Vineyard Community Church of Malaysia
葡萄园社区教会
Serving the community of Bandar Baru Air Itam,
Penang with the love of Christ
Vineyard Community Church had its roots in Latter Rain Church, a local indigenous church with no overseas affiliations. It has no linkages to the deviationist group in the United States.
Pastor Dexter, her founder, had a burning vision to establish a church in every state of Malaysia. An opportunity for the church to be planted in Penang came when one of the students from Malacca, associated with him, came to study in Universiti Sains Malaysia, a university in Penang.
A fervent ‘pioneering’ spirit began to fan this brother and soon a small group of 3 students began to meet together regularly. A few students and some staff of USM were saved. Pastor Moses Tay was then assigned to shepherd the group.
Pastor Daniel Tan who was heading the work in Kuala Lumpur felt called to the north. With the coming of Pastor Daniel, services were held on Sundays and bible studies on weekdays. The congregation then saw the birth of the church which was originally called “New Life Fellowship.”
The early church had their meetings in a house in Island Glades. The church moved several times within the Island Glades area. The early church started an outreach work in Alor Setar when two of the church members were posted to teach in the schools in Kedah after their graduation in 1980. One of them, Choon Peng, was called to be a pastor there.
With the growth of the number of Latter Rain churches mushrooming throughout Malaysia, came challenges of control and administration, from the headquarters in Petaling Jaya.
Around 1985, Pastor Daniel and the Penang congregation decided to be autonomous. New Life Fellowship detached itself from the Latter Rain group and called itself Vineyard Christian Centre. Pastor Choon Peng chose to remain with the Latter Rain group. It was a heart-rending decision for both congregation in Penang and in Alor Setar. The newly formed Vineyard Christian Centre had to leave all their assets with the Latter Rain and start out anew.
With the development of a new township in the heart of Penang Island – a flagship project by developer Farlim Group (Bandar Baru Air Itam), a population of 20,000 were expected, and Vineyard Christian Centre decided to move to a shop-lot in this mushrooming community to be a light in this previously notorious area.
Pastor Daniel and his wife, Aran (a native of Sarawak) had occasionally traveled to Sarawak to minister to the indigenous tribes in the interior. Realizing that God had called him out to the mission field, Pastor Daniel decided to hand over the mantle to a zealous member, Barnabas Low, to shepherd the congregation.
In the mid ‘90s, the church changed to the present name of Vineyard Community Church. Presently, Barnabas Low pastors the English congregation while Ng Lay Buan pastors the Chinese congregation.
Copyright © 2006 to 2007 Vineyard Community Church. All rights reserved.
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