Foundation Day 2025 (Part 1): God’s faithfulness, gospel fruit, and the work ahead
Two Sundays…One Story
This year, CERC is celebrating Foundation Day over two Sundays. Officially, CERC’s birthday is 31 August 2008. But to mark 17 years of Christ-centred, God-glorifying ministry in the Klang Valley, we’re stretching the celebration across two Sundays this round.
24 August 2025 (today):“Double down on keeping the faith and fulfilling the ministry of the Word” (2 Timothy 4:1–8).
31 August 2025 (next Sunday):“The Lord saves” (2 Timothy 4:9–22).
The celebration didn’t begin only when the service commenced in the main gathering hall. It began the moment you stepped through the doors.
Seventeen Years of Bearing Fruit
The ”Foundation Day Tree” greeting each person as they stepped inside CERC Central, branches added each year, fruit multiplying with every story of God’s grace.
After a welcome from our ushers, you couldn’t miss the Foundation Day Tree — built from scratch, added to year by year, and standing as a living timeline of God’s work among us. Its message is simple yet weighty: “God uncompromised, Jesus glorified, His people satisfied.” For three years now, the tree has grown because the Word keeps bearing fruit in CERC. Every new branch marks fresh growth. Every “fruit” holds a real testimony of how God has used His Word in this church to grow His people. Look around, and there is so much to give thanks for. For at the heart of it all is this: this church was born of the living Word and by that same Word it is nourished and sustained.
“I was praying to Hindu gods as recent as 2023.” — Divyesh Subramaniam, a Nottingham student now found in Christ through CERC’s university ministry.
This is just one of many stories of God’s work through His Word in CERC, preached and taught week in, week out by our Word ministers, especially Pr. Robin Gan, CERC’s Founding Elder.
Because the Word is so central, this year we set up a SermonBite booth, a quiet corner to step “into the zone” and relive favourite moments from sermon series through the years. It wasn’t just nostalgia: the booth reminded us how Jesus rules His church by His Word and Spirit, steadily growing us through faithful preaching.
SermonBite booth: revisiting treasured moments from the pulpit: Christ exalted, the Scriptures explained, consciences bound to God’s truth.
Nearby, the “Jesus’ sheep” photobooth drew smiles as families and friends posed as well-fed sheep, which is an image that says something real about church life here in CERC.
‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.’ (John 10:27). A playful photobooth with a serious reminder: at CERC, Christ’s sheep are fed and satisfied only by His Word.
CERC has come a long way for our sheep to be happy and well-fed with the Word, and to make room for more sheep, too. Indeed, from the very beginning, that’s all we had: sheep hungry for God’s voice, and the Word to feed them.
The Word at Work: Our Story since 2008
Our first gathering was in 2008, in Pr. Robin’s living room. Ten to fifteen people. No pulpit. No microphone. Just the Bible opened, the Word preached.
Humble beginnings: Pr. Robin preaching in his living room. No mic, no stage, just the Word.
On any given Sunday back then, about ten of those present were also serving. The emcee might clean beforehand, usher, and then run projection…all in the same morning! It was “all hands on deck” because the gospel needed to grow in Malaysia.
Two of those early members, Ken and Natalie Ooi, remember the mindset:
“We were all hands on deck—coming early, speaking to guests, and handling multiple roles at the same time. Our attitude was: the gospel needed to grow in Malaysia; so we poured our time, resources, whatever we had to get as much done.”
Ken and Natalie Ooi serving as projectionists in those early days. Many roles, one conviction.
Jeremy Johnson (another early member of CERC) was there as well, listening to CERC’s first sermon series: Colossians.
Jeremy Johnson (far left) taking in the Colossians series. Scripture preached as a whole, week after week.
Jeremy recalls:
“Every week was a wow factor. I’d never heard a letter preached like this—as a whole, week in and week out. That’s when we started asking, ‘What did you think about the sermon?’”
By 2009, one year later, the gathering had grown to 30 people, and we needed more space (not unlike today!). We moved “down the road” to Shop Lot 1, which could hold up to 120 people. The faithful preaching of God’s Word kept growing His church; a larger space simply needed to follow the fruit.
Natalie puts it plainly:
“I was willing to do whatever it takes to make it work, even if it meant putting in my life’s savings.”
That is what many did. To make ends meet, most renovations were done by members, after work, on weekends, shoulder to shoulder.
CERC members renovating Shop Lot 1, built with labour and love.
Soon the hall began to fill again.
Standing room only: Shop Lot 1 packed as the Word bore fruit and the church grew.
Just two years later, we again outgrew the space and moved, in 2011, to our current building. True to form, CERC members bootstrapped and handled much of the renovation themselves.
Looking back on the resources poured into the work, Melissa Johnson says:
“We worked out of thankfulness to the God who saved us when we were (and still are) undeserving sinners.”
Overflowing: 2025 in our current hall—every seat filled, thanks be to God!
The Word That Built Us
The only reason early members could give their lives to build the church (which is to not merely acquire premises but to build up people) is because God’s Word created and sustained that conviction. CERC’s unwavering commitment to preaching Scripture faithfully every Sunday gave new birth to those members, and to many of us today.
Across 17 years, we have journeyed through 38 sermon series from the pulpit:
2009 — Colossians; The Gospel of Mark; TULIP (The 5 Points of Calvinism); Worship
2010 — Deuteronomy; The Gospel of John; Isaiah (start)
2011 — Isaiah (cont.); The Heidelberg Catechism; 1 Corinthians (start)
2012 — 1 Corinthians (cont.); Haggai; Introducing God; This is CERC; Zechariah (start)
2013 — Zechariah (cont.); Acts
2014 — Romans
2015 — Luke
2016 — Spirituality
2017 — The Ten Commandments; CERC celebrates 500 years of the Reformation; Galatians
2018 — Hebrews
2019 — Matthew
2020 — God’s Story: Old Testament
2021 — God’s Story: New Testament; God’s Story ft. Ephesians
2022 — Hosea; Joel; The Christian Life; Reformation Theology; 1 Timothy
2023 — Ezekiel; Jesus And…
2024 — Genesis; Exodus; 1 Peter; James
2025 — Leviticus; 2 Timothy
This is what seventeen years of unwavering gospel preaching looks like. This is the spine of our life together.
Foundation Day 2025 (Part 1): 2 Timothy 4:1–8
The passage for Foundation Day, 2 Timothy 4:1–8, could not have been more apt. Paul’s solemn charge to Timothy, to “preach the word in season and out of season,” has marked CERC’s story from the very beginning: in moments of growth and celebration, but also in harder seasons where faithfulness meant pressing on with little but the Word itself.
Pr. Robin’s sermon was both an exposition and a birthday address. He reminded the congregation that God’s charge to Timothy is also God’s charge to CERC on its 17th birthday: fulfil your ministry. Ministry, he said, is not about chasing comfort, novelty, or success, but about being a people reshaped by God’s cosmic plan, to be holy as He is holy.
He pressed home the costliness of that call. Christianity, Robin reminded us, is sacrifice: to live unafraid of death, willing to pour out our lives for God’s purposes. True orthodoxy, he said, is not merely right doctrine but a life of love—not sentimental niceness, but the self-giving love that Jesus embodied at the cross.
At times, his words cut like an arrow: “Any idiot can do whatever they want when they like it. But the power God gives His people is the power to love, whether in marriage, in business, or in nationhood. That is the mark of a life aimed like a bow for God’s ministry.”
“Double down if you haven’t already,” Robin urged. Becausethis is how a church celebrates a birthday: not with cake and candles, but with the Word open, and lives offered up to Christ.
Looking Ahead: Join Us, Pray with Us, Partner with Us
Next Sunday, 31 August, Foundation Day continues with 2 Timothy 4:9–22 — “The Lord saves.” Come early, bring a friend, and rejoice with us as we are fed again by God’s Word.
As we celebrate 17 years of gospel growth, will you also stand with us in prayer and partnership?
Pray that we keep the faith, fulfil the ministry, and that God provides the space we need for the work He has given us.
Give to help us secure a permanent home in Bandar Sunway and to fund gospel ministry for generations to come. (cerc.com.my/support-us)
Share this article with a friend who longs to see Word-centred churches thrive in the Klang Valley.
Seventeen years on, the pattern holds: God grows His work; we make room for more. May He keep us faithful in season and out of season, holding fast to His Word and pressing on with His mission, until the day when Christ is revealed as all in all.
