by USGA

The True Jesus Church in the Western Hemisphere was first established in Honolulu, Hawaii, but it was not until 1967, after the first World Delegates Conference in Taiwan, that church activities started in mainland United States (US). Upon their return, two US delegates—a deacon from the east coast and a deaconess from the west coast—began to congregate some members and to spread the gospel.

From the mid-1970s, there was a steady increase of immigrants from Taiwan and Hong Kong, bringing new momentum to the sacred work in America. To effectively utilize human and financial resources, the US church held its first National Delegates Conference under God’s guidance in El Monte, California, from 24–26 July, 1976. At the conference, the Evangelical Coordination Council (ECC) was established to actively mobilize the sacred work in the US.

At the time, the US church did not have any full-time ministers. However, thanks to the arrangement of God, by 1986, three full-time preachers had joined the ministry. To expand His kingdom, God prepared suitable servants at various stages. These workers dedicated their gifts and labored in unity to lay the foundation for the sacred work and church organization. Under God’s gracious guidance, churches were established one after another. In accordance with the by-laws of the International Assembly, the General Assembly of the United States (USGA) was officially established on January 1, 1986, setting a new milestone in the development of the sacred work in the US.

There are currently nineteen churches and six houses of prayer in the US, with a total membership of about 3,460. Most churches started off with foreign students who had a sense of commission. They conducted family services and membership would grow to a point where they were able to establish houses of prayer. When they had church buildings, these officially became churches.

Organizational Status

The USGA council comprises eleven council members, including the chairman. There are five departments: the Department of Evangelism, the Department of Pastoral Ministry, the Department of Training, the Department of Literary Ministry, and the Department of Administration. Each department is managed by one director and one or two assistant directors, who are responsible for mobilizing the work of the church on a national level.

Presently, the USGA is subdivided into four regions and one special region (Hawaii). Each region has a regional coordinator, who is responsible for developing the work of the region and coordinating the local ministry and human resources.

Membership Status

Growth of the Churches

The first graph shows the number of churches and houses of prayer established since the 1970s. Starting from only four, their numbers have increased steadily over the years. Today, there are twenty-five churches and houses of prayer in the US.

Geographical Distribution of the Churches

The second chart shows the geographical distribution of the churches and houses of prayer in the US. With the exception of one church in Hawaii, the rest are on the mainland, with the majority (sixteen) located in the southwestern and eastern regions.

          

Challenges

a.   The prevalence of ecumenical views among Christians in America hinders our efforts in preaching the truth. The results from the semi-annual evangelical services and spiritual convocations can be limited. Unless truthseekers receive the Holy Spirit and believers persistently pray and carry out personal evangelism, it is difficult for the church to grow quickly. The pastoral care required for new believers is also challenging. If the church and its workers do not truly pay attention to caring and praying for them, these new members are likely to stop attending church after the first year or so, or to remain weak in faith, unable to mature spiritually. As the end time draws near, people are less inclined to obey the truth of the Bible. Yet, despite the challenge we face in the end time, God’s grace is sufficient. We often witness how God miraculously guides His church to overcome these hindrances.

We must pray earnestly, be watchful, continue to ask God to open the door for the gospel, and preach the truth of salvation by the Spirit in season and out of season.

b.   The US covers a vast area, and this poses a great challenge to both evangelistic and pastoral work. Most of our churches are in cities. Therefore, it has been difficult to follow up effectively with truthseekers who are from other parts of the US. Although the USGA currently has eleven full-time ministers who are responsible for the twenty-five churches and houses of prayer, we still lack human resources. These ministers usually take care of geographically dispersed churches and therefore find it difficult to carry out pastoral work. In addition, most members do not live near their local churches, and therefore a large majority attends church services only on Sabbath days.

Hence, we thank the Lord that the USGA launched its English website in February 2012 and its Chinese website in October 2012. Besides church news and announcements, the site also provides members with abundant material for spiritual nourishment at home. Anyone willing to benefit from these resources may take advantage of the content on these websites for daily devotion and strengthening of faith.

c.   To train full-time workers for the ministry in the US, the USGA established its theological training program in 1993. To date, there have been seven batches of trainees—a total of nineteen students—from UK, Canada and USA, who have completed the program and been ordained as full-time ministers.

To cater to the needs of the ministry in the US over the next ten years, it will be necessary to recruit five additional trainees to undergo the program, but this will be a challenge. “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” We need to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out the workers into the field (Mt 9:37–38).

d.   Multimedia content in English is scarce. Information technology has made great strides in recent decades, and the majority of the US population consumes a large variety of media daily. However, most of the church’s English publications are still only available in print. Therefore, it is vital to expedite the production of much more multimedia content in the next five years for the purpose of evangelism.

Greater effort to proactively plan for and produce multimedia content that caters to the needs of members and truthseekers in various locales is needed. This will enable us to preach the truth to a global audience more expeditiously.

e.   Membership in the US has been predominantly Chinese. However, in recent years, we have seen members from other ethnic groups gradually being added to the church. English is used as the primary language of the younger generation, even among the Chinese members. Consequently, there is linguistic and cultural diversity in the church.

To reach out to the English-speaking population, various regions have been holding English hymnal evangelical services, locally known as “Hosanna outreach.” Some churches also encourage speakers to deliver their messages in English. Based on current trends in the composition of the members, sermons delivered in English look set to become the norm.

Nevertheless, many new believers have testified that language is not the greatest obstacle in evangelism. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, even sermons in which English is not used as the primary language can move a person to believe in the Lord. In smaller churches or places of worship where members relate well with one another and the church is like a big family, cultural differences are no longer significant. Only the new culture created in Christ, which incorporates all ethnic groups and transcends differences, can effectively overcome the many hurdles we face in the work of evangelism.

Retracing the footsteps of the True Jesus Church in the United States, we can only thank God for His amazing guidance in the growth of the church. On this land, through sweat and tears, the workers of God have offered their time and effort in numerous areas of holy work. However, regardless of what we may have accomplished, it is the future that is of greatest importance. We pray that the Lord will continue to strengthen the brethren’s faith and love. May the Holy Spirit guide the church in its future path, so that the gospel preached by the true church may reach every part of this land and bring glory to the name of God. Amen.