Page 5 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

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fall 2017
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meeting Spiritual entrepreneurs in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
By the Rev. Peter Bush, Moderator of the 143rd General Assembly
I had the privilege of representing The Presbyterian Church in Canada during the moderator’s trip to Tai- wan. My wife, Debbie, and I, with our guides and hosts, Paul and Mary Beth McLean, travelled much of the island meeting Presbyterians from a number of Indigenous tribes: Pai- wan, Ngudradrekai, Truku, Amis, Bunun, Kavalan and Tayal. I also had the honour of preaching at a Hakka worship service and in a Taiwanese congregation. We were warmly wel- comed by the graciously hospitable Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT).
“Spiritual entrepreneur” is a trendy phrase in some church circles. In Taiwan, I discovered spiritual entre- preneurs have been with us for a long time and are still doing their thing to- day.
George Leslie Mackay, a spir- itual entrepreneur, grew up in Oxford County, Ont., and went to Taiwan as a missionary in 1871. Realizing that no ministry was taking place in northern Taiwan, he moved in 1872 to Tam- sui. There he drew together a group of young men, converts to Chris- tianity, who he discipled in the faith and trained to be pastors. He also opened a medical clinic (the forerun- ner of Mackay Memorial Hospital) and started an educational ministry at Oxford College (known today as Aletheia University and the spin-off, Tamkang Middle School).
Spiritual entrepreneurs
At the end of the 1930s, few of Taiwan’s Indigenous people were Christian. At the end of World War II (1945), there were 5,000 Indigenous people waiting to be baptized. This explosion in faith continued and by 1962, there were 70,000 Indigenous Christians in Taiwan. This was the work of the Holy Spirit using Indig- enous people to share the good news—missionaries from overseas had little to do with this spread of the gospel.
Chi-oang, a Sediq woman who came to faith in the late 1920s, and with two years of Bible school train- ing, became an evangelist among her people and the Truku boldly
stated what Jesus had done for her. The Sediq and Truku then shared the gospel with the Tayal and the Bu- nun. While in southern Taiwan, when the Paiwan heard and believed the gospel, they shared it with the Ng- udradrekai—sharing the good news with neighbouring tribes that had his- torically been rivals.
The boldness in proclaiming the good news continues to this day. One evening, while wandering among the stores near the waterfront in Tamsui, I saw a woman in her late teens wearing a T-shirt that read “WE [heart] JESUS”—a bold statement of personal identification with Jesus in a country where only 5% of the popula- tion are Christian.
Spiritual entrepreneurs are risk tak- ers for the Kingdom of God
From Dr. Kao, the General Secretary of the PCT in the 1970s and 1980s, who spent time in prison because of the church’s commitment to justice, to the boldness it took to add and fund a palliative care unit at Mac- kay Memorial Hospital in a culture that does not talk about death, to the work the Amis presbyteries are doing in developing agricultural products, the PCT is risk taking.
Pastors and church leaders acted with courage during and following Typhoon Morakot. They risked their lives getting villagers to safety as landslides threatened and damaged communities. These same leaders acted with boldness to hold commu- nities together through the re-build- ing phase, ensuring the homes and churches that were built continued to have an indigenous identity in their architecture, rather than the com- munities becoming monochromely urban or suburban.
Spiritual entrepreneurs see oppor- tunities to proclaim the good news of Jesus
Early every morning, in urban con- texts, many Taiwanese seniors take to the parks to exercise. In the rural villages, seniors are a significant de- mographic group. The PCT regards the significant population of seniors as an opportunity and have created an Elders University, a weekly two- to three-day educational and social pro-
ngudradrekai Youth Choir with PCC moderator, Peter Bush, doing “It’s Your Time” hand gesture. Photo credit: debbie bush
Bearing witness to the PCC’s long history in Taiwan. (Left to right): Chia-chi and david Geddes (david is the son of Jack and Betty Geddes, PCC mission staff); mary Beth and Paul mcLean (PCC mission staff among the Hakka people until 1995, worked on translating the Hakka Bible); Bonnie and Tim mcGill (Tim is the son of Clare and Grace mcGill, PCC mission staff in Taiwan and translators of the new Testament); debbie and Peter Bush (debbie is the daughter of James and Joyce Sutherland, PCC mission staff in Taiwan). Chia-chi and david, and Bonnie and Tim live and work in Taiwan (not with the PCC). Paul is a translation consultant with the PCC.
gram for seniors. Mixing lectures on spiritual life and current issues, arts and culture, and health, along with invitations to service, the Elders Uni- versity leads to seniors flourishing and is an opportunity for people to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.
A highly skilled transplant surgeon from Taiwan, who is a Presbyterian elder, is much in demand as a speak- er at medical conferences. He con- cludes his talks with a brief statement about his faith in Jesus, and how his faith helps him in his work. The PCT understands its medical work to be Medical Evangelism.
Church leaders and ordinary lay people in the PCT live with the expec- tation that people will become follow-
ers of Jesus through the ministry of the church: the worship gatherings in churches and the schools it operates.
Spiritual entrepreneurship became part of the PCT’s DNA by following
the example of the Canadian Presby- terian, George Leslie Mackay. May the PCC learn from the PCT to be spiritual entrepreneurs in this new time.
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