Hong Kong Evangelical Church

A. The Origin of the Hong Kong Evangelical Church

The church originated from the Oriental Missionary Society (OMS, now One Mission Society).

In February 1901, God called Charles and his wife Lettie Cowman to go to Tokyo, Japan from San Francisco, USA to preach the gospel. They worked with Japanese Rev. Juji Nakada and Mr. E.A. Kilborne, who joined later. They opened the Central Gospel Mission Hall at Jimbo Cho in the Kanda District, and also opened a Bible Training School. In 1905, they founded the Oriental Missionary Society (OMS). In 1973, it was renamed as OMS International Inc. and later One Mission Society. They set up the headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana. OMS continues to expand with God's blessing. Today, OMS has spread to 54 countries and regions around the world, and has established many churches, broadcasting companies, clinics, more than 40 Bible colleges, and various training schools.

B. The Birth of the Hong Kong Evangelical church

The work of the Oriental Missionary Society in Hong Kong began on November 28, 1953. Mrs. Florence Munroe came to Hong Kong following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and selected five Chinese co-workers to work with her to begin the gospel work. At 2:00 p.m. on February 27, 1954, the opening ceremony of the first site at 102 Apliu Street, Sham Shui Po was held, marking the beginning of the Hong Kong Evangelical Church.

C. A brief history of the development of the Hong Kong Evangelical Church

The development of the church over the past 70 years can be roughly divided into seven major stages. Now we have a total of 21 churches and 10 social service centers. The churches are mainly located in Kowloon and the New Territories with one being located in Hong Kong Island. The headquarters is located on the fifth floor of the Christian Education Center built by OMS in Tai Hang Tung, Tong Yam Street.

D. Major Events of the Hong Kong Evangelical Church of the past 70 Years:

The first stage: Planting churches through opening schools 1954-1960

Features: OMS missionary Mrs. Florence Munroe worked with several Chinese colleagues, to open two gospel halls and they applied to the government for four rooftop primary schools, using them to open children's clubs and preaching centers. The gospel halls, schools, and preaching centers that were opened were all directly under the Oriental Missionary Society.

The second stage: Planting churches through door-to-door evangelism in rural areas 1961-1973

Features: OMS dispatched the Every Creature Crusade teams (hereinafter referred to as ECC teams) to preach the gospel. They went from door to door in the New Territories and planted churches. The five gospel halls/mission centers or churches opened were all under the name of OMS.

The third stage: Planting churches through social services 1974-1991

Features: HKEC applied to the government for a social service center. In addition to serving the community, it was also used to spread the gospel and establish churches. From this period onwards, all service centres and churches established by our church were under the name of the “Hong Kong Evangelical Church".

The fourth stage: Missions and planting daughter churches 1991-2003

Features: HKEC began to establish daughter churches and strengthen its missions work. Between 1991 and 1996, five of our churches established daughter churches. The mother churches sent out church planting teams to be responsible for the pioneering and pastoral care of the daughter churches. In 2001, OMS together with HKEC and other Wesleyan denominations, established the "United Wesleyan Graduate Institute".

Overseas missions work: In 1995, HKEC cooperated with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship to support Mark and Ruth McDowell to go to Batangas City, Philippines to expand the gospel work in the slums. In addition, in order to strengthen the missions work, the Missions Department of HKEC organized short-term mission teams to go every April and July to visit different countries such as Macau, the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea, China, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam, etc., so that believers can experience missions work and care for the missionaries there.

The fifth stage: Strengthening churches and pioneering missions 2004-2014

Features: HKEC began to promote the strengthening of churches and also the development of missions to Cambodia as the goal and direction of our ministry development. From 2004 to 2014, our mission continued to promote local gospel work and applied for funding from OMS ECC. We started our church planting work in Hong Kong Island and Tuen Mun District, establishing two churches, and later started another church planting ministry in Tin Shui Wai District.

In 2006, in order to strengthen the evangelical work in Macau, Dragon Garden Church and Delight Church were merged and reorganized into the Hong Kong Evangelical Church (Macao) and re-registered there. In 2007, Yan Kwong Church opened the HKEC Elite Kindergarten in Yan Shing Court, Fanling, actively spreading the gospel at the campus among the parents. In 2009, the Yan Lam Church opened the "Yan Lam Community Service Centre" and the Yan Tsuen Church opened the "Yan Tsuen Neighborhood Centre".

Between 2004 and 2014, overseas missionary work was carried out in Cambodia by sending missionaries to the local area to minister. As the mission to run schools developed, we first participated in running schools locally, and then preached the gospel to students and parents. The goal was to plant churches in Cambodia using the schools.

The sixth stage: In depth local and overseas cross-cultural missions 2015-2021

Features: Continuous cross-cultural missions is the goal of the development of our ministry. Since 2013, the number of people attending English worship services at Yan Yue Church has continued to rise, and members (Filipino-speaking groups) have gradually been baptized and joined the church, allowing the ministry to gradually move towards establishing another church model. In 2017, in order to allow the English ministry to continue to develop, Yan Yue Church decided to let them be self-supporting. In the same year, RiverGrace International HKEC Church became independent and used the space of United Christian College for worship. Later, it expanded to Spanish-speaking group ministries and Cantonese-speaking ministries.

The seventh stage: Church Development Update and Overseas Mission Strategy Adjustment 2022-2024

Features: As society’s and people's livelihood changed, organizing the church and ministry development also needed to consider changing. Firstly, the epidemic prevented the congregation from conducting on-site worship and activities, and church members were unable to continue to give financially, which affected the operation of the church. Online worship and the development of different electronic payment channels came into being. At the same time, the epidemic affected many families, causing confusion and helplessness, and stagnating the preaching of the gospel. At this time, a pastor with a clear vision and leadership will step up to lead the church to reform, and rekindle the passion and determination. We need to lay a mission and vision for the future of the church so that it will not regress, and will allow the church to start again. In response to the needs of overseas missions, our missions work has also changed. We cooperate with more churches of different denominations, encouraging short-term missions as a first experience, and pragmatically allowing more members to understand and receive the call of long-term missions. In this way they can willingly commit themselves to it. And we need to cooperate and have personalized missionary care to reduce the missionary mortality rate.