mediums to no avail. There was an old lady who kept coming to Dr Tong's home to invite his mother to attend church. Time and again, she was rejected. Dr Tong's mother finally asked that lady not to come to visit them anymore. But after 28 days of her son's fever, Dr Tong's mother was very anxious. The old lady appeared then at the house, and said that she would pray for the child. Since she did not know what else to do, Dr Tong's mother allowed the lady to pray for her son. That very afternoon, the child was healed, and Mrs. Tong allowed her to bring the children to church.

Dr Tong said that one key secret in evangelism would be that no one would reject an offer for prayer for peace or healing, as these are things even non-believers want. When you offer to pray for someone, you will probably get a favorable answer. Dr Tong then related an incident when one of his members went to the Presidential palace in Indonesia to pray for ex-President Harbibie although he is a Muslim.

With the Tong children going to church, in no time, Dr Tong's parents went to church as well although his father passed away shortly. But by the grace of God, the widowed Mrs. Tong brought up all the children, 5 of whom became ministers, prominent servants of God. The unsung heroine here would be a simple old lady who persisted in bringing the gospel message to the Tong family. But Dr Tong said we seldom remember these people, citing various examples of how elderly retired servants of God are often neglected and had to live a Spartan lifestyle.

Not only should we remember them, we need to imitate their faith (in the Mandarin translation, imitating the faith comes before considering the outcome of their life, which was why Dr Tong chose to speak on this first). Not only did these people bring us the gospel message, their very lives would be an exemplification of faith in action. They had so much faith that they persevered in preaching the gospel, because they are not interested in rewards or benefits. They were simply obeying in faith.

The author also admonished us to consider the outcome of these people's lives. Some people brought the gospel to us, and led a consistently holy lives. But some people fell away from the faith themselves. Dr Tong recalled that in his youth, there was a very articulate preacher who could preach very well, and moved Dr Tong greatly. But this person later became a Buddhist monk, and died a lonely death in the jingle, far away from his family. In retrospect, Dr Tong said that while this person was articulate, there were obvious flaws in his life as he liked to rely on the rich for his providence. So we need to know that time will expose many of our weaknesses, and the outcome of our lives would bear testimony to our heart's intent.

This outcome may not be in accordance to our usual ideas of success and failures, but God is able to use even negative situations for His own glory. When our LORD Jesus Christ sent forth the seventy to preach (Luke 10), they came back, rejoicing at their great success. But ironically, Christ was not successful in His own preaching (as read in Luke 9:53 and others). Dr Tong said that he wondered about this for a long time, until he studied the gospel of Matthew. From chapter 1 to 10, Matthew seems to indicate that the glory of God was with Jesus Christ. But by chapter 11, Christ became lonely, and his preaching did not bring about great revival. Ironically, this was when Christ said two very important things, Matt 11:26 "Yes Father, for this was your good pleasure", and Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened..." Dr Tong's conclusion was that Jesus Christ picked the hardest field of harvest for Himself, and let the easy ones go to his disciples.

Christ was also clear about what the important things were. He told the disciples not to rejoice about the superficial successes, but to note that it was more important that their names are in the book of life (Luke 10:20). So the final outcome of our lives are not so much dependant on visible successes, but what counts for God. We need to have spiritual wisdom to be able to see beyond surface successes, and imitate the faith of those who are truly faithful to God, and who bear fruits for all eternity. We need to have patience and persevere till the end, even if the going is tough and we do not see the immediate result of our ministries, for we have been called to faithfulness. Let us continue to give thanks, and learn from those who came before us, so that we may influence our next generation, and the next to shine for Jesus Christ.

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.