Trinity United Church of Christ

signed between China and the United Kingdom. British merchandise flooded into China through these five ports, Qing dynasty’s seclusion policy which functioned as the national defense system was forced to collapse. In the meantime, missionaries also came to China and built churches, hospitals and schools. My home church in Fuzhou was built in this time (1856) by Rev. Robert Samuel Maclay and other missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church. Not only our church, almost all the schools and…

Assessing and assessment reports within the church are a crucial and essential part of creating organization and order within the church administration and staff. You have got to know where you are before you can make a plan toward where you sense God is leading. Without assessments and reporting in the church; acquiring higher quality servant leaders would be difficult to attain. In this active culture of today it’s necessary to have just as much of an active church administration. Robert…

states it this way: “[H]uman beings have a corrupted nature” (Jones 151). My experience in ministry exposes me to this brokenness quite often. Last year, our secretary called me at home to inform me of a young man sleeping on a covered porch at the church. The next day, when I arrived, he remained there sleeping on the porch. I went out to talk to him and offered to buy him lunch at a fast food restaurant across the street. I talked with Tarron as he ate his lunch. He moved to Alabama…

He changed the future of an estimated 1 million who came to Christ through his ministry. Wesley's preaching made a point about Christians' responsibility to the poor. Wesley was known to establish the Methodist church with his brother Charles Wesley and fellow George Whitefield. Methodism and other evangelical churches changed Christianity. Under Wesley's direction. Methodist became leaders…

As one dives into the book, “The Next Christendom”, one can be completely inspired, disappointed, or even challenged to make a difference in the world. Phillip Jenkins writes a marvelous piece about the spread of Global Christianity, and some of the challenges and trends over the years. In addition to the past, Jenkins goes as far as projecting the future of Christianity in the years 2050. For Jenkins writes, since the 1950’s theologians, Christian scholars have seen a large trend / vision of…

Dr. Patricia Borstoff is an associate professor of Management at Jacksonville State University. She completed her graduate international business studies in Japan, the Czech Republic and Hungary and other various countries. She holds a B.A. summa cum lade from Stanford University, M.A. in history from the University of Albama, MBA from Jacksonville State University and a Ph.D. from Auburn University. Religion plays such a vital role in the principles that people embrace. Over the last few years…

has ingrained a sense of giving back to the community. While involved in the free summer lunch program at First United Methodist Church, I was educated about the economic struggles in my surrounding area. My eyes were opened to the alarming fact that many children in my local area do not have adequate nutrition during the summer months.. Following this positive experience through my church, I now volunteer my time on Sunday mornings to teach Sunday school. When I first started, I worried if the…

My family moved to Meridian, MS from California when I was around six or seven years old. Since then, all the way up to the ninth grade, my mother took my sister and me to Saint James A.M.E. Church for Sunday services. One Sunday, a cousin of mine brought me along to the service of her new church, and ever since then I have been attending New Freedom Tabernacle. I have found that NFT has certain qualities about it that have always attracted my attention in ways that St. James could not; so, I…

John Wesley was a mighty pillar in the Christian church following the Reformation. Though there were many things in which Wesley agreed with other reformers, there were also areas in which Wesley saw a need for change. He saw a need for grace to be expounded upon. One of the things in which John Wesley is probably most known for, and Methodists across the globe would be “Grace”. Wesley believed there to be three components of “Grace” at work in ones life. Those components were: Prevenient Grace,…

the dinner, assist the handicapped, hand out T-shirts, and greet attendees at the Allentown Rescue Mission’s 12th Annual Spaghetti Dinner, one of three fundraisers held each year, which raises money to support their programs. Held at Asbury United Methodist Church in Allentown, Pa, the event served 906 dinners and raised a grand total of $107,700 for the Mission.…