2013
ISSUE
4
《未得之地》
From the General Director
INSIDE
The vision of COCM is to see mature Chinese believers working together in Europe to Mature in Christ bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people. Over the years, our evangelistic efforts have ~Editorial Committee brought fruitful results as Chinese Christian churches and fellowship groups have come into existence in the UK and continental Europe. While the transient nature of the Chinese Making Disciples diaspora opens a wide door for us to reach many more people than in the past, it also presents a huge challenge to the ministry of equipping. Throughout Europe, most Chinese ~Faye Lee churches are still struggling to grow because very few mature Christians can stay and serve in one church for a long period of time, not to mention the perennial problem of lacking Disciple Making—Fellowship full time pastoral workers. There is an ever pressing need to provide effective training to with the Lord in Daily Life help believers to mature in Christ. ~Tim Li How do we change weak Christians into strong believers who are genuine in heart, independent in life, active in service, and passionate in sharing their faith with others? I Training the Next Generation think the answer can be found in the ways Jesus trained his first disciples. When Jesus ~Ian Ma called Andrew and other young men, he wasn’t asking them to join a group or a church, rather he was taking them on the journey of his ministry. He turned these ordinary people into fully equipped disciples by inviting them to “come and see”, COCM Finance challenging them to “follow me”, and making them “fishers of men”. ~James Lo “Come and see,” Jesus said. He showed the first disciples how he would live his earthly life in an intimate relationship with the Father. He showed them how he would act and react when he encountered people with different backgrounds and problems. He showed them how to overcome their own personal weakness, selfish desire and sin. Likewise, our first step in the training process is to invite people to come and see and get to know Jesus, just as the first disciples got to know Him. Believers need to learn the mind of Christ through the study of Scripture and respond to His teaching by the act of obedience. The most important lesson to learn is to commit their lives to be with Him. “Follow me,” Jesus called. He took his disciples along his ministry journey and trained them through practical experience. He prepared them ahead of time for outreach, sent them on short-term mission trips, and afterwards discussed what they had done in private, often one-on-one. Today, we use the same model to invite others to “follow me as I follow Christ” in various schemes of our training ministry. This can be thought of as mentoring, assigning a mature Christian to guide one or more believers through regular and intentional interactions to encourage growth and maturity in Christ. The mentor will help the believers to find God’s unique purpose and plan in their own lives, to develop spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, personal Biblical study, reflection and confession of sins, as well as to encourage them to grow and develop in other aspects of life. “I will make you fishers of men,” Jesus promised. After Jesus finished his earthly ministry, his disciples became missionaries to go out to new frontiers to preach the gospel, and they became disciple makers. Today, effective training ministry must also put emphasis on the preparation of a new generation of missionaries who will be makers of the next generation of disciples. Please pray for us as we labour in the ministry of disciple making, that we will continue to know Christ, to follow Him, and to allow Him to make us fishers of men.
Rev. Henry Lu
神恩澤僑胞 福音遍全歐
Reaching the Chinese to Reach Europe
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