Message from the Editor of Issue 54

Issue Editor's Page

Nathan Ng

The Lord Jesus promulgated the Great Commission. In addition to instructing his followers to bear witness for the Lord among the crowd and to strive to lead people to the Lord, the content also includes teaching believers to obey everything the Lord has commanded. That is to say, we must equip believers so that they can become disciples who can understand the Bible and practice the true way. In recent years, there has been a wave of immigration in Hong Kong, and many believers have moved to other places. Some of them are even the next generation of leadership successors that the church has been cultivating. The number of spiritually mature believers in Hong Kong has dropped sharply, and those who can assume important ministry positions in the church have The leadership team gradually became inactive. Training more believers to take on the mission has become an emergency strategy for many churches to solve the current predicament. This issue of "Sandow Journal" is themed "Equipment of Believers" and hopes to bring enlightenment to the Chinese church through scholars' research on the Bible, history and practical theology.

There are five special articles in this issue. Zhou Zhaozhen's "View of Disciple Equipment in Matthew's Gospel" first starts from the Old Testament and the Greek world to analyze the common view of discipleship and discipleship training in that era. Despite the diversity, the concepts of teacher and student were widely accepted in Jesus' day. Because of Jesus’ unique status as God, He required His disciples to regard Him alone as their teacher. He equipped his disciples through different methods, including teaching the truth directly, inducing thoughts through questions and answers, correcting errors, and indirectly warning the disciples by rebuking their enemies. The article concludes by reminding the church today that loving God and loving people is the purpose of equipping disciples. Therefore, they must pursue fearing God, being like Christ, building the church, pursuing unity, leading people to the Lord, and glorifying God.

The second special article is "The pursuit and renewal of believers led by lay believers: the "new spirituality" movement in the late Middle Ages" by Ye Peisen. Although scholars disagree on the definition of "new spirituality", it basically refers to the "Brothers of the Common Life" and its derived monastic groups. The author reviews the situation at that time, briefly introduces the five development periods of this movement, describes the unique experiences and thoughts of three key figures in this movement, and their tradition of submission to authority, thus presenting the main characteristics and beliefs of this movement. The "New Spirituality" movement had many influences on the church in later generations, and major reformers such as Martin Luther and Calvin were deeply inspired by it. The article finally attempts to point out what the church today can learn from in terms of the spirit and significance of the movement.

The author's humble work "Needs and Responses to Equipping Believers During the Reformation" first traces back to the various difficulties encountered by the Reformers in equipping believers to know the truth under the system dominated by the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, including the existing education system that maintains tradition and the superstitious education system. Religious realities, deviant and erroneous faith teachings at that time, and promiscuous and corrupt life practices. In response to current needs, the Reformers comprehensively promoted educational reform, updated the language and model of worship, translated the Old and New Testaments into various languages, worked hard to preach and write to explain the truth, taught core doctrines according to the Protestant faith, and corrected those who differed in belief and practice. question. Their promotion of believers' equipment is based on biblical truth, takes into account different aspects, meets the needs of the times, and emphasizes both belief and practice. They have set a good example. This is a valuable reminder for today's Chinese churches.

Another historical research article is "On the Believers' Equipment of Japanese Christian Groups During the Pacific War" written by Song Jun. The article first points out that the core of the imperial ideology at that time, based on three documents representing Japan's official position published during the Meiji and World War II periods, was to regard the emperor as sacred and the country as the supreme object of worship. The people should serve the public privately in order to support the emperor. transport. After half a century of indoctrination, this set of imperial beliefs has developed a high degree of uniformity among the people, supporting the Japanese people's war and aggression. Under this situation, Japan's Christian community also mixed national Shinto with Christian faith through degenerated preaching, worship, and services, cultivating believers to become blind loyalists and patriots, and active accomplices in imperial aggression and expansion.

The last special article in this issue is Pan Yuping's "The Role of Christian Spirituality Training in the Formation of Believers: A Case Study of Learners' Experiences." The article first uses two interview examples to point out how the study and practice of spirituality can help the interviewees narrow the distance between their faith cognition and experience, and help them examine their personal faith experience, thereby gaining a newer understanding. The second half of the article provides opinions on the design and arrangement of Christian spirituality training, emphasizing the need to face up to the differences between different spiritual traditions, calling for the development of the value of the evangelical faith tradition, examining the theological concepts that influence the Chinese church, and encouraging perseverance in faith. The goal of theological education integrated with life. The article concludes by advocating that spirituality should properly play its connecting role in the process of cultivating believers and reintegrate fragmented theological education. There are two other discussion articles in this issue. Zhu Meijuan and Liang Elijah's "Theoretical and Practical Model of Spiritual Life Formation in Theological Education" covers the spiritual life formation blueprints and arrangements of many seminaries and points out that although their basic concepts are different, they can still be summarized into three types in practice Categories: offering integrated subjects, offering independent spiritual formation subjects, and adding spiritual formation elements to existing subjects. The article concludes by recommending that the theological education community construct a widely recognized and comprehensive theory of spiritual formation, as well as a more inclusive practice model of spiritual formation.

The other article is "The Meaning of the Church in the World - Rereading Bonhoeffer's "Ethics"" by Lin Nuoxin, which attempts to point out the dual identity of the church on the basis of Jesus Christ as a substitute representative: it is both God and His purpose is also His tool. It is a divine group established by God on earth, a new humanity centered on Christ; it is also God’s alternative representative to the world, witnessing and declaring Jesus Christ and His salvation to the world. This dual identity cannot be separated.

As always, there are many book reviews in this issue, covering many Chinese and English books published in recent years, covering different fields such as the Bible, theology, and history. I hope that the articles in this issue will bring some light to Chinese churches in Hong Kong and overseas, help the church community equip believers more comprehensively and wisely, and alleviate today's dilemma of losing believers.