This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
God’s call. “I liked WACC because it was supporting grassroots communities and was using liberation theology as its base,” Lin said. “That eventually brought me into my present work for Chinese migrant workers at the Chinese Lutheran Church in central London.”


© LWF/JUHO KUVA


David Lin is a Bible study outreach leader at Chinese Lutheran Church in London. “Chinese migrant workers ... come to the church looking for a place they can call home,” Lin says.


Malaysia:


New Lutheran Study Center opens W


ith presentations from theo- logians, dancers and a choir,


Sabah Theological Seminary in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia (www.stssabah. org), opened a new Lutheran Study Center with a March 7-9 symposium on Lutheran theology.


Run by the [Lutheran] Basel Christian Church of Malaysia, the ecumenical seminary offers theologi- cal training for laypeople and clergy in the Behasa Malaysia, Mandarin and English languages. The center, said its coordinator Michael Press, was launched by the region’s Lutheran churches so they could become more rooted in their Lutheran identity. The center will offer a Lutheran-specific curricu- lum and programs, partner with the seminary and serve as a resource for


Lutheran churches in the region. At the symposium, pastors from countries including Malaysia, China, India and Australia heard a wide vari- ety of theologians discuss the theme “Law and Gospel: Learning to Dis- cern the Lutheran Way of Relation- ship with God.”


Lecturers discussed Martin


Luther’s use of the Bible in his major works about law and gospel, his view of the conscience, the role of law in a disciplined life, and Finnish Lutheran perspectives on the gift of Christ within the believer (Galatians 2:20). Two theologians, Olaf Schumann


and Thu En Yu, compared the Lutheran doctrine of the two king- doms (law and gospel) with Islam and Confucian spirituality, respec- tively. In particular, Thu looked


at Confucian concepts of Qingyi (loving-kindness), Ren (love) and Li (law or rites).


Lutheran theology is unifying, rather than “denominational or con- textual theology which would need translations to other contexts,” Press said.


Philip Lok, bishop of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia and Singapore, agreed, emphasizing that justifica- tion by faith and grace is not meant to divide denominations but can be an ecumenical gift. The ELCA is committed to help- ing with the effort by sending a full- time faculty professor to the Lutheran Study Center in 2012, said Franklin Ishida, ELCA director for Asia and the Pacific, who attended the March symposium.


May 2012 29


Listening to God’s call, school, work and baptism have all connected in Lin’s life, in the way of Lutheran vocation, keeping him exactly where he is needed today—teaching and leading new people who are hungry to belong to Christ. Fittingly, Lin quotes from Psalm 121:5-7: “The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life.” 


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52