2011
ISSUE
4
《未得之地》
From the General Director Over the past few years, we have seen fruitful results of evangelism from our outreach events and in areas where our workers labour to spread the gospel. At the same time, there has been a constant plea from our field missionaries as well as from others who partner with us in evangelism, that the COCM training ministry should offer some practical programmes to effectively follow up and equip the newly converted believers. One small group leader at our year-end gospel camp put it this way, “We are thankful that COCM helped us to give birth to many spiritual babies, but we cannot nurture them on our own. We can’t just give birth and not raise them. We need your help in equipping these new believers.” Indeed, our mission ministry cannot be effective if we separate evangelism from equipping. Our Lord’s earthly ministry provided a holistic training ministry model for us to imitate. In the account of Luke 6:12-20, Jesus began by praying, then called his disciples to him, then went down with them to the crowds who needed his touch. The authors of the book “A Passionate Life” describes Jesus’ ministry model as a three-sided series of relationships: Up – relationship with God; In – relationship with those we are close to; Out – relationship with those who are basically strangers to us, to whom we are to reach out. So when Jesus said to his disciples, “Come, follow me” (Mark 1:17) he was inviting them to walk with Him on His earthly journey. And on this journey they were building the three (Up, In, Out) relationships all at the same time. As followers of Jesus, we are called to live a three dimensional life: we receive from God; we share together what God has given; we give to others what we have. The goal of the COCM training ministry will be to help believers to develop their three dimensional life so they will mature in Christ. We accomplish it by creating opportunities for believers to learn as well as to put what they have learned into practice, so eventually they become trainers of others. We need training programmes to teach new and more mature believers to know God through the study of His Word and to build a personal relationship with Him. We need to help them to develop a Christian worldview and acquire an accurate understanding of God’s plan and purpose being accomplished through the body of Christ. We also need to train them to utilize their God given gifts to serve in the local Christian communities, as well as to give them the tools to reach out to non believers and share the message of the gospel effectively. This year, we have initiated the COCM Training team to plan and create various training opportunities which aim to lead newly converted Christians to develop the 3-dimensional relationship so they will be equipped to stand firm in the faith, to take root downward and bear fruit upward. There will be courses and workshops to gain knowledge and challenge the old way of thinking. There will be times when we will invite believers to help our ministry activities as well as times when we will send our workers to help the believers’ local ministry activities so they can learn by observing, helping and actually participating in ministry themselves with our support. Just like what Apostle Paul said, “So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.” (Colossians 1:28 NLT) Our goal to disciple and equip Chinese believers is to see them mature in Christ and work together throughout Europe to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Please join me to pray for our new model of training ministry.
INSIDE COCM Training Ministry ~Editorial Committee The challenges and opportunities of discipling – rooted and built up in Christ ~Dennis Yau How to Equip Believers by an Itinerant Missionary ~ Lawrence Sin Go with the flow ~Cho Wing Leung
Rev. Henry Lu
神恩澤僑胞 福音遍全歐
Reaching the Chinese to Reach Europe
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