Fact Sheet: Chinese Churches Association, C&MA

美國華人宣道會聯會

Background

The Chinese Churches Association ( 華聯會), C&MA was officially established on January 9, 1976 with eight member churches. Presently, the number of Chinese Alliance church has grown to 72 in 2010. On any given Sunday, over 13,000 adults and children of different countries of origin and with diversified backgrounds worshipping in Cantonese, Mandarin, or English in these 72 Chinese Alliance churches spreading over twenty States. Currently there are about 146 pastors, of which 90 are ordained and 56 un-ordained serving at these churches.

Ministries of CCA

While the Association has its primary mission planting churches in cities where there is a sizeable Chinese population, it has as its aim to mobilize member churches in active evangelism locally and in missions globally. At the same time, caring for and helping pastors and churches to grow into a healthy church is paramount. Furthermore, member churches embrace a Kingdom view whereby they contribute resources and people to churches overseas.

In order to accomplish these goals, there are in operation three separate committees: Theological, National Ministries (Past - Evangelism & Healthy Church), International Ministries (Missions). A leader heads each of these committees with multiple members who are gifted in the area and most of all are passionate about the work.

Church Planting Initiatives

The last census reports that over two million ethnic Chinese reside in the US. There are over sixty thousand Chinese immigrating to the US each year from Hong Kong and Taiwan with ninety percent coming from China. These figures will be higher if the number of Chinese residents on temporary visas or without proper documents are included.

While one may find large Chinese populations in major cities, Chinese broke an old tradition of restricting their homes in Chinatown. Today many live in different cities within the 50 States, hence creating ample opportunities for planting churches for first generation immigrants and the English speaking 2^nd, 3^rd, or even 4^th generation ABCs and non-Chinese.

National Ministries Committee

In early 2010 Evangelism and Healthy Church Committees merged to become a National Ministries Committee with focus on developing and strengthening the vitality of our churches and on enhancing pastoral care with concerns to the spiritual and emotional health of our pastors and workers. And at a local church level, pastors gifted in Evangelism at the Chinese Alliance are standing by to assist churches who need help in evangelism training and are ready to sent evangelism teams to hold evangelistic meetings.

Theological Committee

Theological Committee has two major initiatives. One is to provide Lay Pastor Training in those cities overseas where they lack opportunities to receive theological education.

This training is a three-year program consisting of twelve topics. It is specially designed to meet the needs of grass-root lay leaders, who had little formal education. The focus of the program is on studying the Scripture. Using topical approach as the base, the students are taught on various methodologies in applying the truth in everyday needs of the church. Sample topics include: How to tackle problems of churches from the book of the Corinthians; How to be a world Christian from the teachings of the Prophets; How to grow spiritually by studying Psalms; How to shape a personal worldview through the book of Job and Ecclesiastics. Building on the foundation of these topics, students acquire the skills to prepare and write sermons.

For the last seven years, over 200 students in Israel, Venezuela, Surinam, France (Paris), The Netherlands (Amsterdam), and Italy (Rome) benefited from receiving this kind of training. This program is continuing in Myanmar with about 40 students, Indonesia, Guatemala, Vietnam, and Panama. The next locations to be started are Tel Aviv, Israel and Pompeii, Itay.

Another important ministry is related to nurturing of seminary students and future ministers. The CCA Fellowship Program sponsored by the Theological Committee is created with the purpose to provide assistance and supplement their study with specialized trainings, preparing them for effective ministries in local churches and in mission fields. Three key elements of assistance and support are: scholarship; enrichment camp with mission, pastoral methods, and personal growth as themes; and pastoral care through mentorship. This Program started in 2004 with 21 fellowship recipients studying at various US seminaries with 14 from ATS receiving scholarship ranging from $500 to $1400 per semester.

Interntional Ministries Committee

On the overseas front, there are no stopping but instead continuing efforts in planting new churches in major cities in Western Europe and Latin America while surveying new mission opportunities in Africa, the Mediterranean, or the Middle East. At the current time, there are over thirty individual and missionary couples serving at various field locations in Europe (Madrid, Berlin, Dortmund), Asia (China, Hong Kong), and Latin America (Panama, Sao Paulo, Lima).

The significant influx of immigrants or students entering Western Europe and the United Kingdom in the last several years does not escape the eyes of those in the US; many US Alliance churches have shared the burden of evangelism and have responded by actively supporting missions with financial support and short-term mission trips.

For many years member churches have focused its mission work among Chinese. We had one Chinese-American missionary doing cross-cultual mission work but today the same worker is no longer serving in the field.  Though maintaining mission activities within our own culture, there is an added emphasis of cross-cultural missions among member churches.

In order to mobilize and engage churches to participate in missions, targeting people of same culture, similar cultures or different cultures, the Missions Committee members stand ready to aid churches that need assistance in missions training and planning.

Like the CCA Fellowship Program on the Theological side, there is a similar Missionary Fellowship Program where potential missionaries are identified and nurtured. The nurturing begins with a sense of call and ends with sending to the mission field. During the process, the missionary candidate receives help in affirming the call, support and encouragement. It is the hope that this program would eliminate many hurdles and hindrances for one to become a missionary.

Our missionaries are sent by the International Ministries of the National Office with member churches actively participating in support of their work. While mostly are in the form of prayers, missionary adoption program, financial, and short-term mission trips, member churches are looked upon to substitute for the absence of missionaries who are returning home for furlough and caring.

Organizational Structure

CCA Web : WWW.USCCA.ORG