Taiwan Church Leader Encourages Mission and Evangelism

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (June 22, 2004) - Noted Taiwanese Covenant pastor and leader Nathen Chang challenged a packed audience during Monday night's worship service to continue in their mission and evangelism efforts as his sermon ended the first day of the 119th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) on a rousing note.

The Monday evening service, hosted by First Covenant Church, included the commissioning of Covenant missionaries to various parts of the world. It also celebrated the hundreds of lives changed in faith through a "Bringing My World to Christ" evangelism initiative.

With assistance from translator and Covenant missionary David Dolan, Chang used portions of Matthew 9 and John 4 to preach a sermon entitled "The Great Door is Open." The pastor of Hsintien Covenant Church expressed hope that the Covenant mission to reach people in all countries for Christ will continue with the knowledge that with Jesus we will reap a harvest far greater than we could ever expect.

Chang noted the simple faith and bravery of Asian Christians that touched his heart and transformed his view of ministry. A story of the Jesus Buddha who healed a boy, the angels who restored the health of an old woman and the prisoner who wouldn't go away were illustrations from his own region that helped communicate his point.

Referring to his sermon texts, Chang noted that Jesus could see the future harvest of believers in the Samarians and the Jews, even though his disciples saw only the differences that would keep them from believing in Jesus' message of hope. He noted that many people perceive Taiwan as a difficult place to raise a Christian crop of believers. And yet he noted the congregations of 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 people at Christian churches in his country. The challenge is to find the fertile ground to grow the crop, a place where the seeds are ready to grow.

Twenty years ago, Chang's church was small and the young pastor sought the advice of an evangelist, who challenged Chang to find the most desperate folks to whom he could throw a spiritual life jacket. In his prison ministry, Hsintien Covenant has done just that, presenting Christ along with practical helps. Chang said that more than twice as many from his prison ministry came to know Christ as those from his church. He said that the church's hard work and the work of the Holy Spirit made it all possible.

"There is a harvest any time," said Chang in a rare burst of English language. "You only need to see with different eyes . . . you need to see it with spiritual eyes . . . YES, YES, YES, Allelulia!"

Curtis Peterson, executive minister of Covenant World Mission, introduced Chang - the senior pastor of the Hsintien Covenant since 1976 – and noted that his congregation of 1,500 has helped plant 17 other congregations while coordinating a fruitful prison ministry. Peterson also introduced the Covenant's outgoing project missionaries, Tim and Tammy Friesen, during the middle portion of the service. The Friesens are headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to pastor and counsel missionaries in that region, to teach at a local school and to serve with Covenant missionaries in that country.

Covenant World Mission staffer Lana Heinrich introduced some of the short-term missionaries being sent by the Covenant this year. Among them are Jerry and Nancy Reed, who are headed to Spain to serve near the church where their son, Roberto, is pastor. The Reeds had served in Ecuador and Mexico over the course of 22 years before heading back to Chicago in the mid-1980s. Jerry then served as a professor at North Park Theological Seminary while Nancy served Covenant World Mission most notably by helping develop the ministries in CIPE (the Confederation of Hispanic Churches) throughout Latin America.

The Reeds and the other project and short-term missionaries were recognized during a reception following the worship service. Stories about the Reeds and the Friesens (including a listing of short-term missionaries) will be found elsewhere in the online Covenant news coverage of this year's annual meeting.

Art Greco, director of prayer and evangelism for the Covenant's Department of Church Growth and Evangelism, discussed an evangelism initiative by the Covenant called "Bringing My World to Christ." A video showed some of those who were led to Christ throughout Covenant congregations. Roses were brought to the altar of the church to represent the number of people who gave their lives to Jesus during the past year. Lists of people who had been prayed for were also brought to the front of the church by conference superintendents.

Greco also interviewed Efrem Smith of Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis. Smith, a longtime youth pastor in the Twin Cities, has been a church planter for nearly two years in the northeast part of the city. His congregation of 400 meets in a local high school and has found ways to root themselves in the community, ministering to local schools by tutoring students and hosting a Hip Hop event there. Some of the teachers at the schools have brought their students to Sanctuary Covenant and those students have given their lives to Christ.

Sanctuary Covenant has also ministered to the community through its rousing worship style and its worship team energized the crowded church on Monday night during the opening 15 minutes of the service. More about Smith and his new urban congregation is posted on the Department of Christian Formation's newsletter, Impact, under the Covenant Buzz link. (Editor's note: for a complete list of missionaries, please see http://www.covchurch.org/cov/am/2004/coverage/live.html

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