Taiwan Conference was blessed to have a workers’ family retreat and stewardship seminar from July 10 to 13, 2016, at Fullon Hotel in New Taipei City, Taiwan. All of the pastors and workers in Taiwan and their families gathered together and enjoyed peace and joy in their hearts. We give thanks to our heavenly Father who richly blessed the retreat and seminar.
This retreat was held for several reasons: 1) To allow the pastors to have more quiet moments with God in prayer, 2) To encourage the pastors to spend more time with their families, 3) To give the pastors opportunities to share the joys of their pastoring experiences with others, thereby encouraging and strengthening one another.
Taiwan Conference usually holds a family retreat on their own, but this year’s retreat was special. Pastor Steven Wu, field secretary and stewardship director of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) Taiwan Branch Office, invited all Adventist institutions in Taiwan to join together for the sake of creating unity and revitalizing the vision of preaching the Three Angels’ Messages in Taiwan. Five institutions—NSD Taiwan Branch Office, Taiwan Conference, Taiwan Adventist College, Taiwan Adventist Foundation, and Chinese Hope TV—participated in the joint retreat.
NSD president Jairyong Lee and stewardship director Kwon JohngHaeng were invited as the guest speakers. Their messages pointed toward two main themes: “Mission First” and “Faithful Stewardship.”Pastor Lee pointed out that we are God’s chosen people that and we have very special messages. God has given us a special mission, and we have the hope of waiting for the glorious coming of Christ Jesus. He continued to introduce NSD’s five-year goal “Vision One Million 2020” to encourage everyone to play a part in this vision through participating in Taiwan Conference‘s 777 Mission Movement*.
He also emphasized “Total Member Involvement,” which requires all institutions and all church members to participate in church outreach community services. Above all, all church activities should focus on“Mission First.”
During the second session, Pastor Lee shared the story of Joshua. Joshua followed God’s command and led the Israelites as they marched around the wall of Jericho City. They marched once a day for the first six days and seven times on the seventh day. On the seventh time, the priests blew the trumpets made of ram’s horns.
When the Israelites heard the sound of the trumpet they shouted with great shouts, and the wall fell down flat(Joshua 6:20). The great city of Jericho was conquered by the Israelites. If we follow God’s command today, God will perform miracles for us as He did for the Israelites.
Pastor Lee’s final session was about the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Mission in Samaria was very difficult, and it was an unentered territory. However, Jesus made it possible to win souls in Samaria. It is certain that as long as we follow Jesus’ method to preach the Three Angels’ Messages, there will be no place where mission is impossible.
Pastor Kwon led out in the stewardship seminar. He pointed out that the most important thing about stewardship is spiritual revival. In other words, stewardship is how to live a spiritual life in accordance to the will of God. He shared ten tips of stewardship: life, time, body, environment, everlasting gospel, gifts of Holy Spirit, wealth, service, soul winning,and retention and reclamation. He mentioned that we usually put a lot of emphasis on the number of souls being baptized, but we often neglect the importance of retention and reclamation.
At the dedication ceremony, Pastor Steven Wu proclaimed the importance of unity. He used a quote from The Acts of Apostles:“As they should continue to labor unitedly, heavenly messengers would go before them, opening the way; hearts would be prepared for the reception of truth, and many would be won to Christ.
So long as they remained united, the church would go forth ‘fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners (Song of Solomon 6:10).’ Nothing could withstand her onward progress. The church would advance from victory to victory, gloriously fulfilling her divine mission of proclaiming the gospel to the world.”
Taiwan 777 Mission Movement is moving forward. There will be around a hundred public evangelistic meetings held in Taiwan throughout the year. We are sure that as all members become involved in soul winning, we will re-experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the days of the early church. “Taiwan 777 Mission First, Go! Go! Go!”
* Taiwan Conference’s 777 Mission Movement seeks to have 700 prayer warriors, train 700 Bible workers, and baptize 700 new members.
Pastor Noah Lai, President of Taiwan Conference