Young Preacher's Contest - My Experience

[Group 1]


[Speaker No. 5]


[4.45pm]


:: moment of truth ::


I cooly walked up to draw my lot that will determine the group I was to be in. I opened the piece of folded cardboard and in it was written "Group 1". Ok, nothing to get overly excited about. In fact I was more delighted that Stevie, my spiritual son, was in the same group as me. So too were some other familiar faces from the ministry. The panel of judges for each group were then announced through this white cutesy-looking miniature megaphone. As the names reached my ears, they registered in my brain in the following order (and intensity): 1) Ps Rachel 2) Ps Hee Jhee 3) PS CHUA SENG LEE

Wah… really ‘chua’ (shock!) man. I remember muttering under my breadth (in a sudden inspiration of Hokkien), “Ji bai siao liao… ah ni suay… kena Chua Seng Lee...ho say liao!” Well, I think for that moment it felt like I was gonna be scrutinised and critiqued by terror judge KEN LIM from Singapore Idol. No way was it gonna be an easy time. Well, at least I wasn’t the FIRST person to begin. And that was seriously one good reason to find something to thank God for in unfavourable circumstances. So I decided to calm my nerves by walking around to support my brother and other budding preachers while psyching myself up and trying hard to replace the image of Ps Seng Lee with one of those cross-eyed, funny looks that Ps Roland executes so brilliantly when he tells a chio-ka-peng joke. Seriously, I needed to do that. Especially so when Ken Lim is your…no sorry, Ps Seng Lee is the head judge.

‘The Time Has Come’ started playing in my mind when I realised I was going to preach earlier cos there were only 6 people in my group although there were 7 cards and I drew a No.6. Err... got it? Nevermind if you didn't cos' it took me a while too, especially under those stressful conditions... ha! I got my team (Winfred & Andrew) together and ensured they had the flash cards ready and in the right sequence. Oh yes, a little bit about them. It was my desire to involve my entire cell in this contest b’cos it is my intention to inspire them to live out their dreams. No no, I do not aspire to be a preacher, but if you look at my previous blog on the Young Preacher’s Contest, you’ll understand what I mean. So I spent time the Saturday rehearsing with them and got 2 who volunteered to be my ‘manual powerpoints’ for the day. They gave me much valuable feedback too, which helped fine tune my presentation. In fact, one of them gave me a critical pointer which resulted in me re-structuring my entire message. Thanks guys.

The moment of truth came as I stood with my guys, agonisingly waiting in front of the panel for the sound of the siren to signal the start of the session. The crowd which was understandably small due to our location in the hall, began to swell in size. It was getting freaky and I started inviting members of the crowd to go support the other speakers. OK, I admit I didn’t quite know what I was doing then.

Then it came. The siren blasted and I began a verbal downloading of my message in tandem with the manual slides. It started off slightly shaky but things got better as I went along. I was always reminding myself of the critical pauses, deliberate emphasis, pace & timing, humour punchlines, speech intensity, diction & articulation and body movements. Then... the second moment of truth came when “God Bless You” came flying out of my mouth with great velocity and with much relief and joy. I was glad it was over. Then I wobbled my way to Stevie to say a comforting prayer before he came on next.

The verdict? Well, I got into the second round by His grace. The terror judge gave me nice compliments which did brighten my otherwise exhausting day. It was a fun experience overall and I’m glad to see a new generation of preachers rising up to deliver His Word with conviction and passion. As for now, it's another agonising wait for Round Two.

Thank you dear cell members, for your wonderful support.

To Stevie, my dear bro, Josh, Mirabel, U-Jin, Michael and to the rest who bravely took part in this contest, the world out there can use another great preacher like yourselves. Keep on preaching.

Preach God's Word, somebody?

Fishmonger