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Running Head: The limitations and good results of preaching in Taiwan for christian
foreign missionaries — take Taipei Gospel Church for Shopworkers' foreign
missionaries for example.
The limitations and achievements of preaching in Taiwan for Christian foreign
missionaries — take Taipei Gospel Church for Shopworkers' foreign missionaries for
example.
A Research Proposal
Submitted by
Lauren Chen
Submitted to
Dr. Aiden Yeh
Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages
November 17th, 2015
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Proposed Research Topic: The limitations and achievements of preaching in Taiwan
for Christian foreign missionaries — take Taipei Gospel Church for Shopworkers'
foreign missionaries for example.
Purposes: In this project, I will find out what achievements and limitations have done
by foreign missionaries from Taipei Gospel Church for Shopworkers(TGCS) and the
way it growth for eleven years. The research will be focused on the foreign
missionaries’ personal experiences on evangelization in Taiwan and how the TGCS
has been developed stably since 2004. I will also explore the potential shortcomings
in the TGCS and the shopworkers’ impression to foreign missionaries. The research
would be useful to the TGCS and also the good material to those foreign missionaries
who want to evangelize in Taiwan.
Background: The Taipei Gospel Church for Shopworkers is established by a German
missionary, Elisabeth Weinmann, who has evangelized with Taiwanese co-workers for
29 years. Elisabeth Weinmann is dispatched by a mission, Overseas Ministry
Fellowship International(OMF). According to “ Scaffolding: OMF in Taiwan”
(Yi-Deh, Yao, 2015), Hudson Taylor(1832-1905) had established “China Inland
Mission(CIM)” since 1865. He dedicated his whole life to evangelize Christian in
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inland of China and built lots of churches. In order to get closer and evangelize to
Chinese people, his strategy is turning his behaviour into a native. For example, wear
Chinese clothes, change a Chinese style hair and so on. However, as CIM had being
grown gradually, the Chinese Civil War burst out. It forced CIM have not to be
evacuate from China in 1952.Then after being prayed for God’s direction for a long
time, they decided keep evangelizing going through others Asia area such as Thailand,
Singapore, Philippine, Japan and so on. The mission has moved their headquarters to
Singapore and changed their name into OMF International because their mission is
evangelizing to Asis.
Elisabeth Weinmann is a missionary from OMF. She has come to Taiwan for 29 years.
In the beginning of her life in Taiwan(Weinmann, n.d.), she faced a lot of tasks, such
as language, cultural shock, homesick. Also, she had a time for hesitating whether she
could able reach her goal in future. However, there is a belief in her mind. For
instance, “God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply, (James
Hudson Taylor quotes, n.d.).” said Hudson Taylor. There are many evangelizing
principles passed from Hudson Taylor are very encourage to missionaries. Then
Weinmann moved into Taipei City and established the Taipei Gospel Church for
shopworkers(TGCS) at Liuzhangli in 2004. She has started working and evangelizing
to Shopworkers especially the department stores around Taipei 101. She found that
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there are many mothers or single mothers working as shopworkers and their working
times are around 12 hours which make them have no extra time to accomplish their
family. So those mothers have lots of problems. Besides, their sales target makes them
miserable in life. Weinmann now has helped many shopworkers. She always said it is
God turned their life into bright, living with hope and love. But she might leave for
Taiwan someday. So she has to train Taiwanese co-workers to do the Church works.
The research is not only focused on Weinmann’s works but also the development of
TGCS. In order to know the TGCS operates with local co-workers, I will interview
co-workers who represent the TGCS and Weinmann.
Scope: In order to know the foreign missionaries’ achievement, personal experiences
and how the TGCS has been developed, I will interview the missionaries in the TGCS
and the people who understand how the TGCS has been operating. The period of
interview will take about three hours. Also, to make my research questions about
achievement and limitation more concrete and accurate, this research will be
conducted by quoting these two books, One Size Doesn’t Fit All (McIntosh, L. G.,
1999) and ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING (Malphurs, A., 1999) for my
model for church.
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Theoretical framework: The research will be discussed on the foreign missionaries’
personal experiences and how they have developed successfully the TGCS with
Taiwanese co-workers. According to Li,Yuan-Hsiung states(as cited in McIntosh,
1999/2001, p. 14) in preamble of the book, One Size Doesn’t Fit All is indicated that
in order to reach church’s goal, every size of churches have to understand their
cultural structure, procedure of making decision and executive custom. Through
McIntosh(2001) the proposals has raised about planting church in this book, I can
examine the TGCS step by step whether their planting ways are similar as McIntosh’s
proposals. If yes, I can certainly believe the TGCS is a successful church then I will
analyse it and find out the answers.
Another material for examining a successful church is ADVANCED strategic
planning(Malphurs, 1999/2005) which Malphurs(2013, p. 30) raised the proposals of
preparation and process of strategic planning for church and ministry leaders which
gave me a general direction of solving problems existed in a church. After I
interviewed the people in the TGCS, I will analyse their solution based on Malphurs’
work. I will consider some questions and find out the answers, such as what is the
TGCS’s strategic planning?
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Method: 1. Prepare questions by reading related books of this topic. I have found
some several books which are very helpful for me to understand my topic. By reading
Scaffolding: OMF in Taiwan (Yao, Y. D., 2015) and Hudson Taylor and Maria
(Pollock, C. J., 1976/1977), I can understand basic background of Overseas Mission
Fellowship(OMF) and what services foreign missionaries from OMF have done in
Taiwan until now. Also, I can figure out what kinds of problems and experiences
foreign missionaries have faced by reading The story of Martin & Angela Symonds
(Cheng, I. C., 2014) which makes me to have some basic ideas to interview the TGCS
missionaries. Then I can analyse the development of the TGCS and support my points
by quoting ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING (Malphurs, A. 1999) and One
Size Doesn't Fit All (McIntosh, L. G. 1999).
2. Interview those interviewees to conduct this topic. For foreign missionaries of the
TGCS, I will ask their personal experiences for evangelizing in Taiwan, what
achievements, limitation and tasks, and how the TGCS has been developed with
co-workers. Besides, to concrete the definition of achievements and limitation, I will
find out some arguments such as the people in the TGCS growth number and what
kinds of bad characteristic make shopworkers to not be a Christian easily. Then
interview some deacons to know the TGCS operation.
3. Then I could organize this research with the interview and analyse the TGCS
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operation by the regulation of successful church mentioned in ADVANCED
STRATEGIC PLANNING (Malphurs, A. 1999) and One Size Doesn't Fit
All(McIntosh, L. G. 1999).
Limitations: First, I am not a professional from religious area. As an university
student, I cannot create some new ideas on my own self. I just can find out some
surface data and know some information from books given. Besides, there are not
many researches about foreign missionaries’ results in Taiwan. Therefore, it will take
me more times to find out relevant information. However, this research paper has a
time limitation. Third, the credibly of some interviews may be questionable. The
deacons of TGCS may qualify their words about church operation.
References:
程亦君（2014）‧老英之歌：英國宣教士石明理與安莉的故事‧新北市：校園書
坊。[Cheng, I. C. (2014). Ordinary people, extraordinary lives: The Story of rtin &
Angela Symonds. Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC: Campus Evangelical Fellowship.]
饒以德（2015）
‧鷹架任務—內地會在台灣‧台灣：校園書坊。[Yao, Y. D. (2015).
Scaffolding: OMF in Taiwan. Taiwan, ROC: Campus Evangelical Fellowship.]
Malphurs, A. (2005)‧教會大計：策略性計畫的九個步驟（顧華德譯）
‧ 臺北市：
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中華福音神學院。(原著出版於 1999) [McIntosh, L. G. (2005). ADVANCED
STRATEGIC PLANNING: A 21st-Century Model for Church and Ministry
Leaders. (Ku, H. E., Trans.). Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC: China Evangelical
Seminary. (Original work published 1999)]
McIntosh, L. G. (2001)‧以一不能蓋全（胡加恩譯）‧臺北市：中華福音神學院。
(原著出版於 1999) [McIntosh, L. G. (2001). One Size Doesn't
Fit All: Bringing
Out the Best in Any Size Church. (Hu, C. E., Trans.) Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC:
China Evangelical Seminary. (Original work published 1999)]
Pollock, C. J. (1977)（顏彩琇譯）
‧ 臺北市：校園書坊。(原著出版於 1976) [Pollock,
C. J. (1977). Hudson Taylor and Maria (Yen, T. H., Trans.). Taipei City, Taiwan,
ROC: Campus Evangelical Fellowship. (Original work published 1976)]
James Hudson Taylor quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved on Nov 16, 2015, from
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4693730.James_Hudson_Taylor
Malphurs, A. (2013). ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING: A 21st-Century Model
for Church and Ministry Leaders, Edition3. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Books.
McIntosh, L. G. (1999). One Size Doesn't Fit All: Bringing Out the Best in Any Size
Church. Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A: Fleming H. Revell.
Weinmann, E. (n.d.). From Black Forest to Taipei’s department stores. The history of
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Taipei Gospel Church For Shopworkers. Retrieved on Nov 16. 2015 from
https://tswchurch.wordpress.com/
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