At the beginning of 2025, I preached a sermon at church on “New Wine in New Wineskins.” To my surprise, this message has been lingering in my mind, refusing to leave.
Forty years ago, our denominational churches 1 began facing a crisis of a declining workforce, ministry stagnation, and gradual decline. The leaders realized that they needed to actively cultivate a younger generation of co-workers to ensure that there would be enough people to sustain the church’s development.
At that time, another concern arose: if brothers and sisters attended interdenominational seminaries, they would have the opportunity to connect with other church circles, and perhaps they might be drawn away to serve elsewhere. Having our own training center could reduce the likelihood of such brain drain.
Convinced that having our own training center would solve the problem, our predecessors eagerly modeled it after the well-known Emmaus Bible School from the same denomination overseas, believing this would be the key to securing future church workers.
After the Bible school was officially established in 1993, it did indeed bring forth some young people willing to serve.
However, after some time, the problem of manpower loss persisted.
Then came the accusations—some said the Bible school had “too strong a missionary emphasis,” meaning students, once equipped, would head to the mission field, leaving local churches still struggling with a shortage of workers.
The school administration was forced to present alumni records one by one to refute these accusations, proving that only a handful had actually gone to the mission field, while the majority had returned to serve in local churches.
But why were we still unable to retain them? Where exactly was the problem?
The System Is the Problem
For decades, we have never seriously examined or reflected on the structure of our denomination—because, of course, we had no problems! If something wasn’t working, it had to be someone else’s fault. Naturally.
When a church’s system is flawed, it is just like a company with structural problems—no matter how many people come in to serve, they ultimately cannot stay long. Either they become disheartened, or they burn out, leaving them no choice but to “fall in battle”.
1. A Fear of Theology and Learning
In the early days, our denomination held an extremely dualistic spiritual view, rejecting secular professional knowledge and believing that all “worldly learning” was worthless and unnecessary.
The church had no awareness of its own organizational dynamics, assuming that as long as everything was operated in a “spiritual” manner, it was automatically correct.
At the same time, our denomination was highly resistant to theology, believing that the Bible alone was sufficient, and dismissing theology as modernist thinking.
For a long time, we ignored the work God was doing through other churches in his kingdom, remaining both ignorant and uninterested.
2. Leadership Without Accountability
Only through systematic management and leadership, guided by biblical principles and common sense, can a church function properly.
Yet, churches insist that management and leadership studies are completely unnecessary, believing that only “spiritual leadership” is needed.
Ironically, the methods they employ are entirely human-driven—because without proper distribution and balance of power, those in control assume they are spiritually superior, wielding authority like an imperial edict, playing with power at will.
Power: A Double-Edged Sword
Power is always a double-edged sword—it can build up, but it can also harm.
Without proper allocation, checks and balances, the inevitable result is mutual destruction.
We have been going in circles, constantly avoiding a serious and thorough reflection on our church structure.
At times, we have been too naive, hoping to take shortcuts and find quick-fix solutions that would yield immediate results.
We kept thinking that as long as we blindly copied certain features from other denominational churches—just because they had “this” or “that”—we too would be revitalized!
But these were only superficial remedies that failed to address the root of the problem.
At first, we thought our problem was the lack of full-time workers, so we trained a large number of them.
Later, when those workers started leaving, we assumed that the problem was the absence of a centralized system, so we decided we needed one.
At one point, an elder even proposed traveling across Malaysia, going to each church one by one to ordain elders, and then appointing himself as the “supervising elder” of all churches—because, you know, clearly what we needed was an emperor disguised as a shepherd.
This was a serious violation of the spirit of the Brethren movement.
If we were going that far, we might as well just rename the “supervising elder” position to “pope”!
This is reminiscent of the Israelites’ mindset: “But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:20). Except here, everyone wants to be the king.
The Smoke House Hotel and The Art of Letting Go
There is an old British-style hotel in my hometown, Cameron Highlands, called The Smoke House. It is very well known and expensive. Its main selling point is its collection of antique furniture, which is exquisite and elegant.
When I was a child, I once tried to sneak in for a visit. The Indian manager hurriedly came out to stop me, saying that only hotel guests were allowed inside.
I told him that I needed to do research on Cameron Highlands’ historical buildings. Hearing this, the Indian manager was delighted and gave me a personal tour, introducing me to each piece of antique furniture that had been passed down since before World War II.
I asked him, “Are all of these furniture pieces truly that historically valuable?”
“Of course!” he answered proudly.
“What about the pillows and bedsheets? And the blankets? Are those also from World War II?”
The Indian manager immediately looked embarrassed and flustered: “Of course not! Those must be replaced with the latest ones!”
Not everything passed down from the past has value. We probably wouldn’t want to inherit a moldy, tattered couch from our grandparents—so why do we assume every tradition is sacred just because it’s old?
Our denomination is often criticized for being rigid, conservative, and slow to change.
Yet, change does not mean abandoning tradition—it means discerning what to keep and what to renew.
Leadership and Accountability: The Real Issue
For over a century, our denomination has passed from generation to generation in Malaysia. We have had many humble and faithful servants of God among us.
But today, we need leaders with theological depth, courage, vision, and strong strategic leadership.
Unfortunately, our denomination has instead become plagued by internal power struggles, corruption, and abuse of authority. Some leaders have even been involved in financial embezzlement and sexual scandals.
To this day, many of our churches still lack an election system for their elders. Most elder positions are predetermined and lifelong.
Without accountability or a system to replace problematic leaders, how can we ever hope for renewal?
A Glimpse of Hope?
Other churches that have faced similar crises have implemented reforms to break the cycle of dysfunction. Some have:
- Established leadership term limits to prevent power consolidation
- Introduced transparent election processes for elders
- Encouraged theological education instead of fearing it
If we are truly serious about renewal, could we at least consider these approaches?
So, What Now?
The biggest problem is not having problems. The real crisis is failing to address them. From past experience, anyone who pushes for reform gets removed. Whoever speaks up disappears. We tried for ten years, and then our entire team was gone.
I wonder—will this generation of leaders finally have the courage to stand up and change things?
Renewal is never easy, but it’s not impossible. So, will we finally stop the excuses, or will history repeat itself—again?
This article was originally written in Chinese and has been translated and edited with the author’s revisions and permission. You can find the original Chinese text here.
Endnotes
Image credit: puttipong via Adobe Stock
Yew Kuan Yee
Yew Kuan Yee (邱君爾) is the Director of Chinese Theological Education by Extension (TEE) at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia and the Deputy General Secretary of the West Malaysia Chinese Christian Church of the World Evangelism (CCCOWE). He previously served as the Training Director at the Hong Kong Institute for Scripture Research …View Full Bio
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