Bringing the full gospel to unreached peoples
2020 Global Chinese Mission Conference inspires cross-cultural missionaries
Text/Threshing floor worker‧Photo provided/Association of Christian Messengers
▲The Chinese Mission Conference organized by the Christian Messengers Association has been attended by more than 39,000 people for more than 30 years, making it the best platform to mobilize Chinese to evangelize the Chinese and conduct cross-cultural missions.
Since 1983, the Chinese Mission Conference (CMC) organized by the Christian Messengers Association has spread from the eastern United States to the west and south, all the way to the United Kingdom and Europe. As of CMC 2019, more than 39,000 people have participated, and more than 6,000 people have responded to God’s call. CMC has become the best platform to mobilize Chinese people to evangelize and conduct cross-cultural missions to Chinese people.
In 2020, all conferences will be held online instead of being held in hotels. CMC Global 2020 registered 8,500 people from 47 states in the United States and 35 countries or regions including Canada, from more than 1,500 churches; 425 of them responded to the call.
In 2021, the Messenger Association will hold CMC in the UK in April and in South America in December. We hope that more people will come to receive equipment, go to the world to establish the kingdom of God, and glorify God’s name throughout the earth! For details, please see:https://www.cmcglobal-afc.org. (Information provided by: Christian Messenger Association)
The COVID-19 epidemic has brought difficulties and tests to church pastoral care and missionary work. "In the more than two thousand years of the church's history, this is the only time that people all over the world are suffering together. When the world becomes darker and darker, the light of the church will become brighter and brighter." Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California, USA, At the 2020 Global Chinese Mission Conference, every Christian is encouraged to seize this unprecedented opportunity, commit to the Great Commission and Great Commandment entrusted by God, and preach the gospel to all nations, races, peoples, and parties.
When they learned that the Chinese Mission Conference would be moved from physical gatherings in previous years to the cloud, missionary workers were very excited. They could participate on the field, listen to the message, think about the room for growth in life and ministry, and reflect and discuss the situation and challenges on the field. The conference is rich in information, and the following is only shared from the perspective of cross-cultural missions.
The ministry of the incarnation
Pastor Yang Xiru of the Blessing Church in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, mentioned that the church should become an incarnate church. He believes that the church should be separated from the world, but its evangelistic strategy is to be willing to stay close to, condescend to, and listen to the heartbeat of the world. We must imitate Jesus and preach the gospel with a humble and accepting attitude. Blessing Church advocates a culture of respecting fellow seekers, which is exactly the embodiment of the incarnation of the Word.
During the group discussion, Brother W shared that when missionaries use traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture to serve in Muslim countries, “Usually the Chinese will ask the patient questions directly before applying acupuncture, then design a treatment plan, and then carry out the treatment. But the local people spend time before acupuncture. Eat and chat for a few hours, and then start acupuncture.” Missionaries need to understand and respect the local culture and carry out ministry according to local customs.
Sister S also shared that local people have different concepts of time, and cross-cultural workers need a lot of adjustments and adaptations. Sister
Chuck McDaniel, speaker of the English workshop "Bringing Business into the Great Commission" shared his experience of serving in the Middle East. Unknowingly, he parked his car in front of a competitor's store. Later, he discovered that his tire had been punctured by his competitor. He actually entered the store and apologized to the store clerk. On the way back, the Muslim manager who followed him on errands asked him why he did this. Chuck said, "I am a follower of Jesus. Jesus taught us to love our enemies. Even though they are business competitors and what they do is inappropriate, we still have to do it." Love them." Over the past few years, employees have been deeply influenced by their bosses and began to learn to forgive others. One day, the manager came to the office and said to Chuck, "We've been watching you for several years. The way you do things is different from our culture. I want to know more about the Jesus you follow."
When churches and missionary workers enter the world but are set apart and live out heavenly values, those around them can be affected by seeing the truth.
Service in the Holy Spirit
The importance of the Holy Spirit in missionary work was mentioned many times during the conference, and participants were reminded that service must be sensitive and obedient to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Pastor Yu Hongjie of the Silicon Valley Christian Gathering said that in order for service to have eternal value, two things cannot be ignored:
"First, when serving, we should not replace our relationship with God with ministry. All life and service must be true worship of God. Second, service is in the Holy Spirit and is an outflow of the life of Christ. .
Pastor Huang Chengpei and Mrs. Huang Yunying, who have been missionary in Africa for more than ten years, said: "When participating in missionary work, we must start with prayer. The focus is not on what to do, but on seeing God's actions, readjusting our vision, and participating in God's actions. Seeing the need for kingdom service among unreached people.”
They shared that Loveland Church in Los Angeles, California is a small church with only sixty or seventy people. After the Indonesian tsunami, church leaders discovered that the Amandi Church had given much more to Indonesia, so they prayed and sought help, and then sent a missionary team to visit Indonesian coffee communities. Because he is sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he has connected with missions and local churches to serve the coffee people in partnership. An overseas Chinese brother who was doing business in Indonesia started a business project that was not feasible from a business perspective, and finally started a small loan to help the coffee tribes do business, and served the underserved people through business missionary work.
Joshua Johnson, speaker of the English workshop "Let the Full Gospel Transform the Whole Community," shared his testimony of meeting Ahmed, a refugee in a Muslim country. At that time, Ahmed's newborn twin daughters died due to a power outage in the hospital. He was in mourning. Joshua gave him an Arabic Bible and did nothing except pray. When they met again after a long time, Ahmed clearly shared the gospel and told about Jesus' death on the cross. Joshua was surprised and asked, "Did anyone tell you about Jesus later?"
"No, it's all about this book."
A year later, Ahmed decided to be baptized, spread the gospel on social media, and later led 20 Muslim refugees to believe in Christ!
Cross-cultural workers are inspired to believe that it is not what humans can do, but finding the Son of Peace who has been prepared by the Holy Spirit and making him a multiplier. How much the work of the Holy Spirit is needed in the cross-cultural mission field!
Diversified and comprehensive service
There are also several workshops in this conference involving the full gospel and holistic service topics, allowing missionaries to think and learn more deeply.
Brother Y, a field worker, shared: "In poor countries, local people lack employment opportunities after they believe in the Lord. They will doubt the authenticity of their faith and even lose their faith. Providing employment opportunities for local people through business and sharing the love of Jesus Christ at work is a Chinese The church needs to understand and learn from the missionary model... When the frontline considers transforming to a business model due to local needs, the lack of understanding from the brothers and sisters in the rear is very frustrating. "
"The gospel is not only about the soul, the gospel of Jesus Christ is also the gospel of body, mind and spirit. Especially in third world countries, we cannot just preach the gospel without taking into account people's physical needs," Silicon Valley Life River Spiritual Food Pastor Liu Tong shared. He added: "Missionary work in Africa not only involves planting churches, but also setting up clinics and schools. When the gospel ministry and the mercy ministry go hand in hand, the gospel ministry has experienced a great breakthrough. ⋯⋯We promote Technology short-term missions, going to Africa to help mission agencies set up Wi-Fi, and help villages set up solar panels. When brothers and sisters use their professional expertise to go on missions, it is easy to mobilize the whole church to participate in missions.”
Pastor Hua Yun explained in the special topic "Serving UUPGs through holistic service" (UUPGs: unreached, unengaged people groups) what holistic service is: not just preaching the gospel, but caring about the souls, souls, and souls of the unreached people. to express the love of Jesus so that they can accept the gospel. He shared examples of short-term mission teams reaching out to Muslim young people studying at Islamic universities through teaching Chinese, and using business missionary work to reach coffee tribes.
Pastor Yang Ningya of Truth Church in Taipei, Taiwan pointed out the meaning of work in the "Great Commission and Workplace Mission" workshop: "The Hebrew words work and worship have the same root, that is, work is worship." He reminded and inspired Congregation: "Workplace missions should become the mainstream of missions in the 21st century. Church planting missions alone cannot fulfill the Great Commission."
Today, in many pioneering areas, it is necessary to go beyond the preaching of the gospel and use creative and diverse methods to carry out comprehensive missionary work so that God's will can have a positive impact on the economy, society and the environment.
Huang Chengpei and Huang Yunying emphasized that today is an era of teamwork, and missionary work for underserved people needs to be more effective through partnerships. "After Aimeundi Church entered the coffee community, it did not consider this to be my hilltop, the workshop I discovered. Instead, it actively formed partnerships with other organizations, missions, and local churches."
Huang Yunying's words inspired reflection: "Does a missionary do ministry that is icing on the cake, or does he do ministry that he doesn't know how to start and has no support?" Huang Chengpei shared that they helped establish a church when only two people accepted it. The mission committee enhances the local pastor’s mission vision and mission and sends out missionaries. "We must focus on God's will in our service, and be clearer about what God's entrustment is, rather than trying to please people. The goal of missionary service is to be unemployed, so that we can completely hand over the baton without having to participate."
Yu Hongjie also mentioned in the workshop that the most important thing about missionary service is not the establishment of a ministry, but a service centered on building up the body of Christ and focusing on the coordination among members.
▲When CMC was held in previous years, it also prepared programs for children and teenagers to actively cultivate the next generation of Christian messengers.
Raise up young people with missionary missions
Today, many young people have accepted the call of cross-cultural missionary work and gone overseas to work quietly in the 10/40 window area. The conference also included workshops and special topics on youth participation in missions.
Missionary Cai Songhui used his own experience to encourage young missionaries who are serving in foreign countries at the workshop "Youth Have a Mission and Campuses Have Good News". He is currently involved in European campus ministry, evangelizing not only Chinese students, but also Germans and refugees from various places. He saw that this was a cross-cultural missionary field prepared by God. Professor Zhang Wenliang encourages campus ministers to prioritize their relationship with the Lord, followed by life and service.
Satsuki, a missionary serving young people in a Muslim country, shared the dilemma at hand. Xiao Tian in the fellowship she served stopped attending meetings and cut off contact with the brothers and sisters because of his sexual orientation. Xiaoyue didn't know much about the LGBTQ community and didn't know how to speak the truth with love. She only knew that she shouldn't judge, but she didn't know how to express a biblical stance. She was also worried that her tolerance would make Xiaotian mistakenly think that she approved of homosexuality. Through Xiaotian, she learned about their difficulties and despair. Many people committed suicide due to social pressure. After being assaulted, they were ridiculed by the police when they reported the crime. They were killed by conservative Muslims... She wanted to help, but she didn't know where to start.
At the conference, Dr. Christopher Yuan shared a standard: "holy sex." The same applies whether single or married, regardless of sexual orientation. He also mentioned that a person has different identities/roles, and your most important role is that of a child of God. If others do not accept one of your roles, it does not mean that your life will collapse. You can learn not to focus solely on one role, but remember that you are a child of God, and this is your identity in eternity.
With this understanding, Xiaoyue is willing to study and discuss LGBTQ ministry and social care in Muslim culture with co-workers.
Cai Songhui said: "The Christian outlook on life and worldview...let others know God, live out the beauty of faith, let God give us the creativity, bless every young person, and be used by God to complete the tasks He has entrusted to us. mission."
Yes, I believe that the encouragement received from the 2020 Global Chinese Mission Conference will drive field workers and all Christian disciples to bring the full gospel to unreached peoples.
(Thanks to the Christian Messengers Association for providing information and pictures.)