As the nation enters a season of transition, so will the Church.

Speaking on behalf of the younger generation, Daniel Khong, Deputy Senior Pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church, took to the stage at Day of His Power 2019 to share about his journey as a second-generation Christian and, more vulnerably, his own struggles as a pastor’s son.

He told the 5,000-strong crowd: “I stand up here with fear and trembling not because there’s a big crowd, but because I know God is doing something here – not just in this moment, but in our land.

“This is the season of transition and of succession. That’s what we’re talking about as a nation, and that’s what we’re seeing happening across many churches.”

Pastor Daniel mentioned that, according to studies done, many churches in Singapore were celebrating their 30th-40th anniversaries in recent years.

“Churches are beginning to talk about succession, handing it off to another generation. In this season, my father (Lawrence Khong) is about to hand over our church to me as well. I found that the Lord placed a very big burden upon my heart,” he said.

Having grown up in church all his life and attended many corporate gatherings, Pastor Daniel has witnessed first-hand repentance, reconciliation and restoration across different denominations, congregations and even nationalities during such events. 

“But there’s one thing we’ve not done yet – reconciliation and repentance across the generations,” he pointed out.

Pastor Daniel then shared that one of the key things we must repent of is a spirit of competition that results in generational conflict. In his view, both generations are guilty: the present generation writes off the next, feeling they know better. Likewise, the next generation ignores the present generation because they feel they can do better.

He also realised one thing: “My dad and many of his peers (the LoveSingapore forefathers) were very much spiritual orphans – they were the first generation of Christians in their families, they were the ones who pioneered their churches, they didn’t exactly have someone to lead them.”

In contrast, the younger generation has the benefit of a group of seniors who can lead and walk with them into this new season. 

“Woe is me if I have that blessing but I choose to orphan myself and say ‘I reject their ways, I don’t want them,'” said Pastor Daniel.

“We need to rise up and say ‘let us be one together’. Let us come together; we need each other. In every family, yes you have the younger people, but you have the elders as well.”

Pastor Daniel shared about the passage God directed him to: “The Lord brought me to the book of Judges 2:7. All the days of Joshua, the people served the Lord. But when that generation passed away, another rose that did not know the works of the Lord.

“We always think laterally. Between churches. Between denominations. What about vertically? Across the generations? We celebrate 25 years of LoveSingapore, but what happens when this generation moves on? It’ll be so sad to see history repeat itself like in Judges.

“So we’re not going to disconnect or disengage. We’ll build on the foundations that the previous generation has set.”

Pastor Daniel continued: “We need to see the generations coming together. I felt the Lord place upon my heart that there must be a spirit of collaboration. My dad said ‘may our ceiling be your ground floor’, but we can only reach those heights if the previous generation lets us stand on their shoulders to get there.”

Earlier in the evening, his father, Pastor Lawrence Khong, the Chairman of LoveSingapore and Senior Pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church, had also issued a rallying cry for intergenerational unity.

“Tonight we are here as family. We declare there’s only one church in Singapore – the church of our Lord Jesus Christ! God is our Father here,” he declared.

The time has come to close the gap between the generations.

The veteran pastor recounted the story of LoveSingapore’s beginnings: “In the early years, we tore down strongholds in humility and repentance. We did a lot of identificational repentance.

“Instead of pointing fingers, we repented, reconciled and prophetically declared that the wounds were healed and relationships restored.”

Pastor Lawrence shared that these spiritual breakthroughs allowed for the supernatural church growth in the early 2000s – God was blessing the nation in that time.

“I sense that God is telling us that it’s time to do it again.”

To seal this call to repentance and reconciliation, the senior pastors of the LoveSingapore team opted to be the first ones to wash the feet of the younger pastors. 

“Feet-washing talks about love, forgiveness and serving one another. It’s not just something we do for fun,” Pastor Daniel reminded the audience.

Joining him on stage was Derek Hong, Senior Pastor of Good Gifts City Church, and other city pastors. 

Pastor Derek began his plea for forgiveness on behalf of his generation: “We have failed you in many ways. Very often, we think we know better. Sometimes, we think you guys really don’t know many things. The impression is that you don’t really know what hardship is.

“But the hearts of the children are returning to the father. This is a prophetic act; this gesture will begin to break the curses hanging over this nation, over our children, over the generations.”

Finally, it was the next generation’s turn. Picking up Pastor Derek’s feet, Pastor Daniel began: “On behalf of my generation, the younger generation, I want to ask for forgiveness for our heart of rebellion.

“Forgive us for the times we did not honour you, for the times that we’ve rebelled and the times that we think we can do better to prove ourselves, rejecting your advice.”

“We’re not here to compete with one another. We’re here to collaborate. We’re here to co-labour with one another.”

As he wiped Pastor Derek’s feet, Pastor Daniel declared to cheers: “I believe this will unlock a newfound unity and a newfound power to move forward together as one.”

As he prayed for the generations to walk together in the season ahead, this echoed a statement he had earlier made: “Church, we need to come together as one generation.”