貝城華人基督教會


Brief History 教會簡史

The predecessor of Chinese Christian Church of Baton Rouge (CCCBR) was a campus Bible study group. It met regularly on Friday night as early as 1979, and became more organized with elected coworkers in 1980. Beginning in 1983, monthly Sunday worship services were held in addition to the Bible Studies. In 1985, we formed a non-profit organization, Chinese Christian Fellowship of Baton Rouge, and registered with the government. The church was formally founded in March, 1986. In August of that year Rev. James Tien joined the church and became the first pastor. During his tenure, the congregation continued to grow, and a need of a larger meeting place arose. We purchased the building at the current location in September 1990. Rev. Tien retired in 1993. Afterwards, Rev. James Chen (1993–1999), Rev. K.C. Chen (2000–2014), Rev. Steve Hsia (2014–2020), and Pastor Zhaoyuan Liu (2020–present) successively served as the church pastor: all four of them were one time laymen of this church, and later became full-time ministers through God’s grace.
When the church was first founded, church members were mainly Chinese from Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Southeast Asian countries. The main focus of church ministry was to evangelize among Chinese students and scholars in LSU and other nearby campuses. With time, both the composition and the ministry of the church became diversified. Currently, about two-thirds of the Chinese congregation of the church consists of Chinese from the mainland, with the remaining one third from Taiwan and elsewhere. Evangelizing among campus students and scholars is still an important ministry, but we also use various means to reach out to an increasingly larger Chinese population in the community. As we spread the Gospel and build up believers, many ministries, such as worship, discipleship, missions, fellowship, children and youth ministries, have all grown over the years.

本教會起始於1979年,由數位信徒開始了每週五晚上的查經聚會。在1980年成立了校園查經班,並組成了同工會,1983年開始了每月一次的主日崇拜。1986年三月正式成立教會,定名為「貝城華人基督教會」,同年八月田雅各牧師就任本教會第一任牧師。在田牧師牧會期間,因教會增長,需要更大的場地,在1990年九月蒙神所賜,本教會順利購得屬於自己的教堂。1993年田牧師退休,之後分由陳興福牧師(1993–1999)、陳國志牧師(2000–2014)、夏宇明牧師(2014–2020)及劉炤元牧師(2020–現在)擔任牧養的工作。最近四任教會牧者原來都是本教會平信徒,後來經由神的恩典而負起全職牧會的責任。
教會初期時的會友大多是來自於臺灣、香港及東南亞其它國家。那時教會主要事工是向LSU及附近其它大學的中國學生傳福音。經過多年,教會的成員及事工都變得多元化。如今,中文堂會眾約有三分之二來自中國大陸,其餘則來自臺灣等地。校園傳福音仍是教會重要事工,但同時對社區中越來越多的華人,我們也用不同的管道來聯繫接觸,讓更多的人認識福音同蒙福音的好處。教會對外傳福音,對內造就信徒,在崇拜、門徒訓練、差傳、團契、兒童及青少年事工均逐漸成長。


As time went by children of our brothers and sisters grew up and educated here in the U.S., the need for an English-speaking ministry became increasingly important. In 1994 Brooke Mote was hired as our part-time Youth Director and started our English Ministry. Brooke served in this role until 2000. Other English Ministers to serve the church were: Minister Karen Law (1997-2000), Minister Timothy Peng (2001-2007), Pastor Johnny Tang (2007-2010), Pastor William Englehart (2011-2018), and Pastor Daniel Jackson (September 2019 - September 2021). In September of 2021, Pastor Daniel was called by God and left the church to serve as a missionary to Europe. Two months later (December 2021), Heath Hebert began his serves as our current English Pastor. Current English Mininstry congregation is consisted of children of our brothers and sisters as well as of the Chinese community, couples of ethnic Chinese and foreigners, and some American adults.

隨着時間的推移,教會弟兄姊妹們的子女逐漸長大并在美國接受教育,英語事工的需要越來越重要。1994年Brooke Mote被聘為兼職的青少年主任從而開始了教會的英文事工。Brooke服事到2000年。這些年來,我們的英文事工先後有英文傳道Karen Law (1997-2000)、英文傳道Timothy Peng (2001-2007)、英文牧師Johnny Tang (2007-2010)、英文牧師William Englehart (2011-2018)和英文牧師Daniel Jackson(September 2019 - September 2021)帶領。2021年9月,Daniel牧師蒙神呼召離開這裏去歐洲作宣教士,當年12月,Heath Hebert成為本教會現任英文牧師。英文部現有成員為教會肢體的子女及華人社區青少年與兒童、一些華裔與外國人婚姻的夫婦與少數美國成年人。