Transition Report
Greetings to Chinese Baptist Church brothers and sisters,
God is faithful and God is good. Here we are at the beginning of another church fiscal year. The year 2022 again turned out to be a challenging year for all of us. We never imagined that the COVID-19 pandemic would continue to linger on. Then, the invasion of Russia into Ukraine was certainly an unbelievable event, and there is still no end in sight. This has brought about the suffering of millions of innocent people. We pray that God will make the war end soon.
Although we are safe and sound in the United States from visible enemies, our lives are still affected in a tangible way. Inflation was more than 8% in September and everyone has been experiencing high gasoline prices and food costs. Many of our church family are affected by these unexpected expenses. However, our church families love this church so much that the financial condition of CBC has still been very healthy. The sacrificial giving of our members is highly appreciated.
The pastoral staff was tasked to come up with an updated Articles of Faith (AOF) and we had held a town hall meeting for the congregation to ask questions and make suggestions. The request was made to translate the whole document into Chinese and we have just finished it. We will have separate town hall meetings for different congregations to ask questions and make comments after they review the translation. Most likely, we will schedule a special business meeting to vote on this new AOF in January 2023.
Our Pastoral Search Team has been busy working and seeking guidance to bring on-board our next Senior Pastor. Please pray that God will send the right person to lead the church forward.
Church-wide prayer meeting traditionally has been held on the first Wednesday of every month. A few faithful prayer warriors have continued to attend in spite of the pandemic. However, because of the low number of people attending, the pastoral staff has decided to move the prayer meeting to every second Sunday of the month from 1 pm to 1:30 pm, beginning in January, 2023. The purpose is to allow more brothers and sisters across the congregations the opportunity to pray together as a church, for we all know the importance of prayers in our Christian life and the church especially. We also have several regional prayer groups throughout the week and we encourage those groups to continue to pray for the needs of our people and the church as well.
God has blessed this church so much that we are constantly reminding ourselves how good God is to CBC. We will be celebrating our 70th year anniversary next October. In order to plan properly and give God the glory, we have formed an Ad Hoc committee to plan the details. Stay tuned for more information. Our prayer is that God will bless CBC and use all of us to be a testimony of His grace and mercy to people both near and far. May God bless us with another 70 years of His ministry. Amen,
Pastor Kai Yuen Choi,
Transition Lead Pastor
Transition April Report
Dear Chinese Baptist Church family,
Praise God for His protection and provision for our Church during the pandemic. We are slowly and gradually reopening our church for Sunday services and other activities. On Easter Sunday, we had a wonderful Joint Service with all three congregations totaling 222 people who attended the Celebration of our Lord's Resurrection.
We are currently planning for the second phase reopening of our church to members including children and youth Sunday school programs so that our families can return to in-person attendance.
The CAT-Ad Hoc committee had finished the survey and is working on the recommendation to the Church Council. I am also glad to report that we have started on the process of forming a Pastoral Search Committee. This team will be tasked to hire our next Senior Pastor; of course, much preparation will be done before we are actually ready for the search.
We are also planning to hold our Semi-Annual Business meeting on Sunday, May 16 in the Sanctuary. We welcome all CBC members to attend this important meeting.
God Bless,
Pastor Kai Yuen Choi
Thanksgiving Message
Dear Chinese Baptist Church family,
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Psalm 103 is one of my favorite Psalms, because King David poured out his heart to God when he was in trouble. While he was praising God, he reminded himself not to forget God's benefits.
"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits ---"
I don't know if you have a habit of talking to yourself or not. It seems to me that it is a good habit to develop. You see, we all need to remind ourselves at times to turn our focus from our own self and to focus on God. We all have a tendency to take things for granted and forget that all our benefits and well beings are actually a blessing from God. I also love that old hymn "count your blessings, name them one by one..." There is a lot of truth in that, when we start to name our blessings one by one, we will be surprised by how much blessings we actually have.
May God bless each one of us with a thankful heart and a thankful attitude.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Pastor Kai Yuen Choi
"Transition Period" of Chinese Baptist Church
Welcome to the 'Transition period' of Chinese Baptist Church. What is it, you may ask? Well, since Pastor Dan has retired, our church needs to seek the Lord's guidance for the next phase of our ministry.
Hence, we have formed a transition team to make sure that the responsibilities of the Senior Pastor are all taken care of. Hopefully, with God's blessing, we will be able to find our next Senior Pastor within the next 2 years.
A transition period can be a great opportunity for CBC to move forward in our ministry. It also can be a dangerous time if the church family and leadership are not united in the Spirit. The English word "crisis" can be translated into Chinese with 2 words --危機--- the first word 危 means danger; the second word 機 means opportunity. So, this could be a great opportunity for us, but if we are not careful, this can turn into a crisis for the church.
Therefore, I would like to ask all our church families and members to earnestly pray to our Almighty God for His guidance, wisdom and discernment in this critical junction. Ask God to grant the staff and the leaders of CBC a humble Spirit and a willingness to work together for the Kingdom's sake. I also like to ask God to give us clarity and unity in our vision for the near future. Unity does not mean we all have to have the same idea, same perspective and same way of doing things. Unity does mean, we should strive to reach the same goal of glorifying God, sharing the gospel and bringing good tidings to the community. This may require compromises and changes in attitudes in our pastoral staff and leadership. It may also require our members to be more flexible and the willingness to accept NEW things that is happening in the church.
Finally if you have any suggestion or concern about the transition, the team is always willing to hear and process them. Lastly, the pastoral staff has decided to put the Family News on hold, so that we can redirect our energy on other important matters. However, periodically, we may post blogs from different pastors/minister on the website.
God Bless,
Pastor Kai Yuen Choi
Transition Lead Pastor