wfn.org | Church sows gospel seeds in schools through Christmas play

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

>      Taiwan Church News

>3019 Edition

>January 4~10, 2010

Church sows gospel seeds in schools through Christmas play

>Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong

>Written by Lydia Ma

Sankuang Church from Taipei Presbytery has been performing  Christmas plays at several

elementary schools in Taipei County for the past four years. Since  its performances have

gotten very positive reviews in the last few years, invitations to  hold Christmas plays

skyrocketed from 10 performances to 30 performances during  Christmas season last month.

Sankuang Church’s pastor, Rev. Chao Mo-li, said during an  interview that Christmas season

is a great opportunity to preach the gospel to children,  especially when churches are invited

into the schoolyard. The church has also been equipping its member  for some time to prepare

them for such an occasion. Chao said this ministry is akin to  plowing the ground to make the

soil ready for sowing season. Once the soil of the heart is ready,  it will be more receptive to an

>invitation to come to church.

According to Chao, the church performed Christmas plays at 6  elementary schools last year

and held an average of 5 performances at each school, totaling 30  performances in all.

One of the deans at a school they performed happened to be a  fervent Christian and this dean

recommended the church’s Christmas play to another school.  Chao used this incident to

highlight the importance sharing the gospel in the workplace and  said it was an effective tool

in softening the hearts of non-Christians before they hear the  gospel and an effective means of

>partnering with churches.

According to Chao, this ministry is akin to sowing seeds on a land  filled with rocks. It is difficult

to see results or get a good harvest in a short time span as  parents are still very much in

control of each student’s life. However, evangelism requires  long-term perspective, patience,

and commitment anyway. Chao predicts it may take at least ten  years before churches see

results. He also said if churches only care about getting results  instantly and give up after only

a few tries, there will not be any soul harvests in the future.  Without long-term commitment to

child evangelism or without having done their part in preparing  the soil, churches shouldn’t

>expect miracles from God, said Chao.

For the time being, Sankuang Presbyterian Church tries to reach  out to young, elementary-

school aged students whenever there’s an opportunity to do  so, and its members already have

a few years of outreach experience under their belts.

The church’s next step is to invite students who saw the  Christmas musical and were touched

by it to write an essay or draw a picture and submit their work  for a drawing/writing contest that

the church will organize soon. It hopes to use the contest’s  award (in the form of scholarships)

and award ceremony to draw students and parents to church and give  them an opportunity to

>get to know the church better.

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