On the other side of Hudson River from Manhattan, New York, a rapidly developing church planted there in recent years held their church opening dedication service, where over 160 participants, including ministers and believers from the churches through New York, gathered to receive and give blessings.
On January 24, Harvest Church of New Jersey dedicated their chapel in Jersey City, where a community of both old and new is developing at a very fast pace in recent years: numerous high rises, companies moving in, inhabitants increasing in number. Meanwhile, the district of New Port has been an area where many young Chinese families are moving in, forming a new field for missions.
Seeing the gospel needs for the Chinese living there, Harvest Church of New York planted a church in Jersey City on October 2007, establishing the Harvest Church of New Jersey. With the vision of praise and worship, renewal of the Holy Spirit, small group churches, gospel evangelism, whole family revival, the glorious church was founded to catch many people for the Lord.
Through a year of hard-work, Harvest Church of New Jersey is steadily taking on an important role in the community. Now, the basic structure of the pastoral team has been formed; the believers have matured and are dedicating their lives for service. Seeing this, the church leaders have decided to hold an opening dedication for the church, giving praise and gratitude to God.
Rev. Mu-Dao Hsiao, senior pastor of the church, said that he hopes that the church can continue to develop with the vision of the church and at the same time focus on the joint gospel ministries of all churches in order to spread the gospel deep into the community together.
In addition, Rev. Liu Tong, senior pastor of River of Life Christian Church and the founder of the first of the existing 22 Bread of Life Churches in North America, came all the way from Silicon Valley in California to give his blessings.
In 2001, Hsiao and a group of believers were inspired by the Liu’s vision for the Bread of Life Church and founded the Harvest Church of New York.
Seeing the Harvest Church of New York successfully planted the Harvest Church of New Jersey, Liu expressed his satisfaction. He said that both churches were established at the time that the economy wasn’t doing well and people were living with insecurities. “This is not a coincidence. In reality, spiritual revivals usually happen at the era when the economy isn’t doing well in history,” he said.
In the eyes of unbelievers, now is the time of troubles; but for the churches, it is now a great time to scatter and harvest, because the people in the world need the gospel more than ever.
Lastly, he encouraged all the believers of the church to hold on to this great opportunity to proclaim the gospel and work together for the Lord.
[Editor's note: reporter Luke Leung translated the article.]
