Faces Of CityWorship: Eugene Tay

For City Worship keyboardist, Eugene Tay, ministry has been about following God’s leading and walking through the doors that He has opened. 

In a ministry filled with millennials and Gen Z, Gen X CityWorship keyboardist Eugene Tay is looked up to by some, such as his fellow keyboardist Joel Chan, who said of him in an interview: “My biggest support and mentor is Eugene Tay who often encourages me by dropping me a text, telling me I did well whenever I serve. He also challenges me to improve on my craft and technicality, to maximise the unused potential of the gear that is provided by the church.”

Talking to Eugene, one gets the sense of a natural leader, someone who is quiet and encouraging, who leads by example. He also has a dry sense of humour and is refreshingly honest.

Eugene and his wife Sally came to City Harvest Church in 2010, after spending most of their lives at their former church where he began serving in ministry at a young age.

“In my old church, all the kids had to sing in the choir. I couldn’t really sing so I thought, ‘Why not serve by playing piano instead?’ But at the time—I was maybe 13 or 14—I was a total rascal in church so no one believed in me when I volunteered,” recounts the now less rascally 50-year-old. “However, one of the pastors had a sudden change of heart and told the choirmaster, ‘Why not give Eugene a try?’”

Since that time, Eugene’s approach to ministry has been “standing in the gap”, whether he doubled up as a bassist (“when there’s no one to play, I will play”) or led his former church’s technical ministry (“We did everything from audio and lighting to video, photography and animation”).

Eugene first encountered the Holy Spirit was when he was around 6. “We were going to be baptised on Christmas Day, but on Christmas Eve I came down with a high fever. My mother panicked and called my aunt who had invited us to church, ‘Can we still get baptised tomorrow?’ I remember my parents brought me to the hospital to get medication to bring down the fever, and by faith, we decided we would still go for the baptism. The next day, we went to Pasir Ris and were baptised in the sea. When I came out of the water, my fever was completely gone!”

CALLED TO CHC

After more than 30 years in his former church, it was time for a change. Eugene shares candidly, “I felt complacent, neither hot nor cold, and I decided that I’d rather be hot. I discussed this with my wife, Sally, and after getting her blessing, we started the search for a new church.”

Other than the preaching, the Pentecostal style of worship and CHC’s ministry to children, Harvest Kidz, Eugene had had CHC on his radar for two reasons.

“I had a dream one night that I was sitting at the top tier of many rows of seats, and the whole church was full. It felt like there would be a big revival and that something was about to happen. I told my then-pastor about it, but I didn’t realise I was actually describing CHC!” he recalls.

Apart from this prophetic vision, Eugene was a fan of CHC’s sound system. “As an audio guy, I really loved the acoustics at the Jurong West campus. In fact, when designing the sound system for my former church, I modelled it on CHC because that was the sound that I wanted.”

Eugene joined CHC on the first weekend of April 2010 when the church held services at Singapore Expo. Serving was not on his mind. “Our services were on such a grand scale, I felt I wasn’t capable enough.”

However, during a ministry weekend in 2012, a connect group coordinator in his cell group filled in the CityWorship audition form on Eugene’s behalf. “When I heard what he had done, I thought, ‘You must be kidding me!’ But then I didn’t hear from them for quite a while, so I thought that was that.”

But he was not getting away so easily. After hearing Eugene play at a cell group member’s wedding, Pastor Wu Yuzhuang asked him, “How come you can play but you’re not serving in church?” Soon enough, Eugene got the call to audition for City Worship.

THE TRIAL AND OTHER TRIBULATIONS

A month after Eugene joined CHC, the police investigation against the church’s leaders began, which would later lead to a long and highly publicised court trial.

However, Eugene took heart in his calling from the Lord. “I felt that I was meant to be here for this season,” he says, adding that some keyboardists departed during that season. “To me, it felt like an Esther moment—I was led here for such a time as this.”

It never occurred to him to leave. “God called me here, so I will stay here,” he reasons, adding that all was not as it was portrayed in the mass media. “During a mission trip to Taiwan, I got to see Pastor Kong every day. Despite all the allegations in the newspapers, I was sure that was not the Pastor I knew.”

Out of the fire of that decade of the trial, CHC is now in a season of rebuilding. Eugene notes that this has brought about a great improvement and a positive atmosphere to CityWorship.

“Now, we know we are loved no matter how well we do, even if we make mistakes playing,” he says. “We are all trying to bear the fruit of the Spirit.” This has helped a new generation of song leaders and musicians to arise. “We need fresh blood, fresh ideas and energy, and now there are more opportunities for the young ones to serve, like Germaine, Joel, Zann…”

Eugene has a nurturing attitude towards such younger ones, and takes it upon himself to encourage them to develop. “It used to be that you would have to choose between being a cell group leader and serving in CityWorship because both demanded heavy commitment,” he notes. “Now, we are a lot more accommodating, and the younger ones are allowed to grow in their own way.”

 

PASSING DOWN THE PASSION OF SERVING

One can chalk up Eugene’s fatherly attitude towards his young friends in CityWorship to the fact that he is also a father of three boys, aged between 12 and 22. And all three are musicians: the oldest, Emanuel, 22, plays the bass; Seth, 20, plays guitar and drums, while youngest Evan, 12, plays the drums.

“I’ve never forced them to take music lessons, except for a few keyboard lessons for Emanuel when we were stationed overseas,” Eugene points out. “They all naturally wanted to learn.”

Emanuel started out playing guitar in cell group then switched over to the bass, while Seth and Evan caught the bug when Eugene borrowed a drum kit from his friend.

“Once, our neighbor confronted us, ‘You sell pork is it? What’s that ‘toktoktok’ sound? Are you chopping mincemeat?’ I had to explain that it was the sound they made when they practised on the electronic drum kit.”

The Bible teaches parents to “train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov 22:6). While Eugene may not have pressured his sons to take after him, by using his own gifts to serve the Lord and others, he has become an example to his children.

It is the love for God’s house has kept Eugene serving all these years, as well as his conviction that “if God has given me these gifts, I should use them to serve Him.”

As a big brother to young musicians, Eugene has two pieces of advice, The first is technical: “Remember the 4Ts: apply Tenacity to your Tonality, Timing and Technique.” The second is heart: “Serve the Creator and not the platform.”