Bible Study Group Organizational Meeting
Time: October 20, 2002, Sunday, 1:30pm
Place: University of North Dakota International Center
Present: Rev. Abraham Hsueh, Mrs. Hsueh, 4 Christian workers, Luke Huang and Lucy Zhu, Tar-pin and Jean Chen, Huawei Zeng and Danping Kuo, Shu-Fen Shih, Shi-Yen Li, and Shen Yang
Rev. Hsueh facilitated the meeting and Jean Chen was asked to record and prepare the minutes for this meeting. The meeting was begun with Rev. Hsueh's prayer. Rev. Hsueh praised the Lord for His love and guidance which has led the 3-day evangelical event at UND campus. He also prayed to the Lord to continue guiding us in developing the discipleship and mission in the metropolitan area of Grand Forks.
Rev. Hsueh asked the attendees to share their thoughts about this evangelical event. Starting from Tar-pin and finishing with Shih-Fen, 14 people around the table one by one shared their individual feeling, viewpoint, testimonies, experience, and encouragements.
Rev. Hsueh encouraged the attendees to establish the goal of readiness for the mission and ministry. Each individual should develop a sense of responsibility to be His worker and to take a journey to bring the Jesus Christ into other Chinese hearts. The path of the development in spiritual growth, Christian work involvement, gospel event participation, and the actual action should be held as everyone's responsibility. We should work on the best way to connect the Bible to our daily lives and we also need to prepare ourselves to stand in spiritual warfare. These are very challenging tasks we will encounter.
Rev. Hsush gave us three developmental steps for implementing our ministry goals. He encouraged us to clearly understand these goals.
The first step is to establish the Chinese Bible Study Group. We should actively initiate the events and invite people to participate. After we bring the gospel to people’s hearts, we should implement routine and systematic Bible study schedules in order to know His words and salvation more clearly. Organizational scheme is an essential instrument during our initial and developing stage; however having reached our organizational target should only be regarded as achieving our short-term goal. Our ultimate goal is to be able to respond to the Lord's calling and to accept the mission responsibility. We want to become equipped, to cleanse ourselves, to live in a lifestyle with holiness, to devote ourselves to this ministry, and eventually to submit ourselves wholeheartedly to the Lord.
The second step is to plant the church and advance the gospel broadly to the Chinese in the region. We should provide a place for believers to have further spiritual growth, fellowship, and worship. Our goals should be to advance the believers to become mature, to become disciples, and to be equipped with the armor of God.
The third step is to search for a pastor to shepherd the flock. The church will then be able to provide doctrinal stability, virtues of Christ, and the mutual edification.
Rev. Hsush then led the organizational session and he encouraged everyone to be involved in the discussions. Rev. Hsueh offered his love and care to this newly formed Chinese Bible Study Group as the consultant. The name of the group, the person serving in the positions, the meeting date and time of the Bible study group, the meeting place, and the content were discussed.
1. The official name has been discussed.
Two names, UND Chinese Bible Study Group (UND-CBSG) and Greater Grand Forks Chinese Bible Study Group (GGF-CBSG), have been introduced and discussed. For the purpose of attracting more Chinese in the area to participate, the name of GGF-CBSG seemed broader and more generalized. However, for the concerns of being eligible in using campus facility and receiving possible resources from UND, UND-CBSG may be more feasible. (Recorder's note: The concerns and issues had been discussed, however, the final decision on the selection of name was not made on floor).
2. The choosing of the six coworkers from the floor was made.
The duties of each position were described by Rev. Hsueh. The term of the position(s) is(are) 6-month initial term, from October 2002 to April 2003
a. Chairman - Tar-pin Chen
b. Vice Chairman - Luke Huang
c. Secretary - Shih-Fen Shih
d. Treasurer -Yang Shen
e. Accountant - Jean Chen
f. Communications – Danping Kuo
3. Meeting date and time for weekly Bible study
Every Friday night 7pm to 9pm
4. Place
Four families (Chen, Huang, Shih, and Zeng) were willing to open their homes for the weekly meeting place. The first Bible study will be met on November 1, 2002 at Chen's house. The following rotating sequence on the meeting place will then be discussed.
5. Captains
The leaders for leading the Bible study will be Tar-pin and Luke.
6. Content and events
Brother Shi-Yen Li and his family will be moving to Wyoming in November 1st. The first gathering, as a farewell party, was scheduled on the following Friday (October 25, 2002) as a format of potluck meal, singing, and testimonial given by Brother Li. Luke will contact the International Center to reserve the meeting place and announce the event through the emails to the fellow Chinese. Starting from November 1, 2002, we will spend two weeks in studying the first four chapters of Genesis to know more about the God's creation and the original sin. We will then proceed to study the scriptures of John, followed by the Acts, and the Romans.
7. Follow-up
Rev. Hsueh plan to return to Grand Forks and offer the Believer Enhancement and Enrichment training classes on January 24 to January 26, 2003.
After the detailed organizational scheme and format of the Chinese Bible Study Group were set, Rev. Hsueh encouraged us to plan and promote attending NCCCWC (the winter Bible camp). He also expressed his expectation on all of eight new believers will receive the nurturing through our constant prayers, the weekly Bible study, and the caring.
After the prayer, the meeting was adjourned at 4:00pm.