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Chinese Pastors Translating CRC Church Order

February 19, 2014
Members of the SPE peer group

Members of the SPE peer group

Members of a Christian Reformed Church peer group of Chinese-speaking pastors are currently translating the denomination’s Church Order into their native language.

The goal of the peer group is to have the Church Order translation finished and available by later this year.

Rev. David Koll, the denominational director of candidacy, says that the peer group of Chinese-speaking pastors began meeting with the support of a grant from the CRC's Sustaining Pastoral Excellence SPE program.

Out of these meetings arose the idea of translating the Church Order into Chinese.

“The Chinese-speaking pastor peer group came about because a few of the Chinese-speaking churches in the CRC needed pastors in the past few years," said Koll.

“As these pastors went through the affiliation process for ordination in the CRC, I was able to introduce the pastors to one another — and helped them apply for and receive a peer-learning grant from SPE.”

With support from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the CRC launched SPE in 2003. Since January 2012, denominational Ministry Shares have funded SPE programming. The purpose of the program has been to cultivate and sustain a culture of pastoral excellence in the CRC, focusing on assisting pastors through peer learning, pastors' spouses through conferences, and pastor couples (pastors and his/her spouse) through learning events.

As the Chinese pastors met together, said Koll, they decided it would be helpful for their church leaders and for future Chinese-speaking pastors who enter the CRC if the CRC Church Order and the CRC Creeds and Confessions were translated into Chinese.

“One of the pastors, Rev. Paul Wang, had already worked with some of his friends to translate the CRC Creeds and Confessions, so the remaining project was the CRC Church Order,” Koll said.

The pastors hope to have printable copies of the Church Order and Creeds and Confessions available for use in the Chinese-speaking CRC churches represented in the SPE Group, and more broadly to have the document available on the CRC web site for use by anyone who wishes to use it.

Led by Chinese-speaking pastors and located in several communities across North America, nearly 20 Chinese congregations and ministries are affiliated with the CRC.