The Chinese Conservative Baptist Church held the 60th anniversary celebration in Kaohsiung from the 18th to the 20th to celebrate the missionary work in Taiwan. The celebration's theme surrounded unity, connecting, caring, and missionary work, to commemorate the American missionaries who came to Taiwan like a seedling that sacrificed itself to enable the formation of many more seeds - in turn spurred the development of 42 churches across the whole Taiwan.
According to Taiwan-based "Christian Daily”, the Chinese Conservative Baptist Church Federation vice-president, Pastor Chen Hong-Chang, stated that this was to commemorate the many overseas missionaries who left their homelands, immersed themselves in Taiwan to toil and build, adopting the local spirit, sacrificing and giving without complaints. With the missionary spirit of sacrificing willingly and the heartfelt love for the Chinese population, they had enabled the establishment of the present Taiwanese churches.
The Chinese Conservative Baptist Church holds six core characteristics; namely that the Church is the body of Christ, disciples are priests, the Bible is the highest standard and example of our belief and life, compliance with the baptismal rite and holds the right to autonomy and self preservation, separation of politics and religion, and that the future is going to change and adapt with the times while complying with the Biblical foundation and to better suit the church's needs for that generation.
Having been through the mission, establishment, and sub-division development periods, the Chinese Conservative Baptist Church has reached maturity in building pliable power in Taiwan. Pastor Zheng Bo-Ren from the Wu-Chang Church stated that the missionaries from the Baptist Church had a characteristic, and that was enthusiasm in uniting all the district pastors to attend prayer meetings in various regions. Taking Kaohsiung as an example, with the efforts towards unity, many large-scale meetings have been organized in the recent few years to bring influence to the city. Apart from promoting local and city-based unity and church development, the Baptist Church has begun missionary work in Mainland China and the Middle East.
Besides the celebration, the three-day meeting also invited Pastor James Hsia from the Chinese Christian Evangelical Association and Pastor Zhang Mao-song from the Taipei Hsin-Tien Covenant Church to share their experiences with church building and spiritual renewal, to help the weaker churches within the Baptist community to build a church according to the will of God; workshops on how to assist churches and missionary ministries are organized every other day, to share information on themes such as "Children's ministry", "Youth ministry", "Missionary work", and "Small group church strategizing and service".
[Editor's note: Carol Lee translated the report.]
