Wednesday Bible Study
Matthew Choo and Lorraine Fong – two of the facilitators for the Wednesday Bible Study – share with us what the study group is about and who it is for.
1. Hi Matthew and Lorraine, for those who do not know you, can you share with us a little about yourself?
I’m Matthew. I am working as a lawyer in a government body. I studied for three years in London at King’s College. That’s where I met Lorraine! She is working as a lawyer in a private firm.
2. Can you tell us more about the Wednesday Bible Study that both of you are leading?
Wednesday Bible Study or WBS, as the name suggests, is a weekly Bible study group for all ages. We meet every Wednesday to study, read and speak the Word of God to one another. Before the pandemic, we met physically at church. However, we have since shifted our meetings online – it looks like we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
At WBS, we seek to equip one another with the confidence and tools to understand God’s Word, so that we might be able to read God’s Word for ourselves. This better enables us to speak the truth in love to one another. That means our studies aim to be more discussion-based, rather than speaker-focused. Leaders merely facilitate the discussion, but God’s Word leads the study! On this, I commend Karen Soole’s Unleash The Word to you.
Yet, above all, and most importantly, we want to help one another apply the Word of God into our lives rightly. We make it a point to read each passage in context, which means asking why the author writes to the original readers of the books first, before asking how this might apply to us. This is the reason why we meet every single week to study the Word of God together, not as an end to itself, but the means to know Christ better, love Him better, and be more like Him.
We are now in the midst of our study in the Book of Hebrews. We had finished the Book of Malachi at the start of the year, and after studying Hebrews, we will do select passages of the Gospel of Matthew nearing the end of the year.
For the Men’s group, our leaders are Eric, Jim, Philip and Andrew. For the Ladies, groups are led by Jena, Cheryl, Michelle and Lorraine. Joshua, Jim and I take turns to lead Leaders’ Prep, which is the pre-study study for the leaders to discuss and better prepare their upcoming studies.
3. Both of you first started out attending, and now you are leading the group. How has the group been an encouragement and help so far? What prompted you to step forward to lead?
Matthew: WBS has been an immense encouragement and help in my personal walk with God. Sitting under the Word of God together with my fellow brothers on Wednesday evenings is like a mid-week booster shot that reminds me of Gospel truths and refocuses my attention.
Nothing in particular prompted me to step forward to lead. I suppose it is just a desire to serve my brothers and sisters at WBS.
Lorraine: I love studying God’s word, and I enjoy the challenge of digging deep into the text to unearth the treasures within. Studying together in the group really pushes me to think deeper, broaden my perspectives and better apply its truth into my life with the sharing from the ladies. I’ve been really encouraged by the growth of each member in the ladies’ group – I love how they have been applying these truths in their individual lives, and walk alongside each other in Christ even outside the studies.
I had been attending GBC when the ladies’ group first sprung into existence. I was asked if I was keen to lead, also because I had prior experience in leading word-based Bible studies overseas.
4. What are the joys and challenges of leading this study group?
Matthew: The joys are definitely the weekly encouragements from my brothers in my group. As the author in Hebrews puts it, every week, I am stirred up by one another to love and good works, all the more as the Day of the Lord’s return draws near! What makes this a greater encouragement is having my fellow brothers point out truths or help to apply truths in a way that I’ve not seen or considered before.
Lorraine: As said previously, my joy comes both in knowing Christ more and in seeing others grow in Christ more. I learn more about Christ as the group shares deep insights that I had not considered before (even as a leader), and especially when it comes to application, members in my group share personal applications that truly encourage me. As I am quite young, the challenge of leading older ladies has been helped by the other older leaders who work alongside me. I think we complement each other well and reach out to different members.
5. How can we pray for both of you?
With regards to WBS, pray that we would both continue to grow in Christ and love Him more. Pray that we would not see studying the Bible to be an intellectual exercise, but rather, that we would have our hearts humble and ready to receive God’s truth.
For our members, pray that they would too be chewing on God’s Word not just during the studies but throughout the week as well, and make every effort to apply it in their daily lives.
On top of that, for each of us, it would be good to pray in line with what we saw in Hebrews 10:23–25:
“let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”