September 12, 2010
Reported by Lin Yi-ying, Joe Ko
Written by Lydia Ma

As Seven Stars Presbytery will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year, many pastors gathered on August 30-31, 2010, in Hsinchu to get a head start on finding new ways to make this anniversary meaningful.

A forum outlining the presbytery's future goals and strategies was held during this gathering and pastors discussed how to align these goals with PCT's "One-leads-One Doubling Movement." Seven Stars Presbytery currently boasts 81 churches and there are plans to start another church in the near future, increasing the total count to 82.

Keynote speakers at this forum spoke on Calvin's efforts to make Geneva a model Christian city, WCC's core values vis-a-vis theology and missions, and WARC's Accra Confession, using them as models to inspire pastors to preach the gospel and devote to missions.

According to former PCT Ecumenical Relations Secretary, Rev. Hsu Hsin-te, who presented an analysis of Seven-Stars Presbytery, of the 81 churches belonging to Seven Stars, 56 have a membership of less than one hundred people. In other words, about 69% of churches in this presbytery are small churches.

This trend corresponded with the overall trend among PCT churches, but Hsu pointed out small churches could also be stable and vibrant churches if their pastors were strong and well-trained. He was confident that as long as all PCT members continued to fan their passion for evangelism and received some training, they would certainly be a force to contend with.

Taiwan Church News