There is a familiar saying: “At thirty, one stands firm.” For a spiritual community, thirty years is more than the accumulation of time; it is a testimony to God’s grace and leading. Through thirty years of steadfast prayer and committed building, Evangelical Formosan Church of Central Auckland (EFCCA) has grown from a small church of four families with a single worship service into a medium-sized church with multiple congregations, locations, and languages, and with ministries that are increasingly well established and mature.

At this historic thirty-year milestone, how should we answer if someone asks, “What kind of church is EFCCA?” or “What makes EFCCA distinctive?” I believe we can answer with confidence: a cell church, disciple-making, mission through church planting, and walking together across generations. These four commitments define EFCCA and are the core values that have sustained us through the past, steadied us in the present, and will carry us into the future. They explain how EFCCA has continued to grow through challenges, and they are also the spiritual fruit God has produced among us.

1. EFCCA Is a Cell Church

Small groups are not merely one ministry of the church; the small groups are the church.

At the end of 2018, EFCCA received a vision for pastoral transformation and formally began a church-wide transition toward becoming a cell church. This was a fundamental change in our model of pastoral care. Through more than seven years of intentional development, committed watchfulness, and the healthy multiplication of small groups, the church’s pastoral network has become more precise and attentive. In a traditional church centred only on a large Sunday service, brothers and sisters can easily become Sunday spectators. In a cell church, everyone is a participant.

Through the development of small groups, relationships among members have deepened into bonds of shared life. These close relationships within the body have strengthened the church’s cohesion. They not only help welcome newcomers but also help people truly remain and belong, bringing growth in both the number and spiritual maturity of the congregation.

More importantly, small-group life enables the church’s five core functions—worship, equipping, evangelism, fellowship, and care—to be practised more fully. The small group becomes an altar of worship, a classroom for equipping, a base for evangelism, a living room for fellowship, and a shelter of care. The church currently has six zones. Together with the vibrant English congregation and young adults fellowship, EFCCA has thirty small groups. Like thirty living cells, they continue to multiply and grow while supporting every life that comes to EFCCA.

2. EFCCA Is Oriented toward Disciple-Making

In the Great Commission, the Lord Jesus commands us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” EFCCA sees itself as a training ground that equips faithful soldiers of Christ.

In January 2019, as all the co-workers prayed together, we received a shared church vision: “Loving One Another, Blessing Each Other.” We also resolved to make disciple-making the engine of the church’s development. Instead of relying on traditional classroom-based training, we chose to advance discipleship through discipleship groups that emphasise relationships and one life influencing another.

The church asks all elders, deacons, ministry co-workers, small-group leaders, and brothers and sisters who wish to serve to join a discipleship group. In these groups, we emphasise spiritual companionship that is genuine, honest, and without masks. Together, members take root in God’s Word, watch over one another, and practise living out the life of Christ. This process of connection and practice has brought transformation and growth to many lives.

Over the past two years, discipleship at EFCCA has moved into a 2.0 stage. We have integrated disciple-making with the development of cell groups. Discipleship is no longer an optional extra outside the small group; instead, every small group is understood as a discipleship group. Making disciples is the group’s central purpose. Small-group leaders become disciple-makers, and members commit themselves to practise and grow as disciples of Christ. This has strengthened the church’s spiritual health.

3. EFCCA Is Committed to Mission through Church Planting

A healthy, life-giving church should not depend only on the growth of a single congregation. It should follow the example of the early church by extending God’s kingdom through mission and church planting.

At the end of 2019, as attendance at EFCCA’s in-person services approached capacity, God spoke to the co-worker team through our circumstances. We received a new vision: EFCCA must not become inward-looking, but must be a spring of living water flowing outward.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic soon made outward expansion difficult, we did not stop moving forward. On 12 December 2021, the church established an evening service and opened a new field for the gospel. When the borders reopened in July 2022, we obeyed the Holy Spirit’s leading and sending, stepped out, and extended the reach of the gospel overseas and into surrounding communities.

Within only a few years, we adopted a strategy of multiple congregations in multiple locations, planting three branch churches in Fiji and on Auckland’s North Shore. EFCCA also took the initiative to send mature pastoral workers to support and assist the rebuilding of Abundant Life Evangelical Formosan Church in South Auckland. Mission through church planting has lifted EFCCA’s vision to the level of God’s kingdom and made us a continually outward-reaching church.

4. EFCCA Values Walking Together Across Generations and Passing On the Faith

For a church to develop in a healthy and sustainable way, it must make room for the next generation and value walking together across generations.

To help EFCCA continue to grow faithfully, sustainably, and healthily—and to avoid the generational disconnect and ageing that many immigrant churches face—the church has spent the past three years developing younger co-worker teams and promoting intergenerational partnership. We have come to understand deeply that young people are not only the church of tomorrow; they are the church of today. We have increased pastoral resources and care for the English congregation, the young adults fellowship, and the university fellowship. As a result, more young people have been drawn to commit themselves to the EFCCA family.

Over the past two years, the average age of EFCCA’s elders, deacons, and co-worker team has declined noticeably. Older leaders are willing to support and develop younger co-workers with the hearts of fathers and mothers. Younger co-workers, while respecting their elders, are gradually taking up the baton of the gospel. This has created strong conditions for EFCCA’s next stage of development and spiritual succession.

Conclusion: Moving Forward from the Thirty-Year Milestone

The cell church is EFCCA’s pastoral system; disciple-making is EFCCA’s purpose; mission through church planting is EFCCA’s kingdom calling; and walking together across generations safeguards EFCCA’s spiritual legacy.

These four characteristics strengthen one another and together form EFCCA’s spiritual profile. After thirty years, the spark first carried by four families has become a torch. We know deeply that there is nothing here of which we can boast. It is all the grace of the triune God and the fruit of many brothers and sisters who, over the past thirty years, have committed themselves to advancing the gospel together and building up the body of Christ.

Standing firm at thirty does not mean we have reached our destination; it marks another new beginning. In the years ahead, EFCCA will continue to hold fast to these four core values: planting love deeply in small groups, refining lives through disciple-making, extending the gospel through mission, and passing the torch across generations. We are confident that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Pastor Yongjun Dong

September 2026