Attempt Great Things for God

Theological Education in Diaspora

Chloe T. Sun

• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781467460217
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Education

Celebrating the contributions of the ethnic seminary in America

While the narrative of decline haunts churches and seminaries in the United States, there is great hope to be found in the explosive growth of Christian populations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In light of this, much can be learned from points of intersection between the minority and majority worlds, such as Logos Evangelical Seminary, an ATS-accredited Chinese-language seminary in California—the first in the US. Chloe Sun makes the case here for why an ethnic seminary like Logos has much to teach us about the evolving possibilities for theological education in a society of cultural exchange, with many populations living in diaspora.

Sun, a professor of Old Testament at Logos, has herself been formed by an array of cultural influences. She was raised by Chinese parents who were born in Vietnam, she grew up hearing multiple languages, and she has lived in China, Hong Kong, and the United States. With this unique background, she recognizes and extols the richness of pluralism, recognizing in it the work of God, akin to the diversity instantiated at the biblical Pentecost event.

The title of this book comes from Logos's motto: "Attempt great things for God; rescue millions of souls." In this spirit, Sun's vision is one of both humility and ambition, which begins by honoring the particularity of a person or group of people, and then moves outward to the universal, all-inclusive movement of the Holy Spirit.

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Yielding to the Spirit in the Chinese Diaspora

How does one individual shape an institutional direction and ethos? What are the meaning and telos of theological education from the vantage point of the Chinese diaspora? What does it mean to serve the global church and to participate in the Great Commission? What is the relationship between church planting, denomination, and seminary, and how do they function to advance theological education? This chapter tells the story of a man, a founder of a seminary, who has inspired others to reach for more, much more—indeed, to reach even for the kingdom of God. His life and legacy shape a theological school. His passion for the gospel enlivens his students. His ministry is changing the world from the periphery. And his influence will endure well beyond his times. This is the story of a man who yields to the Spirit, who bears witness to the work of God in the Chinese diaspora. It is also a story with important ramifications for the current state of theological education, and it might, I propose, illumine some alternative ways in which churches and seminaries together can meet the challenge of changing demographics.

Felix Liu is a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the United States, shaped a denomination that planted over a hundred churches around the globe, and founded a seminary to equip followers of Jesus to reach the ends of the earth. This seminary became the first ATS-accredited Chinese seminary in the United States and spawned two other seminaries, one in Chicago and another in Taiwan. Here I recount the story of Liu, the influencer of a religious movement—the Evangelical Formosan Church (EFC)—that continues to change the landscape of theological education in the United States, among the Chinese diaspora and beyond.

The story of the Evangelical Formosan Church movement is the story of God’s work through an individual—Felix Liu. Today, there are over 140 EFC churches around the globe. The first EFC church was started in 1970 in Los Angeles, and Liu became its senior pastor in 1975. In 1989 he became the first president of Logos Evangelical Seminary, a position he held until 2014. There is widespread agreement that Liu has been the driving force of the EFC throughout its fifty-year history. He is its symbol, authority, and inspiration. To know the EFC movement is to know Felix Liu. The bulk of his story that follows comes from my three interviews with him, and from a series of interviews with his coworkers and friends.¹

Liu’s childhood experience influenced and shaped his passion for healing ministry and evangelism. Liu was born with poor health and suffered from pneumonia, and consequently his mother often took him to see doctors. One of his earliest memories of his mother is of her holding him as a small and sick child and saying to him what would become her signature response in times of physical sickness: “Let us pray.” Liu often suffered from lung problems and was unable to participate in sports as a healthy child would. Medication and prayer became two central elements of his experience of growing up.

Liu remembers another moment in which illness became a defining experience for him. When he was a child, his mother was bitten by an infected mosquito, which made her very sick. Eventually, the sickness became life threatening and was diagnosed as malaria. Malaria is often caused by mosquitoes that carry plasmodium parasites. The parasites travel to the liver to mature and then attack the bloodstream and cause blood cells to burst open. As the parasites infect more and more blood cells, the patient suffers from fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle pain. That Liu beamed with amazement while recounting this story to me indicated that the story might take a surprising turn. He said that while his mother was infected with malaria, she saw a vision of heaven in a dream. Heaven was so beautiful and glorious that she did not want to leave. We can only imagine that she must have seen something like what the book of Revelation describes—a city whose walls were made of precious metals; whose foundation stones were adorned with precious stones like sapphires, emeralds, beryl, and topaz; whose gates were resplendent with pearls; and whose streets were made of gold so pure it was transparent, like glass (Rev. 21:16–21). She must have dreamed of the river of the water of life, the divine throne, and the tree of life (Rev. 22:1–2). Liu said that she wanted to stay there forever and not return to Earth.

There and then, she dreamed of Jesus approaching her and saying in a gentle and kind voice, “Please return to Earth because your time has not yet come.” Yet so struck was she by the awe-inspiring beauty of the heavenly scene and the comfort of divine presence, that she begged Jesus to let her stay in heaven. In her dream, she cried loudly and desperately. She begged Jesus, “No, I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here. Please let me stay, please.” She pleaded and pleaded so loudly that all of a sudden she awoke. She then realized it had been a dream. To her amazement, her malaria had left her. She was no longer sick. She had been healed instantly at the very moment that she awoke.

Whether the vision of heaven in her dream was real or not, we do not know. But it was real to her. Most importantly, her healing was real. Liu told me that this was his first encounter with instant healing. The incident planted a seed in his young heart and mind of what God can do in the here and now to an ordinary person. Her testimony left an indelible mark on Liu’s life and paved the way for his later ministry of healing.

Liu’s passion for evangelism began with his own experience of conversion. Liu was born to a Taiwanese pastor and his wife, the second son of six siblings. His grandfather was a pastor who dedicated his elder son, Liu’s father, to God to become a pastor. Later, Liu’s father in turn dedicated his elder son to God to become a pastor as well. Still today, the Liu family intends to carry on this sacred tradition. Since Liu’s older brother was the “chosen one,” Liu, as the second child, intended to support his brother financially. He thought of becoming a pastor himself, but he also realized that would require a clear calling from God.

Although Liu was raised in a Christian home, he did not experience the powerful presence of God until his senior year in college. Because a teaching assistant in one of his classes granted him credit he did not deserve, Liu felt tremendous guilt that haunted him for days. In reading the Scriptures sometime later, a verse struck him. That verse was Hebrews 12:1: “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”²

Through this verse, Liu experienced God’s forgiveness. Through it, he encountered a God who promised to guide him from that point on until he finished his race on Earth. As Liu contemplated his future profession, specifically whether to become a civil engineer or a pastor, another verse of Scripture spoke to him, 2 Peter 1:10: “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.”

Upon reading this passage, Liu asked God, “Are you calling me to become a pastor?” He felt that the answer was yes. Recalling that moment, Liu said, “This verse has carried me through my ups and downs from then to now. Whenever I face obstacles or troubles, this is the Scripture I go back to.” Liu had received a call to ministry—the adventure of a lifetime of Christian ministry. This conversion experience was only one experience of many that demonstrate Liu’s desire to yield his life to the Spirit.

After receiving the call to become a pastor, Liu enrolled at Tainan Theological Seminary in southern Taiwan. Upon graduation in 1967, he served as a chaplain at Chung Yuan Christian University in Chung Li, Taiwan, working with and ministering to college students there until 1968. Between 1968 and 1970, he earned a master’s degree in structural engineering at Chung Yuan and began teaching as a faculty member there, assuming that “the most effective way to reach out to the students is to become their professor.” Almost four decades later, in 2006, Liu received Chung Yuan’s distinguished alumni award for his contributions to and impact on the broader Chinese Christian communities.

From 1970 until 1974, Liu served as the chaplain of Tung Hai University in Tai Chung, where he developed his passion for personal evangelism among the student body. Many students, including the current president of Logos Evangelical Seminary, Dr. Kuo Liang Lin, became Christians during Liu’s tenure at Tung Hai.

In 1974, Liu moved to the United States and enrolled in the master of theology in missiology program at the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary, with the goal of returning to Taiwan upon graduation to serve there.³ Shortly thereafter, staff from the EFC approached him and asked him to lead the Evangelical Formosan Church of Los Angeles (EFCLA). Recalling that incident, Liu said, “I prayed for a long time whether to accept the invitation to pastor that church. I was planning on returning to Taiwan after finishing up my degree, but then the passage about Paul’s Macedonian Call came to mind. I was thinking: ‘Since I am studying Missiology and church growth, it is important that I practice it.’ That was the reason I accepted the invitation. First, I thought they wanted me to serve as a youth leader. Little did I know that they wanted me to serve as the senior pastor!” Yielding to the Spirit took a different turn than Liu had first anticipated it would.

The Birth of the Evangelical Formosan Church

The church Liu went to serve—the Evangelical Formosan Church of Los Angeles—was the first Evangelical Formosan Church.⁴ Its story begins in the fall of 1965 in the Los Angeles area when several Taiwanese Christian immigrants joined Pastor George Chua’s home church. In their house, the Chuas often cooked native Chinese and Taiwanese food, and this attracted many fellow Taiwanese. The Chuas, together with some Cantonese-speaking Christians, soon formed a Christian fellowship group and in May 1966 registered it under California law as the First Evangelical Church. In 1967, they bought a church building for Sunday services. In October of the same year, after Pastor Chua’s departure for the Philippines, Rev. Eddie Lo assumed the position as pastor. At that time, English was the chief worship language, but on alternate weeks the service was also translated into Taiwanese and Mandarin to accommodate the parents of the church’s Taiwanese Christians who were then starting to join their children in Southern California. Yet, as they were accustomed to speaking Taiwanese at home, it was awkward for them to worship in English and Mandarin on Sunday mornings. Therefore, beginning in the summer of 1970, the idea of planting a Taiwanese-speaking church emerged among six deacons of that church. These deacons believed there should be no linguistic barriers to worshiping God. Their proposal was soon accepted by the board of directors, the deacons, and Pastor Eddie Lo.

Although there was already a Presbyterian Taiwanese church in Southern California, they decided to go “independent” and plant their own church. On October 11, 1970, about forty Taiwanese-speaking Christians therefore left First Evangelical Church to form a Taiwanese-speaking church called Evangelical Formosan Church (EFC). The choice of the name “evangelical” was based on their belief that the church had to be gospel-centered. And the decision to include “Formosan” in the name reflects a particularly complex history. In the long history of internal conflicts that afflicted mainland China beginning in 1948, more than two million refugees from mainland China landed in Taiwan.⁵ The island of Taiwan had been governed by several countries in its history, including Portugal, the Netherlands, and Japan. In 1517 the Portuguese named the island Ilha Formosa, which means “Beautiful Island.” The name Formosa as a designation for Taiwan endures to this day. Therefore, the term “EFC” distinguishes the church as Taiwanese as opposed to Chinese. For those who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, the term “Chinese” refers to those people who escaped from mainland China during Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalist regime in the 1940s and moved to Taiwan. In describing itself as “Formosan” rather than “Chinese,” the church identified with the longer-term history of the island. But identities remain complex. Many Taiwanese speak Mandarin but still regard Taiwanese as their “heart language.”

Instead of asking their supporters in Taiwan to assist the church financially, the founding members of the EFC in Los Angeles worked hard to ensure the financial security of the church themselves. They also allocated one-tenth of the church’s monthly offerings for the missions fund and one-quarter for the church building fund. This church-planting effort was the birth not only of the Evangelical Formosan Church but also an Evangelical Formosan movement, a movement that continues to this day.

The congregation called Felix Liu to be their senior pastor in 1975. Liu started the cell group program, training church members to do personal evangelism and encouraging them to read Scripture on a daily basis. The church soon grew tremendously both in attendees and members, and by the end of 1977 had to relocate to a larger, newly bought church building in Highland Park that could hold four hundred people. However, Liu’s vision for the church was not limited to that. He envisioned a church of at least one thousand members. To that end, Liu started to grow the church through church planting, and this became the way Liu participated in the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations.

In 1979, the EFC commissioned ten families to plant a church named EFC East Valley in the eastern part of the Los Angeles Basin. In 1980, a second church was planted in the southern district, in the city of Torrance, which later became EFC South Bay. In 1982, another church planted in the northwest district grew to become EFC San Fernando Valley. In the same year, the movement planted EFC Orange County and then five more EFC congregations. This rapidly growing church-planting movement soon resulted in the launching of the EFC denomination.

The Founding of the EFC Denomination

What is the role of denominations in theological education? As more and more seminary students in the West have become responsible for their own seminary fees, the status and purpose of denominations have become ambiguous. However, the EFC, in addition to its help in financing church planting, provides scholarships to seminary students who serve at EFC churches. In 1982, the five newly planted EFC churches decided to stay united so as to encourage and support one another—not least in their efforts to support students—and consequently held a joint thanksgiving worship service to celebrate the formation of the EFC General Assembly (EFCGA), which marked the EFC as a denomination. The EFCGA wrote a constitution for the national body and revised bylaws for local congregations. Organizers also formed a board of directors, an executive board, and a ministers’ association. A denomination was born. What is striking about the EFC denomination is that it was founded not in Taiwan but on US soil. Its headquarters remain here. As such, it is part of the religious history of North America. Christianity in the United States is not just about the dominant white and black races but also includes the Taiwanese and Chinese diasporic communities.

In addition to reaching out to Taiwanese immigrants, the five EFC churches developed English ministries geared to second-generation American-born Taiwanese. These churches also extended their ministries toward other Taiwanese-speaking churches outside of Southern California. For example, in 1984, a dying Taiwanese church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, joined the denomination and was revived through the help of EFC ministers. In 1985, a Bible study group in Denver and a Taiwanese church group in San Antonio also joined the denomination, and the EFCLA commissioned members who lived in the Arcadia area of California to form EFC Arcadia. The denomination supported a gospel fellowship group in Houston, which later became EFC Houston. That brought the number of EFC churches planted in the United States to ten.

Liu was a driving force in all these efforts. In 1986, while attending a Chinese mission conference initiated by the Chinese Coordination Centre of World Evangelism (CCCOWE),⁶ Liu received a new vision encouraging him to “attempt great things for God; rescue millions of souls.” The phrase comes from a saying attributed to English Baptist missionary William Carey: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”⁷ One day Liu read a newspaper report that hundreds of young people in Taiwan were engaging in car-racing events that often ended in death. Many of the younger generation in Taiwan were feeling lost and without a sense of purpose in life. Though many had the material means to sustain their lives, mentally and spiritually they often felt empty. Racing cars became a way to express their frustrations and hopes. Unfortunately, these events resulted in more death than hope. The fatality rate was so high that it was featured in the local newspapers almost every day. As Liu read about this, he perceived a deeper spiritual dimension behind the event. He pictured millions of young people racing to their eternal deaths by living without purpose. It grieved Liu that at that time Christians in Taiwan constituted only 2.7 percent of the population. The majority of the people in Taiwan had not even heard the gospel. Fearing that the rest would be lost forever, Liu vowed to rescue millions of souls.

Inspired by this vision, he made “Attempt great things for God; rescue millions of souls” the mission statement of the EFCLA and began working toward this vision right away. Shortly after the conference, Liu and his church coworkers spread out a map of the United States and identified ten places for their church-planting endeavor. Yet Liu’s larger missional goal for the EFC was to plant twenty churches throughout the world by 1990. An astute coworker interrupted and noted, “The ten places we picked are the places we think we can plant the church successfully. If that is the case, where does faith come in?” In response to that inquiry, Liu said, “Okay, let’s plant twenty-five churches by 1990 then.” They named the vision “9025” to signal their commitment that by 1990 they would have planted twenty-five churches. When Liu recalled that moment some years later, he was still amazed: “How could ten churches become twenty-five churches in four short years?! But then, I learned that when we have the vision and the determination to do it, God will do his work. EFC churches began to multiply as a result.” It was through 9025 that Liu truly launched his fait...