Rebuilding Project - Faith Journey

Blessing of Freehold Property

The Church has been renting its premises at Tanglin Halt shop lot for 7 years and Outram YWCA auditorium for 10 years and was seeking a more permanent place to operate. In 1983, backed by a USD 400,000 huge loan from Quailspring Church of Christ in USA, the Church bought this piece of freehold land for $1.2m. Due to the lack of funds, the Church only constructed the front worship hall. It re-used the old pre-war rear building, partitioned some car parks into 3 offices and added 7 temporary containers as classrooms / offices.

Problems with existing premises

The rear old building had problems with roof leakage, flooring and termites. Despite heavy repairs costing more than $150k, it did not meet today’s safety and accessibility codes. Major repairs would be necessary to sustain it for another 10 years. The 3 current carpark offices and 7 temporary containers are not ideal. The front building is already more than 30 years old.

Lack of Space

The existing premises did not meet our growing needs as we were very short of classrooms for bible classes. We had to combine 1) Men with Ladies 2) squash Primaries 1 to 6 into 2 classes 3) squash Sec 1 to Tertiary into 1 class. There were not enough classrooms for visitors, small group studies or prayers. The container classrooms were cramp, stuffy with weak flooring and poor lighting.There was insufficient space for fellowship and in-house camps. There were also insufficient toilets and no proper kitchen.

Higher Plot Ratio granted

In land scarce Singapore, this freehold land is extremely valuable as churches today can only lease land for 30 years. After more 5 years of indecision, the leaders decided to pray and started some feasibility work to test the plot ratio. Surprising, the government granted us a 1.4 plot ratio based on our land area of 1824 sq m, the first for religious buildings along Pasir Panjang Road. The new Gross Floor Area allowed would be 2553 sq m which is more than double the existing 1110 sq m even if we include the existing containers and carpark offices.

EGM Approval

At the EGM in July 2018, > 90% of members present voted to embark on this reconstruction project to bless this and future generations. But based on the EGM decision mooted by the leaders, construction can only proceed if 70% of the estimated project costs including relocation etc have been donated / pledged by members.

What’s in the New Building?

Level 1 – Office, Chinese Worship Hall & Carpark space which doubles as fellowship and event spaces.
Level 2 – English Worship Hall and Classrooms
Level 3 – Mezzanine Worship Hall and Classrooms
Level 4 – SIBI Classrooms, Kitchen and Library overlooking a covered roof terrace for fellowship and devotional space.

Certain classrooms will have movable partitions to open up into bigger function rooms.  Office would be open concept with workstations and meeting rooms.  The new building will be accessible to the elderly and disabled.

Future Opportunities

The new building will open up many outreach opportunities such as allowing students to use our rooms for self study, giving student care or free tuition, conducting counselling sessions and workshops for small groups etc.

Donate Generously

In the Parable of the Talents, we learn the importance of stewardship.
Money is part of our discipleship and generous giving brings praise to God. Let us sow generously to reap generously to God’s glory, as we desire for a larger harvest.

Give to the Lord’s work generously, especially the work of the local church.

Estimated Project Costs = $8.8m
Shortfall from Estimated Total Project Cost = $317k