Through a platform of unity, the church has a mandate to transform the city and nation that they live in, said the Taiwanese mega-church pastor. “Not only do we need to build mega-churches, more churches, but more importantly also to build a church that transforms our city and nation.”
Rev. Shen-Chu Chow, senior pastor of Bread of Life Church in Taipei, spoke on the topic of “Church and the Will of God”, explicating the mission of the churches today, at the three day conference for the Bread of Life Churches in North America held from June 24-26 at the River of Life Christian Church in Santa Clara, California.
Chow referred to 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
He emphasized that God will for sure heal us, our church, our family, our city, our country, this land; the existence of the church is not simply for those within the four walls, but it is for our city and nation.
Faced with the sins of this world, how should Christians influence this world? Chow shared that recently in Taiwan a local media company has been frequently broadcasting sexually explicit and violent images through the television, which has caused negative influences to the society. The government official has expressed their helplessness, saying that the power of the media is too big, because standard punishments seem to be of no use and they would be “hunted for life”.
Confronting this issue, he then initiated a prayer movement in the church to fight against this matter. Three hours after the prayer, the city mayor made an announcement to impose strict and continued punishment for this media group, which was met with lawsuits from the group that escalated the situation.
After two days, Chow will deliver a message at the National Day of Prayer in Taiwan.
“Originally, I’ve had finished preparing for my sermon, but around 2-3 am in the morning of the NDOP, the Holy Spirit woke me up and told me that you should speak for one minute on this matter today. The church should stand up to fight against the dark forces.”
That day, he spoke for one minute on this issue, which brought about some unexpected results. Beginning that afternoon till night time, all the television media groups broadcasted his message and reported that a church pastor is standing up to fight against the dark forces.
The accused media group has a very big presence in Hong Kong and in Taiwan. Since the event happened, they have never apologized, but after the prayer movement and media storm they've made a public apology and rescinded their lawsuits against the government and the city mayor.
Chow reminisced that after the event an analyst from a media group said that because this pastor came out, which is almost like “shen-chu” or God’s help in casting away the evil powers.
“The battle is endless, the dark forces will continue to retaliate, but we must believe that the church exists not only for the church, but for our city and nation. Transformation is a process. Through our church, let us pray for the entire city, let us pray for the entire country”, he said.
