By Michele Chong and Jesslyn Ding

It’s been two years since our Young Adults community gathered together in a large group setting. Building on the 2024 Young Adults Ministry (YAM) Retreat theme of “Crossroads”, we continue to recognise young adulthood as a season where many important decisions and life transitions happen. It is also a season of critical faith formation, where the spiritual foundations and rhythms we build now matter for eternity. Through all of this, we wanted to come back to God’s love.

Love Poured Out

From 24 – 26 July 2026, 200 young adults (& the young at heart) dived deep into the theme “Love Poured Out”. Through the theme talks by Pastor Jeremy-Joe Tan, we explored three spheres of love – Love for God, love for one another, and love for our neighbours. We were challenged with the same question which Jesus posed to Peter the disciple – “Do you love me more than these things?” (John 21:15). With many things rivalling for our attention, would we lay down all else and love God wholeheartedly? And does this love for God extend to loving one another and the world?

Sharing Stories

A key highlight of this year’s YAM Retreat was our inaugural Human Library, a segment designed for young adults to have real conversations about the joys and struggles of living out our faith, and in so doing, be mutually edified and encouraged. The Human Library saw 42 people within our community (“books”) share authentically about what it looks like to pour out God’s love in our (i) vocation and transitions, (ii) relationships and family, (iii) spiritual challenges, and (iv) the church and the world.

It created space for less talked-about topics – from mental health and personal journeys through counselling, to losing a family member, healing after a breakup, and wrestling with sexual brokenness. While the journeys were (and continue to be) far from easy, the books testified boldly of God’s love, faithfulness and restorative power.

In line with the Year of Release, we also heard stories of how our community has been befriending migrant workers, journeying with children with special needs, caring for creation, and bringing the gospel to the world (including two of our beloved missionaries who zoomed in from Lebanon). Overall, we were greatly blessed by the vulnerable sharing, giving us a glimpse of what it looks like to bear one another’s burdens and build each other up in love.

More Young Families

The retreat was blessed with 9 families and 13 children in total, the most YAM Retreat has ever had. We are so grateful that the parents were willing to put in the extra effort to join the retreat as we know that juggling their children’s schedules and the retreat schedule is not an easy feat. We saw many join the retreat’s activities as best as they could, and even tuning in to the theme talks via Zoom livestream while putting their kids to sleep. Although the children and their parents were mostly situated at the back of the hall, we witnessed many young adults also take the initiative to entertain the children. The collective effort of the community to actively involve the young families was truly a touching sight to behold.

Through YAM Retreat, we’ve seen how God is truly able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). We pray that He will continue to work powerfully within us, for His glory and our good. May we be a community that is rooted and established in God’s love. May God grant us the power to grasp how wide and how long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Eph 3:16-19). And may this love overflow – to our church, to our schools and workplaces, to Singapore and beyond!

Revisit moments from YAM Retreat 2026 by checking out the YAM Retreat Highlights on our Instagram Stories.