From the General Director
O
ur goal in mission is to evangelise all nations of the earth. Obviously, each mission organization, each church, and each of us as an individual cannot be involved in all aspects of the work for reaching that goal. Our specific part of the whole must be clearly defined and carefully planned before we go into the world to fulfill the Great Commission. In order to share the gospel message effectively, we must focus our effort on a specific people or people group within its larger context. Only then can we design and develop a strategic plan to engage in evangelism. We begin to develop our strategy with the task of narrowing down the
Issue 1 2010
link
particular peoples and people groups we aim to reach. Peoples and people groups are different. For example, we often speak of Mainland Chinese as the people who live in the People’s Republic of China. We tend to think of them as a Mandarin speaking people. But when we consider them at the people group level, we will start to notice the vast differences among the Mainland Chinese in terms of dialect, geography, and social distinction. Mainland Chinese as an ethnic people are actually made up of numerous people groups with extremely different social customs and attitudes. Whether we are ministering God’s Word directly or through media, we will be most effective when aiming at a specific, targeted audience. We know that Apostle Paul often adjusted his communication depending upon the people group he was speaking to. While he never compromised the content of the gospel, he did give up his own culture and customs so they would not become obstacles for proclaiming Christ. Likewise, when we reach out to the Mandarin speaking people who belong to different people groups, we need to adjust our communication methods and adopt different approaches in order to bring them to Christ. Henry Lupeople groups, there Among the different will be different periods of responsiveness to
the preaching of the gospel. Therefore, our strategy for evangelisation should also include an element of intentional concentration on those who are most receptive, although it is not meant to be done exclusively in the long run. We can easily identify this element in Paul's mission strategy. During his missionary journeys, again and again Paul went to find those men and women who were Greeks with pagan background, who were attracted by the good things of the Jewish religion and were worshiping the one true God in the synagogues. They were the people group most receptive to the gospel in Paul’s time. Today, it is just as important for us to recognize the people group most receptive to the gospel and plan our strategy accordingly. The mission of COCM seeks to evangelise the Chinese in Europe, and through them to evangelise other peoples and people groups in Europe. At this point in time, our strategic priority will be to target three specific people groups among the overseas Chinese in Europe: Mainland Chinese students and scholars; new Chinese immigrants coming to the UK and continental Europe; younger generation of local language speaking ethnic Chinese. We believe that in the near future the overseas Mainland Chinese will continue to be most receptive to the gospel; therefore we should concentrate our attention and resources on these people groups. And it is strategically important that we reach out to the special people group of local language speaking ethnic Chinese, for it is through them that we might be able to fully realize our vision of “Reaching the Chinese to Reach Europe”. Rev Henry Lu
INSIDE • Our Strategy Summary and Priority Specifics Rev Henry Lu • Partnership in the Gospel Rev Edward Wei • Breaking new grounds for the Gospel in Europe Rev Claudia Chan • History Makers, His Story Makers! Dr Wesley Lai • Catching up with our missionaries Shepherding in a Cross Cultural Context Wing Chun Tang