Brief History of QBC
The early years of QBC coincided with the period of political and social challenges in Singapore’s national history. The history of our church reflects the testimony of God protecting QBC in its infancy stage with the influx of residents into the newly developed Dawson Estate, to God be the glory. We believe the Almighty God will continue to bless our church and use us as His living witnesses in the years to come.
The four guiding principles that will help us to achieve our vision are :
- We desire for all our members to be nurtured and growing in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
- We encourage our members to serve using their spiritual gifts.
- We work towards a united leadership.
- We seek to be true to God, true to oneself and true to one another.
1950s
Mission field
A nascent Queenstown Baptist Church (QBC) polity began when Cantonese speaking missionaries from the Foreign Mission Board (FMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention started to visit homes in the area encompassing Barbary Walk and the Queenstown Primary School, which was built in 1956. The missionaries who came to preach, teach and train the young believers, under the auspices of the Baptist Training Union were Ms Loren Clement, Ms Lau, Pastor Lenn, Ms Auris Pender and Ms Ernest Lee. These meetings were conducted in Cantonese. Weekly prayer meetings were held on Wednesday nights. All the aforementioned missionaries were excellent Cantonese speakers. Other missionaries that came to serve in this early period of QBC history were Ms Lily Roggers, Mr Graham Walker, Mrs Jean Walker, Mr Paul Vox, Mr David Calhoun and Mrs Calhoun, Mr David Stracken, Pastor Beng, Mr Steven Lim, Pastor Fish and Mrs Fish.
First Pastor
In 1958, Ms Auris Pender facilitated the appointment of Mr Victor Tan as pastor of QBC members. He came to QBC with his wife, Mm Esther Tan. Pastor Victor Tan was a graduate of Penang BTS. He left for further Theological studies in Hong Kong in 1965.
1960s
In 1965 Mr Bill Clark Thomas assumed the shepherd’s role in QBC and served in this role until 1967. He was a missionary with FMB also.
In 1968, Pastor John Lim came from Indonesia with his wife Mm Barbara Lim, to serve QBC members. He was also introduced and invited to come by Ms Auris Pender. Mr Peter Huen continued as translator for English into Cantonese while Mm Barbara Lim was the Mandarin translator. Pastor John Lim left for theological studies in 1971.
1970s
Pastor Alan Leong assumed the responsibility of Pastor of QBC in 1975. He served QBC until 1981. He instituted the office of the Deacons as a Board. He also began to offer separate English and Mandarin Sunday services and constituted the separate executive councils for the English-speaking and Cantonese/Mandarin-speaking congregations.
1980s
For the period beginning in January 1982 till October 1982, when there was no pastor leading QBC, Pastor Schimdt, a missionary with FMB who speaks Mandarin and Mr Jou Jian Pian, an Indonesian student studying at the Singapore Bible College (SBC) shepherded the English and Cantonese/Mandarin congregations respectively.
Pastor Philip Tay Kee Huat came on board as the Pastor of QBC’s Mandarin-speaking (henceforth known as the Chinese Congregation) congregation in October 1982 and lead it until 1989.
Pastor Ng Koon Sheng was appointed as QBC’s English-speaking Congregation (henceforth known as the English Congregation) in 1984. He left in 1987.
Pastor Aow Kwong Bu joined the pastoral staff in 1985 and assumed the responsibility for the English congregation in 1987 as acting Congregation Pastor. He was ordained as Congregation pastor in 1988.
1990s
Pastor Chu Wood Ping was appointed as Pastor of the Chinese Congregation in 1991. He returned to Hong Kong as General Secretary of the Hong Kong Baptist Convention in 1997.
Pastor Goh Choo Peng joined the pastoral staff in 1995 and assumed the role of Acting Chinese Congregation Pastor in 1997. He left in 1998 for further theological studies.
Pastor Samuel Ng Kwok Hung joined QBC in 1997, was appointed to the role of Acting Chinese Congregation Pastor in 1998 and ordained as Chinese Congregation Pastor in 2000.
Pastor Joseph Seah Wan Ghee was appointed as Pastor of English Congregation in 1998 and ordained in 1999. Pastor Seah elected as Senior Pastor of QBC in 2000. He left in 2003 to return to Malaysia.
2000s
Pastor Kenny Fam elected as English Congregation Pastor in 2001 and was ordained in 2002. He left QBC in 2005 to be the Senior Pastor of Woodlands Evangelical Free Church.
Pastor Richard Loh elected as English Congregation Pastor in 2005 and ordained in 2007. He left in 2016 to be the Senior Pastor of Eternal Life Baptist Church.
2010s
Pastor Peter Lin Chi Wai elected as Senior Pastor of QBC in 2011. In November, the three-fold vision of the church was born (please see the vision section for details).
In 2016, 3 centers have been formed to give focus to three parts of the vision. The Adult Center was chaired by Pastor Peter Lin to focus on the spiritual formation of the adults. The NextGen center was chaired by Pastor Isaac Teng as the Executive Pastor to focus on children, youth, and young adults of both Chinese and English congregations. And Pastor Samuel Ng chaired the Outreach Center as the Executive Pastor in charge of Missions, community affairs, and evangelism. Ps Ng was later sent out by the church to become a missionary/lecturer in Baptist Theological Seminary.
The above 3 brothers together with the two Congregation Coordinating Pastors (who have oversight responsibilities over the English and Chinese congregations) formed the Senior Pastor Office. In 2016, Ps Steven Lim became the Congregation Coordinating Pastor for the Chinese Congregations. In the same year, Ps Lawrence Yam became the Congregation Coordinating Pastor for the English Congregation. He was succeeded by Ps Leonard Chong in 2018 as he left to serve with the Singapore Baptist Convention.
Pastor Isabella Lim joined the pastoral team on 16 May 2019 as the Young Adult Pastor.
EOGM was held on 28 April 2019 for the election of the 3rd Senior Pastor of QBC, when Pastor Isaac Teng obtained favorable vote of 97.45% to be the Senior Pastor. He officially took office on 1 July 2019 and was installed two weeks later on 14 July 2019.
Former Senior Pastor, Pastor Peter Lin assumed the role as Pastor Emeritus on 1 July 2019.
2020s
Pastor Daniel Seow joined the QBC family on 1 March 2020 to head the Family Zone and Christian Education Ministry of the Chinese Congregation.
