Mission Next! New Waves in the New Era

The Chinese Alliance World Fellowship (CAWF) hosted its 7th Conference, March 14-17, 2023 in Manchester, UK with the theme “Mission Next! New Waves in the New Era.”

The Chinese Alliance World Fellowship (CAWF) is part of the global Alliance family that specifically serves Chinese-speaking churches and ministries in the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). The CAWF is an associate member of the Alliance World Fellowship and provides a platform for Chinese-speaking Alliance churches to network, collaborate, and grow together and provide resources and support for church planting, leadership development, evangelism, and discipleship. The CAWF represents 100,000 members and 400 churches in 38 countries. In some places such as Madagascar, Malaysia, Reunion Island, Suriname, and a country in the Arabic Peninsula, the Alliance family is represented only by the Chinese Alliance churches.

Transitioning from an old Cantonese-speaking generation to a new Mandarin-speaking generation, the CAWF is seeking ways to fulfill the mandate of proclaiming Christ to the unreached people of the world using the CAWF’s ethnic heritage as a platform.

Starting in the 1960s, the migration of Cantonese speaking Alliance church members from Hong Kong to North America was the basis for establishing a strong Chinese Alliance church network in both Canada and the United States. The C&MA Hong Kong sent many pastors and missionaries to North America to plant churches, train leaders, and shepherd congregations. Many of the congregants of these churches initially spoke only Cantonese. The growth of a younger generation, who speak mainly English, and the influx of migrants from mainland China, who speak mainly Mandarin, triggered a transition in the church leadership. These churches incorporated pastors and leaders who are fluent in English and/or Mandarin. That led them to also receive people from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Similar dynamics played out more recently in European countries, such as England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

The C&MA Hong Kong is a Chinese national church with a strong missionary presence in many countries, and with an emphasis on Southeast Asia. The C&MA Taiwan is a Chinese national church with a focus on evangelizing indigenous ethnic groups within the country. The CAWF is formed by these two national churches that are members of the AWF and the Chinese Alliance church networks of other countries. Together, they seek to empower and equip Chinese-speaking churches and ministries within the C&MA to be effective witnesses for Christ locally and globally.

The 7th CAWF Conference brought approximately 200 Chinese-speaking pastors, missionaries, and lay leaders from around the world to Manchester, UK, March 14-17, 2023. The theme of the conference was “Mission Next! New Waves in the New Era” and the plenary speaker was Rev. C.C. Lau, leader of Operation Mobilization (OM) in Hong Kong. Rev. Lau presented the challenges posed by the contemporary world and their impact on evangelizing unreached people. The conference participants were challenged to look beyond the Chinese community to understand the role of the CAWF in the scheme of world missions. A symposium on Theology and Missions focused on the relationships of seminaries and churches, theology and missions, and theory and practice in missions. Representatives of each CAWF member country presented people stories with reports on church growth, missionary work, pastoral training, and new platforms for evangelization and discipleship. Prayer items included the need for pastors for the Chinese Alliance churches in Vietnam and Thailand, ways for missionaries and churches to minister in the Middle East, strengthening partnerships to reach unreached people in Southeast Asia, and church planting projects sponsored by Alliance churches in Panama and Suriname. As for Manchester, this city has been receiving an influx of thousands of people from Hong Kong in recent years, including many members of the Alliance church. This triggered an expansion of the ministry of the Manchester Chinese Alliance Church from 200 to more than 1,600 congregants.

Pastors and leaders talked about the blessings and challenges of their ministries. This network has played an important role in establishing hundreds of Alliance churches around the world and in promoting missions among its member churches. At the same time, the CAWF is facing the challenges of contemporary cross-cultural ministry within its ranks. As the theme of the conference stated, the next phase of missionary engagement of the CAWF will require a closer look at what God is doing in this new era. Pray that the CAWF continues to grow as God’s agency to proclaim Jesus Christ to all nations of the world.