The Implementation and Restart of the Evangelical Movement in 2000 AD

The "2000 AD Gospel Movement" came to an end with thanksgiving and reflection. Although the intended goal was not fully achieved, it activated the horizontal interaction and development of Taiwanese churches. It was the most significant growth of Taiwanese churches since the Great Harvest Period from 1950 to 1965. ten years.

With the support of all churches, the original formal organization "China Christian Evangelistic Association" was extended and developed into "China Christian Aid Association", which continues to serve the church and the public with a "dual brand strategy" to this day. Let us listen to Pastor Xia Zhongjian, who ran through and led these two important periods, as he discusses for us the implementation and restart of the "2000 AD Gospel Movement" and looks forward to the vision of "church renewal, evangelism, and global missions." , continues to bear fruit in the churches.

Q: The Evangelical Movement in 2000 set several goals for Taiwan. How is the implementation going? What are the reasons for the gap and review?

A:From November 30 to December 1, 1987, more than 60 representatives of various denominations and regions in Taiwan gathered at the Taoyuan Airport Transit Hotel and held the "Seminar on the Evangelical Movement in the Year 2000". During the meeting, the representatives expressed their opinions to Taiwanese churches. Put forward a joint appeal: Taiwanese churches must work together to promote the evangelization movement in Taiwan with December 31, 2000 as the target date, and achieve "two million believers and 10,000 churches (later additional missionaries will be sent out) "Two hundred scholars)" is the goal.

Thus, the 2000 Evangelical Movement officially began. Thirty-four major denominations and organizations formally sent representatives to form the "2000 Evangelical Movement Implementation Committee", and the ministry also officially began to be promoted.

In 2000, the Evangelical Movement has been working together with the churches in Taiwan through two directions—church renewal and comprehensive evangelism—to promote ministry and hope to achieve a common goal. By the end of 2000, the goal of two hundred missionaries had been achieved (in 1999, the number of overseas super-cultural missionaries sent by the Taiwanese church had reached 204, and the number of overseas local missionaries recognized and supported had exceeded 2,000). However, the number of two million believers and 10,000 The goals of the inter-Church have not yet been achieved.

Even so, from 1990 to 1999, the number of church members in Taiwan increased from 557,483 to 780,529, a ten-year growth rate of 40%; the number of churches increased from 3,127 to 3,961, a ten-year growth rate of 26.67% (the above statistics include the True Jesus Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church , headcount includes children). The years from 1990 to 1999 can be regarded as the most significant decade of church growth in Taiwan since the great harvest period from 1950 to 1965.

Although the overall goal of the 2000 evangelical movement has not yet been achieved, which is really regrettable, in terms of the promotion of church renewal and comprehensive evangelism, during the eleven-year promotion period, the unity of Taiwanese churches, the vitality of believers, and the church’s commitment to evangelism have greatly improved. The investment has shown quite vigorous performance.

Although the evangelical movement ended in 2000, the growth of Taiwanese churches continues. By the end of 2003, there were approximately 4,057 Christian churches; the total number of Christian members was approximately 781,400, accounting for approximately 3.69% of the total population over the age of five (including the True Jesus Church and the Seventh-day Church; excluding the Catholic Church). Super-cultural missions There are 235 scholars. The ten-year growth rate of Christians is 43.04%, and the ten-year growth rate of churches is 39.16%. In terms of church size, if calculated based on the average Sunday attendance, the average Sunday attendance is about 384,439, the average membership per church is about 193, and the average Sunday attendance is about 95 people.

In these years, believers and pastors have worked very hard on the church growth movement in Taiwan. The main reason why the goals of the evangelical movement in 2000 were not achieved was actually that the original goal-setting process was more of an emotional "declaration of faith" than a rigorous "plan formulation." But the goal of this "declaration of faith" did inspire the church to work harder on evangelism during this eleven-year period.

Q: What are the similarities and differences in the vision and strategies between the current "Evangelical Association" and the previous "Evangelical Movement 2000 AD"?

A:Although the 2000 Evangelical Movement came to an end on December 31, 2000, the ministries developed over the past eleven years, such as the recognition of overseas missionaries, the missionary movement for office workers, the promotion of church renewal, etc., cannot really be accomplished. Stop irresponsibly. Therefore, with the support of all churches, the original official organizational name "China Christian Evangelical Association" continued to undertake the vision of "church renewal, evangelism, and global mission" and carry out its work.

In terms of work strategies, since there is no longer the pressure of the "gospel movement", we can completely use the strategy of "local churches as the main body" to formulate long-term construction projects of "church renewal, evangelism, and global missions." work.

We currently have four ministry departments, the direction and ministry design chart of which is on the next page.

In 1998, we established the "China Christian Relief Association" to cooperate with churches in participating in major disaster relief and community service missions. After the relief association completed the 921 Earthquake relief and post-disaster reconstruction from 1999 to 2001, we collaborated with the church to establish the "1919 Service Center" network. "Study Accompanying" and "Family Development Ministry" help the church go into the community and carry out community missions.

The "Evangelical Association" and "Relief Association" use the "dual brand strategy" to serve the church and the public.

Q: What is the biggest challenge to spreading the gospel in Taiwan? What role does your ministry play in this?

A:There are two biggest challenges, the first is traditional and the second is modern.

The traditional problem is "the relationship between the gospel and culture." It has been 200 years since the gospel was introduced to China, and 140 years since it was introduced to Taiwan. However, we still do not work hard enough on the relationship between the gospel and culture. Therefore, when preaching the gospel, we still often encounter ancestor worship, tomb sweeping, traditional festivals, and life customs. Obstacles such as problems make it difficult for people to believe in Jesus.

In view of this, we have published a series of folk evangelistic pamphlets, including "Ending Surprises, Solving Disasters and Coming Safely", "Essential Tips to Avoid Evil", "Fortune Telling and Fortune-Changing", "Feng Shui and Blessings", "Choose a Day and Peace", "Ancestor Worship and Filial Piety" and "Reincarnation and Eternal Life" are a small attempt, hoping to attract more Christian input and help Taiwanese people break away from the constraints of traditional etiquette and thought.

The modern problem can be divided into two aspects: On the one hand, the health quality of the church is not strong enough, so that the preaching is ineffective.

Preaching the gospel is a natural expression and service mission of spiritual adults; when the church is not healthy enough, preaching will only be the annual ministry program of the church and will only be a service burden for believers. When the church and believers are healthy enough, preaching will be a natural expression of believers’ faith life and a regular activity of the church.

Faced with this challenge, in addition to using "progressive evangelism" methods and materials that are different from traditional evangelistic methods, focusing on life and relationships, and leading people to the Lord, we help ordinary believers to naturally lead people to faith in their workplace life. Lord, don’t just wait for the church to hold an evangelistic meeting before taking action. In addition, our most important ministry is to respond to the needs of the church and help the church move toward a "healthy and growing church."

On the other hand, Taiwan's society is changing rapidly, but modern churches are accustomed to using the evangelistic concepts and methods of traditional "agricultural society", so there are no major breakthroughs in evangelistic ministry.

Faced with these challenges, the Evangelical Association and the Aid Association have worked hard to develop "progressive evangelism" and "workplace missionary movements". Currently, about 1,800 gospel groups or office fellowships have been established in office buildings across Taiwan. We also assist churches to promote "healthy growth-oriented churches" to enhance the health quality of the church and make evangelism a natural outcome. In addition, we also assist churches to use "high spiritual contact" services in the community, such as parent-child growth groups, reading clubs, and emergency family visiting services, to develop community service missions.

Q: What do you think about church numbers (quantity) and quality (quality)?

A:What the church needs is "healthy growth." Targeting numbers is not a problem. The Acts of the Apostles also mentions the growth of numbers many times. What the church needs to measure is not the number of "gatherings" but the status of "dispersed meetings."

If there are 300 people in the Sunday worship meeting, and only 30 people have personal worship life every day for the six days after the meeting, how would you evaluate this church?

If 200 people attend a group and live a group life of love for each other, but after the meeting, there are less than 20 believers who care about their colleagues in the company and their neighbors in the community, how would you evaluate this church?

Therefore, when looking at a church, one must evaluate the lives of believers, not its ministries. Theoretically, the church can build lives due to the promotion of ministry, but most churches tend to be too busy with ministry and have no time to build life.

Therefore, the church must get rid of the quality dispute and comprehensively rethink the church concept so that church construction can return to "building life" and "building life" instead of focusing on "gatherings" and "ministry."

Over the past three years, the Evangelical Association has been promoting church construction oriented toward "healthy growth." We help churches build "healthy growth" churches with a church view that is more in line with the Bible and modern life. (This part has quite a lot of content. Interested co-workers can further participate in our courses such as "Six Basic Projects for Building a Healthy and Growing Church", "General Introduction to the Church", and "Building Together".)

Q: What role does Taiwan play in the global missionary field?

A:Taiwan's development in the past thirty years is a very special miracle. Taiwan's land is small and there are no special natural resources, but Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves, gross national product, and national competitiveness are among the top in the world; 90% computers around the world must have components produced in Taiwan; Taiwanese businessmen, Diasporas also exist throughout the world.

From this perspective, Taiwan should be able to play an important and key role in the world missionary field. However, the Taiwanese church also faces several difficulties in its global mission:

1. Many churches are physically poor and unable to develop missions.

2. Taiwanese churches generally lack a vision for world missions and are accustomed to accepting help from outside missionary groups. Mission education and world missions have not yet been implemented in the consciousness of pastors and believers.

3. Taiwan’s education is not conducive to cultivating super-cultural missionaries. Due to the lack of a bilingual environment and world view, as well as insufficient English communication skills and global perspective, there are fewer missionaries who devote themselves to being super-cultural missionaries.

4. The plight of Taiwan’s international orphans. Although Taiwan plays a pivotal role in global economy and trade, due to political factors across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan is an international orphan who is not allowed to enter international organizations. Therefore, those holding Taiwanese passports will encounter difficulties in entry and residence in many areas that need missionaries, which will cause many unnecessary obstacles to Taiwan's missionaries being sent out.

Although in recent years, the younger generation of missionaries have become more aware of missionary missions, many churches have begun to hold annual missionary conferences, and many churches have begun to donate money to participate in local missionary recognition programs. But if the Taiwanese church wants to develop world missions, a better way is to establish a cooperative relationship with the world-wide Chinese church.

For example: drawing on the Singaporean church’s universal missionary education; learning from the Hong Kong church’s missionary agency experience; accepting missionary talents from North American churches; and donating Taiwan’s missionary funds. Such a combination can enable the Taiwanese church to make a more solid contribution to the global mission field.

Q: Given the current political and economic situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, what are the ways for Taiwanese churches to participate in evangelical ministry on the mainland?

A:Anyone who has a little knowledge of the current cross-Strait political situation knows the intricacies of cross-Strait issues. However, the economic interdependence between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait is getting higher and higher, and Taiwanese funds and talents are increasingly penetrating into the mainland. In contrast, the number and frequency of Taiwanese pastoral and Christian leaders going to the mainland to participate in training work is also quite high.

However, in the face of the "bigness" of mainland China; the highly complex relationship between Three-Self churches and house churches; and the rise of urban independent churches in addition to house churches and Three-Self churches, it is indeed difficult for Taiwanese churches to participate in mainland gospel ministry. There is a lack of tacit understanding and coordination, a lack of information circulation, and a lack of clear and effective strategies (of course, this is also the complexity and difficulty of mainland gospel ministry).

Judging from the development history of the Chinese church, the most significant contribution that the Taiwanese church can make is to train pastoral staff and believer leaders for the mainland church. However, as the general environment in China changes, Taiwanese churches must also provide courses on marriage, life, Christian ethics, community development, church development, etc. However, these courses must be adjusted and changed according to individual situations, and Taiwanese churches must be more humble and careful. Understand the mainland's environment, and you cannot transplant Taiwan's teaching content to the mainland unchanged.

Pastor Xia Zhongjian’s life filing cabinet 1

Ministry (Family) Milestones
Stage oneFrom July 1974 to December 1984, he served as the deputy general secretary of the Campus Evangelistic Association and participated in the ministry of promoting church growth.
In 1972, he married his wife Zhang Jianguo, and they have been working together as husband and wife ever since. Therefore, a milestone in ministry has also become a milestone in the family.
Stage 2From January 1985 to July 1990, he joined the Taipei Bread of Life Church team as the executive pastor and actually pastored the church.
Stage threeFrom August 1990 to December 2000, he was seconded by the Taipei Bread of Life Church and was responsible for the 2000 Evangelical Movement and served as the Director-General.
In December 1998, he received an honorary doctorate in theology from Biola University, an American university.
Stage fourSince January 2001, he has been in charge of the "Evangelical Association" and "Relief Association" and serves as the secretary-general, promoting church renewal, gospel spread, community services, emergency relief and other ministries.
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Pastor Xia Zhongjian’s Life File Cabinet 2

*The spiritual elders who have the most profound influence
Pastor Zhou Lianhua is the person who has had the greatest influence on me in the past thirty years. Although we don’t often work together, he has shown his support and trust in me through the long-term collaboration between the past “I found it and you can find it” evangelistic movement and the 2000 Evangelical Movement, in which he served as the chairman and I served as the director-general. , his model of dealing with others had a considerable influence on me. (Please refer to my book "Fellowship Life", there are several articles describing and expressing gratitude for his support and love for me.)

*The most shocking past event
On January 18, 2005, my wife and I were driving from Suhua Highway to Hualien. After passing Heping, we fell asleep while driving. When we opened our eyes, the car had crashed into a rock on the roadside. Fortunately, it didn't crash into the cliff on the other side. Just a thin line away from death, it feels like another rebirth, cherishing life and God's mission even more.

*The most effective words of life
Salvation Scripture: “Because of the merciful heart of our God, the early morning sun comes down from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke) Gospel 1:78-79)
Scripture of the Call: "Go to the village opposite. As you enter, you will see a colt tied there. No one has ever ridden it. Untie it and bring it to you. If anyone asks why you untied it, you He said, ‘The Lord will use it.’” (Luke 19:30-31)
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Kingdom of God Resource Integration Network
Welcome to go online for in-depth understanding and support!
http://www.ccea.org.tw
Urgent prayer needs now
Pray for the renewal and revival of the church in Taiwan; pray for the physical and spiritual growth of the 75 full-time staff of the Evangelical Association and the Aid Association.
Ask the Lord to reward: 1. The most correct vision and strategy;
2. The most suitable co-worker;
3. The most sufficient resources.
To enable the Evangelical Association and the Relief Association to serve the churches in Taiwan and overseas Chinese.

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Written by Pastor Xia Zhongjian

"The Message of Numbers"
"The Hidden Group"
"Gospel Strategy"
"growing up"
"Family Worship Easy Go!"
"Jesus and Modern Man"
"Church Ministry Handbook"
"Group Recognition"
"Handbook of United Prayer"
"Give Me the Whole World—Church Mission Manual"
"Church Revival 365 Prayer Manual"
"Office Worker Life Series"—
Interpersonal relationships, potential development, career planning,
Character building, joyful life, communication and leadership
"Spiritual Map and Warfare Prayer Manual"
"Return to the Lord Action Manual"
"Let's fight hard" -
Church Participation in Community Building Handbook
"Office Worker Life Series"—
Spirituality, devotion, beatitudes, spiritual fruits
"Building Together"—
Church Leadership Team Growth Manual
"Life Home Run Series" -
Hitting the Base—Committed to Christ
Capture First Base—Commitment to the Church
Running to second base—Committed to growth
Slide up to third base—Commitment to ministry
Back to home base—committed to missionary work
"Quietly Effective Series" -
Walking with Moses, High Touch
"Worship Life" - I live to worship
"Fellowship Life" - I live for fellowship