Once upon a time, drum kits were frowned upon in church. To many stalwarts of the faith, they were unholy, and summarily dismissed – along with the music they gave a roll and rhythm to.

Those were the days when there arose out of the woodwork groups of fledgling young musicians who would pool together their pocket money to buy electric guitars.

To the consternation of others who considered anything less than hymns unworthy of being heard in a sanctuary, they also bravely took hold of microphones with what was then called “praise and worship” songs.

Hosanna Integrity was quickly becoming a byword, and there was no denying the indelible mark its product was making on church music.

By the time Don Moen’s bestselling “Give Thanks” was released in December 1986, there was no turning back. Even the weakest said, “I am strong”, the poor testified, “I am rich”. 

Well into the 1990s, hungry worship teams devoured the tapes, then the CDs – everything that the Integrity Music machinery was churning out.

As much as we could, we transcribed every last chord in each arrangement and learnt to play every note from the introduction to the coda exactly as it sounded.

Kitsch? Yes. But it was the ground on which we learnt our tentative how-tos, before we were bold enough to make the music our own.

Revival’s pulse

Indeed, those of us too young to have taken in the Clock Tower experience but old enough to be riding its momentum were drawn to the way, the truth and the life “revival” seemed to breathe into the age old Gospel – even though we could hardly fathom the meaning of “charismatic renewal”.

Nor did we care.

Canon Wong at the Festival Of Praise in 2010. Photo courtesy of City News.

The move of the Spirit was real. Its breath was refreshing. The paradigm shift it represented to our religious experience was – dare I say it – “contemporary”.

Such a beating the word has taken, for it to now no longer mean “living or occurring at the same time” but, instead, “dated” and “last-millennium” in the local Church context!

And yet, it was in the midst of those bygone days that came along this massive event called the Festival of Praise (FOP) – the seed of which was planted by a man named Canon James Wong.

It’s ironic to me that I would come to know of him better only through his death, almost 40 years on.

I remember watching him from afar in the various training sessions every FOP held for worship team musicians. He cut a diminutive figure next to the invited speakers and worship leaders, who were almost always Caucasian and much, much taller.

Yet, clearly, wisdom and stature belonged to the humble man everyone called “Canon”.

The day “Shout to the Lord”, a 1994 release, was first sung in Singapore at a Festival breakout group held in Church of Singapore, we belted out the chorus at the tops of our voices as a promise: “Forever I’ll love You, forever I’ll stand.”

“Forever I’ll stand”

In my distant memory, I’m quite sure I remember seeing Canon there, standing.

How he managed it, while accomplishing all that he did, while yet keeping the “family first” principle, I cannot imagine, except that he probably was what we would call a present example of one who must have endured as seeing Him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:27b)

He, whose mantra was “God is faithful”, was himself faithful to the core. His wife, Esther, would say of him that, from the start, he “was very passionate for the Lord, fervent, zealous. He was a straight talker – no hidden agenda – he just wanted to serve the Lord with everything he had”. 

I neither knew him personally nor any member of his family. But I’ve read the articles on his passing, viewed the videos – Pastor Yang Tuck Yoong did not seem to have nearly enough fingers on his two hands to count off the number of churches Canon planted – watched bits and pieces of the nightly services that the Wong family kindly allowed to be livestreamed.

It’s all stayed on my mind.

In particular, I cannot shake the image of him as he prayed for our youths. Struggling as he was with the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease, he prayed his last prayer in true Kingdom vein – for the future of the Church.

The takeaway for me is an issue that goes beyond reminiscence and grief, although there’s a place for that and a lot more.

It’s a nagging issue of accountability.

As I read Pastor Kong Hee’s quote of 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 being one of Canon’s favourite verses: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth”, to my slumbering spirit, the Lord said: If you have a seed, make sure you plant it.

It sent shivers of reckoning down my spine.

The next day, Monday (April 11), there poured from heaven a torrential rain around noon – the time of Canon’s funeral.

I said to the Lord: “He’s with You; surely You’re not crying. Are these then rains of revival? A sign of the latter rain?”

The answer within was as silent as the thunder without was deafening: That depends, on whether you’ll plant the seeds.

REMEMBERING CANON DR JAMES WONG:

Canon James Wong, who shook church and marketplace by the power of the Holy Spirit, called home to the Lord

Canon James Wong, who shook church and marketplace by the power of the Holy Spirit, called home to the Lord

Canon James Wong, who shook church and marketplace by the power of the Holy Spirit, called home to the Lord

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