By Rev. Simon Wong
Under the guidance of God, Rev. John Kao accepted a call from CNEC to serve as a missionary and plant new churches in Toronto. His pioneering work in January 1975 led to the establishment of Toronto Chinese Community Churches (TCCC). Rev. Kao has great passion for missions. He set up a missions offering in the first year. Four years later, the first Annual Missions Conference was held. The congregation was encouraged to be involved in global evangelization and gave to the missions fund. Young people joined short term missions. Some became missionaries; others dedicated their lives to God and became pastors of local churches, with missions as important and integral parts of their ministry.
As the number of Chinese Community Churches grows, so does the need to organize, resulting in the Association of Chinese Evangelical Ministries (ACEM). In 2011, twelve ACEM churches sent representatives to be part of the ACEM Missions Department. The main objectives are setting missions philosophy, objectives, strategies, targets, plans and budgets. The Missions Department also allocates funding distribution, promotes missions education, coordinates cooperation among churches, and supports missions projects and workers in different people groups and locations.
Trials and Setbacks
As a non-denominational organization, ACEM has no traditions of its own. It has to develop its ministries from scratch. Christians in our 12 churches come from different backgrounds, countries of origin and cultures. Even our pastors may come from other denominations with different traditions. In addition, different languages – English, Cantonese, Mandarin - often lead to very different perspectives. For example, each may have its own definition to the question “What is Mission?” In the past, it may refer to cross cultural evangelism in distant, untouched places, with the church supporting overseas missionaries and their work. Nowadays many different ethnic groups live in our communities and become our neighbours. What is local mission? Missionaries now would not need to go overseas in order to do cross cultural evangelism. Will ACEM support such a ministry? According to tradition, this does not meet the criteria of being a missionary. Financial support would be minimal, if any. It is even harder to fundraise for local coworkers who provide administrative support for overseas missionaries.
Occasionally a certain special need of a church may lower the priority of missions there. In recent years, many believers shift the emphasis to the needs of the society, and to the issue of social justice. Not only do they address these issues in their local communities, but also in missions fields to spread the gospel and care for the needy at the same time. However these are different points of view on a variety of fields. Holding to extremes will easily create friction and disharmony.
Traditional overseas missionaries serve cross culturally. They have to adapt to a new culture, language and living environment. When a country refuses the entry of missionaries, then sending missionaries as tentmakers would become an alternative. Furthermore, the issue of sending missionaries by a professional agency or non-professional ones is real. It is common practice for a church to send their missionaries through an established missions organization because of the existence of a mature structure for training, counseling, support and administration. Nowadays, many Chinese churches eagerly participate in missions. The need of establishing a Chinese Missions Organization is mentioned frequently. In what role should ACEM play? Though we have tried, the road ahead is difficult due to our inexperience and limited resources.
Within ACEM, there are English only, Mandarin only, and tri-lingual churches. Each has its unique characteristics but all must deal with the cultural and language differences between immigrant and local-born coworkers. Their diverse backgrounds may lead to different priorities in their ministries. If handled well, they will complement one another. If not, the result can be disastrous to all.