From a Colombo Plan scholar to schoolteacher, pastor, seminary lecturer and bishop, Bishop Emeritus Dr Hwa Yung’s journey shaped a lifelong conviction: that Asian Christianity must hold Scripture’s authority while speaking boldly in the cultural language and spiritual reality of its own people.
Schoolteacher, pastor, seminary lecturer and Bishop of The Methodist Church in Malaysia. Of these roles that Bishop Emeritus Dr Hwa Yung undertook, his first stint as a schoolteacher in Alor Setar, Kedah, took him out of his intellectual ivory tower and opened his eyes to an environment far removed from that previously experienced by the Colombo Plan scholar who had just graduated from an Australian university.
“The Lord called me to ministry when I was in university, but I had a scholarship bond to serve out. I thank God for those five years where my Christian faith got grounded in the realities of life. It was humbling and opened my eyes,” BE Hwa, now 78, said. Living and working in a linguistically and culturally different environment from what he had known enabled BE Hwa to see that the less privileged needed to be loved just as much.
These lessons in caring for ordinary folk were reinforced when BE Hwa became a pastor. His first pastorate was in Sentul, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. At that time, the area was the railway workshop for the whole of the Malayan Railways. He says, “They were very simple people there and they needed the Lord. They had struggles we didn’t have.”
Pastoring work didn’t stop at preaching the gospel and evangelism. He faced pastoral issues unique to his congregation, recalling a man who was in debt to loansharks to the tune of RM20,000 because he had to care for his sick wife. “This was about people having to live as Christians in a difficult world,” he says. Later, when he went on to teach in a seminary, he continued preaching in churches, saying, “This is the only way you can keep in touch with people at the grassroots level.”
As a seminary lecturer in the 1980s when the Methodist Church was affected by the liberal-traditional divide in the American church, BE Hwa recognised the key problem in the Church at that time was the issue of theology. “When I started teaching, I focused on theology so that seminary graduates would have sound biblical theology. Later, I realised that having sound theology didn’t necessarily make good pastors,” he reflects. Good spiritual grounding such as a vibrant prayer life and living out the gospel were as critical.
Born into a non-Christian family, BE Hwa grew up with a father whom he describes as a strict Confucianist who took ancestral worship seriously, and a mother who, like many Chinese women of her time, visited temples. His elder sister became a Christian and she would take her younger siblings to church with her. From attending Sunday school to receiving his education at Methodist primary and secondary schools in Penang, BE Hwa grew in faith, especially during university in Australia. Among his four brothers and four sisters, the family would eventually count a Methodist bishop, a Methodist pastor, a TRAC president, an Anglican priest and a missionary.
“I am always thankful to the Western missionaries who brought the Word to us. We learnt so much from them,” says BE Hwa. At the same time, he cautions, “There are a lot of cultural blinkers that we must be mindful not to follow blindly.”
He explains, “I grew up in the Methodist Church with little understanding of the demonic spiritual dimension because of the dominant Western thinking. Yet, we would see and hear about the spiritual dimension of living as we were in Asia.” He describes a student of his when he was teaching in Alor Setar. The 18-year- old girl unknowingly fell victim to the occult which affected her mind. Six months of medical treatment did not change her condition. BE Hwa told her that while he could not help her, Jesus could. She believed, and was healed.
“This blew my mind. I realised that the Western Christianity that we learn misses out on this dimension,” recalls BE Hwa.
His book, Mangoes or Bananas?: The Quest for an Authentic Asian Christian Theology examines this need for a contextually relevant Christianity in Asia that remains faithful to Scripture.
When asked about his views on Singapore, BE Hwa has this to say: “Much of the Church in Singapore is highly westernised. You have to have an approach that is Singaporean. The Asian Church must begin to produce scholars and experts in the world religions in order to help the Church to communicate with, reach out to and bring the gospel to its Asian audience. In short, we must contextualise our message in a familiar language, culture and practice.”
Much of the Church in Singapore is highly westernised. You have to have an approach that is Singaporean. The Asian Church must begin to produce scholars and experts in the world religions in order to help the Church to communicate with, reach out to and bring the gospel to its Asian audience. In short, we must contextualise our message in a familiar language, culture and practice.
~BE Hwa Yung
“The whole of Western theology has neglected to address the spiritual dimension. But it is there. This is partly because the version of Christianity that was brought to us was very westernised and shaped by the intellectual world view of the Enlightenment, which focused on reason and pushed out all that is non-rational. Consequently, people say charismatic things are not real and are for the superstitious.” The book which he co-wrote, Revival in Ba’Kelalan, refutes this by describing how a revival broke out in the Sarawakian churches when God revealed his awesome power through signs and wonders.
BE Hwa says, “We need to realise that the spiritual dimension is a real one. We need to begin by reading the Bible with fresh eyes, be honest with ourselves and acknowledge the spiritual that we see around us. We have to allow the text to challenge our pre-suppositions.”
We need to realise that the spiritual dimension is a real one. We need to begin by reading the Bible with fresh eyes, be honest with ourselves and acknowledge the spiritual that we see around us. We have to allow the text to challenge our pre-suppositions.
~BE Hwa Yung
Adherence to Scripture is a key tenet of Methodist theology, along with tradition, reason and experience. BE Hwa will examine the aspect of “Experience” in the Methodist Quadrilateral when he speaks at the AldersgateSG 2026 Lecture and Celebration Service in Singapore on 23 and 24 May 2026 at Barker Road Methodist Church. BE Hwa states that John Wesley recognised that Scripture is the only authority. However, he feels “much of our preaching tends to be very cerebral. Experience and emotion are how we get to know God in a deeper way.”
Without giving away too many spoilers, BE Hwa observes that “Wesley struggled with knowing assurance through experience because his own emotional development as a person had been partially impaired by a distant father and a controlling mother.” Light will be shed on this intriguing premise at BE Hwa’s lecture.
BE Hwa concludes the interview with this description of a truly contextual Christianity: “It is a balance of two things—the authority of the Scriptures and richness of Christian tradition, and the context, culture and worldview that we live in.” He refers to Revelation 21:22-27, saying, “The Bible reminds us that at the end, when we all enter the kingdom of God, all that is good, noble, pure and untainted by sin, these things from every culture and nation will have a place in the kingdom of God. All the time, we must hold tightly to the authority of Scripture.”
“You’ve got to read the Bible.”
