An overseas Christian organization leader shared his views about the roles seminaries, churches, and mission agencies play in the Great Commission, and elaborated on the concept of evangelization which requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.
The 2022 Global Chinese Mission Conference was held online from Jul. 25 to Jul. 31 on the topic of “Global Mission Opportunities for Chinese Churches in midst of the Worldly Crisis.” Seven speakers were invited and seminars on various topics were conducted during the conference.
On the sixth night of the conference, Rev. Dr. Patrick Ho-Lau Fung, general director of Overseas Mission Fellowship (formerly China Inland Mission) International, spoke about the different roles that seminaries, churches, and mission agencies play in the Great Commission. Both he and his wife, Jennie, previously served as medical missionaries in the Muslim areas of South Asia.
Dr. Fung said, “Seminaries play an essential role in the Great Commission because they have inevitable influences on future missionaries, church leaders, and even some mission agencies. Therefore, seminaries must teach the concept of the holistic gospel and the importance of mission works. As John Stott said in the First Lausanne Congress in 1974, ‘Evangelization requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world,’ so must seminaries include in the curriculum the teaching of the holistic gospel.”
Dr. Fung continued with the sharing from a worker at OMF, that the holistic gospel must be preached to all populations and the bringing of the good news will take many forms, “The sick people need healing, hungry people need food, demon-possessed need deliverance, rich people with emptiness in heart need peace and fulfillment, illiterates need understanding. We can declare the holistic gospel of Jesus Christ by our saying, doing, and being, by our word, deed, and character.”
Dr. Fung talked about the three dimensions of the concept of mission: church, society, and the world of creation. The most important part of the mission is to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Dr. Fung elaborated further on ‘Jesus Christ is the Lord’ to explain the three dimensions of the mission.
"First, Jesus Christ is the Lord and head of the church, and therefore it is only natural that we must preach the gospel, build churches, and make disciples. Second, Jesus is the Lord across all cultures and societies. Jesus is righteous and merciful, and we should participate in the matters of righteousness and mercy in society. Third, Jesus is the Lord of all creation. We should care for this world He created, not merely political issues, but also the matters of climate and environmental change, and as such Christians should participate and pay close attention."
He emphasized the fact that mission works must be beneficial in bringing actual impact to society. Proclamation of the gospel will have social consequences, and social involvement and act of service will have evangelistic consequences as one bears witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. These two actions can be built upon each other.
“If we ignore the world, we betray the Word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the Word of God, we have nothing to bring to the world,” quoted from the Cape Town Commitment by Dr. Fung, “God sends us into the world to care for the needs of the world and proclaim His words.”
“Therefore, seminaries have the responsibility to teach the concept of mission from the Bible and Theology classes, and to advocate the expansion of the holistic gospel.”
“We are all clear on the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations,” said Dr. Fung, “However, the prerequisite of the Great Commission is to live a sanctified life of calling. Before you mobilize members for the mission, you should first get them to live for Lord’s calling and let God reign over their lives.”
“Jesus Christ is the Lord of all God’s people who are workers in different fields. One may ask ‘who are God’s workers?’ They are church planters, Bible teachers, itinerant workers, mercy ministries, entrepreneurs, counselors, etc., All the above works can be called working for God, and therefore, there is surely an area one can participate in being God’s worker,” explained Dr. Fung.
Based on this understanding, it’s even clearer now as we look at the slogan that “the whole churches bring the whole gospel to the entire world.” It’s the whole church, not just a few missionaries as we saw conventionally. The traditional way of mission work is like an elite mission where only a few missionaries are involved and the rest 99% are economic and prayer support. “Can we flip this around and ask the majority of people to involve in the mission? It doesn’t have to be cross-cultural or cross-boundaries missions, it can also be just local missions,” suggested Dr. Fung.
“I appeal for mobilizing the whole church to participate in declaring the gospel. Mission works are not limited to certain fields. You can be the frontline factory worker or prayer support team, you can make donations, you can encourage and comfort, and you can serve short-term or long-term, all are welcome, and all can serve in gospel proclamation. Through serving and participating, one can have his or her own mission story,” he commented.
“You must know this, that mission work doesn’t have to be great and mighty, you can start with the little work in life, because as Jesus said, ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me,’ therefore, every believer can experience the blessings and grace of preaching the gospel,” added Dr. Fung.
Dr. Fung moved on to share a testimony of a medical doctor. The doctor said, “I can’t use words to proclaim, but I can use my profession, my life, and God’s love to witness His love and grace to people. We can’t attract people with mere talks but we can attract them with the life testimonies of our faith.”
“I was building toilets and digging wells, these were way beyond my professional training as a doctor of internal medicine. I clearly remembered the first time digging the well, we had dug for days but not even a drop of water appeared. All of us were frustrated and wanted to quit. On the fourth day, despite knowing that it was not appropriate to pray in public, I invited all who were around to pray with me. To the people’s surprise, we found underground water later in the afternoon of the same day! They all said, ‘Your prayer worked! Let’s do it again!’”
“Therefore,” Dr. Fung said, “any Christian can influence people around them and plant the seeds of the gospel with their words and deeds in life.”
He urged mission agencies to focus more on the strategies of taking the whole gospel to the whole world.
There are three ways to look for opportunities. First, focus on the unreached people. Dr. Fung suggested that our perceptions of unreached people need to be changed. The unreached people are not just people of different languages and ethnicities, they are also the people easily ignored by all. “The focus should be shifted, we used to go to suburbs with no water and electricity to preach the gospel. Now in the 21st century, more people are living in urban areas, so the focus of the mission should be shifted from suburbs and villages to metropolitan cities,” explained Dr. Fung.
Second, pay attention to the unreached land. Dr. Fung provided many statistics, pointing out the fact that European countries, who had sent out missionaries in large amounts in history, need to be reached with the gospel the most. “Since 2010, as data shows, missionaries sent from Latin America, Asia, and Africa are increasing, and that in 50 to 100 years, missionaries will mainly be sent out by countries in these continents,” commented Dr. Fung.
Third, focus on the fact that this is a “mobile generation”. The transient population brings opportunities for preaching the gospel. “God has opened a door to preach to the transient population. In the past, missionaries from western countries traveled to a land far away. Now, mission work can be done from anywhere to everywhere and from all nations to all people, given the characteristics of this mobile and transient generation,” said Dr. Fung.
Near the end of the night, the speaker talked about the changes brought by the coronavirus pandemic. “After the pandemic, churches should focus on utilizing the Internet, and at the same time focus on preaching a holistic gospel to fulfill the needs of a holistic person, his body, mind, and soul. The importance of online teaching and counseling should not be overlooked, churches need to develop and strengthen the counseling service and online gospel preaching, as well as making disciples of young people to take on the whole gospel to the whole world,” urged Dr. Fung in closing.
- Translated by June Chao
2022年7月25-31日晚，2022年第二届全球华人宣教大会在网络举行，大会主题为“华人教会在世界危机中之普宣契机”，会议邀请了7位不同的讲员，并在会议期间提供各项专题讲座。
7月30日是第六晚，讲员冯浩鎏医生以“动员基督教机构、教会与神学院在危机之普宣契机”为主题进行分享。 冯浩鎏医生是海外基督使团（前身是内地会）国际总主任，他与他的太太珍妮曾在南亚回教地区参与医疗宣教。
冯医师在讲座中分享了神学院，教会，宣教机构在宣教使命中分别扮演不同的角色。
以下是冯医师分享的主要内容：
一、 神学院
“神学院很重要，因为神学院影响未来的宣教士、未来的教会领袖甚至影响未来的宣教机构。因此神学院一定要教导宣教观念。”
指出这一点后，冯医生继续表示神学院要教导全备的福音。教导全备的福音非常重要，1974年第一次洛桑福音会议上斯托得牧师讲了一句话，“全教会要把全备的福音传到全世界” 。
一位内地会的同工也在分享中提到全备的福音要面向所有人：“福音给所有的人，有病的需要医治，饥饿的需要食物，被鬼附的需要被释放，富裕但心灵虚空的需要平安满足，文盲的需要理解……但是我们通过我们言行、服事，致力于传扬耶稣基督全备的福音。”
冯医生讲到宣教的观念有三个向度：教会、社会、受造世界。而宣教最重要的是传耶稣基督是主，冯医生带我们从耶稣基督是主这个角度来诠释这三个向度：
首先，耶稣基督是教会的主。我们传福音、建立教会、建立门徒，是理所当然的。因为耶稣是教会的元首。
第二，耶稣是所有文化、所有社群的主。主是公义，怜悯的主，所以公义、怜悯的事情，我们需要去参与。
第三，耶稣是创造的主。所以关爱受造的世界，不仅仅是政治的议题。气候、环境的变化等等，基督徒也需要参与、关注。
他强调宣教要进入社会，要对社会有实际地帮助和影响。宣讲福音一定会带来社会的改变，但是进入人群积极地服事也必定带来福音的机会，两者互相影响。
他接着说：“若我们忽略了世界，就是对上帝的话语不忠。若我们忽略了上帝的话语，就没有任何的信息给这个世界。上帝差派我们进入世界，让我们关心世界的需要，并且传扬上帝的道。”
“因此，神学院有责任从圣经、神学上教导宣教的观念，以此推动全备的福音的扩张。”冯医生总结说。
二、教会
教会有责任动员全教会参与上帝的宣教使命。
冯医生说大家对于宣教使命是很清楚的，很容易想到你们要使万民做我的门徒。但他特别提出，大使命的前提是过圣召的人生，所以当动员的时候，不只是要动员去哪里，而是先要动员大家把生命的主权交给主。
冯医生表示，基督也应该是所有的工人的主。什么是所有的工人？所有的工人包括：传统的开荒布道，植堂培训；传递真理、生命教导；巡回、短宣；全人服事（医疗，扶贫）；商贸，企业；也包括背后支援辅导（宣教士子女的危机辅导）等。以上所有的工作都可以称为做主的工，所以人人都可以有参与的领域。”
在此基础上，再来理解 “全教会把全备的福音传到全世界”这句话就更清晰了。
是全教会，不是传统的少数宣教士。冯医生指出传统的宣教模式是极少数人（精英）宣教，然后经济支持、祷告支持占99%。 “我们能不能反过来？所有工人（99%）参与宣教。宣教也不一定是跨地区，跨文化，也可以本地宣教。”冯医生提出设想。
“总之，要动员全教会参与宣教。无论参与哪方面：前线工人、代祷、奉献、动员者、鼓励者都可以，短期事奉、长期参与都欢迎。通过参与，信徒可以体验到：让别人的故事、圣经的故事、宣教的故事成为‘我’的故事。”
他继续补充说：“还要知道的一点是，宣教工作不一定是为上帝做伟大的事，可以从最小的事情开始参与，因为做在最小弟兄的身上，就是做在我身上。所以，即便是普通的信徒也可以体验宣教的恩典。”
冯医生提到一位医生的见证，这位医生说：“我不能用口宣讲，但可以用专业、生命、神的爱来见证他的爱和恩典。这是不一样的学习，我们不能用漂亮的话来吸引人，而是要以生命来演绎我们的信仰。”
“身为内科医生，我们盖厕所，挖水井……，这些工作远超过我专业训练的范围。我还清楚记得第一次挖水井的的情况，我们连续挖了，却一滴水也没有；我们沮丧极了，只想要放弃。到第四天，我实在按耐不住，虽然知道这里公开祷告不合宜。我还是邀请了在场的人和我一起祷告；结果，当天下午就找到了地下水！当地朋友都惊讶万分，说：老师，你的祷告好灵验呀，我们再来一遍。”
因此，冯医生认为，任何一个基督徒都可以通过自己的言行来影响身边的人，将福音的种子种下去。
三、宣教机构
宣教机构需要花更多精力思考策略方面，怎样将全备的福音传到全世界。关于策略也可以从四个方面寻找契机。
一， 关于未得之民，冯医生认为我们的认知要有所改变。未得之民的宣教工作，不仅是不同语言，不同种族的人，也需要关注容易被忽略的群体”。
“我们需要关注的群体正在发生变化，以前传道往往是去乡下、没有水没有电的地方，而现在越来越多的人住在大城市。”因此冯医生提出21世纪的重点需要从农村转移到大城市。
第二，需要关注未得之地。冯医师给我们列出很多数据，特别谈到从前派出大量宣教士的欧美国家信仰正在下滑，当下反而需要被宣教。“数据显示，2010之后，拉丁美洲，亚洲，非洲宣教士越来越多，因此未来50-100年内，这几个地区的宣教士是主力。”冯医生也表示上帝在不同时候用不同地区的教会。
第三，这是一个“移动时代”。移动人口的增多，也为宣教带来契机。“流动人口的宣教，是上帝打开的一个门。”冯医生说，“过去宣教从西方国家到远方。现在是移动时代，普世宣教可以从各方（万邦）到各族（万族）。”
最后，他谈到后疫情时代带来的变化，冯医师就此谈到，“疫情之后，教会重视使用网络。同时疫情后我们更需要传递整全的福音——身、心、灵全人的需要。线上辅导的工作越来越重要，需要建立及增强辅导的服事，建立更多线上福音工作，建立年轻一代承担全人福音的使命等。”
冯浩鎏医生谈神学院、教会和差会如何在普宣中扮演不同角色
An overseas Christian organization leader shared his views about the roles seminaries, churches, and mission agencies play in the Great Commission, and elaborated on the concept of evangelization which requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.
The 2022 Global Chinese Mission Conference was held online from Jul. 25 to Jul. 31 on the topic of “Global Mission Opportunities for Chinese Churches in midst of the Worldly Crisis.” Seven speakers were invited and seminars on various topics were conducted during the conference.
On the sixth night of the conference, Rev. Dr. Patrick Ho-Lau Fung, general director of Overseas Mission Fellowship (formerly China Inland Mission) International, spoke about the different roles that seminaries, churches, and mission agencies play in the Great Commission. Both he and his wife, Jennie, previously served as medical missionaries in the Muslim areas of South Asia.
Dr. Fung said, “Seminaries play an essential role in the Great Commission because they have inevitable influences on future missionaries, church leaders, and even some mission agencies. Therefore, seminaries must teach the concept of the holistic gospel and the importance of mission works. As John Stott said in the First Lausanne Congress in 1974, ‘Evangelization requires the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world,’ so must seminaries include in the curriculum the teaching of the holistic gospel.”
Dr. Fung continued with the sharing from a worker at OMF, that the holistic gospel must be preached to all populations and the bringing of the good news will take many forms, “The sick people need healing, hungry people need food, demon-possessed need deliverance, rich people with emptiness in heart need peace and fulfillment, illiterates need understanding. We can declare the holistic gospel of Jesus Christ by our saying, doing, and being, by our word, deed, and character.”
Dr. Fung talked about the three dimensions of the concept of mission: church, society, and the world of creation. The most important part of the mission is to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Dr. Fung elaborated further on ‘Jesus Christ is the Lord’ to explain the three dimensions of the mission.
"First, Jesus Christ is the Lord and head of the church, and therefore it is only natural that we must preach the gospel, build churches, and make disciples. Second, Jesus is the Lord across all cultures and societies. Jesus is righteous and merciful, and we should participate in the matters of righteousness and mercy in society. Third, Jesus is the Lord of all creation. We should care for this world He created, not merely political issues, but also the matters of climate and environmental change, and as such Christians should participate and pay close attention."
He emphasized the fact that mission works must be beneficial in bringing actual impact to society. Proclamation of the gospel will have social consequences, and social involvement and act of service will have evangelistic consequences as one bears witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. These two actions can be built upon each other.
“If we ignore the world, we betray the Word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the Word of God, we have nothing to bring to the world,” quoted from the Cape Town Commitment by Dr. Fung, “God sends us into the world to care for the needs of the world and proclaim His words.”
“Therefore, seminaries have the responsibility to teach the concept of mission from the Bible and Theology classes, and to advocate the expansion of the holistic gospel.”
“We are all clear on the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations,” said Dr. Fung, “However, the prerequisite of the Great Commission is to live a sanctified life of calling. Before you mobilize members for the mission, you should first get them to live for Lord’s calling and let God reign over their lives.”
“Jesus Christ is the Lord of all God’s people who are workers in different fields. One may ask ‘who are God’s workers?’ They are church planters, Bible teachers, itinerant workers, mercy ministries, entrepreneurs, counselors, etc., All the above works can be called working for God, and therefore, there is surely an area one can participate in being God’s worker,” explained Dr. Fung.
Based on this understanding, it’s even clearer now as we look at the slogan that “the whole churches bring the whole gospel to the entire world.” It’s the whole church, not just a few missionaries as we saw conventionally. The traditional way of mission work is like an elite mission where only a few missionaries are involved and the rest 99% are economic and prayer support. “Can we flip this around and ask the majority of people to involve in the mission? It doesn’t have to be cross-cultural or cross-boundaries missions, it can also be just local missions,” suggested Dr. Fung.
“I appeal for mobilizing the whole church to participate in declaring the gospel. Mission works are not limited to certain fields. You can be the frontline factory worker or prayer support team, you can make donations, you can encourage and comfort, and you can serve short-term or long-term, all are welcome, and all can serve in gospel proclamation. Through serving and participating, one can have his or her own mission story,” he commented.
“You must know this, that mission work doesn’t have to be great and mighty, you can start with the little work in life, because as Jesus said, ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me,’ therefore, every believer can experience the blessings and grace of preaching the gospel,” added Dr. Fung.
Dr. Fung moved on to share a testimony of a medical doctor. The doctor said, “I can’t use words to proclaim, but I can use my profession, my life, and God’s love to witness His love and grace to people. We can’t attract people with mere talks but we can attract them with the life testimonies of our faith.”
“I was building toilets and digging wells, these were way beyond my professional training as a doctor of internal medicine. I clearly remembered the first time digging the well, we had dug for days but not even a drop of water appeared. All of us were frustrated and wanted to quit. On the fourth day, despite knowing that it was not appropriate to pray in public, I invited all who were around to pray with me. To the people’s surprise, we found underground water later in the afternoon of the same day! They all said, ‘Your prayer worked! Let’s do it again!’”
“Therefore,” Dr. Fung said, “any Christian can influence people around them and plant the seeds of the gospel with their words and deeds in life.”
He urged mission agencies to focus more on the strategies of taking the whole gospel to the whole world.
There are three ways to look for opportunities. First, focus on the unreached people. Dr. Fung suggested that our perceptions of unreached people need to be changed. The unreached people are not just people of different languages and ethnicities, they are also the people easily ignored by all. “The focus should be shifted, we used to go to suburbs with no water and electricity to preach the gospel. Now in the 21st century, more people are living in urban areas, so the focus of the mission should be shifted from suburbs and villages to metropolitan cities,” explained Dr. Fung.
Second, pay attention to the unreached land. Dr. Fung provided many statistics, pointing out the fact that European countries, who had sent out missionaries in large amounts in history, need to be reached with the gospel the most. “Since 2010, as data shows, missionaries sent from Latin America, Asia, and Africa are increasing, and that in 50 to 100 years, missionaries will mainly be sent out by countries in these continents,” commented Dr. Fung.
Third, focus on the fact that this is a “mobile generation”. The transient population brings opportunities for preaching the gospel. “God has opened a door to preach to the transient population. In the past, missionaries from western countries traveled to a land far away. Now, mission work can be done from anywhere to everywhere and from all nations to all people, given the characteristics of this mobile and transient generation,” said Dr. Fung.
Near the end of the night, the speaker talked about the changes brought by the coronavirus pandemic. “After the pandemic, churches should focus on utilizing the Internet, and at the same time focus on preaching a holistic gospel to fulfill the needs of a holistic person, his body, mind, and soul. The importance of online teaching and counseling should not be overlooked, churches need to develop and strengthen the counseling service and online gospel preaching, as well as making disciples of young people to take on the whole gospel to the whole world,” urged Dr. Fung in closing.
- Translated by June Chao
OMF International General Director Says Seminaries, Churches, and Mission Agencies Have Different Roles to Play in the Great Commission
