What’s On
A fruitful new season has begun at Barker Road Methodist Church (‘BRMC’) over the past two months as we resume worship in the renovated Sanctuary.
We’ve seen God’s hand working in our midst as people rallied as one Body to overcome planning uncertainties and logistical constraints when the Sanctuary was closed at very short notice for repairs and renewal over 18 months.
Greater unity in the church during this time has been tangibly felt by church leaders, staff and many congregants. Without human orchestration, the falling ceiling panels have led to the breaking down of walls within our church family.
ONE service, TWO concurrent venues
The OneBRMC contemporary service – introduced in January 2024 when the Sanctuary was closed – will continue henceforth as “one service, two concurrent venues”. This means there will no longer be two services (“Sanctuary” and “Shine Forth”) running on Sundays 10.30am.
This comes at a time when as our approach to Kingdom ministry at BRMC is evolving.
We expect to have fewer pastors going forward. At present, we do not have enough pastors, ministry staff, and laity to run separate and yet similar English services at the same timeslot. We are also finding it difficult to have enough volunteers to form full worship bands for OneBRMC’s concurrent primary and secondary venues.
Liturgies of sunset and sunrise on Sun 5 Oct, 2025
The OneBRMC service marks a new beginning for BRMC as we reshape church culture in our Year of Release and into our next 70 years.
To mark this change in seasons, we will be celebrating a “liturgy of sunset” for both the former “Sanctuary” and “Shineforth” services, and a “liturgy of sunrise” for the OneBRMC service on Holy Communion Sunday, 5 Oct 2025.
We recognise that there was a rightful time and purpose for the two separate services at an earlier period in BRMC’s history. Many have been blessed, and some of us have sentimental attachments to the respective services. We gratefully remember and celebrate these, while also affirming that God is leading BRMC into a new journey.
Many of us are noticing a change in the spiritual climate arising from this unity. So, while the path ahead will have its continued challenges, let us walk forward together as one.
If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please feel free to speak with the respective pastors, ministry staff or lay leaders.
Addendum: FAQs for Sunday 1030am regular worshippers
Q: I miss the sense of community I used to feel in the old separate services.
Yes, we feel you. We very much agree that church community is vitally important. We are not meant to worship alone. At the same time, we recognise that a worship service is focused primarily on the worship of God. As the Connect Experience (CE’23) has shown, genuine interactions, deep community, and honest accountability are best experienced in a CG setting.
Q:Why such a sudden decision?
Indeed, this is a significant shift, and hence much thought, discussion, prayer, and time has gone into this, not only among the pastors but also in consultation with staff and laity. This “one service, two concurrent venues” model has been shared on multiple occasions during the worship services throughout March & April 2025, by various pastors, staff, and laity.
Q:Will the ACS Auditorium continue as the secondary worship venue?
Mostly, yes. The school is looking to do renovation works in both the Auditorium and the Concert Hall, which means the secondary venue will rotate between these two spaces, based on the works schedule.
Q:Are the other services also going to all be merged into one?
No, that wouldn’t be meaningful or healthy. We have heard from the pulpit that the Methodist Church aims for unity in diversity, not in uniformity. We will continue to have services in different worship styles, yet leverage technology to enable commonality in certain aspects, e.g. sermons. (N.B. The 1030am timeslot was unique in that it had two worship services which were both contemporary-style, running separately and concurrently.)
Q:I have been blessed by this new spirit of unity in our church. How else can I be a part of what God is doing in our midst?
Thanks be to God! Please do share what you’ve been feeling and observing with your family, friends, CG, etc. It will encourage them, and will also be a testimony to how we’ve seen the Lord working among us. Do also labour on in prayer, asking God to continue moving in our midst, for the sake of the gospel of the Kingdom.
[Updated 22 Sep 2025]