What has the Executive Board experienced in 2013?

As Executive Board chairperson, I have the opportunity to write about my view of the church and how I see the life of the church in 2013.

I want to start by sharing about the Executive Board, which in 2013 was made up of six lay leaders and Senior Pastor Timothy Chan.  It was a year of learning and growing for us, as most of the lay leaders were still relatively new to the Board.  In working towards being one church, we encountered many challenges, and we learned from several mistakes along the way.  We prayed together, argued with one another, and struggled together.  We learned that taking a step in leadership means seeing more of our own limitations and shortcomings.  We learned that many times God has another way of bringing glory to Himself, and that He shines most in times of hardship and challenge.  So we pressed forward in desiring to love God by serving him sacrificially.  We sought not to represent each of our language congregations, but to shepherd, love, and serve the church as one.  We shared devotional time with each other.  We set aside time to pray together, praying for our pastors, for the church, and for each other.  We spent time reflecting on our own lives and discussing how to seek a healthier emotional and spiritual life as a leader.  We are learning how to be leaders and learning how to help lead the church.  This may not sound significant; however, we are learning that God works greatest by first working in our hearts.  Please continue to pray for us, that our hearts would continue seeking God first.

What Has the Church Accomplished in 2013?

For much of our time as a church over the last 20 years, we did ministry and lived church life as three different language groups.  Although we may have felt more comfortable staying in each of our groups, we battled more and more with each other as we competed for priorities, space in the building, and time slots for ministry.  We were like parents, brothers and sisters living in the same house, but living different lives, having different perspectives, and having many conflicts with one another.  Our situation is very similar to that of many of our own families where the parents may have immigrated to the US from another country, but still embrace the culture of their homeland……while the kids are growing up in the US and embracing the culture here.  We were not striving for the unity and the love that God teaches about in His Word.  Over the last few years, we have made a re-dedicated effort to do more as one church, and to look past our differences, to love and serve our God together.

This year, we did more things as one church together.  Our annual church camp had a theme and schedule closely planned and integrated across all three language groups, and everyone was free to attend any speaker and breakout session.  A service auction activity opened new avenues of connection and fellowship with others across language groups.  Our missions committees started to meet and work on some opportunities together.  A mission trip with participants from all three groups investigated opportunities to reach unreached people groups in China.

We had new people across the church get involved in the transportation ministry, an important ministry enabling many of our seniors to come to worship and fellowship with us.  The lunch ministry evolved into being supported by others in the church, alleviating the constant load that had been on the Mandarin congregation for many, many years.  The Gracious Words magazine was a Chinese only magazine but now had several articles written by English members. Perspective classes, hermeneutics classes, and the Art of Marriage conference were offered and promoted across the church and around the city.  There were many instances of people visiting fellowship/kinship groups of another language to teach, shepherd, and nurture others.  Our children’s ministry started an Easter outreach and a Christmas celebration that brought together families across the church.

There were many ongoing ministries that spanned across the church as well. We continued to have all-church prayer times throughout the year.  The Cantonese and Mandarin groups continued to partner on a yearly Gospel event, with some people from the English group helping to watch the kids.  Mexico Outreach and VBS continued to be important ministries opportunities for our youth across the church to learn to love and serve God together.

There were some other events that may have been less visible, but were important because they laid a deeper foundation of life across the church:

• Annual Lay Leadership Summit and Lay Leadership Enrichment

• Several Quiet Time (QT) and Discipleship Training (DT) groups

• Further work on Master Teaching Core (standardized teaching materials, developing credentials for teaching, etc)

• Start of benevolence fund committee, creating an emergency preparedness plan

2013 was also a year of great challenges for our church body.  Many people in our congregation went through various hurts and challenging situations in their lives, and many lost loved ones.  It was a challenging year in ministry for many of us.  Going through these events can be a roller-coaster ride of happy and sad emotions.  Many of us experienced fear, doubts, and a lack of faith.  Our short-comings in our walks become magnified in these times.  It was a year of testing our faith and of developing our character for many.  Often we forget that God’s ways are not our ways, but the pain we experience sets us up the joy that only comes from our Savior.

 

What to Expect in 2014?  

We  need to start from our heart……

We are still discovering our way forward as a church.  As the pastors come together and serve as models of a healthy walk with God, we pray that God will use this as another momentum of growth as a church.  Although we did many things together in 2013, we are still learning how to become one in many other areas.  We are working through some hurts that we caused each other in the past.  We are learning how to overcome the challenges of language.  We are working through cultural differences in how we see each other and how we see the church.   We are learning how to understand each other, how to appreciate and love each another, and how to serve alongside each another.  We are learning how to have a growing heart towards one another as we grow closer to God.

We are learning that a healthy church is more than just a good sermon on Sunday and having ministries that are well run.  We are learning to be a church that changes in heart, and not just in action.  We are seeing that a church grows not just because of what we do, but more because of who we are and who we are becoming.  More of us are spending time with God in quiet time and prayer.  More of us desire to model Christ-likeness in our lives.  We are looking for more models of what a healthy, growing walk with God looks like.

We need to challenge ourselves to grow more in our walks with God.  We must push ourselves to look outward to others, and to the lost around us (vs. looking at our own needs).  We must ask ourselves more often whether we are reproducers of God’s love to others (or if we are just consumers).  These questions force us to look deeper into our hearts.

As we look deeper into our hearts, we must also look further into how we see the men that God has called to teach and shepherd us.   We are still learning what the proper role of our pastors should be in this church.  Do we expect too much from them?  Are we just waiting for our pastors to tell us what to do? Or are we willing to partner alongside of them in making disciples and transforming the world for Christ together?

This is the state of the church as we begin 2014.                             

我們期待的教會生活是什麼?

作者：Andrew Oen                  翻譯：恩言編譯組

2013年 長執會經歷了什麼?

作為長執會主席，我有機會寫一下關於我對教會的觀點，和我如何看2013年的教會生活。  我想先分享有關長執會方面的事工。長執會在2013年是由6位平信徒領袖及主任牧師 (陳國添牧師) 所組成。對我們而言，這是學習和成長的一年，因為大多數的平信徒領袖在長執會裡仍然是比較新的成員。在邁向成為合一教會的過程中，我們遇到了很多挑戰，我們也從其中的錯誤中學習。我們一起禱告，彼此爭論，並一起努力。我們了解到，在領導層中邁進一步，意味著看到更多我們自己的局限和不足。我們知道，很多時候神用另一種方式來榮耀祂自己，而往往在困難和挑戰時，神最得榮耀。所以我們奮力往前行，渴望用奉獻的心來服事神、愛神。我們尋求的，不是各自代表自己的語言部門，而是共同牧養、愛和服事一個合一的教會。我們有彼此靈修分享的時間。我們也留出時間來一起禱告，為我們的牧師、教會和彼此代禱。我們花時間反省自己的生活，並討論作為一個領袖，應如何尋求一個更健康的情緒和靈命。我們正在學習如何成為領袖，並學習如何幫助帶領教會。這些聽起來可能不顯著，但我們正在學習，神要先在我們心中動工才會有大作為。請繼續為我們代禱，讓我們的心會持恆地先尋求神。

2013年 教會做了什麼?

作為一個教會，在過去20年裡的大部分時間，我們以3種不同的語言部門來進行事工和過教會生活。雖然我們可能會覺得留在各自的部門更自在，但我們以往經常為了能在事工上爭取到優先權、場地、和使用時段而互相競爭。我們就像父母、 兄弟和姐妹住在同一個屋子裡，卻過著不同的生活、有不同的觀點、並彼此有許多衝突。我們的情況非常類似于許多我們自己的家庭，在父母可能已經從其他國家移民到美國，卻仍然固守家鄉的文化 …… 雖然孩子們都在美國長大並擁抱這裡的文化。我們並沒有努力做到神在祂的話語中所教導的合一和愛。在過去幾年中，我們重新致力於成為合一的教會。願我們不再看彼此的分歧，而能同心愛主和事奉主。

這一年，我們以合一教會的方式一起做了更多的事工。我們在年度教會退修會的主題和日程上做了緊密的安排，以便將三種語言組結合在一起，每個人都可以自由參加任何講員的聚會和分組聚會。退修會中的服務拍賣活動打開了一個新途徑，可以跨越不同語言組，和其他人有聯繫和團契。我們三部門的差傳委員會開始一起開會，並計畫一些同工的機會。三部門的肢體並組成一個訪宣隊，去中國考察接觸未得之民的機會。

在教會，一些弟兄姊妹第一次跨部門參予交通事工， 這是一個重要的事工，可使許多年長者前來和我們敬拜和團契。午餐愛筵事工擴展到其他部門也一起支持，減輕了國語部許多年來持續的負擔。恩言雜誌本來是以中文為主，現在也有英語部成員的文章。宣教面面觀課程、釋經學課程、和婚姻的藝術特會，都提供並推動給整個教會和周圍城市。還有許多人參加不同語言的團契/小組，以教導、牧養和培育其他人。我們的兒童事工開始一個復活節外展活動，以及聖誕節慶祝活動，都將整個教會的家庭聚集在一起。

有許多正在進行的事工，也延伸到整個教會。我們在整年裡，持續有全教會禱告會。粵語部和國語部繼續在年度佈道會上配搭合作，一些英語部的肢體則提供幫忙照顧小孩。墨西哥短宣和暑期兒童聖經班，繼續成為提供給整個教會青少年的重要事工機會，以學習彼此相愛和事奉神。

另有一些其他活動可能較不顯著，但卻很重要，因為它們奠定整個教會生活更深的根基：

• 年度平信徒領袖峰會和平信徒領袖培訓

• 一些靈修 (QT) 和門徒訓練 (DT) 小組

• 主要教導核心的進一步工作 (標準化的教材，發展教學的資格等等)

• 成立慈善捐款委員會，建立應急準備計畫

2013年對我們教會的肢體而言，也是極具挑戰的一年。許多人在生活中經歷到各種傷害與挑戰，不少人失去摯愛。對許多人的事工而言，也是極具挑戰的一年。當經歷這些事情時，情緒彷彿坐雲霄飛車般時而高興、時而悲傷。許多人也感受過恐懼、懷疑和信心不足。在這些時候，我們在每天與神同行上更顯得不足。對許多人而言，這也是信心被考驗和品格被建造的一年。我們常常忘記，神的道路不是我們的道路；但是我們所經歷的傷痛，卻能使我們得著只有從救主而來的喜樂。

2014年 我們期待什麼?  我們需要從心出發. . . . . .

作為一個教會，我們仍在探索前進的方式。在教牧團組成並且以與神同行的健康模式來牧養教會的同時，我們祈求神用此作為教會增長的動力。雖然2013年我們在很多事工上一起同工，但我們仍然在學習如何在其他領域裡也能合一。我們正在處理過去彼此造成的一些傷害。我們正在學習如何克服語言上的挑戰。我們也在處理因文化上的差異，如何去看待彼此和看待教會。我們仍在學習如何彼此了解，如何彼此欣賞和相愛，如何彼此同工。當我們與神更親近的同時，我們也在學習如何用心對待彼此。

我們正在學習要成為一個健康的教會，不是只有一篇好的主日崇拜信息和運作良好的各樣事工而已。我們正在學習做為一個教會，我們要從心裡改變，而不是只有行動。我們看到一個教會的成長，不僅僅是因為我們做了什麼，更是因為我們是誰和我們成為什麼樣的人。更多人花時間與神靈修和祈禱。更多人在生活中渴慕學效基督的樣式。我們正在尋找更多健康、與神同行的教會模式。

我們必須挑戰自己，在與神同行中更成長。我們必須更努力關心教會以外的人，和周遭失喪的靈魂 (對比於:只顧自己的需要)。我們必須常常自我省察，我們是否有將神的愛傳給別人（或只是自己領受） 。這些問題有助於我們更深入地鑒察我們的心思。

當我們更深入地鑒察我們的心思時，我們也必須作更進一步的探討，究竟我們是如何看待神所呼召來教導和牧養我們的人。我們仍在學習什麼是我們的牧師在教會應有的職責。我們是否對他們期望過高？我們是否只是在等牧師們告訴我們該怎麼做？還是我們願意和他們一起在門徒訓練和為基督改變世界的事工上同工？

這是我們在2014年開始時教會的狀況。