L to R : Hau-Sheng Chng and Shin-Hui Chen, co-pastors at Ju Dang Presbyterian Church (Photo: WCRC/Greenaway)

Over breakfast with the husband and wife pastoral team at Ju Dang Presbyterian Church in the village of Tek-Tung, talk turned to the people whose lives have set the model for 21st century mission in the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan. Hau-Sheng Chng and his wife, Shin-Hui Chen, told me of past and present ecumenical and mission personnel whose ideas and support have nurtured their ministry in the rural community to which they were called 25 years ago. As they talked, I could see how they have taken those ideas and used them as seeds for what has become a truly contextual and contemporary approach to mission in their community where Christians represent only 0.1 per cent of the population.

The chain of inspiration begins with 19th century missionaries from Europe and North America such as the Landsborough father and son team of medical doctors who brought western medicine and machines with them from Scotland and founded a hospital in the Taichung area that has grown into the Changhua hospital complex; the Canadian, George Leslie MacKay, who is considered a spiritual father of Taiwan Theological Seminary; and the American nurse, Joyce McMillan, whose legacy includes the Erhlin Happy Christian Home for severely physically and mentally challenged children and adults.

The early European and North American missionaries raised funds for their work among their families and friends and through church appeals. Today it seems more and more Taiwanese mission workers combine their commitment to Christian service with business skills. Chng supports models for mission work “missionaries” that are self-supporting by running ethical and socially responsible businesses using effective management practices.
People like Yu-Chang Lin represent the new generation of Taiwanese doing mission in their own country. Lin, who is a member of Ju Dang Presbyterian Church and a polio survivor, was raised from age six in the home founded by McMillan. Today, she is the superintendant of that home and a successful social entrepreneur running a restaurant and online food sales business to provide employment for its young adults.

Ju Dang church is accessible to people in wheelchairs or who walk with crutches like Lin: call it an “architectural welcome mat.” It is this level of social awareness that makes Ju Dang parish and Chng and his wife Chen such sources of inspiration for a new wave of social entrepreneurs – these modern-day missionaries with business know-how and deep faith in God.