Rev. Peter Leong
On the morning of September 26, 2022, my wife, Kate, and I flew to Austin, Texas in transit for our flight to San Jose, California to attend the 21st Biennial Conference of the Chinese Baptist Fellowship of the US and Canada. The theme of the conference was “Soar like the Eagle…Fulfill Your Calling”. The speaker was Dr. David Allen, a preaching coach who has the heart of a pastor, and the founder of the David Allen Ministries. He was formerly the Distinguished Professor of Preaching of the Center of Expository Preaching at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Apart from preaching from the Book of Hebrews, he also conducted a workshop on “Text Driven Preaching” from which I benefitted greatly.
There were more than 200 participants at the conference this year, many of whom were there for the first time. Therefore, we had a meet and greet “Getting to Know You” session at the conference. There were different workshop sessions and seminars offered each day which were designed to help participants to engage the new normal and included the following: “Healing Heart Wounds: How the Church Could help”; “Overcoming Obstacles to Growth in the Church”; “Generational Partnership: A Way Forward”; “Multiplication Pipeline for Developing New Leaders”; and “Current Compliance Issues Faced by Churches”. There were two information sharing seminars, one hosted by Baptist seminaries that have Chinese programs, and another by Guidestone to help ministers plan for retirement. Another highlight of the conference was the Wives of Ministers Meeting and the sisters’ special luncheon hosted by the Women’s Ministry to honor all the sisters who were present at the conference.
I especially appreciated the time before the business session when we remembered several among us who had gone home to be with the Lord during the pandemic: our former executive director, Rev. Simon Tsoi; the wife of our former executive director, Mrs. Frances Wong, and missionary Karlson Poon who had served in Mexicali. Our honorable pastor, Rev. Peter Chung led in prayer for their families.
The business session of the conference was held in the afternoon of September 28 and the following were elected to serve in their respective executive roles: President – Rev. Howard Li (New York), First Vice President – Rev. Peter Liu (Houston, Texas), Second Vice President – Rev. Jack Yuen (Toronto, Canada), Third Vice President – Rev. William Eng (Orange County, CA), Secretary – Rev. Andrew Wu (San Francisco, CA), Treasurer – Rev. Andrew Tong (Honolulu, HI), Financial Secretary – Deacon Jady Lo, Vancouver, Canada). Team members: Executive Director – Rev. Jeremy Sin (Atlanta, GA.); Senior Liaison – Rev. Amos Lee (San Francisco, CA.), Office Administrator – Mrs. Sylvia Chan (Los Angeles, CA.) Our thanks to Pastor Amos who faithfully served the Fellowship since 2017 and leading it through the difficult days of the pandemic. He is a compassionate shepherd and a theological scholar but due to indisposition of his health, he has asked to be released from his responsibilities as executive director but remained as the senior liaison to support the ministry of the current executive director.
In June, the executive board of the fellowship appointed Rev. Jeremy Sin as the executive director as of July 1, 2022. The installation service was held on September 28 during the business session. Rev. Sin is the national church planting catalyst of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, having served there for almost 20 years. He had also pastored churches in Southern California, San Francisco and Atlanta and has built a strong network of Chinese Baptist churches in North America. We trust that under the leadership of Rev. Sin and the new slate of officers, the work of the fellowship will continue to develop and grow in fulfilling the Great Commission. We thank the Northern California Chinese Baptist Association under the leadership of its President, Rev. Alan Fong, the chair of the Steering Committee, Rev. Larry Tong, the senior pastor of the Crosspoint Church of Silicon Valley, Rev. Ting Leung and others for their tireless efforts in preparing for the conference, whether it is local transportation, venue, facilities, and the provision of breakfast, lunch and dinner which made all of the messengers of the conference to relax and feel at home and all these by the grace of God.
The 2024 Conference will be at the Mandarin Baptist Church, Los Angeles.
Rev. Peter Leong is a retired pastor and had served as president and executive director of the fellowship. He is currently an advisor of the fellowship, and NAMB’s Chinese church ambassador among his other ministries. The original article in traditional Chinese script first appeared in「梁牧札記」10/02/2022 edition.
