Looking back on EFCCA’s thirty years of blessing, especially the spiritual renewal and expansion of the most recent decade, we have deeply experienced God’s abundant grace, wonderful leading, and continuing revival. These ten years have been a crucial season in which the church has taken root in truth, deepened discipleship, expanded outward in mission, and strengthened intergenerational continuity.
In God’s gracious provision, the church successfully completed its building project. God gave Pastor Yongjun Dong, a faithful servant, to lead the church and establish a pastoral team grounded in truth and sound teaching. At the same time, the church intentionally strengthened its elders, deacons, and ministry co-workers, raising up a core team of mature, gifted, and faithful servants so that pastoral care, teaching, caring ministries, and administration could become increasingly stable and healthy.
With this foundation in place, the church gave itself wholeheartedly to evangelism, encouraging every believer to share the gospel and bear witness to Christ. Co-workers were sent for systematic training in Evangelism Explosion, From Doubting to Believing, Alpha, and other evangelistic tools. These were then promoted across the church so that brothers and sisters could grow in both skill and passion for sharing the gospel. At the same time, the church established a more complete follow-up and discipleship pathway for newcomers, helping seekers understand the Christian faith clearly and connecting new believers promptly into small groups where they could be loved, shepherded, equipped, and gradually grow from making a decision for Christ into becoming His disciples.
God richly blessed the church’s evangelistic ministry and continued adding those who were being saved. The congregation grew steadily from only a few dozen people to more than three hundred. To meet the worship and spiritual-growth needs of a diverse congregation, the church successively established an English service and an evening service, enabling brothers and sisters of different ages, languages, and schedules to take root, worship, and serve.
On this foundation of renewal, the church formally clarified its core mission and vision: to be revived through prayer, to build a cell-based church oriented toward disciple-making, to devote itself to mission and church planting, and to bear both the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the gospel. To put this vision into practice, the church established a three-level pastoral structure of zones, supervisors, and small groups. Through ongoing training for small-group leaders and the continual development of mature disciples, each small group became a spiritual nursery for discipleship and life formation, laying a strong foundation for outward expansion and church planting.
1. Outward Expansion: Kingdom-Minded Church Planting Across Borders
As discipleship within the church became more established and co-workers matured spiritually, God placed a growing burden for outward mission and kingdom expansion on the church. Each year the church continued to hold mission conferences, mission Sundays, and spiritual-renewal gatherings, awakening the congregation to a kingdom perspective. A stable mission fund was built, and through vision sharing, co-worker training, mission giving, and the sending of workers, the church prepared itself to respond to the call of overseas mission.
Through the continual watchful prayer of the morning prayer altar, the church sensed the Holy Spirit’s leading and saw the spiritual hunger of the islands of Fiji in the South Pacific. Elder Yeh, Minister Susan Lin, Minister Che, and other co-workers were sent to visit and assess local gospel needs and church-planting conditions. Pastor Dong later led teams to develop the partnership and preparation, resulting in the establishment of the first overseas church plant in Lautoka, Fiji. Soon afterward, in further obedience to the Spirit’s leading, a second overseas church was established in Suva, Fiji, carrying the flame of the gospel into another land and putting into practice Christ’s Great Commission to the nations.
Through years of exploring and learning in overseas church planting, we have also gained valuable spiritual insight for future ministry. One of the greatest challenges is the shortage of gospel workers. Pioneer ministry in an unfamiliar culture is difficult, and workers are few. In the future, therefore, we must not only continue sending teams to support these churches but also intentionally cultivate, strengthen, and equip local co-workers so that each church can develop a united and stable local ministry team. We will continue investing in training, biblical equipping, and pastoral guidance, gradually developing mature churches led and shepherded by local believers so that overseas church plants can become self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating, and firmly rooted for the long term.
After gaining experience in overseas church planting, the church also turned again toward deeper local evangelism and expansion. Last year, North Shore Grace Light Evangelical Formosan Church was formally established, putting into practice the vision of local church planting, neighbourhood evangelism, and regional outreach.
2. Inward Continuity: Walking Together Across Generations and Passing On the Faith
Mission expands the kingdom outward; intergenerational continuity carries grace forward within the church. To put into practice the calling of walking together across generations, passing on the faith, and ensuring spiritual continuity, the church will establish a new English-speaking, cross-cultural worship service in September this year, especially for the younger generation.
The purpose of this cross-cultural English service is to respond to the needs of the times and connect with the language and culture of younger generations. The church hopes to identify, select, and equip bilingual young co-workers and disciples who have burden, gifting, and faithful love for the Lord. In this way, the spiritual inheritance of the older generation can be passed on effectively, while younger believers can take root in faith, receive vision, and take up ministry in a language and cultural setting familiar to them. We long to see genuine intergenerational succession so that the Lord’s church will continue to have faithful servants, flourish, and experience renewal from generation to generation.
3. Crossing Barriers: Letting Go of Congregational Self-Interest and Living with a Kingdom Heart
As the church has continued advancing mission, church planting, and kingdom ministry, we have also encountered real spiritual obstacles and human weakness. It is easy to become focused only on the needs, growth, and resources of one’s own congregation, and to hesitate to invest people, finances, and energy into unfamiliar, distant, or difficult new churches and overseas ministries.
From a worldly point of view, pioneer mission can seem exhausting, costly, and thankless. It may be misunderstood, unseen, and unrecognised. Yet we have come to see deeply that mission is one of God’s ways of leading His church beyond self-centredness—teaching us to break through ourselves, lay ourselves down, and surrender ourselves.
Mission leads us out of a narrow perspective and frees us from the limitation of thinking that only our own church matters. It draws our hearts closer to the Father’s compassion for all peoples. Church revival is not merely larger attendance, lively gatherings, or impressive buildings. It is also the willingness to leave our comfort zone for the Lord, carry the gospel to unreached places, and bring grace to those who have not yet heard. Only by letting go of self-interest, enlarging our hearts, and looking toward God’s kingdom can the church continue bearing mature fruit of the Spirit and fruit of the gospel.
Thirty Years of Unceasing Grace—Continuing Forward in the Next Decade
Looking back over EFCCA’s thirty-year journey, and especially the renewal and expansion of the most recent decade, we see the Lord’s mercy, grace, and leading everywhere.
Prayer for revival brought spiritual renewal; disciple-making brought deeper roots; small-group development brought whole-church pastoral care; and every-member evangelism brought growth. Then came two church plants in Fiji, the establishment of the North Shore congregation, a cross-cultural English service, and a renewed vision for passing the faith to younger generations. Every step has been prepared by the Lord, and every expansion has been led by the Holy Spirit.
In the days ahead, EFCCA will continue to hold firmly to this vision: ongoing revival through prayer, deeper disciple-making, stronger small-group pastoral care, active mission and church planting, and intentional intergenerational continuity. May the Lord continue to anoint and lead us, generation after generation, passing the baton faithfully—deepening life within and spreading the gospel outward—so that we may bear abundant spiritual fruit and glorify the name of Jesus Christ until He returns.
Written on the occasion of EFCCA’s 30th anniversary. — Elder Qinmiao Ren