And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV)
Collaboration Between WCCCC and W4CAA
In 2019, we celebrated WCCCC’s 50th anniversary. God has blessed this ministry through so many generations and continues to bless us now. Imagine being 20 years old when this student ministry started. You would have been 70 years old in 2019!
Because of the special nature of the 2019 Winter Conference, the organization and planning of this year was a collaboration between West Coast Chinese Christian Conference (WCCCC) and our alumni association (W4CAA). Not only did we have our annual WCCCC Winter Conference, but we also had a W4CAA theme of ‘Cherish the Past, Treasure the Present, Embrace the Future: A Century of Christian Student Movement’.
This was our conference schedule (pdf here):
50 Years of Fulfilling the Great Commission
In the last 50 years, much has changed in the world around us, but the God whom we serve, and his Great Commission spoken by Jesus before his glorious Ascension into heaven, has not changed. According to Matthew 28:16–20, Jesus commanded the Eleven Apostles (minus Judas Iscariot),
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach [or disciple] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Matthew 28:16-20 (KJV)
WCCCC is one small part of a greater movement that has been happening globally. For the past 50 years, we have played a part in faithfully fulfilling Jesus’s Great Commission. We have served the Chinese churches by training students and young adults to become leaders in their local communities and by working together with local Chinese churches to be a blessing both at home and overseas.
Discerning God’s Vision for WCCCC
Over the course of these 50 years, this ministry has often needed to pause and reflect on how God has blessed us and in what direction God is leading us now. Our ministry had its most notable time of reflection during our 1980 Winter Conference where we had a ‘discussion of ideas and concepts contributed by many brothers and sisters concerning the Winter Conference movement developed over the years since [WCCCC] began in 1969’.
The discussions in this time of reflection, and the articles that were issued from these discussions, were meant not just to investigate the past but also to express a hope for the future. For example, Kenneth Chin wrote in 1981,
We will expect future generations of Winter Conference leaders to amend, delete, or add to these statements. But an article of this nature may help many brothers and sisters to better understand the background of the movement.
In the conference’s 50th year, we were at a time to pause and reflect once more on how God had blessed us, to thank God for all he had done, to lay the foundation for future generation of leaders serving in this ministry, to reëxamine and reärticulate the vision God had set for this ministry, and to look out into the distant horizon and continue our movement forward.
Additional Resources
- Fact Sheet of the West Coast Chinese Christian Conference in the 1980s (Pak-Yan Liang; 1980)
- Philosophy of the Winter Conference Movement (Kenneth Chin; March, 1981)
- On the Current Goals and Objectives of the Winter Conference Movement (Pak-Yan Liang; April 1981)
- Guidelines for the Winter Conference Movement in the 1980s (Richard Yen, 1980)