URS: Evangelism as mission: the CCC story

曾叔叔说故事：以传福音为使命：辛城教会的故事

Our church (Cincinnati Chinese) began from a bible study fellowship, active in outreach and evangelism on the college campus. This was likely similar to stories of a number of Chinese churches, especially in Midwest smaller cities, during the 1960s and 1970s. There were few established Chinese churches in the Midwest, but Chinese bible study groups seemed to be in every college campus. Many of these bible study groups morphed into churches under so-called “lay leadership.” Counter-intuitively, they were often unattached to any particular denomination or larger church system, and were not necessarily “started,” by ministers or pastors. Later on, and especially in large cities with significant Asian populations, minister-started churches were increasingly prevalent. But for us at the time, it seemed truly like a Spirit-led “natural gestation,” leading, from bible study group, to the “natural birth” of our church. For a neonatologist specializing in newborn babies, it seemed pretty normal to me!

 

我们的教会（辛城教会）起源于在大学校园里接触社群和传福音的查经团契。这个故事可能和不少六十和七十年代建立的中文教会相似，特别是那些在中西部小城里的教会。那时候中西部正式的中文教会十分罕见，不过多数大学校园里好似都有中文查经团契。这些查经团契在会友（平信徒）领袖的带领下，很多都成长成为教会。很特别的是，这些教会通常都不属于任何支派或者较大的教会组织，它们也通常不是由传道士或者牧师所建立的。这种由牧师建立的教会在后来，特别是在有众多华人的大城市里，逐渐普遍起来。但是对当时的我们来说，我们的教会真的就像由圣灵孕育，从查经小组自然出生的教会。对一个新生儿科医生的我来说，这像是最自然不过的！

 

As a bible study fellowship, we mobilized nearly everyone in our group to visit the university campus, on a weekly basis. It was really a heady time, meeting many overseas students, and getting good responses, when at the same time our new church was being planned and started. We could sense that it was truly a “historic,” time, and we were all quite excited.

 

作为一个查经团契，我们每周都动员教会里几乎每一个成员到校园里。那是一个令人振奋的时期，我们接触到许多留学生，得到很好的回响，而同一时间我们也计划开始我们的教会。我们对这个“历史性”的时刻都无比兴奋。

 

Weekly, a team of 10 or so got together on campus on Saturday evening, and prayed for 30 minutes about the visits that night. Then we went out, two by two, just as advised in the Bible, to visit those we had contacted the prior Wednesday or Thursday. It was really quite simple, and very heart warming, to be able to go out in the name of Jesus, to meet all kinds of people, and to share the wonderful good news. When the outreach became more “established,” we tried to have about six sessions of training for newcomers before going out, but the most important training was still essentially on-the-job training.

 

每一周我们大概十个人在周六傍晚到校园里为当晚的访谈祷告三十分钟。之后我们就如圣经上所说的，两个人一组去探访那些我们在周三或周四联络过的学生们。我们很简单地带着热情奉耶稣之名去见各式各样的人，和他们分享福音。在我们的探访比较“有规模”之后，我们开始在新人出去探访之前为他们上六堂课，不过最重要的课还是在实际的探访工作上受训。

 

Every time, by going out, in twos or threes, we were able to encourage each other, and the less experienced member was also able to watch and learn from the more senior person. I remembered vividly Pastor John Whitcomb (author of “Genesis Flood”) telling us about his youthful enthusiasm during his first evangelism visit: he was eager and well-prepared to debate with anyone he met. His first visit included a man who clearly did not want to be visited, who slammed the door, after making a sweeping comment that he could not believe “Jonah and the whale.”

 

每一次我们以两人或三人一组的形式去探访，我们都互相鼓励，而经验较少的组员可以观察并从经验较多的组员身上学习。我很清楚的记得John Whitcomb牧师（“创世纪中的洪水”的作者）对我们谈到他带着初生之犊精神第一次去传福音。他准备充足并愿意和任何人辩论。他遇到了一个明显不愿意被他探访的人，那人在说了他完全不能相信“约拿和鲸鱼”之后就用力把门关上。

 

John was eager to take him on, but his senior colleague gently brushed John aside. He knocked on the door again, and politely asked the man for a few minutes in order to simply present the main essence of the Gospel, and then afterwards talk about Jonah. To John’s surprise, the man agreed, and not that many minutes later, to John’s further amazement, he gave his life to Jesus. When asked by John, “What about Jonah and the big fish (it wasn’t necessarily a whale)?” the man said, “Somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter anymore.” Instead of a fruitless debate about Jonah and the great fish, the man had come to Jesus, which was clearly the important reason for the visit!

 

John想正面与他辩论，不过比他有经验的队友阻止了他。他的队友又敲了门，并很有礼貌地问那个人是否有几分钟的时间让他陈述福音的精髓之后再来谈约拿。John很讶异那个人居然答应了。更让John难以置信的是在大约三十分钟后，那人居然把他的生命交给了耶稣。John问他“你不是对约拿和大鱼还有疑问吗.（那条大鱼并不一定是鲸鱼）吗？”那人回答说“那已经不重要了。”与其无谓地争论约拿和大鱼，那人来到了耶稣面前。这才是他们去探访最重要的原因。

 

John often liked to say, “you could win the battle (argue and win the Jonah story), but lose the war (the reason for the visit)!” Far better to do things politely, step-by-step, and no need to get into unnecessary confrontations! There’s even a bible verse that says just that, 1Peter 3:15 “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you for a reason regarding the hope that is in you, yet answer with gentleness and reverence.”

 

John常常喜欢说“你可能赢了一场战役（辩赢了约拿故事），但输了整个战争（探访的原因）！”我么不需要无谓的对质。有礼貌地，一步一步地做事才是更好的方法。圣经正有一个经节告诉我们这个道理。彼得前书三章十五节说“ 有 人 问 你 们 心 中 盼 望 的 缘 由 ， 就 要 常 作 准 备 ， 以 温 柔 、 敬 畏 的 心 回 答 各 人。”

 

Nowadays, there are many manuals teaching us how to go out and witness … but in those days, 50 years ago, many of these were still quite novel. Because of that, we had many opportunities to devise our own system. For example, nowadays, Evangelism Explosion is well-established, and copyrighted, but then it was just beginning, so we could modify some of the principles for our own cultural or cross-cultural needs, and I think “our system” seemed to be just as helpful. Especially as we combined it with other approaches, such as principles of the Four Spiritual Laws of Campus Crusade, and the so called, “Roman way.” We even later printed our practical booklet in Taiwan, in Chinese, simply called “Visitation.”

 

今天有许多书本教导我们如何走出去作见证。。。但是在五十年前这些都还很新的概念。因此我们有很多机会设计我们自己作见证的方式。例如三元福音在今天已是根深蒂固，受到版权保护的。不过在当时三元福音才刚起步，因此我们可以针对我们文化或多文化上的需要做一些调整。我觉得“我们的方式”也好像一样有效，特别是我们把它和其他的方法结合在一起时。例如校园传道会的四灵律和所谓的“罗马道路”方式。我们后来更在台湾印了我们自己的叫做“探访”的实用手册。

 

Anyway, the fun of training, calling the potential person to be visited ahead of time, praying before the start of the visit, and experiencing the actual visit, were part of the joy and excitement of seeing many come to know the message of love! We learned so much by doing, and clearly, if we didn’t go, we would not have learnt!

 

有趣的培训，事先联络那些我们想要探访的人，在探访前祷告，探访过程的经历，以及见到许多人认识了爱的信息都让我们满心喜乐振奋。我们在实践中学到太多，这些事我们若不亲自去做就不可能学到！

 

No evangelism means a dead church. No evangelism, means no life. During the evangelism visits we could feel the Lord being with us at all points. It was just amazing. These visits were part of making everyone at the church a natural evangelist. It was great to see that, step by step, indeed, evangelism truly became our developing church’s lifeblood. After all, it is the good news: “gospel” is literally “good news,” in Greek, and in a wonderful way, in Chinese it is also simply and clearly fu (good) yin (news), 福音, good news, the news of a new life, the news of eternal life. What better lifeblood message could we be bringing?

不传福音的教会是死的。没有福音就没有生命。每当我们出去传福音我们都能感觉到主全程与我们同在。那真的很奇妙。这些探访让教会里的每一个人自然而然的成了传道者。我们很欣慰的见到传福音成为我们成长中的教会的生命泉源。追根究底，福音就是好消息：福音（evangelium）在希腊文字面上的解释就是好消息。在中文,福（好）音（消息）比英文的gospel更清楚地表达了这一个有关新生命的消息，一个有关永生的消息。除此以外，我们还可能带给人更好的有关生命泉源的信息吗？

 

The key was to go, go, go. We encouraged everyone to move out of their comfort box, to be concerned for others, to help others, to be the fuyin. Sometimes people just tagged along, but that was just fine, because it was such a good learning experience. Learning on the job is truly one of the best ways to learn. It’s role modeling, it’s apprenticeship, it’s mentoring on the go.

 

关键是不断地前进。我们鼓励所有人走出自己舒适圈，关心他人，帮助他人，让自己成为福音。有时候一些人只是跟着我们去传福音，这并没有问题，因为这些都是很好的学习机会。在实践中学习是最好的学习方法。这是以身作则，学徒培训，行为指导教学。

 

We would often debrief briefly at the end of the visit, either in the car, in twos or threes, or at some central meeting point for the evening’s team, when we could highlight the evening’s visits, depending on how late it was. That was always a great time to recap what happened, and to learn from each experience. It seemed we were experiencing a weekly spiritual high, and truly what a meaningful high!

 

若时间允许，探访结束后我们通常会聚在一起，或在车里，或在一个聚集点，简短讨论当晚探访的重点。回顾所发生的事总是让我们彼此学到很多东西。我们每周都好像经历着属灵的高点，一个真正有意义的高点！

 

I can remember many names of wonderful “visitation workers,” among them, Ivy, Gan, Chip, Meichi, John, Ken, Jiayang, David, Daniel, James, Mary, and leaders Shipei and Elaine, faithful people who continued to serve in many different cities all over the world. Some have indicated that these visitations were what started them on their lifelong journey of personal testimonies, everywhere, kind of like the effect of training programs that we later instituted for overseas short-term missions. Both are similarly great preparations for all of life!

 

我仍记得许多有恩赐的“探访同工”们，像是Ivy, Gan, Chip, Meichi, John, Ken, Jiayang, David, Daniel, James, Mary, 和教会的领导Shipei 和 Elaine。这些忠心的同工们之后去到许多国家城市继续服事。其中一些人指出那些早期的探访经历，接下来生命里在世界各地的个人见证有着启蒙作用。这跟我们后来为海外短宣所设立的训练课程有着异曲同工的效果。这些都很有效的为我们的人生装备。

 

There are many ways of outreach evangelism, and each person learns how to do it with their own creativity, given the different circumstances and personalities involved. One of the more interesting approaches, and a very touching one, was the later outreach to restaurant related people. Chinese restaurant workers are always so busy, and they usually don’t finish their daily work till 10 pm, which is totally different from the lives of many other people.

 

对外传福音有很多种方法。我们通过学习和想象力来找出这些因人而异也因地而异的方法。

我们后来接触餐饮业工作人员向他们传福音就是其中一个比较特别也触动人心的方法。中餐馆工作人员四季忙碌，每日工作至晚上十点。他们有着跟大多数人完全不一样的日常生活。

 

So, David, our pastor, took the creative step of going to the restaurants after 10 PM, starting Bible study groups there and then, or giving evangelism talks, and generally making friends with a neglected population. Soon, many people joined him in making these outreach efforts, and at one time there were like five different restaurant related Bible study groups all over the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky region. Encouragingly, the children of the restaurant workers are now growing up in Sunday school, and have truly become the exciting next generation to serve the Lord. A wonderful testimony indeed.

 

因此，我们的牧师吴继扬采取了有创意的第一步，开始了十点以后在餐馆里的查经小组，在那里传讲福音并和这些被忽略的人们建立友谊。不久，许多人加入了这个事工。有一段时间我们在辛辛那提和北肯塔基一带有五个不同的餐馆查经小组。令人振奋的是这些餐馆工作人员的子女现在我们的儿童主日学里成长，真真实实的成为服事主的下一代。这是一个很美妙的见证。

 

One thing always very touching about Chinese churches actively engaged in evangelism outreach, is that there are many immersion baptisms. Often an Easter baptism service, and a fall baptism service. At times it seemed there were like 50 baptisms a year in our church, which steadily grew to 500, even as the turnover was great from the heavy student population who moved on after school, and the common move of families to bigger coastal cities.

 

对于主动外展传福音华人教会来说，看到许多人接受浸礼总是让人觉得无比感动。我们通常有一个复活节浸礼和一个秋季浸礼。有一段时间，我们教会一年里大概有五十个人接受浸礼。虽然我们教会人口流动频繁因为很多学生毕业后离开辛城也有家庭举家搬到东西岸较大的城市，教会人数仍逐渐增加到了五百多人。

 

Without any doubt, a key factor in all of this is that non-Christians have to see Christians in real life, and not just inside a church building. Especially for overseas students and scholars. We can be very practical and helpful to them in many ways, helping them go through difficulties in adjusting to the new culture, sorting out living arrangements, getting driver licenses, solving banking issues, and even language learning. By inviting them to dinner, just meeting and chatting with them, we can find many opportunities to love them as Jesus would love them. Showing them the love of Jesus is unquestionably ‘louder” than just talking about it! Just go for it!

 

无可置疑的，关键是让非基督徒在教会以外的日常生活里接触到基督徒，特别是对于海外学生或学者来说。我们可以给他们很多种实质上的帮助，例如帮助他们适应在地文化，解答日常起居的问题，考取驾照，银行开户，或者学习语言。通过邀请他们一起吃晚饭或者见面聊天，我们可以找到很多机会关怀他们传达耶稣的爱。让他们从我们的行动中看到耶稣的爱比仅仅在口头上说耶稣的爱更有力。去做就对了！

 

And welcome them at some point to church at great times like Welcome New Students Party, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and Easter. As a church, we actually began to use all five of these occasions creatively, to have dinners and evangelistic talks, often including a quality music program, skits, or testimonies to make the evening interesting and lively. People need to see the whole church together, worshiping together, and experiencing a corporate joy that they may not find elsewhere.

 

不要忘记在特别节庆时，例如新生欢迎会，感恩节，圣诞节，春节，和复活节邀请他们来教会。我们的教会就在这五个节庆里有创意地预备晚饭，福音讲道，音乐节目，短剧，或者是见证让晚会丰富生动。人们需要看见整个教会如同一个肢体在一起崇拜并感觉到别处没有的喜乐。

 

There are lots of feelings of emptiness all over the world, a sense of meaninglessness, which the message of love can overcome. And in our context, it doesn’t hurt that our Chinese friends love to congregate where there is a crowd that is excited and exciting, where there is great renau (the not translatable Chinese word for festivity, noise and lots of people)! Church renau. All this is especially important in the context of always being salt and light, everywhere, at all times. See URS “salt and light” in reggietales.org.

 

爱的信息可以战胜这个世界的空洞和空虚。我们华人朋友们在有有趣或者值得庆祝的事情时喜欢招朋引友在一起聚会图个热闹。因此，我们随时随地都能在人群里作盐作光就更是重要了。 详情请看曾叔叔说故事reggietales.org 之“盐与光”

 

Let me conclude with a little story. I was driving around the campus of the University, and noticed a distraught young woman, obviously from overseas, walking on the streets looking confused and sad. She recounted often, years later that the phrase, “How can I help you,” was such a wonderful relief to her, and pretty soon, we were having a light meal, and helping her find an apartment. Of course, she came to church after that, and the rest is history. Nowadays she is very active in ministry and helping many young people herself.

 

我用一个小故事来做结尾。有一天我在辛城大学校园里开车时注意到一位明显是来自海外的年轻女士看起来十分焦虑，困惑，及难过地在路上走着。她多年以后常常对人说当时的一句 “有什么需要帮忙的吗？”让她如释重担。不久后我和她一起吃了简餐并帮助她找到一间公寓居住。后来她很自然地也就来到我们的教会了。今天她活跃于教会宣道事工也亲自帮助许多年轻的朋友们。

 

She loves to tell this story of how she became a believer, and yet it is a story that could happen every day, if we remember to ask the simple question, “How can I help you?” Indeed, do that and you will be amazed how many doors will be opened, and how many lives touched!

 

她喜欢和别人分享她信主的经历。只要我们记得问简单的一句“有什么需要帮忙的吗？”，她的经历每天都可能发生在我们身上。你只要去做，你会很惊奇的发现神将打开许多的门，很多生命将因你而改变！

 

I think all this reflects that evangelism truly is the blood of the church, and the clear realization that there are so many evangelism opportunities staring us in the face. Especially if we put our heads together, to think and plan creatively, as we pray for guidance for the right approaches. We should never waste these great opportunities! Go for it!

 

我想这些事都显明了传福音真的是教会的血脉而且我们每天都会遇到许多传福音的机会。我们应该集思广益，在思路上和计划上创新，并且为合适的福音传播方式祷告求神引领。我们绝对不该枉费这些美好的机会！让我们一起去做！