Criticism against MBS

As there was no reply from the author of that email, here's my response.

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Dear Kris,

I am not sure if you are the originator of this mail since I have received it from two other sources this morning.

While the content of the email is something to be concerned about, the context is something we do not know. Maybe it's just a temporary arrangement. Anyway, the best thing to do is to write to the principal of MBS direct and c.c. to the board.

Sending out a mass mail to unconcerned and unaffected parties is a pure violation of the Matthew 18 injunction where our Lord Jesus laid down clear principles to resolve any dispute between two parties. Furthermore, sending the mail to undisclosed recipients is likened to slander since MBS does not have a chance to defend itself.

I therefore urge you to write direct to MBS. If you are the author of the mail, you may even want to recall the mail.

Patrick Cheng

A letter circulating that MBS should respond to

The e-mail (in red) is being passed around. Perhaps MBS (ED) should post a response?

Some personal comments of mine can be found after the e-mail

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ at MBS,

I have been a keen prayer supporter of MBS for many years. I have just check in on the MBS website and what I saw thoroughly disappoints me.

First of all, your faculty standard has gone down the drain. You have lecturers with no degrees such as Jack Mock and Tan Geok Hock. Just their experiences alone do not count at all. The white missionary couple you have as lecturers are also poorly qualified, Rog having only a MA and his wife just a BA. It was Pastor Eddy Ho who told our church several years ago that the minimum qualification is a M.Div. Does Jack Mock and Tan Geok Hock have the qualification. As a seminary, you have state the academic qualifications of your lecturers. Just compare MBS withe the STM and BCM websites and see the way they display their qualified lecturers' qualification. You have so few lecturers and your timetable have only 3 or 4 subjects a week!

I think there is some inconsistency in your lecturer qualification requirement. A Malaysian will not be acceptable with less than a M.Div yet, a white couple with just an MA and BA respectively and an Australian pastor without any degree are allowed to teach.Also, the dean's D.Min is not an academic degree but a skill-based one, so how can he be a good academic lecturer. Actually, nobody in the academic world respect the D.Min holder. It is so easily gained that even people with no basic theological degrees can get a D.Min. This was what the good old Rev Loh Soon Choy told some of us after preaching in our church a few years back when we asked why he didnt go for a D.Min.

Just look at the academic credentials of the BCM alone, no need to compare with the high-powered STM. The ordinary BCM lecturers have higher qualifications than the MBS dean! And they have a large pool of lecturers while MBS has only 5! The STM, of course, is way above the MBS with so many with PhDs from world-class unversities and seminaries like London University and Fuller.

The less than a handful lecturers is a disgrace and is shortchanging the students. I will ask my church to stop sending students and supporting MBS in view of its poor faculty. I think BCM and STM are much better seminaries.

I feel that you should do something about the situation.

This message is being sent to pastors and church leaders to start a debate on whether MBS is worth supporting or not. Please help to promote this debate by forward to other concerned Christians.

KR Wee

There has been a lot of major changes over the years and I think it would be good for MBS to make some kind of statement. Perhaps there is a strong adjunct faculty (and if so, this needs to be made clear on the MBS website)

I remember that even when I was doing my B.Th (graduated in 1990) I had the chance to study under many lecturers with M.Ths and PhDs.

Some PhDs I remember and enjoyed studying under(when I was doing my B.Th and later M.Min and MCS ) were

Ng Kam Weng (theology) * I remember even requesting permission (and being granted) to sit in the then MDiv classes when I was doing my B.Th.

Wong Hoong Hing (NT)

Philip .... oops name slips my mind but he was OT grad from Sheffield University.

For many of the courses in which I did my MCS, I made sure I picked courses that had special guest lecturers (many of whom were PhD holders or specialists in their fields)

For example, I thoroughly enjoyed counselling courses with the late Anthony Yeo, CE with Saik Oy Mooi (PhD in CE), "religion" with an Arabic speaking Middle Eastern PhD holder and missions with Peter Rowan (who is still a missionary). I also had some interesting classes with Allan Harkness (back when he only had his Masters)

Back to my BTh years ... As frustrating as I sometimes found some classes with Rev. Loh SC, :-) I enjoyed his friendship and learned much from the wealth of knowledge he had on Church history. Through him I still believe that church history is interesting and relevant!

For OT, I fondly remember the late Lee Hong Kwang (yes I know he only had an MA in OT from TEDS) but there was no doubt about his deep knowledge and practical application of the OT. And I know that Low Chai Hok never formally completed his MCS from Regent College but he certainly has a better grasp of OT and Hebrew than many OT grads I have met (MTh no less) from some big names seminaries. They gave me a great foundation and love for the OT. Back then, to get a B from Chai Hok was a thrill as his standard was so high :-)

In NT, I had a couple of personal issues with Rev Tan Jin Huat (now Rev Dr.) but that I can honestly say was due to my immaturity back then and not his ability or character! :-) Back then he only had his MTh (Aberdeen) but he was very knowledgeable.

Andrew Lim had a MA (philosophy I believe) but he gave me a great foundation and love for philosophy of religion, and I learned a lot from his pastoral ministry and homiletics classes.

I also had the chance to restudy hermeneutics with Dr. Lim Kar Yong (when doing my MCS) and it is still to me the best course on the subject I have ever taken. (And I still wish that I had the opportunity to learn Greek from him - maybe then I would keep whatever little Greek I managed to learn)

Blessed New Year 2010 wishes

2010 has arrived. Rather late as it's already the 6th but ... "May God grant you a blessed 2010!"

Interesting that there are many hits on this blog but it's still so quiet, especially since most alumni in the ministry and have to do regular preaching :-)

No news as to how everyone is doing. ... me? I'm well, busy and happy with ministry and life.

Here's a picture of me and my wife Jennifer (also an alumnus)

Controlling Your Moods & Emosi

Mark 6:7 - Jesus sent the 12 disciples out to preach the gospel and heal the sick - I supposed he was in a good mood that his disciples were ready to experience the power of the kingdom

Mark 6:14 - Herod beheaded his cousin John the Baptist. Jesus must be very sad to hear the news. That must be a sabotage and spiritual attack on Jesus.

Mark 6:30 - The disciples returned with the exciting news of all the miracles, healing, & exocisms that took place (cf vs 12-13). How you you think Jesus would have felt? His cousin has just died a martyr's death. I supposed He had to rejoice with the disciples.

Mark 6:31 - Jesus saw the need to spend some time with the disciples for debriefing hence took them aside for a time to rest. Perhaps both for himself and them to recuperate.

Mark 6:33 - The multitudes heard where they were going (perhaps some of the disciples out of zealousness had leaked the news out)and swarmed to the deserted place before them. If you were Jesus, how would you have felt? I would have felt overwhelmed with tiredness & exhaustion both physically and emotionally.Come on - give me a break!

Mark 6:34 - Moved with compassion for them, he taught them from morning until evening. Compassion for the people has overcome his own fatigue and sorrows.

Mark 6:35-36 - There seemed to be a hint in the disciples' voice that Jesus was abit long-winded and forgot the time. They were tired and hungry already.

Mark 6:37-44 - Only after he performed the miracle and fed the 5,000 did he send the people away.

If I were Jesus, I would have dropped down dead tired! And woke up the next morning feeling groggy and anti-social.


But that didn't happen to Him, What was his secret? vs 46 - He departed to the mountain alone and pray and was rejunevated and refreshed in the presence of His Father. I think I need to learn that too.

Two MBS websites?

Does anyone know if MBS has two separate websites? I am confused as there seems to be two different MBS sites.

There's this one which is forever under construction

http://eng.mbs.org.my/

Then there's this one which seems to be the official one (both Chinese / English)

http://www.mbs.org.my/

But there does not seem to be any updates on the new lecturers (or have they not arrived) or am I imagining things?

And there are these strange "unconnected links" floating around in cyber space which I somehow stumbled upon by accident? (courtesy of google search)

http://www.mbs.org.my/contain.htm

http://mbs.org.my.hosted.com.my/eng/index.php?q=

Sep 09 newsletter ramblings

Got a nice surprise in my mail box (snail mail type) yesterday. A copy of the MBS newsletter. And with a new name and fresh look too. Nice.

MBS should consider scanning it into a pdf format for easy download on their website. Of course assuming the ED website ever gets completed. HINT! HINT!!

Found out through the newsletter that Rev. Loh is "officially re-tyre-ing" (yet again!) :-) But I suspect he will still be around to teach a course or two every year despite his not so good health. He's only 72 after all .... and surely seminarians like Rev Loh don't really "retire". They only leave when it is time to move from the seminary to the cemetery and then to glory! My former pastor is now 75 was a former Dean of the Bible College of New Zealand (now Laidlaw College) and he is still preaching almost every Sunday and teaching here and there in all kinds of settings! I make use of his gifts in my church - preaching and running seminars but try to be generous and not hog him so other churches and groups can benefit from his vast experience. My hope is that Rev Loh will be greatly used to bless more outside MBS now that he is "re-tyre-ing" again.

Called him a while ago and managed to talk to him a for a brief time (he had someone in the office so it had to be short).

I heard from Rev. Loh that there are a whole bunch of new lecturers coming in to MBS. Sounds exciting but I wish I knew more about what is happening. How can we even pray for MBS when alumni aren't kept in the loop better? And I found out Rev Eddy Ho (oops Rev. Dr,. Eddy Ho) is joining MEC as their new principal.

But thanks MBS (and whoever it is who made this arrangement) for sending me the newsletter. it is good to have some news. For those who are like me - mostly in the dark, Dr. Jason Lim will be taking over as Principal in Jan 2010 and Dr. Tan Kim Sai is going on a year to year contract with MBS.

Hope all this changes will help MBS grow.

BTW, I tried calling earlier and found out that a lot of things in MBS still hasn't changed. *sigh* I know this has been said many times before but really, they need to train their receptionist better. After so many years, it seems that every receptionist has no idea as to whether a lecturer has a class that day or not.... and also doesn't know how to take a message! *sigh*, Is it so hard to keep handy whether a lecture is on leave or not? That's all I want to know. :-)

The Army of the Lord

After service, the preacher was standing at the door as he always is to shake hands.
He grabbed a certain guy by the hand and pulled him aside, saying to him, "You need to join the Army of the Lord!"

The guy replied, "I'm already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor." Pastor questioned, "How come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter?"

He whispered back, "I'm in the secret service."