Reflection Essay

按照Andover Newton申請的程序，我必須寫一份五到十頁的Reflection essay，就個人信仰、教會參與、社會反省等等層面分別論述。

Reflection Essay

In this essay I will share my faith life, especially focusing on the formation of my faith and some particular experiences that have formed my commitment to the church and teaching in it. Secondly, I will give a brief introduction of the social and political situation of Taiwan, my country, and the development of Christianity in Taiwan. In the last section, I will describe how I relate my calling to my study and, dedicate and commit myself to God, the church and my country.

My family has a long Christian faith history. One hundred and thirty-five years ago, my ancestor became one of the earliest students of Rev. Dr. George Leslie Mackay, the first Canadian Presbyterian Church missionary in Taiwan. Although the percentage of Christian in Taiwan is quite small today, at 3 per cent overall, I grew up in a Christian environment when I was in my childhood. The experiences involved in children’s Sunday school and youth fellowship were quite a part of the formation of my faith life. During the formation of my faith life, my mother absolutely was the major influence. She is a woman with a strong will. When our family faced financial difficulties twenty years ago, she never gave up her Christian faith; instead, she always trusted in God. Studying law and being a lawyer was a good way for me to make money and to improve our family economic situation. Before the end of my time in college, I talked to her about my desire to dedicate myself to God. My mother didn’t object but supported me. She gave me some words that I never forgot: “Please remember: God loves the one who prepares himself best to serve Him.” “Preparing the best to serve God” became my central emphasis in serving God and His church for the past ten years.

Another important factor to me in formatting my Christian faith involved the Chang-Ching Christian Fellowship in my college years, the Presbyterian college student fellowship in Tung-hai University. Chang-Ching Christian Fellowship was the local name for the SCM (Students Christian Movement) in Taiwan. In the Chang-Ching Christian Fellowship, social concern was a very important part of involvement. We held so many different workshops about analyzing Taiwan social movements, aboriginal people economic status, and taking part in some democracy protest activities. Among these different involvements in Chang-Ching Christian Fellowship, the “College Students Biblical Theology Research Program” (held by PCT College Students Mission Division each summer vacation) had perhaps the greatest impact on my faith. That was the fist time I began to learn methods of Biblical interpretation that differed from the local church, and I gained access to modern theology that was often forbidden in local churches.

In these activities, I started to think over the questions “How can I be a Taiwanese Christian?” and “How can I put my Christian faith into practice?” These experiences helped me to make the decision that I would dedicate myself to serve God, the church and the people in this land, the Taiwanese people.

After finishing army service in 1995, I worked as a policy research assistant for a Christian law maker for two years. In 1997 I came into Taiwan Theological Seminary and earned an M. Div. degree in 2000. In the Seminary, I was very good at leadership and organization. I was the chair of the Students Body for two years. There was a huge earthquake that happened on 21 September, 1999. I organized and lead Seminary students to do the rescue the next day. Meanwhile, as a student representative, I was involved the M. Div. curriculum reform.

In M. Div. level, I began to be concerned about the development of the Taiwanese church, especially the PCT, my denomination. Even if the PCT is the leading church in Taiwan until today, most of the local churches were at a standstill. On the other hand, some new emerging churches grew up rapidly in the past decade. Actually, there were many Presbyterian Church members moving to these newly emerging churches.

Generally speaking, the PCT is losing its congregations little by little. “Renewal” was very popular in the PCT during these years. Different pastors sought different methods in helping “church growth” or “renewal.” Some went to Korea to study “family groups,” some went to Singapore to be trained in the use of “cell groups,” and some went to Indonesia to be taught “G12.” The styles of the Charismatic movement in North America, of course, were very popular in Taiwan. In some ways, the “Mega church” became the new goal for some local churches. However, such diverse methods in church growth didn’t help local churches a lot actually, but raised some problems. For instance, fewer resources would be put in social concern today; in some cases, Christian didn’t like to welcome the poor to come to the churches. I think the right way to do church development is to help Taiwanese Christians to re-identify with their culture. We can find so many things in the Taiwanese historical context. Therefore, in the next section I will give a brief introduction to the society and church of Taiwan.

Taiwan, a small island located in the west Pacific Ocean, is famous for its electronic manufacturing in the world today. Because of its cheap but high quality labor, Taiwan underwent a very fast economic development between 1970 and 1990. The industry department took over the agriculture department and became the main power of economic growth. Because of the achievement of economic development, Taiwan was called one of the “Four dragons in Asia” or the “Economic miracle in Asia.” Some social problems, however, were raised in the back of the high economic development for past decades. An unfair wealth distribution is a serious social issue today. Most of the tax burden falls onto the salaried people. Now, Taiwan is a typical “M Society”— the rich become much richer, the poor become much poorer! Taiwanese people have a very good GNP today; ironically, there are tens of thousands of primary school students who can’t pay their school lunch fee every semester.

Taiwan was known for its high tech manufacturing in the world. However, the relationship between Taiwan and China has been a complex issue in contemporary world politics. The communist Chinese government always announces “Taiwan is a part of China.” But this was rejected by most of the Taiwanese people. On the other hand, Taiwanese people persist in saying that Taiwan is an independent country although just a few other countries want to establish a diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Chinese military power grew rapidly for the past five years, and now there are over eight hundred short distance missiles pointed across the Taiwan Straits and they keep increasing at the rate of one hundred per year. The issue of the Taiwan straits is an important issue for world peace in the near future.

The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), the main denomination in Taiwan, was a witness of modern history of Taiwan. In the late nineteenth century, the PCT had established modern medical care and an educational system in Taiwan through the work of Canadian and England missionaries. With the economic development in the 1970s, PCT proposed the “Industry Mission” to those laborers who come from agriculture areas. “Social Concern” was the main mission issue to PCT after the 1970s, especially focused on those oppressed people. On the other hand, the international status of Taiwan and democratic struggle remained an important issue to PCT at the same time. The construction of “Homeland Theology” was an important milestone to the PCT because this was a theological reflection on the relationship of Church and land and people.

Taiwanese people were oppressed by different un-democratic or fascist dictatorships for over one hundred years, but capitalism and globalization have become new oppressing power today. What is the role of churches in Taiwanese society? This will be the main challenge not simply to the PCT, but to all churches in Taiwan.
The crisis and challenge to the PCT is, I think, to reflect on the nature of the church of Jesus Christ. The poor were the main body of the PCT for over one hundred years. Today, however, the middle class or the riches are! Therefore so many PCT local churches have changed their eye view from social concern to so-called “church growth.” In fact, finding the way to become a mega-church has been a church fashion in Taiwan today. I always raise questions to these churches. In the context of Taiwan society and churches, “church growth” is not the main mission issue, I think, but it is “let the church be the church!”

As a minister within Reformed theological tradition, I affirmed the value of Reformed Theology. “God’s Words is the base of the church” and “The balance of God’s Words and God’s Spirit” are the characteristics of John Calvin’s theology. There were so many Taiwanese churches engaged in such new church growth movements, but they often lost the spirit of the Reformation. “Overemphasized church growth strategies, and looked down on theological reflection” and “overemphasized God’s Spirit, and despised God’s Words” have become popular and common church phenomena in many PCT local churches.

I think, after different field education experiences and mission in a local church for four years, the right way to church “growth” and “renewal” is we have to do more in Bible studies. God’s Words is always the light and foundation of the Church in Taiwan. What we have to do in Taiwan at first is not to seek different ways from other countries, but help our congregation come back again to the Bible, God’s Word. To be a good Bible instructor in the church and in the seminary, I made the decision that I wanted to pursue further research. This is the main reason that I decided to pursue further research to earn an M. Th. degree at South East Asian Graduated School of Theology (SEAGST).

I enjoy teaching and feel called to biblical instruction. For the past few years, I have had opportunities to teach in different seminaries in Taiwan. No matter what subjects I taught, I always got excellent responses from students. Except for good preparation in teaching, I can use modern utilities in teaching, e.g. LCD Projector, Animation, WWW, and even website groups. Meanwhile, I had many experiences as a TA for my supervisor, Dr. Chris Dippenaar. I translated his class notes onto Chinese, and evaluated students’ term papers. We had translated and adopted a new Chinese New Testament Greek Textbook together. On the other hand, I had training in translation and linguistics, and worked as a translator and adapter for the Chinese Translators’ Handbook Adopt Program through the United Bible Societies Asian-Pacific region.
Now I have found another calling from God: to finish a New Testament Ph.D. degree. The PCT set up three seminaries in Taiwan. But today there is only one New Testament professor who has a Ph.D. degree and he is a missionary who came from South Africa. In my seminary, Taiwan Theological Seminary, I am the only one who had finished the M. Th. degree in New Testament Theology. We do not have any other students majoring in New Testament Theology, whether for the M. Th. or Ph. D. If I can, I wish I could dedicate my life to theological education. I think theological education has the power to help transform churches. An excellent theological education today will make dynamic churches tomorrow.

Last November, I met a professor at SBL annual meeting, who encouraged my interest, and participated in the Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium group. I knew many ethnic Chinese Biblical scholars there. It was a good experience to me to reflect Biblical hermeneutics in the Chinese context. At the same time, I tried to find the possibilities to study abroad.

I am interested in Andover Newton because of its commitment to social justice and Reformed theology. If I have the opportunity to study in Andover Newton, my goal will be to “study to be my best.” I am very glad that my wife supports me in everything. Meanwhile, my mother will support me with some of my financial needs too. Of course, I know I will have many difficulties, e.g. finding financial resources is a challenge; living in United States of course is strange to me and my family. But I believe the decision that to study in Andover Newton is God’s arrangement. He will lead me and make a good arrangement for me. After studying at Andover Newton, I believe I will achieve my goal: “study to be my best.”