Lasting Results from Evangelist Dr John Sung’s Ministry in Manila, Philippines.
Posted by godwordistruth on 26 April, 2009
“Three Churches in Manila – the Episcopal, the United Evangelical and the Christian Assembly Churches – united in extending an invitation to Dr Sung to conduct meetings from June 6th to 14th. he traveled to Manila after another great campaign in Peking in April.
Crowds gathered from all over Luzon and from other islands to attend the meetings. About 800 people filled every seat and blocked the aisles and stairways of the Chinese United Evangelical Church. Pastor Silas Wang of the United Church who took a prominent role in the meetings said: ” Dr. Sung had one line of teaching: sin, repentance, the new birth, holiness.” As usual, his denunciations of sin were fearless – the sins of professing Christians especially so. Sometimes he would single out an individual, a pastor or an office-bearer in the church, and say, “There is sin in your heart !”and he was always right. Sung used some of the old illustrations and some new ones. Once he appeared carrying a miniature coffin half full of stones. These represented sin committed and the death which sin would bring. For every fresh sin committed a stone would be added to the load until the bearer was almost bowed down under the weight. To emphasize the New Birth, he came on to the platform one day wearing an old gown with the names of different sins written all over it. Then, at the appropriate moment in the address, he discarded the old gown “at the Cross” and put on a new robe of righteousness produced from somewhere ! The sermons lasted as usual two hours or more with the favorite choruses copiously interspersed. Evangelism was followed by instruction to newly converted and the other Christians, and towards the end there was healing meeting. Crowds went to the platform to be prayed for, yet Dr. Sung, days later, would met the individuals and recognizing them as among those who had sought healing, ask “How are you?” He has a prodigious memory.
There were lasting results from these meetings. The United Evangelical Church was greatly straightened and its evangelistic zeal kindled. The Evangelistic Band organization which was formed at that time was still active in 1953, eighteen years later having survived the years of war and grown out of all recognition. It was divided into ten sections, each with its own leader and its own responsibility for prison, hospital and radio evangelism, for personal visitation, cottage meetings, devotional gatherings and the like. A missionary, writing in 1954, reports: “So many of the true Christians in the Philippines are the direct result of John Sung’s ministry”
A Biography of John Sung By Leslie T. Lyall Page 181-182
A copy of book can be read online here: A Biography of John Sung By Leslie T. Lyall.
Some Photographs of John Sung’s ministry and meetings can be viewed here: Dr John Sung – God’s Evangelist to Chinese in China and Asia
godwordistruth said
John Sung’s impact on the early history of United Evangelical Church of the Philippines
“The word of God, evangelism and prayer were keys to the growth of UECP at her founding stage. The revival meetings of John Sung brought about a big surge of membership. Moreover, the Bethel Evangelistic Band through two evangelists who came to Manila also sparked growth for the church.
UECP employed three main strategies for church planting and church growth. The first strategy was that of carefully planning the evangelization work. Aside from regular evangelism work in Manila, the pulpit ministry at UECP through the ministry of Rev. Silas Wang allowed the Christians to grow through the Word of God. In the early years the church employed many evangelistic teams, following in the footsteps of John Sung and the Bethel Evangelistic Band. They visited southern and northern Luzon with the aim of planting churches. In 1936 the church formed its own fellowship for outreach ministry and named it the Evangelistic Band. This became the church-planting arm of UECP. The outreach of the Evangelistic Band of UECP resulted in the founding of churches in Luzon and in the Visayas.”
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=United_Evangelical_Church_of_the_Philippines
godwordistruth said
“Between Jun 1935 and Dec 1939, Sung made several visits to Chinese churches in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and, most of all, Singapore, which he visited seven times. Before World War II, there were an estimated 10 million Chinese in Southeast Asia and five million in Taiwan (then Formosa), mainly emigrants from Fujian and Guangdong. Inevitably, the fame of John Sung would spread to these people. His reputation was such that, for example, in Surabaya, Java, the local Chinese business community closed their shops for one week to attend his meetings from morning till evening. As in China, thousands were converted, many were healed through prayer, Christian lives were revived, and churches were given fresh spiritual vitality. Everywhere he went, he formed evangelistic bands that went out to preach regularly. One such group of his converts was known still to be meeting in Penang in the early 1990s. He also left behind groups that met regularly for prayer and Bible study for the sustenance of spiritual life. The Chin Lien Bible School (now Seminary) was founded in Singapore on 14 May 1937 by one of his assistants, Leona Wu, to train Sung’s converts for ministry. Even today, many Chinese Christians, including some very eminent retired Christian leaders, still trace their Christian conversions and/or commitments to Sung’s work in Southeast Asia. Sung is one of the greatest evangelists of the modern period of church history.”
Song Shangjie (John Sung) 1901 ~ 1944
By Irene Tay Missionary, Thailand
http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/s/song-shangjie.php