Enhui Gaoling
從論文到出版《這代到那代，傳揚祢奇恩—基督化家庭信仰傳承》之旅
Interview, arrangement/Jian Hailan, Wu Xinhui
本刊總編蘇文安牧師致力於文字牧養及家庭事工多年。其中家庭事工部分，他以行動、文字、信息，多年傳達「家庭是父母的第一個宣教場所」的概念。約十年前，他決定攻讀博士課程。原是「更上一層樓」的信念，研修課程及撰寫博士論文的經歷，卻如同「爬一座高山」，期間遇到迂迴的山路，或需披荊斬棘才能往前邁進。恭喜蘇牧師於2022年5月獲得教牧學博士學位，並再接再厲將論文改寫成普及版教材。本刊編輯同工專訪蘇牧師，請他分享爬上「恩惠高嶺」的經驗—確有困難，但回頭一望，卻是花香滿徑。
What made you decide to take "Faith Inheritance" as the topic of your thesis?
Over the years, I have been thinking, contemplating, and researching an extremely important and urgent issue for more than 20 years, which is "reviving families and churches through the inheritance of family faith."
按照申命記6章4-9節，神吩咐基督徒家長進行家庭信仰傳承時，具體指示了三點—首先，藉著敬虔愛主的榜樣，把神帶給兒女；其次，藉著神的話語，將神介紹給兒女；第三，藉著象徵性的記號，把神帶給兒女。
I myself am the third generation beneficiary of my family’s faith inheritance. In 1895, my grandfather Xu Chao was in Tainan, Taiwan. He took the initiative to pursue Christianity because of the evangelism preached by the British, and yearned to become a member of the Kingdom of Heaven. After seven years of family and interpersonal struggles with his mother, he was finally baptized into the name of the Lord in 1908 at the age of 29. For the next 50 years, he devoted himself to the inheritance of family faith.
In 1932, also in Tainan, Taiwan, the fifth daughter of the Xu Dynasty, my mother Xie Shou, had a conversation with the Lord Jesus on the eve of her high school graduation at the age of 19. She once again firmly believed that the Lord Jesus was the savior of her life, and further established that "As for me, and my family, we must serve the Lord" as the benchmark for her future life, marriage and family.
In 1941, she married Su Tongzhong, and for 66 years, she continued the legacy of her father Xu Chao's family faith. So far, there are more than 50 blood family members in her tribe, and there are thousands of spiritual descendants scattered around the world.
▲In 1941, Pastor Su Wen’an’s mother, Ms. Xie Shou, married Mr. Su Tongzhong. For 66 years, they continued the legacy of their father Xu Chao’s family faith. The picture shows a family portrait taken in 1960. Pastor Su is on the right in the front row.
In 1971, when he was 17 years old, Su Wen'an, the fifth son of Xu Chao's fifth daughter, was reborn and saved at a summer festival in Tainan, Taiwan. In 1983, in New Jersey, USA, he married Lin Lishan, the life partner prepared by God, and together they continued the great cause of "family faith inheritance" passed down from Xu Chao and Xie Shou. It has been 39 years now and they are still making progress...
These made me observe that if parents live out their faith by example and create a good faith atmosphere for their children, they may be able to lead them to establish a personal and intimate relationship with the Lord and make faith choices. Through blood ties, family beliefs can be passed on and continued from generation to generation. This kind of influence on life will continue to spread to all parts of the world, circle by circle, generation by generation.
What is "Christian family faith inheritance"?
First, it is a spiritual movement. Since it is a spiritual movement, it can have the same driving force and vitality in different eras and cultural situations, attracting most family members in each generation, adhering to a common Christ-centered thinking mode, and shining like a bright light in the dark night and troubled times. Witnesses of the glory of Christ.
Furthermore, it is both vertical (vertical inheritance - spreading the gospel downwards to children and grandchildren, and upwards to parents and elders), and horizontally (horizontal transmission through siblings and in-laws of the same generation).
According to the research of scholar Paul. E. Pierson, he believes that if we carefully observe all spiritual movements throughout the ages, eight important elements can be summarized:
1. Historical Situation: At a certain historical moment, when all the conditions of the historical situation are fully met and the time is ripe, a movement will emerge.
2. Diffusion of information: Sports are contagious and can infect and stir up each other; once news and information about the movement is circulated, its transmission and diffusion often contribute to and promote the development and promotion of the movement itself.
3. Theological Breakthrough: Spiritual movements are often accompanied by some new understandings of the gospel or Christian life, which have not been seen or forgotten before.
4. Spiritual motivation: Spiritual movements often have some spiritual elements, which constitute the inner driving force of the movement, govern its operation, and support its continuation.
5. Churches and Institutions: In the history of the church, God often uses two basic structures to complete the mission of redeeming mankind, one is the church and the other is the gospel institution.
6. Missionary Structure: When the church spreads the gospel into new areas, it often needs to create some missionary structure to facilitate it.
7. Key figures: Almost every spiritual movement was started by a key figure.
8. Types of leadership: The emergence and development of spiritual movements is due to the emergence of new leaders and leadership types, through which leaders are selected and trained to perform different ministry functions.
What prompted the development from a paper to a textbook?
2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the "International True Love Family Association." At this important moment of celebration, gratitude, and forward-looking, I officially started writing this book that has been in the works for many years. I feel endless gratitude, endless thanks, and extremely moved!
"Prevention is better than cure" is the core concept of "True Love". The new generation of families, including Christian families, are facing too intensive and severe impacts and challenges in this era where moral bottom lines, gender relations, educational concepts, workplace ecology, family structures, etc., are all changing rapidly. . The "True Love" team has been working hard to trace the line of defense of "True Love Guards and Fights for the Family" back to the original direction of the family life cycle. We offer pre-marital ministry and ministry to teenagers, children, and even infants in faith, EQ, and sex education.
Pull the line of defense back to our descendants, and prepare the cultivation course of "Christian Family Faith Inheritance" so that Christian families can use it, and make the faith inheritance a "present perfect progressive", so I will go all out to write a book!
Did you encounter any challenges or bottlenecks while writing your thesis?
As a veteran writer, I have been writing a paper for many years. The pressure is so great that as soon as I open the information and prepare to write, I fall into a trough, restless, and feel in a dark place... It has been really delayed for a long time, and I have re-determined enough times, and it is really I gave up several times.
But I know in my heart that my wife Lishan and my children are praying for me. True Love co-workers, KRC co-workers, and Chuangwen co-workers are all praying for me. The seven brothers and sisters of the Su family, and my 90-year-old mother-in-law are also praying for me. I pray. Finally, with the encouragement of my wife and the support of my family, I started writing again!
Writing a paper was completely different from my writing style for decades! How to express it? You must imagine that every point of view will be challenged, so you need to constantly think about yourself. In addition, there is also a troublesome format. To me, it is like the eight-legged essay in the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty. If the format is not up to standard, no matter how good the content is, it is useless. Encountering such a bottleneck, I put aside the burden of "writing a thesis".
My supervisor is strict but responsible. After many twists and turns, the entire thesis was finally completed in late April 2022, and was fully approved by the supervisor. At the defense meeting in early May, the committee did not immediately adopt the strong recommendation from the supervisor and actually gave me some other challenges. However, all of this will eventually become an experience of gratitude that comes one after another in the Lord’s good timetable.
How do you try to make a breakthrough when your paper has been shelved many times? What was the turning point that drove you to start over again so many times?
Every year, someone I know gets a D. Min., and I can't write my essay. Is that "below average"? And why is it necessary to have a PhD? What difference does it make to my service whether I have it or not?
Since the founding of the "True Love Family Association" with Dr. Ye Gaofang in 2001, it has been committed to family ministry and encouraged more colleagues to prepare a family full of warmth, love, and love for the grandchildren who will be born in who knows how many years. The spiritual atmosphere and family tradition of vitality and motivation enable them to learn, be provided with, protected, and healed as they grow up, and be able to keep their feet firmly in the turbulent times, stick to their faith, and ultimately be able to "go out" and glorify God. people!
At this time, "Christian family faith inheritance" naturally came to the forefront again. What examples are there for reference or learning in the Western and Chinese church circles? What are the specific and feasible cultivation and action plans? How can we achieve the goal of "using the family as a team to achieve the gospel mission and cultural mission"? All these made me get up again and again and work hard to overcome the difficulties of thesis.
Please share your most profound learning? Your most heartfelt prayer?
Rev. Liu Fuli, the honorary president of American Orthodox Evangelical Theological Seminary, recommended a preface to my new book that I rewrote from my thesis. These few sentences deeply touched my heart! He emphasized: As parents or grandparents, we still have many imperfections, but as long as we are determined to follow and imitate the Lord, continue to be shaped by our Heavenly Father, and our lives are constantly renewed and changed, it is possible to attract our children and grandchildren. By following us and being shaped by our heavenly Father, we will be able to tell future generations what Paul said to the Corinthians: “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.”
Dean Liu used the following three sentences to encourage each other with parents or grandparents who are committed to the inheritance of family faith:
1. “Only when you first ‘experience the Lord’ and taste the Lord’s grace can you talk about the inheritance of faith.”
2. “To always ‘taste the grace of the Lord’, we need to always live in the spiritual shaping of an intimate relationship with the Lord.”
3. “We must always “live in the spiritual shaping of an intimate relationship with the Lord” in order to manifest the glory that God has predestined for us to receive, so thatHimBecause we are greatly glorified. "