The role of leadership training in the development of the Chinese Brethren Assembly in Malaysia

Abstract

The Christian Brethren Assembly is the second Protestant group to come to Malaysia, the first being the Anglicans in 1819. Its missionary work started in Penang as early as 1860. As the Brethren Assemblies marked their 134th year of ministry in Malaysia, statistics of established assemblies and outreach centers show 45 Chinese-speaking, 43 English, 5 Tamil and 9 Senoi assemblies. Records indicate that the Brethren Assemblies operated 6 schools and 4 kindergartens but since Independence, the government has gradually taken control of the schools. Statistics regarding the number of Brethren believers are hard to come by but according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there were about 2,500 Brethren members in Malaysia in 1982. However, when Mr Thiran presented his booklet The Christian Brethren of Malaysia: Our Heritage at the English Brethren Leaders' Conference in 1990, he put the figure of all those attending the Christian Brethren Assemblies in Malaysia (both Chinese and English speaking) at approximately 12,000 representing 1.2% of the Christian population in Malaysia. Mr Thiran expressed the difficulties faced in obtaining accurate data due mainly to the Brethren Assemblies' lack of emphasis on numbers and membership per se. My research has led me to conclude that a more conservative, accurate figure would be about 3,600 members attending Sunday worship services in the English-speaking assemblies, 2,900 in the Chinese-speaking assemblies, 250 Tamil-speaking and 750 Senoi-speaking.