This is an overall review of our participation in this year's CMC 2007. Transcripts and details of specific sessions will be posted separately. Audio files of all sessions have just been released by AFC: link here.
Introduction
Our family attended the Chinese Mission Convention right after Christmas, when our church had just finished reformulating the Church Vision Statement, and when I had decided to re-focus my personal and ministry visions. God richly blessed all who attended with tremendous messages from speakers and workshops, as well as the book resources and displays by missionary organizations. My sister accompanied us, and exclaimed that the conference benefited not just those interested in Chinese Missions, but all Christians in general.
The conference, coordinated by Ambassador for Christ, (an organization that ministers the gospel to campus Oversea Chinese intellectuals), was held in the Philadelphia area between Christmas and New Year (incidentally, the off-season costs are exceedingly low for both hotel and registration.) As a 1.5 generation Chinese American, I am able to benefit from both the Chinese and the English tracks of the CMC. My own ministry interest led me to spent most of my time in the English track, which featured the worship team from Living Faith Community Church (founded by Redeemers Church in Flushing.)
Before every plenary session, we were tremendously inspired by the personal testimonies of various missionaries on how they took their first steps into the mission field and how God has led them all along the way. What was encouraging is the fact that many of them are not Chinese, but are our Caucasian brothers in Christ who loved God and responded to His call.
Here I will summarize some of the highlights of the conference, with links to the MP3 recording of several messages that transformed my thinking and inspired my personal mission direction. In time I will transcribe these sessions as separate articles on this site. MP3 recordings mentioned in this article There are 6 MP3 recording of conference sessions that I mention in this article, all about 15M in size. You can simply right click on the links, and choose Save As, to download the file onto your computer for listening at your convenience. You can also go to the page that lists all 6 files that I bought right after the conference: http://www.smart-commuter.com/mp3/CMC2007/ Conference Highlights: 1. Introduction to the work of the first Protestant missionary to China, Robert Morrison, by Rev Caleb Huang, pastor of Rutgers Church. (Available as MP3 recording here, just right click and Save As.)
2. Sessions by Charles Lee
One of the main plenary sessions by Charles was a gentle message on Letting Go, posted as a separate article here. This was so amazing that I will be transcribing the entire talk in time. (MP3 recording here, just right click and Save As).
Charles' workshop on Missions in the Marketplace addressed the most critical need of 90% lay Christians, and was superbly delivered to an over-packed audience. He provided an extensive handout and a reference reading list containing inspirational and practical resources on all aspects of personal productivity in ministry. (MP3 recording here, just right click and Save As).
The central theme is that what we do in our everyday life, work, and our presence in the workplace is a testimony of our faith if our focus is on God rather than focusing on what is or is not missions. Our attitude toward what we're doing is what is important. An example was given about Brother Lawrence, a 17th century monk, who is remembered for his close relationship with God even though what he did was mundane tasks.
3. Workshops by Professor Leung InSing Professor Leung, a philosophy and religion professor, had experienced various spiritual beings and evil spirits dressed in light during his various spiritual trances during his teenage years. This prompted him to seek the ultimate God and finally found Christ. Having direct personal experiences with various religions, he is a distinct authority on comparative religion and philosophy.
His first workshop on the comparison of the major philosophies and world view showed how they all fit together as man's attempt to make sense of reality, and ultimately in search of meaning and God. (MP3 recording here, just right click and Save As.)
His second workshop on the background of Chinese superstitions provides a historic account and origins of idols and demi-gods found in Taoism, Buddhism, and general folk superstition, which illustrated that these concepts are plainly man-made idols, made in attempt to seek explanation of events in life.
I hope to provide detail transcripts, and even translate some of his works, in a later post. 4. Brother Yuan ZhiMing on Recent Chinese Christian history ZhiMing Yuan, one of the famous intellectuals who left China after the TianAnMen incident, came to faith in Christ in the US. Once the director of the renown series on Chinese history and heritage, now a tremendous literary voice in the Chinese Christian circle, Brother Yuan had just finished a trilogy of documentaries related to the history of Christianity and the persecuted Church of recent times in China.
He remarked on the tremendous growth of Christianity in China, as only God can revive, and how the ways of Christianity starts to capture the admiration of the unbelievers. He spoke of the trends of Christian movement, that as a latecomer nation to faith, the Chinese is strategically placed by God, in timing, location, and human efforts, to confront the impenetrable fences of Islam. He spoke of the pressing need of the Chinese Christians for trained Biblical leadership, that even if every Chinese Christian in America were to go back to China now as a pastor, there would not be enough leaders for the people in even a province. I will post a more detail translated transcript of his talk later. (MP3 recording here, just right click and Save As).
5. Michele Rickett, CEO, Sisters in Service Mrs. Rickett, a humble sister, gave the most engaging plenary session by telling us of her most ordinary background and how God uses her to do amazing things. She didn't wait for God to fix her broken life first, but as she learned to trust God and go where God walks, among the deprived and outcasts, God healed her wounds and let her brokenness be her strength in reaching out and helping many children and women in some of the hardest places of our troubled world. I will definitely transcribe her message in time. (MP3 recording here, just right click and Save As).
Summary
The general theme I sensed from the conference is that, with the center of Christianity no longer in the West, (whether you measure by geography, population, growth, influence, or God's movement), a new form of International Christianity is taking shape. While the US talks about multi-culture, countries in the East like China have been exposed and entrenched in multiple religions, so they naturally have tremendous and valuable insights to offer Western Christianity, in terms of how to carry out a sensitive and non-confrontational dialogue with people of other religions. In the US we tend to focus on our personal issues and brokenness, and while it is laudable to have a testimony of how Christ come and fix our mess, it still holds a degree of self-centered-ness. In contrast, responding to God's call even amidst our brokenness may allow us to meet God in unexpected ways. God is doing amazing things in the World Stage and we should focus on going to where God is, rather than waiting for Him to come to us.
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