Taiwan Church News

3878 Edition

22 ~ 28 June, 2026

Weekly Topical

‘Amis X Bunun : History-Breaking Missionary-Sending Agreement Announced to Send PCT Evangelists across Presbytery Boundary

Reported by Dalul

The PCT enters into a new era of coordinated missionary-sending framework across presbytery boundary. In the afternoon on June 22 at Tatana Church of Bunun Presbytery, ‘Amis Presbytery and Bunun Presbytery jointly signed a contract approving evangelists to serve and help each other in church ministries.

Rev Chen Ze-yin, secretary of PCT Mission Ministry Committee, was invited to give a sermon at Tatana Church of Bunun Presbytery. He called newly ordained evangelists to learn and assist church pastors and co-workers to deepen their understanding of the PCT faith and order.

In the sealing ceremony of contract, signed by Rev Bavan Ispalidav, moderator of Bunun Presbytery, and Rev Lising Seyci, moderator of the ‘Amis Presbytery, the missionary-sending agreement was co-ordinated and witnessed by Rev Chen Ze-yin, the representative of PCT General Assembly.

Rev Chen indicated that the missionary=sending agreement between presbyteries was due to the fact, that there were sufficient Bunun evangelists with MDiv degrees could be sent amid Bunun’s Presbytery in recent years, while the ‘Amis Presbytery now faces a shortage of evangelists with MDiv degrees in 2026.

In order to satisfy current missionary demands of diverse ethnic groups, both Bunun and ‘Amis Presbyteries started to negotiate under the cross-ethnic missionary-sending framework, a.k.a. Article 2 of the PCT Act of “Executive Rules of Missionary Sending”.

“To maintain the characteristics and autonomy of each ethnic people,” said Rev Chen, “the missionary-sending agreement across presbytery boundary aims to establish a pioneering effect of ‘a holistic mission in reciprocal support’ through the PCT order to achieve a mechanism of balancing demands of missionaries across ethnic groups.”

In this ‘Amis X Bunun agreement, it is stipulated that Bunun missionary will serve local church in ‘Amis Presbytery, and this new evangelist will be decided by drawing lots among three Bunun seminary graduate with MDiv on June 26, 2026. In other words, If one of those three Bunun evangelists is chosen to serve in Bunun Presbytery, he or she will be sent to serve in ‘Amis church according to the newly signed missionary-sending agreement.

This history-breaking agreement is not easy to reach, as this is actually a challenging task pioneered by six indigenous Presbyteries in the past. Rev Chen revealed that in April and May 2026, Bunun Presbytery faced the problem that it has too many evangelists to send, while ‘Amis Presbytery has no evangelist available to send and serve local church.

The turning point came In late May, when Rev Chen was invited to ‘Amis Presbytery to deliver a training session for pastoral ministry, he shared the concept of PCT order and its practice of reciprocal support in church ministry. And his ideas was highly affirmed by the participating pastors.

Although there were no ‘Amis evangelist with MDiv degree in 2026, Rev Sudu Tada, deputy general secretary of the PCT General Assembly Office, still invited representatives of three ‘Amis Presbyteries to attend the Missionary-Sending Conference held at Bunun Presbytery on June 1.

Finally, a consensus was reached in that conference: With the acceptance and recognition by PCT Central Standing Committee, both ‘Amis Presbytery and Bunun Presbytery were requested to complete bilateral negotiation before June 16 and seal the agreement of reciprocal support on June 22.

Under this circumstance, the PCT order and legal procedures were prepared ready before the lots of new Evangelists to be drawn. In addition, skepticisms and complaints of “missionary-sending process is subjective with prejudices” can be avoided. And all these efforts to make missionary-sending fair and just are beneficial to all parties involved.

Rev Chen said that the reciprocal support in church ministry is a cross-ethnic fellowship in the spirit of “help each other with fair trade”. “When the evangelists are sent into other ethnic groups, they are recognized and accepted as official missionaries from original Presbytery they serve,” said Rev Chen, “in the meantime, when the evangelists serve under new ethnic group, their mother tongue, cultural identity and original ethnic rights are still recognized by PCT order.”

For example, during the period of reciprocal support in church ministry, the sent evangelists, who are sent to another ethnic group, can still use their mother tongues to participate in qualification examination for pastor jobs, return to their own Presbytery annually to attend the assembly or submit their ministry reports, speak mother tongues of their own ethnic group to deliver sermons in their qualification examination for pastor jobs.

In the past few years, there had already existed many cases of reciprocal support in church ministry, for example, pastors of Ciubu Presbytery had been sent into Sediq Ethnic District Assembly and Zou Ethnic District Assembly; pastors of Rukai Presbytery had been exchanged with Taipei Presbytery; pastors of Tao Ethnic District Assembly had been sent into Eastern Payuan Presbytery.

The reciprocal support of church ministry between ‘Amis Presbytery and Bunun Presbytery delivers a consensus among the two ethnic groups and six Presbyteries. This precious achievement once again fulfills the resilient spirit of indigenous ethnic groups across Taiwan and witnesses the unfailing love from the kingdom of God.

Rev Chen said frankly, “the most concerning problem, during the negotiation among six presbyteries to solve missionary-sending, is the continuous decline of seminary students and the ascending trend of pastor shortage in the future.”

“The PCT General Assembly will continue to play the role as a platform to maintain the balance of missionary demands among local Presbyteries and tries its best to solve the shortage of missionay. At the same time, Rev Chen expects that all ethnic groups to encourage more lay people and the youth respond to God’s calling, apply to seminary and devote to serve the church like a full-time missionary.

Translated by Peter Wolfe