A Brief History of CACW

The Founding of the Church - God Moved

We heard that back in the nineteen sixties, the Christian and Missionary Alliance saw the need of starting a Chinese church in Westchester County. However, no suitable ministers were available and the work never got started back then.

Preparations for Founding the Church

In September 1987 Rev. Philip Teng and myself came to Nyack, New York and taught at the Alliance Theological Seminary, starting the North American Chinese Bicultural Master of Divinity Program. Early in 1988, the two of us felt that while Westchester County had a significant Chinese population, there were few Chinese churches, and one more Chinese church should be started. Rev. Tom Fraser, the Senior Pastor of the Ridgeway Alliance Church, supported this idea and said he could encourage Chinese families in his church to participate.

On February 7 of the same year Ridgeway Alliance Church invited Rev. Teng as speaker, and arranged a fellowship session after the meeting. In addition to inviting the families from Ridgeway Alliance Church, Chinese Christians in the neighborhood were also invited and we discussed the viability of starting a Chinese church. Another similar fellowship meeting was held in the afternoon of February 21.

About twenty people participated in each of these two meetings, and everyone was excited and unanimously expressed that we could first start a Bible study/prayer meeting. So starting on March 4, Bible study/prayer meetings were held every Saturday at Ridgeway Alliance Church. Attendance ranged from several people to almost twenty people.

Actions in Founding the Church

After a month of Bible study/prayer meetings, we all felt that we could start holding Sunday Services in the beginning of May, so we organized an ad-hoc work group comprising James Tsang, Lawrence Liu, Sue Lin, Rev. Teng and myself, and decided to name the church the "Chinese Alliance Church of Westchester". The Ridgeway Alliance Church agreed to let us use their gymnasium for a meeting place, and to use their piano, tables, chairs, and kitchen. The work group immediately advertised the good news of starting Sunday Services on May 1 in "World Journal" and "China News", and sent letters inviting Chinese in the neighborhood to attend. Thank the Lord, thirty-seven people attended the Sunday Service on May 1.

The Formation of the Church - God's Grace

Once the church started holding Sunday Services, the prayer meetings were moved to Wednesday evenings. As co-workers felt that we were unable to organize our own Sunday School at that time, we encouraged children of the congregation to participate in the Sunday School of the Ridgeway Alliance Church.

Early Results of the Ministry

From the start Rev. Teng and myself led the church on a voluntary basis, and we took turns in speaking at Sunday Services and leading Wednesday prayer meetings. Mrs. Teng and Mrs. Theophilus worked hard in church food services, holy communion preparation, usher duties, etc. Mrs. Teng typed Sunday Service bulletins in both English and Chinese for one or two years. Brothers and sisters did their part in other church duties and in monetary offering. This harmonious cooperation enabled the church work to progress smoothly. During the first month the C&MA New York Metropolitan District supported the church with $2,000 seed money. The next month we returned the seed money in full, and in addition, we sent offering to the District every month, and participated in mission offering through the "Great Commission Fund" in October of the same year.

During this period of meeting at Ridgeway, two happy events are worth mentioning: (1) Five people were baptized after attending the first series of baptismal classes - Alex King, Joyce Wang, Li-Ping Yang, Sara Ru, and Jing Liu. (2) Hsueh-Mee Huang and Mark K. Hsu were the first couple married at our church.

Progress of the Ministry

According to the constitution and bylaws of the C&MA, a new local church is first established as a "Non-Organized Church". When the number of regular attendance reaches twenty five, the local church can request the District to call the first membership meeting, announce and accept the constitution and bylaws of the C&MA, accept regular attendees as chartered members, and appoint several brothers and sisters to form the provisional Executive Board (we customarily call this the Board of Co-workers). After this, the church becomes an "Organized Church".

In early 1989, our church attendance exceeded the required number, so we applied to the District to form an "Organized Church". At that time the church attendance of the neighboring English-speaking Port Chester Alliance Church continued to decline and the Senior Pastor was about to leave. The District decided to terminate the ministry of that local church and to rent us the church premises (our current church premises) for $300 a month. We decided to accept this kind offer and to move into the new site on October 15. This was announced in newspapers prior to the move. Almost all of our original congregation moved with us.

With our own premises came convenience and an increased sense of belonging, but the workload of the church also increased accordingly. First, we had to organize our own Sunday School immediately. This work of planning and organizing was assigned to Mrs. Theophilus. Thank the Lord, many brothers and sisters gladly participated, and very soon we started several Sunday School classes. As a result, our children were able to attend Sunday School as usual, and the Sunday Service attendance continued to increase.

Regarding forming an "Organized Church", after discussing with the District, it was decided that a membership meeting be called on October 10, 1990. On the day when the formation of the Organized Church was declared, there were 62 chartered members. A provisional Executive Board was formed comprising of seven people, with Rev. Teng as chairman, myself as vice-chairman, Wei-Tih Cheng as secretary, Stephen Li as treasurer, and Burn Lin, Sue Lin, and Lawrence Liu as members.

The Development of the Church - God's Blessing

Conceptually the three processes of founding, formation, and development of a church are separate, but practically they are intimately integrated. To make it easier to explain how God blessed the development of the church, I am listing the following items.

Ownership of the Premises and Its Responsibilities

Back in late April 1990 when we received the good news from the District: In view of the unusual circumstances surrounding the establishment of our church (Note: under normal circumstances for the establishment of a new local church within the C&MA, upon agreement of the District, the District will support the funding for three years until the local church becomes self sufficient financially. However, the two founding pastors of our church served on a voluntary basis all along. Thus, the starting of our church did not need any special seed money, nor any financial support from the District.) and the great potential for development, the District decided to give us the premises as a gift and transferred ownership of the property to us using the symbolic price of one dollar. (The process of ownership transfer was completed in April 1992.)

Being a "property owner" brought more responsibilities and burdens. We were responsible for insurance and the maintenance of the premises. The parsonage, especially, needed various repairs when we took over, and that required a sizable amount of money. Brothers and sisters responded to the call for funds to meet the need and quickly contributed over $60,000 to enable repair work to start immediately. At the same time, to express our gratitude to the District, from May 1990 (Note: prior to this it was considered as rent) through the end of 1994, we gave $600 every month as a thanksgiving offering.

The Advancement of the Ministry

(1) English Ministry: In early 1991, children of the congregation were growing up and a youth ministry (mainly English-speaking) was urgently needed. Parents of the youth got together and started a youth group. They invited David and Patty Liu to travel from New York City to a member's house once a month to lead the group. Brothers and sisters of the church led another session each month at the church. When David and Patty stopped coming, we invited Dr. Gerry Rau from Ithaca to come and help for two weekends every month, and the ministry slowly developed. However, in mid-1992 Dr. and Mrs. Rau decided to return to Taiwan to work. The church contemplated recruiting a full-time English pastor, but was unable to get an appropriate candidate. During that period parents continued organizing youth activities so the ministry was not interrupted. It was not until May 1993 when Rev. Gregg Orr joined us. Rev. Orr graduated from the Alliance Theological Seminary and had a strong burden for cross-cultural ministry. Through his leadership (on a part-time basis) for over two years, with the help of Joe Chia, Peter Khoo, and Mr. and Mrs. David Chen, he not only continued the youth ministry and the English Bible study, but also started the English Sunday Service. Rev. Orr all along wished to serve as a missionary overseas, so he resigned in May 1995 in preparation for serving in China through an evangelical organization and the C&MA. In June of the next year, God led Brother Jim Long, who was still studying at the Alliance Theological Seminary, to help us on a part-time basis. Up to now, the English ministry is still under Jim's leadership. Starting in September 1997, the English Service was rescheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. following the Mandarin Service and held at the main sanctuary (Mandarin and English Services and Sunday Schools alternate in time), and attendance noticeably increased.

(2) Fellowship and Visitation Ministries: As Rev. Teng and Rev. Theophilus taught at the seminary, we invited many Chinese seminary students over that period to help. Those with significant impacts on our ministry include Mong Ling Huang, James Sun, Achara, Hung Lian Kwok and Inggriani Megawati. Among them Achara served the longest. She first served as a seminary student, and continued to serve part-time after she graduated. She developed the visitation ministry, organized Bible study groups, and started children's Vacation Bible School. This continued until she left us in September 1997 to serve as senior pastor of the New York Choi Thai Church.

(3) Einstein and Columbia Ministries: In 1991, Mr. and Mrs. Wei-Tih Cheng had a strong burden for evangelism towards the mainland Chinese scholars at the Einstein Medical Center. Through caring and biweekly Bible Studies, they gradually built up the ministry. Later they were joined by Achara and Jau-Yi Lee and the ministry continued to develop. Starting in August 1994 Achara, Jau-Yi, and Mr. and Mrs. Yu Shan Zou started a Bible Study at the Columbia University. My wife and I also helped lead the Bible Study. Even today, these two ministries are among the major evangelistic and discipleship ministries of our church.

(4) Other Church Work: As the ministry developed, church work increased and we needed the support of numerous brothers and sisters, or else the pastor would not be able to focus on prayer and preaching. Thank God that many brothers and sisters participated in the ministry during this period: Zhe Yuan Lin, Linda Ru, Lily Horng, Hung Lian Kwok, Jonathan Cheng, Frances Hsieh, David Liang, Samuel Li, Yi Pai Chu, Andrew Chen, Oriena Chiu and May Lai served as accompanists. Wei-Tih Cheng and Stephen Li served as interpreters in addition to serving on the Board. Hon-Fei Lai served faithfully in hymn singing and treasury. Esther Cheng has served as the coordinator for the caring ministry for a long time. Through helping to organize fellowship groups and publishing "From the Caring Corner , she encourages brothers and sisters to care for one another, and to strengthen the atmosphere of the spiritual family. Richard Dang started and managed the church library and bookstore, took charge of recording Sunday sermons and church accounting activities, prepared weekly bulletins, and is currently serves as Coordinator of Evangelism and Missions. May Lai, Alice Chia, David Chen, and Changxiang Wang were responsible for food services. Gary Lim and Eileen Dang served as Sunday School Superintendents. Mrs. Theophilus and Nina Liang served in Children's Ministry. Mike Lin was Secretary of the Board at a time when he was most busy at work, and experienced: "how one's days are, one's strength will be". Jean Lin spent lots of time driving people to church and leading people to the Lord. Mary Li prayed with love behind the scenes, and currently participates in preparing weekly bulletins. The maintenance of the baptismal, the church premises, and the parsonage was under the tender loving care of Martin Jer, Charles Wu, James Lee, and Vincent Young. Soon after Jing Yang was transferred into the church, he gladly took charge of the "transportation department" of the church. He and many brothers took turns to provide rides to Einstein and Columbia folks. Kaoru Chen, whom we all know well, has faithfully served as usher and in keeping track of attendance every Sunday since the founding of the church. She takes note of people skipping Sunday Services and mails them Sunday bulletins the next day. There are many other brothers and sisters participating in various church ministries, of whom I cannot describe in detail.

The Harvest From Sowing in Tears

As the Sunday Service ministry stabilized, the evangelism ministry started developing. In addition to personal evangelism by individual believers, the church designated the first Sunday of each month as Evangelism Sunday. Once a year we held a church-wide evangelism weekend. In addition, we encouraged truth-seekers to attend the annual Gospel Camp organized by the Bergen County Christian Testimony Church. As the Scripture said, "Those who sow in tears will reap with joy." God let our church see the number of believers increasing every year. On the average there were 12 converts baptized every year. As a general rule, baptismal service was held every Easter Sunday and another Sunday in October, and if necessary, an additional baptismal service was scheduled. General requirements for someone seeking baptism included attending baptismal class for 6 to 8 weeks, being interviewed by the Pastor prior to baptism to ensure that the individual had a clear understanding of one's salvation, the meaning of baptism, and the faith and organization of the C&MA. (Please refer to a separate article for a list of people baptized.)

The Progression of Mission Offering

Right from the beginning, Rev. Teng and myself had a burden in building a church emphasizing evangelism and missions. Thus, in October 1988, the year the church started, we encouraged brothers and sisters to respond to the annual faith pledge of the C&MA Great Commission Fund. Even though at that time the church had not taken form yet, and the congregation numbered only in the thirties, everybody was fervent and set the first year Missions goal at $3,000. It turned out the actual offering was more than the goal. The following years the Missions goal was increased: $3,000, $6,000, $12,000, $15,000 At this point, including our local evangelism work and support for mission organizations, missions offering comprises about 20 percent of total expenditure.

Continuation of Ministry Through Our New Pastor

Rev. Teng's ministries in North America and overseas kept increasing. In early 1995 he decided to accept a request by the New York Chinese Alliance Church to help them start their Mandarin ministry, and his time with our church had to decrease. Our church treasured Rev. Teng's leadership and asked him to be our Advisory Pastor, and at the same time invited me to be the voluntary Senior Pastor. August 1995 to July 1996 was my sabbatical year at the seminary. During this sabbatical period, I moved with my wife into the parsonage so we could spend more time helping out in various church ministries. The church learned that I would be leaving the seminary after the sabbatical, and the Board unanimously invited me to stay and serve as full-time pastor. After prayerful consideration, I felt God's guidance for me to continue serving in the ministry of theological education, and finally in May 1996 officially accepted the invitation of the ABS Centre of Canada to be the Director of the Centre starting in October. In late 1996 the church rented the gymnasium of the Ridgeway Alliance Church (the site where the church was founded) and held a farewell party for myself and my family, and at the same time asked me to be their Advisory Pastor.

Before we got our new pastor, every month I returned for a week from Toronto, Canada to assist in the ministry, and at the same time actively seek a new pastor for the church. Thank the Lord for listening to the prayers of brothers and sisters. Finally in August 1997 He led His faithful servant Rev. Samuel Chang to be the Senior Pastor of the church. Under the leadership of Rev. Chang, and with participation of co-workers and brothers and sisters, various ministries of the church developed noticeably. Looking beyond the horizon, I can say that the future of the church is unlimited.