October 14, 2004

Chinese-language congregation growing in Almaden Valley

Chinese Church in Christ raising funds to find permanent building

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

The hospitality center of the Chinese Church in Christ (CCIC) along Camden Avenue is quiet and peaceful on this Sunday morning.

Head Pastor Rupert Hsu, 48, and three members of his congregation are taking turns praying in one of the center’s offices gathered around a table where bread and wine is carefully prepared for one of the faith’s most sacred ordinances—communion.

They sing the popular Bill Gaither evangelical Protestant hymn, “Because He Lives,” based on the Biblical reference found in Matthew 28:6.

Pastor Hsu speaks about the lyrics of the hymn, sung in Mandarin while holding hands. “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow…all fear is gone; I know He holds the future… and life is worth the living, just because He lives.”

The group has been spiritually fed and is grateful it can meet every week in the small center, which has been the CCIC’s headquarters for about a year.

In the afternoon, at around 2 p.m., about 100 Mandarin-speaking worshippers gather at South Hills Community Church, 6601Camden Ave., for a formal Chinese-language worship service and Sunday school classes.

Simultaneously, an English-speaking congregation of about 60 members holds a worship service in the next-door building for second-generation Chinese-Americans who don’t speak Mandarin, or who are in mixed marriages or who are devotees from other Asian countries like the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

After their respective worship services, the congregations enjoy refreshments and attend Sunday school classes. Communion is not given today as it’s only offered on the second Sunday of the month when Pastor Hsu and Pastor Peter Fong, who leads the English-speaking congregation, consecrate it.

There are so many members now in this growing church that its followers are raising funds to build their own worship house in Almaden. Pastor Hsu said building a new church would accommodate the large concentration of Asians who live in Almaden and who want to worship in their native language because their English is limited.

“We are really one church,” explained Pastor Hsu, of the two congregations. “We are one body in Christ.”

The church’s foundation is based on its ministry of evangelizing, teaching and caring. The church follows the style of a “local church where elders administer,” based upon 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:59 and 1 Peter 5:14.

Several elders help Pastor Hsu care for the congregation and the administration of the church. There is no differentiation in position or seniority among them. Decisions concerning the church’s administration must have unanimous consensus.

Beginnings
In the late 1960s, a small group of San Jose State University students began a Friday night Bible study. After many changes, they started a worship service on a Sunday afternoon in February of 1971. The Rev. Moses Yu brought a choir group from Berkeley to assist in the first service with about 30 believers.

Within 10 years, the congregation grew to several hundred members and the CCIC San Jose was born. In 1982, CCIC in Palo Alto was established. A third congregation, CCIC North Valley in Milpitas, was planted in 1987. Then the CCIC South Valley in Almaden was started in 1992. This month, a fifth congregation, CCIC Cupertino, was established. Though the five CCIC congregations are administratively and financially independent, they maintain close fellowship ties.

The Almaden CCIC was started by Dr. Tom Chow, who retired last year and started the nondenominational For All Saints Team Ministries to help other Chinese-language churches.

Members met for two years at South Valley Christian Church. Eventually they worked out an agreement with South Hills Community Church, where the congregation has been worshipping for about 10 years.

Performers become Christian
Church Deacon Rosa Huang, originally from Taiwan, is a retired software engineer and one of the church’s founding members. She’s lived in Almaden for 30 years.

She was brought up with no religious background although she was exposed to Catholicism and Protestantism.

“The first time I heard the message of the Gospel I believed because it talked about a new life in Christ. God does not require us to better ourselves, to keep improving ourselves. He gives us a new life when we believe. We start as a new person. That’s what attracted me.”

Huang said her new life didn’t grow until she began attending the CCIC. “I liked the teaching that God accepts us just as we are. He’s gracious to us. We don’t have to pretend. That was such a relief.”

Huang said many Chinese have a difficulty getting close to God because of their desire to please others and ‘perform.’ She said this misconception is universal.

Pastor Hsu agrees saying his compatriots work hard to please others, particularly their employers forcing them into spiritual emptiness. “We neglect our family, our spouses, our children. It’s not right. The emptiness could only be filled through God.”

Church member Min Mok, also from Taiwan, was a Catholic who converted to Christianity when she came to the United States.

One of the original 30 church founding members, she recalls how in 1989, she and husband, Y.C. Mok, had a mid life crisis after moving to Atlanta, Ga., where they lived for two years. “It was a time in our life when we were asking ourselves what all of it meant. What life’s purpose was,” she explained.

Her husband began attending a non-denominational Chinese-language church to meet other Chinese. During a Sunday worship service he heard a message that “moved him.” She and her sons began attending church with him. Their relationship improved. Their family was strengthened. “From then on life took a different meaning. We know who we are and why we’re here,” she said.

The mother of two, now a dedicated church volunteer, works in a number of church ministries, particularly the women’s ministry which hosts a fellowship meeting every Tuesday in one of the members’ homes. Her husband is now attending the seminary to learn more about the scriptures and Christian ministry.

Before accepting Christ as her Savior, Mok’s entire life was spent working extremely hard to make a name for herself. “My job was my career, my significance. It was, ‘don’t look at me. Look at my job.’”

She added: “Then I realized I had a limit and that I couldn’t make up the difference without Christ. Did I have anything left? No, just my work. When I became a Christian, the message of acceptance changed me. I understood He loves us unconditionally and accepts us the way we are. Even now I still get emotional when I think of that.”

Computer engineer Peter Chang, 46, a new church member, said he immigrated to the United States from Taiwan 20 years ago.

Despite being raised in a Christian home where church attendance was the norm, his parents separated. During his teenage years he struggled with pornography. He said he was set free from his addiction when he received Christ as his Savior. He’s now happy to have found the CCIC. “God’s spirit converted me. I prayed and the spirit touched me.”

He said growing up he lacked paternal love, which now has been filled with God’s love. He and his wife like attending the church because their teenage daughter can participate in the church’s youth programs.
Doctrinal position

The CCIC’s statement of faith proclaims its members believe in a God that exists eternally in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; that the Bible is God-breathed without error, that humankind can be saved through the sacrifice of Christ and that the church represents the body of Christ where members have been born again by the Spirit and forgiven of their sins.

“Christ is the head of the church, and all Christians are under His leadership. Together they cooperate to serve God, spread the gospel, lead men and women to Christ, and bear witness to the resurrection of the Lord,” the statement says.

Pastor Hsu
Born in Taiwan, he was raised a Buddhist. His mother and father were devout Buddhists instilling in him and his three younger siblings the formal adoration of Buddha.

In 1983, after graduating from college and working for the Chinese government for three years he saved enough money to buy a house. A 25-year-old Hsu began “searching for a better life.”

That’s when he immigrated to the United States enrolling at Arizona State University where he received his advanced degree in electrical engineering. Two families informally adopted him and were members of the Baptist church and taught him the meaning of “true Christian living.”

“I received a better life not because I advanced my education; not because I became an engineer and not because I became a manager. I found a better life because I found Christ. My wife and I said the best treasure we found in the United States is God.”

So strong was his conversion that he decided to become a minister. “I try to pass on this treasure, this happiness to other people.”

Today he’s the lead elder at the church. He was ordained in April of 1996 and became a full-time salaried-pastor in January of 2000. He also passed a pastoral exam, required of all pastors.

Prior to being called as a vocational pastor, he worked as an electrical engineer and an engineering manager. He holds a masters of divinity from the Oregon-based Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, which has a campus in Los Gatos.

He said his favorite part about being a pastor is helping people overcome difficulties through God’s word. His least favorite part is dealing with members who “give up on God” and are reluctant to save marriages or fix personal problems. “It really hurts when people give up.”

He’s married to Hseu-Hwang and they have three children.

For more information on the church, 6472 Camden Ave., No. 102, San Jose, Calif., 95120, call (408) 997-1982 or log onto www.ccic-sv.org.