Pastoral Letter
Dear Brothers and Sisters in
Christ:
By the mercy of God, I have been
pastoring Peace Evangelical Church more than six months. In the past contacts,
I can feel the close brotherly love and sisterly care in our church. There is
also a strong passion for evangelism among us. I give thanks to God for this. I
hope we can continue to pursue for growth by working out true Christian love
per Simon Peter¡¦s exhortation: ¡§¡K to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be
neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.¡¨ (2
Peter 1:7-8) Due to the motivation of the unfailing love of Christ, it provides
us strength to bear witness for Him in this world. However, by my observation
there seems to be a potential danger in our church ¡V neglect of the praying
ministry. Some of us do not have a good constant praying habit. Some couples do
not pray with the same mind everyday. Many parents just neglect their responsibility
to build up an altar of prayer at home. Due to multiple-tasking involvement in
church ministries, many serving brothers and sisters spend more time in their
ministries rather than in prayer. No consistent effort on the knees and with
tears is found behind these ministries. Regarding the church praying meeting on
Wednesday, some of us consider it as a less important church meeting. The
attendance has indicated the reality of this mind set. Although many of us know
and understand the essence of prayer in church, we are subconsciously
marginalizing the praying ministry by our action. Through the redemption of
Jesus Christ, we are elected and called by God into His Kingdom, becoming a
nation of priesthood and performing a mediatorial role of intercession and
prayer. Prayer, intercession and supplications are the basic responsibilities
of a priest. It is because praying is serving God. If we overlook the duty of
prayer, we commit the sin of negligence. We fall short of the glory and grace
of God. We also owe others prayers that are due to them.
My
beloved brothers and sisters, we are now progressively moving forward in church
construction project. Due to a big increase in construction cost, our building
project is a difficult mission. But to me, it is a more challenging mission to
be accomplished by building up all the members of our church. It is a more
difficult task than fund raising for a church building. When Jesus Christ saw
selling and buying in Jerusalem temple, He zealously said: ¡§My house shall be
called a house of prayer.¡¨ (Matthew 21:13) St. Paul also mentions: ¡§Do you not
know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?¡¨
(1 Corinthians 3:16) Therefore, we know that God expects to see and find from
us a team of praying ministers. Without the spirit of prayer, we do not know
how to build up ourselves according to His Holy will. If we want to fulfill the
Kingdom and will of God on earth, we should finish it by prayer. If we
constantly neglect the importance of prayer, the church construction project
may lose its true meaning. We cannot finish our church building without the
prayer of dependence on God. When the first group of exiled Jews returned to
the city of Jerusalem, they immediately began to rebuild their temple. Their
construction project started from the building up of an altar. The Jews were
afraid of their enemies; they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both
the morning and evening burnt offerings. (Ezra 3:3) My beloved one, before we
construct our physical church building, let us first begin to erect a personal
altar of prayer, an altar of prayer at home and in our church.
Hence,
may I encourage you to cultivate a personal habit of constant prayer. Let the
couple has prayer with the same mind every day. Let the brother be a faithful
priest to lead the whole family to build up an altar of prayer at home. If you
have small children, please try to work out a schedule so that either husband
or wife may have equal opportunity to attend church prayer meeting. Don¡¦t treat
our Wednesday prayer meeting as a less important gathering. I understand that
work, family, children and study ask a lot of our time everyday. If we set our
mind and goal right with our Lord, it is still acceptable before God and well
pleased by God. Find a partner of prayer in your fellowship and begin to pray
for one and other. Jesus says: ¡§But one thing is needed.¡¨ (Luke 10:42) Though
He refers this to Mary who sat at His feet and heard His word, please allow me
to apply this Scripture into our daily ministry of prayer. I hope many of us
may choose that good part, which will not be taken away, by well practicing
prayer in both private and public life.
In His Service,
Brother Daniel To