wfn.org | Central Taiwan churches rediscover Campbell Moody’s legacy

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>      Taiwan Church News

>3014 Edition

>November 30~December 6 2009

Central Taiwan churches rediscover Campbell Moody’s legacy

>Reported by Li Hsin-ren

>Written by Lydia Ma

Who is Campbell Moody? Chances are, like most Christians in  Taiwan, you probably don’t

know the answer. He was a missionary who served in Taiwan from  1896~1924.

Thirty years ago, when Rev. Chang Tian-tsung was going through  some old church files at

Fang Yuan Presbyterian Church, he stumbled upon a long-forgotten  hero in Taiwanese church

history – Rev. Campbell N. Moody. Because many people have  forgotten or have never heard

of this Scottish missionary and pastor who had served in Central  Taiwan, a few church elders

and pastors got to work and later on designed a series of events  commemorating Moody.

To commemorate Moody’s legacy, PCT Changhua Presbytery,  Taichung Presbytery, and

PCT-affiliated Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH) organized a huge  service on November

29th at Changhua Gymnasium to commemorate the 114th anniversary of  Moody’s arrival to

Taiwan. About 5,000 people packed the venue to pay respects to  Moody and thank him for

preaching the gospel in Taiwan and serving in Taiwan for most of  his life.

Along with David Landsborough Sr., Moody came to Taiwan in 1895.  Besides founding CCH,

he also founded 18 other churches and ministered in Taichung,  Changhua, and Nantou areas.

However, Moody’s name isn’t as renowned as  Landborough’s and many Christians in Taiwan

were not aware of his contributions until now.

To educate Taiwanese Christians and shed light on Moody’s  legacy, Changhua and Taichung

presbyteries, along with CCH, designed a series of events and a  remembrance service this

year in Moody’s honor, with the goal of also inspiring  Christians in Taiwan to serve God with

>the same devotion as Moody.

“Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Campbell  Moody!” said Chang during the service. Of the

5,000 people in attendance only a few raised their hands. Most  people learned about Moody

only after reading the information packet given to them on that  day.

Thirty years ago, when Chang was still pastoring at Fang-Yuan  Church, he discovered some

old documents about Campbell Moody. He also discovered that  Moody’s contemporaries

such as George Mackay, David Landsborough, James Maxwell, William  Campbell, and

Thomas Barclay, were much better known than Campbell Moody among  Christians in Taiwan.

Chang hoped that these events would help churches review Campbell  Moody’s legacy.

PCT General Secretary Andrew Chang also attended the service and  used this occasion to

encourage a proactive approach to evangelism. He urged churches to  imitate Moody’s

passion and commitment by using a popular one-on-one evangelism  method currently being

promoted by PCT. Chang hopes that active outreach by all local  churches will enable PCT to

reach its target of 250,000 members by the year 2015 when it will  celebrate its 150th

>anniversary.

Beside this thanksgiving service, Changhua and Taichung  presbyteries have already

organized several events this past year to commemorate Moody,  including academic forums,

cycling trips to places where Moody had ministered, exchange of  Sunday speakers, essay

and song-writing contests, and publication of a special booklet on  the life and legacy of

>Moody.

For more information on Campbell Moody, visit:

http://thetaiwanese.blogspot.com/2006/12/rev-dr-campbell-n-moody.html

>********************

Taiwan Church News is published weekly in Taiwan's local  languages.

You may translate and re-use our articles online only if you  acknowledge the source as

"Taiwan Church News" and list the names of the reporter and  writer.

Contact us before reprinting any of our articles for print  publications.

Direct comments and questions about this article to:  enews@pctpress.org

Visit our website for more news at: http://enews.pctpress.org/  (English)

>http://www.pctpress.org (Chinese)

>********************

> 
>