Introducing Penny Lai, CERC’s General Manager (GM)

By Jan Tie

Church operations facilitate and support the work of word ministry. From cleaning to finance to music to social media content, an immense amount of activity and effort is centered around the heartbeat of the church — God’s word; and making sure it is presented as best and faithful as we can. With around 400 members and regulars, CERC has 40 departments that all take care of different aspects of the church. The goal? To have a community working together to build up the body of Christ to the glory of God. To do this well takes time and energy, and with almost all heads of departments being voluntary staff, this means that there is always room for improvement. 

That’s where Penny comes in — our first-ever General Manager. Penny’s suitability for the role comes from her experience in CERC’s Church Ministers’ Apprenticeship (CMA) programme. During this time, as an apprentice under our Lead Elder, Pr Robin’s mentorship and training, she led a range of ministries, camps, and conferences for 3.5 years. As a member of CERC since 2012, Penny has also had the privilege to serve in various church departments as a member such as Youth ministry. Having worked as a product executive in a medical instrumentation company prior to this as well, her experiences and her gifts in organisation, leadership, and interpersonal skills largely developed during CMA were what qualified her for her current role as GM for the church. To understand what she does, and why it’s important for the church, we managed to get some time from her busy schedule and sat down with her for a brief interview. 

Jan: Hi Penny, to start off, why does CERC need a General Manager? 

Penny: Over the past 13 years, CERC has been bootstrapping and prioritising how we spend our money in ministries that will bring the most impact for God’s kingdom — training apprentices, supporting seminarians, and hiring pastors. We want to make sure we do not compromise on the work of preaching, teaching, discipling, and evangelism. We were able to do this because we made the decision not to hire any full-time or administrative staff. If anything, we brought on Basic Ministry Trainees (BMT) on short-term contracts (up to 6 months) to expose them to word ministry and have them help out with some administrative duties. Without any full-time support staff, the strain on the church became increasingly apparent as we grew from 12 to 400 over the years.  As a result, some key projects don’t get implemented or some minor but important tasks slip through the cracks. My role as GM, therefore, is to help the heads of all 40+ departments in this church to serve the church better. 

Jan: And how does that look, helping all these departments serve the church better? 

Penny: At the moment, my big goal is to improve the coordination and communication between departments. For me to do that, I provide support, make sure the heads have the resources they need, and provide input where needed. I also ensure plans have proper follow-up and contingencies are put into place in case something goes wrong. A lot of my current work revolves around ensuring the nitty gritty details of department work don’t get overlooked and someone actually is assigned to that task. In the long run, though, my role really is to provide leadership for the heads of departments so that all the work done is aligned towards what CERC is all about — cultivating Christ-centered, God-glorifying ministries that build up the church. That would look like proper oversight over all departments, giving them goals, implementing these goals with helpful strategies, and helping each department grow in both work quality and culture. And in turn, the Heads of Departments will lead and manage their teams in a way that Christians can exercise loving service to one another.

Jan: You mentioned having these operations aligned with CERC’s vision and mission. Could you elaborate on how operational departments in church support word ministry and build towards the goal of growing a faithful church for Jesus? 

Penny: Instead of merely getting the job done, each department should really always be thinking about how to continually improve in order to grow the church. This kind of thinking facilitates what we stand for in CERC, and it shows the strength and importance of ecclesiology. So right now in the pandemic, for example, the church is relying heavily on the Technical Services & Support (TSS) department and a newly created Virtual Ministry department. While it’s easy for them to do the bare minimum, it’s not good enough to grow ministry. That’s why together with the TSS department, we are constantly working on various ways to improve the entire virtual experience for anyone attending our virtual gatherings so that they have good quality avenues for listening and receiving God’s word from the safety of their homes. The restrictions from this pandemic have pushed us to think of ways to help people stay connected with the church online, and continue growing together through the work of the word. 

Jan: Praise God for many willing and passionate hearts to serve Him faithfully like this. What then are your hopes and prayers for the church now as GM? 

Penny: Moving forward, I hope that CERC will eventually be able to hire a team of full-time administrative staff with whom I can work to achieve some of the bigger goals we have as a church. With that additional support, I hope to focus more on departmental goals and setting forth plans to achieve them. I believe that God deserves our wholehearted devotion to His church and His ministries in every aspect and this means planning well and working hard to keep on facilitating faithful word ministry so that the church will grow both physically and spiritually. Do pray for me that I myself will persevere and be able to do my job well for many years to come, to the glory of our great God!