The Zion Full Gospel Church’s history began in September 1949, when Finnish missionaries arrived on Singapore’s shores after leaving China. While others journeyed on to other Asian countries, Sisters Nilja Nikkanen and Aira Kolkka remained in Singapore, becoming the first Finnish missionaries in the city. They practiced their evangelicalism by standing at street corners and playing their guitars or singing songs in Mandarin. The sisters’ presence attracted a number of people, some of whom would approach them and offer advice or assistance.
Establishing The Church
The sisters eventually began their meetings in an attap house along Grange Road, and later moved to the Indus Square Alexandra area. Throughout their mission, they were assisted by several passionate community members who offered their spare time to assist with the evangelical mission.
Zion Full Gospel Church was the first among several churches in Singapore that were established by the Finnish mission. In 1965, the church—with financial contributions from Finnish Christian emigrants—acquired its own building in Tanglin. It later became the first church in Singapore to host its worship services in a shopping centre, when it acquired two units of office space at Queensway Shopping Centre.
Moving To A New Home
In 1980, the church moved to its current premises at Hoot Kiam Road. With the funds from the sale of the Queensway property, the church set out to restore its premises. The restoration was completed in March 1999, with funds to spare.
The church is identifiable by its striking art-deco architecture. This architectural style rose in popularity in Europe with the advent of aeroplanes and steam ships, where elements inspired by speed, such as elongations and lines, were used. This architectural style is evident in the church’s exterior façade. Rounded edge walls support a reinforced concrete flat roof and continuous concrete ledges. The walls display prominent composition of geometrical lines and shapes, with no classical ornamentation.
Entering A New Era
With the appointment of Reverend Randy Sing as the church’s Senior Pastor in 2000, the church ushered in a new era as a missions-focused church.
Two outposts were established—one at a rented shophouse in Bukit Panjang and another at the Malaysian town of Kluang. Both outposts held services on Sunday evenings.
In 2004, Zion Full Gospel Church became the 49th church to be a part of the Assemblies of God movement in Singapore. It now runs three worship services weekly—in English, Mandarin and Hokkien.
At the time of writing, the church continues to strengthen its outreach with several new initiatives, such as street witnessing, a mass memorial service and a carnival event.
Buildings and sites featured on Roots.SG are part of our efforts to raise awareness of our heritage; a listing on Roots.SG does not imply any form of preservation or conservation status, unless it is mentioned in the article. The information in this article is valid as of July 2020 and is not intended to be an exhaustive history of the site/building.
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