September 23, 2020
Dear TCCBC church family,
Greetings in the Lord to you and your family! How are you? It has been seven months since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, under shelter at home restrictions, and not sure when the pandemic will ease or end. But we thank God because He is with us. Our hearts to worship Him are still very much stitched together every Sunday through our online worship ministry. Even when the pace of life has relatively slowed in the world, God has not slowed His blessings on the ministry work from the church. In this past seven months, there was not a single Sunday that we were unable to worship. Brothers and sisters continued to give faithfully to the church. At the end of September, even though our income was slightly below budget, God still provided sufficiently to our church through savings from our expenses, resulting in a small surplus. For this, we ought to offer Him our grateful hearts and praise His name!
You may remember the deacons and the church council had decided several months ago to continue the search for our English and Cantonese pastors even in the midst of the pandemic. The pastoral search committee has been earnestly preparing and had restarted the search efforts in the past few months. On the English pastor search, we do not yet have a recommendation to you after having interviewed three candidates. We do have a few good prospects in the pipeline. The pastoral search committee will continue to prayerfully and prudently seek God for his continuous guidance as He leads us through the search process.
We thank God that His special provision for us on our Cantonese pastor search even with a later start. The pastoral search committee is unanimously recommending Pastor Michael Kwong as a candidate for the Cantonese pastor position. Pastor Michael currently serves as a department head in the Chinese Christian Mission (CCM). Because of the pandemic and the evolving international situation, the original scope of Pastor Michael’s mission work cannot be fully realized at the moment. Coincidentally, a trusted friend of our church, Brother Lam Sau-Wing, who also serves on the CCM board of directors, was aware of our church’s need for a Cantonese pastor, and had suggested to the CCM board to commission Pastor Michael to our church and to serve among us. The duration is tentatively set for two to three years. This proposal was supported by the entire board at CCM, asserting that this will also further develop Pastor Michael’s practicing pastoral experience, and can help develop more young ministers to shepherd the flock when there is an opportunity for him to return to the mission field.
Brother Lam Sau-Wing proposed this cooperative arrangement framework to our pastoral search committee. After several weeks of praying and considerations by the search committee members, the entire committee agreed that the research and teaching experience that Pastor Michael has, his ministry experience, and his fervent commitment to serve the Lord will benefit the Cantonese ministries if he can come and serve in our church. Pastor Michael is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. It will also be helpful to leverage his abilities on other opportunities across congregations as they arise.
To facilitate brothers and sisters to get to know Pastor Michael more, the pastoral search committee has made the following arrangements. Let me clarify that these arrangements do not mean that the church has formally called Pastor Michael to be our pastor. The official process requires the consideration and approval by the church council, followed by the voting approval by the church membership.
If Pastor Michael agrees, we will invite him to join us online on November 1 (Sunday). We are making arrangements for him to meet and share with our three congregations over Zoom meetings.
- Nov 1, 2020 at 9:30 am Preaching in Cantonese worship over YouTube video
- Nov 1, 2020 at 9:30 am Preaching in English worship over YouTube Live (livestream)
- Nov 1 2020 at 11:00 am Preaching in Mandarin worship over YouTube video
- Nov 1, 2020 at 11:00 am Sharing session with Cantonese congregation over Zoom meeting
- Nov 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm Sharing session with English congregation over Zoom meeting
- Nov 1, 2020 at 3:15 pm Sharing session with Mandarin congregation over Zoom meeting
Since we are considering calling a Cantonese pastor, we especially encourage all the brothers and sisters in the Cantonese congregation to participate in these meetings. A number of you from the Cantonese congregation also regularly attend the Mandarin worship services. But on this Sunday, please join the sharing meeting with Pastor Michael instead. You can always watch the Mandarin worship service afterwards.
All three sharing sessions are open to everyone. You can join either all or selected one or two of them. We will not have translation in order to save time. You can bring up questions for Pastor Michael during the meetings, and use the opportunities to get to know him more.
We praise God for his leading of our church. Through everyone’s earnest prayers and seeking His will with one heart, I trust that God will send the most fitting servant among us, leading us in worship, serving God, feeding His flock, outreach with His gospel, and His church becoming the lampstand and His testimony of the community. Please pray for these upcoming meetings with Pastor Michael. We ask our Lord to work in Pastor Michael’s heart and ours. If this is God’s will, may He establish His will among us!
I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that daylight saving time is ending on November 1. We will be moving our clocks back an hour. May God guard your going out and coming in under His watch.
Together with you waiting upon God’s will be done,
Job Lee
Pastor Job Lee, Senior Pastor
With fellow church leadership team
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