Ministry updates from church planters are on tap when the Chinese Baptist Fellowship of the United States and Canada gathers June 13 during the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 2017 Annual Meeting in Phoenix.
Chinese Southern Baptists are continuing their focus on church planting in an attempt to reach a goal the group set in 2010 to plant 600 churches in the U.S. and Canada by 2020, Alan Chan, one of two vice presidents of the fellowship, told Baptist Press.
The fellowship will host a dinner from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in Room North 127A/B/C at the Phoenix Convention Center, the SBC annual meeting site. Stateside church planters from East Asia will share testimonies of God’s work in reaching Chinese in the U.S. and Canada, and representatives from the International Mission Board and the North American Mission Board will also provide updates, Chan said.
There are more than 300 Chinese Baptist churches in the U.S. and Canada. Chan, pastor of church ministry coordination at Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles in Alhambra, Calif., said while the goal of reaching 600 in three more years is ambitious, the fellowship has planted about 100 churches in recent years.
In addition to Chan, current officers are president Benny Wong, pastor of First Chinese Baptist Church of Los Angeles; vice president Peter Liu, pastor of Chinese Christian Church of Ridgeland, Miss.; secretary Andrew Tong, pastor of Hawaii Chinese Baptist Church in Honolulu; treasurer Howard Li, pastor of Trust in God Chinese Baptist Church in New York City; and financial officer Jady Lo, a deaconess of Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Chinese fellowship conducts its business at its biennial meeting, with the next gathering set for Los Angeles in 2018. There, the fellowship will mark its 40th anniversary.
A downloadable registration form for the biennial meeting is available at cbfusacanada.org/2016CBFRegistrationForm.pdf.
(EDITOR’S NOTE – Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ general assignment writer/editor.)