On 9th January, the Methodist Church of Hong Kong officially launched the Faith Sharing Campaign of 2005 in a conference on evangelism. More than 300 missionaries and church leaders from 26 Methodist churches in Hong Kong attended the conference and discussed how Faith Sharing can be realized and implemented in Hong Kong during the year.
The conference was divided into 3 parts. In the first part, Reverend Chan Tak-Chang and four other pastors gave a brief introduction on the Faith Sharing campaign. In the second part, Rev. Lee Ting Sun, the president of the Methodist Church of Hong Kong presided over the campaign launching ceremony and gave his advices on how the campaign can be realized. Finally, there was a group discussion. All the leaders from different regional Methodist churches gathered and discussed in details on the implementation, management and the administration of Faith-Sharing of the year.
Reverend Chan commented that nowadays many believers do not dare to evangelize. “They think that preaching can only roles filled by pastors and missionaries. They find it hard to counsel and help people accept the gospel”, he said. “So, they need training on evangelism, and learn the skills and strategies to preach to others”, Reverend Chan continued.
President Lee added that believers can evangelize anytime, anywhere. Many speakers stressed that evangelism is not an just an occasional role that believers play. Instead, it is a continuing responsibility for the believer to deliver the gospel through one’s speech and deed in his or her daily lives, they say.
In the end, President Lee explained that the goal of the campaign is not simply to increase the number of their congregation. “It is more important to have the faith of our members deepened, and we hope that they can better understand their identity as a followers in Christ”, he said.
At the 2001 World Methodist Conference in Brighton, England, a resolution was passed which called Methodists "to prayer and fasting and to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ around the world!" In response to this, the World Evangelism Division of the World Methodist Council (WEDWMC) is launching a series of activities and events in 2004, 2005, and 2006 aimed specifically at further empowering members of the Wesleyan/Methodist denominations around the world to reach out and share the love of Jesus Christ!
Faith-Sharing is one of the foci of World Methodist Evangelism Emphasis 2004-2006. It is actually an evangelism movement initiated by H. Eddie Fox, the World Director of Evangelism for the World Methodist Council and George E. Morris, the Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Peoria, Illinois. It is aimed to encourage and train its members worldwide to evangelize.
According to WEDWMC, more than 100,000 Methodists around the world will be equipped with the skills and principles of the "graceful pattern for faith-sharing" through a pyramid of trainers and modern audio-visual training materials accompanied by a worldwide series of Leadership Training Workshops.
