Taiwan Church News

3298 Edition

May 11 - 17, 2015

Editorial

Editorial: The Aboriginal Mission In Taiwan And The World

For the aboriginal peoples' churches and mission, 20th century is a time ofextraordinary significance. Not only the Christian gospel are evangelized widespread among so many aboriginal tribes and society, establishing more than 500 PCT churches, but also consolidated the social base of Christian churches within the aboriginal society. All these demonstrates the influence of church among the life and development of the indigenous communities.

In the 20th century's aboriginal mission, Yu-Shan Theological College and Seminary(YTCS)played a non-negligible role as an important leader. Established to expand the Kingdom of God and the salvation of Christian gospel within the aboriginal society, YTCS is a timely church institute based on the demands of theology and mission with the assigned four historical missions:

1. Train the missionary workers in a short rush. Facing the exponent growth inthe initial evangelization of the aboriginal society, YTCS had to open some instant training courses on the Bible and theology to meet the shortage of evangelical workers.

2. Get involved to build the church from the scratch. When more and moreaboriginal folks came into church, the demand of a church building became urgent as the bigger space was needed. So, almost all the early YTCS alumni were engaged in building church by heir own hands.

3. Hold lectures of apologetic training and orthodox theological defenseincessantly in Presbytery. This is due to the biblical understanding and faith knowledge were not yet deeply rooted in aboriginal society; some false prophecy, heretics or even the Charismatics movement were still in fashion among the tribes.

4. Teach the church members to live a faithful life with dignity, hope andholiness under the impact of the secularization.

Confronting the drastic change of a new era, as the Kingdom of God is keepgrowing and expanding, YTCS should also respond with a new concept of mission. First, the theological training and quality should be up grated doubtlessly, as the living standards and knowledge level had been evidently improved within aboriginal societies. Second, instead of focusing the missionary concern on the aboriginal churches and tribal communities across Taiwan island, an broad perspective attending to an integral Taiwan society and the global aboriginal societies should be included.

Why do we have to make these changes? This is bcause YTCS has always positioned her theology as an engagement with the lives and sufferings of the aboriginal people, and as an effort to change the lives of the aboriginal communities by imputing values and power of aboriginal theologies.

As to the content of our own aboriginal theologies, we still need to studyhard on various theological fields to facilitate our diverse viewpoints and dimensions. Theology should be a practical instrument, helping people know God more and be close to Him. Especially, when the theological audience is the aboriginal as a special group, YTCS should think twice whether their theologies could be understood by their tribal fellows?

Now, it's the 69th anniversary of YTCS. Except YTCS's past contributions to the aboriginal society should be confirmed, Taiwan churches as a whole would expect more that YTCS could respond to the calling from today's theology and mission and become the sign of the aboriginal mission in 21st century!