Thanks to the Lord’s wonderful preparation, at the invitation of Pastor Vincent Choi, I received the honor to attend the Family Retreat of the First Chinese Baptist Church of Memphis last weekend (August 2-4) and serve as a Chinese workshop speaker. Their retreats started from 1993 to 2017, and this year is the first time they have resumed after the epidemic. Theme: Reach up 十 Reach out. Scripture: Luke 10:2. I have been blessed a lot by it and would love to share the following insights with brothers and sisters.
First, the testimony of history
This is a church with a 70-year history. “In 1944, a young pastor named Dr. R. Paul Caudill was called to pastor First Baptist Church of Memphis. Armed with the grace of God and a letter of introduction from the Chinese congregation he so lovingly ministered to in Augusta, Ga., he took his first steps to develop a Chinese church, which today has blossomed into First Chinese Baptist Church” (https://en.fcbcmemphis.org/about/fcbc-history). The church has experienced many pastors. The pastor Dr. Paul Wong, who we are familiar with, pastored this church from 1976 to 1991. The pastor’s wife Mrs. Frances Wong spent her last journey at our Little Rock Immanuel Chinese Baptist Church from July 2018 to March 2020 and returned to heaven (https://chinesebaptists.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Sharing-by-Rev-Chunhai-Li.pdf). In 2017, Pastor Vincent was called by the Lord to serve as the pastor of this church until now.
Second, a wonderful church
It is a group of brothers and sisters who love the Lord and serve enthusiastically. The church mainly speaks English, Cantonese and Chinese. The pastor did the benediction in three languages. 107 brothers and sisters registered for the retreat; it was held in the church on Friday night and in the camp on Saturday and Sunday. Their worship team is unique. It consists of about ten brothers and sisters of different ages, with guitar and piano accompaniment, and they praise the Lord passionately.
Third, Messages and Workshops
The message of the keynote speaker, Pastor Jack Moore, was “May the Lord teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1-13). He shared some of the seven basic principles Jesus gave us:
the personal principle, the privilege principle, the praise principle, the purpose principle, the provision principle, the purification principle, and the protection principle.
The Sunday message is “Intercessory Prayer”, which challenged everyone to become God’s friends by becoming intercessors and to be sacrificial and selfless intercessors. The many lively testimonies he shared were very inspiring to us.
They have three workshops: Chinese, English and youth. Three messages on “sharing the gospel” were given in the Chinese group. The main theme: The gospel is indeed life; sharing the gospel is indeed to change life! Our brothers and sisters are encouraged and trained to practice sharing the gospel at any time and in any places in various ways. The first one is “The gospel is the power of God” (Romans 1:1-17), the second is “share the gospel with intellectuals” (John 3:1-21), and the third is “share the gospel with everyone” (John 4:1-42). Some brothers and sisters came to the stage and practice sharing the gospel on the spot.
Fourth, fellowship and establish connections in the Lord
In the fellowshipping with brothers and sisters, I received more blessings. Most of them knew little about our Little Rock Immanuel Chinese Baptist. So far, we have established a connection and look forward to more opportunities for mutual fellowship in the future. A 78-year-old aunt Debra Pan testified that her grandmother in Shandong Province was converted to the Lord by our Southern Baptist missionary Lottie Moon (from December 12, 1840 to December 24, 1912). Both her grandmother and mother were devout Christians. She is a third-generation Christian. As an opera singer, she was invited to sing on Broadway in New York for half a year. Before the epidemic, she went to many churches in mainland China and in US to hold special music testimony meetings for the Lord. Amazingly, after the workshop on Saturday afternoon, she shared the gospel with a first-time gospel seeker. After that, we led this friend to pray right away and make a decision to accept Jesus as his Savior. The next day, this friend came to worship. Praise the Lord and we will continue to pray for his growth in the Lord.
Finally, the challenge given to us by the testimony of the First Chinese Baptist Church of Memphis is a. To pray more actively to prepare our church to have our own church building soon; b. To plan more carefully in various ministries of the church, “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way” (1 Corinthians 14:40); c. To love the Lord more fervently, share the gospel diligently, and serve the Lord actively. May the Lord continue to bless their church and bless our church as well, in the name of Christ, Amen.
