Our current preaching series on the book of Acts looks at the nature and the establishment of the first Church. It is timely to take this opportunity to reflect on the nature of CPC as a church body.
What are your views? Is CPC a suburban church, a local church, or a regional church?
An old CPC folk shared that CPC is a missional church like the church of Antioch. I did not agree with him at first but it got me thinking about it more.
Let’s look at the Cantonese student ministry in particular. Given CPC’s proximity to three universities (University of Technology Sydney, University of Sydney and University of New South Wales), we have a long history of active involvement in ministering to students. Back in the 1990’s, when there was a great influx of Hong Kong students, the size of the Cantonese Student Fellowship was well over 100 people. Throughout the years, more than 20 of them have become missionaries and pastors. The Lord has indeed used CPC to nurture and to build up the next generation of Cantonese speaking leaders for His Kingdom in Sydney as well as overseas.
Moving forward, an increasing number of both high school and university students from Hong Kong is expected in Sydney. The increase is due to the changes in Hong Kong as well as the provision of a new permanent residence visa stream for Hong Kong students by the Australian government. I am really thankful that the Session also sees this opportunity of reaching out to Cantonese speaking students and have decided to allocate an additional pastoral resource for this ministry.
Please pray for us at CPC to be faithful in carrying out the ministry which the Lord has called us by the power and the enablement of the Holy Spirit.
從我們目前使徒行傳的講道系列中，看到第一個教會的性質和建立。趁此機會，我們也反思長老會作為一個教會團體的本質。
你的看法是怎樣？長老會是一個小區性教會、地方教會還是區域性教會？
一位長老會的前會友分享說，長老會是像安提阿教會一樣的宣教教會。起初我不同意他的看法，但它讓我思想了多些。
讓我們特別看看粵語學生事工。鑑於 CPC 靠近三所大學（雪梨科技大學、雪梨大學和新南威爾士大學），我們長期以來一直積極參與服務學生。早在 1990 年代，當大量香港學生湧入時，粵語學生聯誼團契的人數超過 100 人。多年來，他們中有20多人成為宣教士和牧者。主確實使用長老會為祂的國度、不論是雪梨和海外培育去建立下一代粵語領袖。
展望未來，預計雪梨將有越來越多來自香港的高中生和大學生。這個增加是由於香港的變化以及澳大利亞政府為香港學生提供新的永久居留簽證。我真的很感謝長老議會也看到這個接觸粵語學生的機會，並決定為這個事工分配額外的牧者資源。
請為我們在 CPC 禱告，讓我們忠心遵行主藉著聖靈的能力和賦予呼召我們所行的事工。
