Diff for "CedarChurch"

Link to CouncilAgenda20220912 > CouncilMinutes20220912

Cedar Church correspondence

First email

From: Timothy Jiang <[email protected]>
Subject: Church collaboration
Date: 15 August 2022 at 9:50:37 am AEST
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>

Dear Pastor,
 
Peace be with you!
 
Cedar Christian Church Melbourne is a new church with about seventy people (including children). Currently, we worship and have fellowship in several homes. To further grow our church and expand the evangelical ministry in the Chinese community, we are actively looking for a place to have a worship service on the weekend (either Saturday or Sunday). Our team have visited your church recently; although we did not meet you personally, we feel your church facility can accommodate our needs. Therefore, we wonder if your church has the vision to develop ministry in the Chinese community or whether we can rent the space from you on weekends when it is not in use. We would appreciate it if you could get back to us at your earliest convenience.
 
We are an evangelical church, and our faith is based on the Apostles' Creed. We aim to build relationships through small groups. Our mission is to disciple and spread the gospel of Christ's redemption and bring love to communities. Our vision is that we serve God and pursue personal spiritual growth. We focus on changing our lives to be more like Christ, from the Pastor and co-workers to all members. We hope that everyone is shepherded; everyone's life is continuously renewed; everyone is discipled; everyone serves at church and evangelises. If God willing, we plan to plant more Chinese churches in English-speaking churches in Melbourne. Our passion is that the Gospel will enter the community and every family!
 
May we pray for one another in Christ! "Grace and peace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!"
 
If you have any questions, please contact Bing (0422884281) or Shine (0451980789)
 
We look forward to hearing from you.
 
Blessings,
 
Timothy Jiang,
A servant of God
Cedar Christian Church Melbourne

Tim Jiang
Pastor

Cedar Church
[email protected]
0430 088 777

Second email

From: Timothy Jiang <[email protected]>
Subject: The church cooperation
Date: 18 August 2022 at 11:39:42 pm AEST
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>

Dear Rev. Neil

Peace in Lord of Jesus Christ!

A few days ago I sent an email to several churches, including yours, seeking cooperation, which I trust you have received.

I am sending you this separate email today to express our desire to partner with your church or rent your church space.

Last time we met you in front of your church and had a brief communication. As you requested, in the previous email, we answered your request for our church's beliefs, proclamation of faith and vision. I hope that this will help you to have a preliminary understanding of us, and will be helpful to your church in discussing this matter.

If you need to know more about us, please let us know.  We would be very happy to answer any further questions you may have and can talk in person over a coffee at your convenience.

We look forward to hearing from you, thank you!

May God bless you and your church!

God's servant: Timothy Jiang
Cedar Christian Church 

Tim Jiang
Pastor

Meeting August 30

• NeilPeters and DavidMorgan met with Pastor Tim and three other members of Cedar Church.

• The conversation was open and with a generous spirit.
• Pastor Tim required translation of all conversation.
• Cedar Church comes from Shanghai.
• Neil outlined the UCA history and characteristics, including unity in diversity, and attitudes to sexual diversity and aboriginal Australians.
  • Sexual diversity is clearly an issue for them.
• Our use of the buildings on the weekends was described. Would there be enough space and time available to be useful to them?
• Our desire to build bridges between Anglo and Chinese communities, rather than have separated congregations was emphasised.
• It was agreed that they would prepare a statement on how they could see cooperation happening.
• Sharing the buildings would be inconvenient but not impossible. We would like to see a relationship fitting more with our mission.

Third Email 7 September

Dear Pastor Neil & Elder David,
 
Peace be with you!
 
Thank God for bringing us together on last Tuesday, we had a great fellowship with you two. Below is my recollection of the main issues we discussed, please comment / confirm: 
1.We agreed to have fellowship or worship on Saturday night.
2. We have a joint fellowship or worship on Sunday every three months or six months. There will be someconnection / communication between our churches.
3.At the joint worship services, preaching should be based on the beliefs that we both agree, we put aside the different viewpoints. Our aim is to spread the gospel, we respect each other’s different viewpoint.(attached is our statement of faith)
4.We are willing to actively participate in community care and gospel activities during festival / holiday seasons.
 
Blessings,
 
Timothy Jiang, 
A servant of God
Cedar Christian Church Melbourne

Reply after Council meeting Sep 2022

Dear Pastor Timothy,

Thank you again for the opportunity to meet you and your team.
Our Church Council met Monday night, and decided not to enter into an arrangement with you at this time.  
We are expecting two new ministers in the next year, and the meeting felt that any such arrangement should wait for that.
Also, as we said at breakfast, fitting your congregation in on the weekend would have significant practical difficulties, and the fit of your program with ours was not felt to be close enough to overcome them.

Yours,

David Morgan
Secretary to Glen Waverley Uniting Church Council