In this podcast episode, Evangelism Coach Daniel King interviews Michael Sin from the band The Fourth Dimension, based in Malaysia. The band combines gospel and secular music to draw in crowds and share the gospel message. They travel around Asia, performing live concerts and also offer workshops on music arrangement and instruments. Michael shares how he felt called by God to take his music ministry outside of the church walls and reach the ends of the earth. He discusses the challenges of evangelizing in a majority Muslim nation and the restrictions on public evangelism. Despite these challenges, the band has seen a positive response from young people in churches and has witnessed a transformation in the spiritual landscape of countries like Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
Learn More About Michael Sin and T4D: https://www.facebook.com/T4Dministries/
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King, and I’m excited to tell people about Jesus. Today I have a very special guest with me, Michael Sin from a wonderful band from the nation of Malaysia called The Fourth Dimension. Thank you so much for being with me today.
Michael Sin (00:16):
Thank You for having us here.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:17):
Now, tell me a little bit about what you do.
Michael Sin (00:21):
Well, basically, the T4D Ministry, it’s a music ministry, so we travel around to Asia countries to do live concerts, gospel concerts, but as in many gospel concerts, if it is this purely gospel concerts, people won’t come, especially in these parts of the world. So we mix gospel concerts with secular music. So with that, we draw the crowd in and then we inject the gospel message. So we travel around the ASEAN region doing live gospel concerts, and if an opportunity pops up, we will do worship workshop, drum workshop, keyboard workshop, music arrangement workshops and stuff like that. So we’ve been doing that for about seven and a half years.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:05):
Wow. What an amazing ministry and music. Thank you that you have. And so it’s really an honor to serve the Lord with you. We’ve just completed same
Michael Sin (01:14):
Here,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:14):
A couple of days in Thailand, and now we’re in the nation of Laos, and it’s just so beautiful to see what God is doing. Tell me a little bit about how you got started doing this.
Michael Sin (01:27):
Oh, well, I was pastoring a church back in the late 2010 or so. That’s when I heard a voice and God says, I’m going to take you out of the church four walls and take you into the church without walls to reach to the ends of the earth, to the end Samaria, and to use your gifts and your talents to reach out to the world. So it was like asking God, what’s my gift and what’s my talent? And God says, music and I don’t have a band. And God says, I will give you a band. And that’s how the fourth dimension, the members came together by God’s divine appointment and we’ve got the whole jigsaw together and we clicked and reformed the band. And in 2013, somehow we got invited by Pastor Manop to a music festival in Thailand, Bette. And we made that a gospel music festival instead of just a secular music festival. And that’s how IGMF started back in December, 2014. And that’s what T 40 has been doing, actively participating with the IGMF movement. And while we are not in ministry, we also do corporate geeks back home in Malaysia. Well, to earn money and pay for fa.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:52):
And so the whole band is working on secular jobs? Yes,
Michael Sin (02:57):
We do. And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:57):
Then also coming as the opportunities come.
Michael Sin (03:00):
Yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:01):
Wow. That’s right. Now you are from Malaysia, which is a majority Muslim nation, and so there’s actually a lot of restrictions on what you’re able to do. How do you reach out in that context?
Michael Sin (03:19):
Well, back home it is okay to evangelize as long as you stay within your four walls of the church compound. So you can have evangelistic rally in stadiums as long as the rally stays inside the stadium, and you can invite friends into the stadium or the church and do the evangelistic work within that compound on that basis, yes, you’re free to host any rallies, gospel concerts, and evangelistic meetings outside that you can’t.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:54):
And you have been doing events inside churches. And do you find that the young people like the music that you bring?
Michael Sin (04:02):
Oh yes. Like the church that I am attending right now, it is very next generation oriented
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:10):
In What church are you at?
Michael Sin (04:12):
Well, it’s in the Malay language. It’s called the Sid ur. It’s S-I-B-K-L in English. It is translated to Bono Evangelical Missions Church, BEM.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:25):
I’m so excited to hear about what God is doing here in Asia. There’s such a huge population here, so many people that need to hear some good news. And so what do you feel is God’s heart for Asia during this time?
Michael Sin (04:44):
I think not just Asia. I think God’s heart is for every part of the world. But since we are in Asia, I’ll just speak for Asia, and I think a lot of things are happening. And as far as the International Gospel Music Festival movement is concerned, we have been doing this since December, 2014, and we have seen a lot of things being transformed, like the landscape, the spiritual landscape of parts of Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia. Next week we are moving on to Cambodia. We are seeing things beginning to change, and the churches are more bold to proclaim Christ. It’s not a shame thing to say that I’m a believer because it’s cool to say that, Hey, I’m a believer. It’s cool for a Thai guy to come into a mall like this. Sorry, this is Tian. Okay. And to say, yeah, I’m a believer. I worship God and I’m not ashamed of it.
(05:48):
If you look back 15, 10, 15 years ago, if I’m a Christian here, I had rather not profess, I’ll just keep quiet. But today you see a lot of Christians and churches getting more bold to actually step forward and to profess their faith and to even evangelize and start to tell people, Hey, you got to have some of these too. And a lot of training is being conducted. People like you guys and other missionary bodies that are coming in and out of Asia to Asia, a lot of work is being put in. And I think it’s really awesome. And as far as we are concerned, the fourth dimension, we hope to move in the music landscape. Now music, we can do the very conventional way. Piano, hymns, again, we have moved out of that. We have got the drums coming in, and now we are moving out of that. We’ve got digital music coming in where we use sequences and backing tracks, and we use do software, and we do video, music, video and stuff like that. That’s what we are hoping to empower the local churches here to use technology in their worship session, to produce video music videos of their churches, of the new songs that they write, to write new songs of your native language. Don’t just sing what big names sing, sing Thai gospel songs, sing Cambodian gospel songs.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:32):
And so have you been writing some of your own songs?
Michael Sin (07:35):
No, we have not. We have not.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:40):
I think it’ll come, God will give you some that will be a hit all over the world,
Michael Sin (07:44):
Kind of maybe moving towards that well as the spirit leads. But somehow maybe because we are so occupied with drawing the crowd in and then injecting the gospel, it has been working pretty well so far. So maybe that is why for us, there was no immediate need or calling to really to come up with our own materials. Maybe one day we certainly look forward to it. And as the spirit leads, and yeah, I mean, unless the lot builds, we would just belaboring in vain. So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:23):
Let’s God now explain to me the meaning of the name, the fourth dimension.
Michael Sin (08:27):
Oh, that’s interesting. See, the fourth dimension is the spiritual dimension, the three dimension, the width, the depth, and the height is that the three D is what you can see, what you can touch. You know that this is solid. You don’t need faith to believe that this is a solid box. But the fourth dimension is the spiritual dimension that you don’t see, you can’t physically touch. You’ve got to experience it. You’ve got to encounter it. So we hope that the songs that we do will touch your heart, not just make you dance, but to also touch your heart and to impact you, and to make you reflect on the lyrics that you’ve been singing and to let it really sink deep in and to really get into the heart of hearts and let those tears just roll down. I mean, you can’t make tears. And if I see you have tears, I thank the Lord.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:30):
Yeah. Well, I so love your heart and I feel it is an honor to serve the Lord with you. Likewise. And it’s so wonderful to meet you. Likewise. Thank you so much for being on the Evangelism
Michael Sin (09:39):
Podcast. Thank so much. Thank you so much for this opportunity to share what we do, and we look forward to do more in the days to come.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:46):
Amen. All of Asia for Jesus.
Michael Sin (09:48):
Amen, sir. And all of
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:49):
Jesus for Asia.
Michael Sin (09:50):
Bless you. Amen. Bless you too.
