2018 Church Ministry Annual Report

如果想參閱中文報告, 請點擊 : 教會事工年度報告(繁体中文) 或 教会事工年度报告(简体中文)

The 50^th Anniversary year is a year of rejoicing and renewal. We had wonderful celebration events in terms of the Concert, Worship, and Banquet. The Pastoral Staff and our lay leaders all put in extra effort to bring these grand celebrations into fruition. These all took place in addition to the regular operation and ministries of the Church. Their love of the Lord and His people is evident in their dedication and hard work. These also assure us of the potential and energy we are capable of when we have definite and God-worthy goals.

The fact that we are capable of and willing to co-labor together in serving the Lord at His Church signifies that renewal has already begun among us. According to Jesus Christ our Lord, there is no greater testimony for His Gospel than the love and harmony among His followers. According to the Apostle Paul, as inspired by the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 13, only works done in Agape love have value at all. All these celebrations have indeed been accomplished in this spirit of Agape love among us.

The Word of God in Leviticus 25 introduces the concept of jubilee. It was to be a holy year. Sold properties are redeemed; people in bondage are set free. Slaves are brought back to their homeland and released; debts are cancelled. Let us celebrate this year in the spirit of Biblical teaching: Let us bury old grudges, initiate reconciliation and be set free from the fritter of animosity and sin. What a time to experience God’s heaven anew among us!

As we look forward to renewal, we look forward to having energized staff team among us. We pray that Rev. David Tang will be voted in as our Associate Pastor with additional responsibilities in church-wide and external focus (mission) ministries. We look forward to having a full-time English Young Adult and College Minister helping us to grow these important ministries for the future of this church. We are blessed to have a well-furnished, vibrant and inviting Education Building, where our children and youth could worship and learn in a secure and friendly environment. We are looking forward to becoming a more purposeful, compassionate, friendly and loving Church.

As we look forward to the future, here are some of the ministries I wish to accomplish among us in the next few years:

1. DISCIPLESHIP for all leaders
   • To provide discipleship training for all levels of leaders, both before and after they become leaders
   • Only those who have completed the prior training would be considered or nominated as leaders
   • Need to develop training for all levels of leaders
2. Create EXTERNAL FOCUS ministry to revitalize Mission Ministry
   • Need to include more local focus
   • Need to explore new ways to outreach locally
   • Need to involve all language ministries
   • Need to be owned and planned with all language ministries
   • Need continuous evaluation of effectiveness
   • Managing missionary funding is only part of External Focus; training all members in evangelism discipleship would be our major focus
3. Create an ALTERNATIVE WORSHIP service on DCBC campus
   • Time consideration: Could be a Saturday evening service
   • Music consideration: Could be a simple, contemporary music service
   • Age consideration: It could even be a strictly traditional service for seniors, thus making the Sunday 2^nd hour service more contemporary
   • Language consideration: The use of language would depend on the survey of potential attendees
   • NEW language option: DCBC could even start an Indonesian (potential already exists), or Vietnamese, or Spanish ministry
4. PLANT a new church
   • Decide on a location with potential for Chinese population expansion
   • Decide on the language ministries to plant
   • Need at least 10 committed, tithing families for each language ministry
   • Initial meetings will explore effective time schedule
   • DCBC will assist with church plant pastor salary and initial purchase of land.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” (1 Samuel 7:12) The Lord has indeed been with us through the past 50 years. Let us rejoice in serving Him for the next 50 and beyond.

Praise the Lord for the year of the Jubilee along with His Blessings!! We celebrated our 50^th Anniversary this year and we look forward to fulfilling His purpose for the next 50 years. It was such a blessing to see so many brothers and sisters in Christ during the Celebration Worship, the Thanksgiving Banquet and the Celebration Concert. I witnessed His love demonstrated by everyone serving in unity with joy and humility. I pray that we continue to focus in prayers and relationship growth through Jesus Christ.

We thank the Lord for the opportunity to renovate the Education building. I am deeply appreciative of the leadership provided by Brother Walter Chiang and Deacon Gordon Lee on this difficult task along with the planning done by Minister Sherry Cheng, Clement Setiawan and Fellowship leaders in coping with the disruption. As DCBC completed the original master plan along with lessons learned through the Education Building Renovation, Deacon board is recommending CDC to form a DCBC Campus Planning Committee to formulate a master plan for upcoming facility enhancement and changes.

It was such a privilege to lead a group of loving brothers in Christ on the deacon board and co-labor with Pastor Ling and our Elders throughout the year. We are very thankful for the Pastoral and office staff. Moreover, I am thankful for extraordinary love shown by Brother Gilfred Fang in taking care of the various DCBC audio/various infrastructure needs. I want to also express my thanks to Sister May Houng for her continued care of DCBC facility needs and excited on the arrival of Brother George Howell to assist with facility maintenance.

I witnessed God's love for DCBC during the last 50 years. I asked for everyone's prayers in continuing to be willing and effective tool for His purpose. For 2019, we have increased on missionary plans along with seminarian scholarships. I am excited to see growing ministries at DCBC with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I am thankful for the deliberate planning process by the deacon team for 2019. We continue to put resources and prayers to facilitate His purpose at DCBC. Together with our pastoral staff, the Elders, deacons, brothers, sisters, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we pray that DCBC will continue to love the Lord, to grow in the Lord for His Glory.

Romans 8:28 (NIV)

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

DCBC believes that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and is the supreme and final authority for faith and practice. Through God’s Word, we learn of God’s character, His desire for us, and in obedience we experience His blessings in our lives. Scripture has the power to transform our hearts. As such, the Adult Education Ministry exist to support the teaching and sharing of Scriptures among adults of DCBC.

The Adult Education Ministry shares and teaches the Scriptures through the following:

• Adult Sunday School – To edify and spiritually build-up the believers in this local church body through a structured and systematic Bible-centered curriculum. To evangelize non-believers through Gospel-centered Sunday School classes. To equip and train potential teachers and other ministry leaders through our teacher training program.
• Library – To facilitate and promote spiritual growth by serving as a resource center for Christian books, audio/video media, and other related reading materials.
• Publications –
  • 1-Year Bible Reading Plan: To disseminate Bible reading plans and encourage the body of Christ to be rooted in God’s Word.
  • Church Ministry Annual Report: To serve as a communication tool within our church.
  • Jia Shu (Letters to The DCBC Family): To share testimonies of God’s activity in church and our lives so as to glorify His name and encourage one another.

As a deacon newly assigned to the ministry, I am privileged to co-work with many wonderful brothers and sisters who have their hearts set on sharing and teaching the Scriptures. Here are some highlights of the past year and the planned initiatives:

Adult Sunday School

• 6437 attendances in the past 12 months (October 2017 to September-2018). There is a 17% increase over the past year, reflecting DCBC’s growth, and curriculum enhancements efforts of our Sunday school teachers. We currently have 18 Sunday school teachers faithfully serving under the coordination of Rev. David Tang, Elder David Wang, and Brother Lanshu Wang.
• Started a project to digitally archive past Adult Sunday School class notes by scanning printed or handwritten copies to PDF files. This will be a resource for all Adult Education teaching staff.
• Plan on new initiatives to further raise our congregation’s interest in attending Adult Sunday School.

Library

• Library environment improvement project: led by Sister Janet Li and Brother Mark Hsu is focused on layout and lighting.
• Plan to overhaul the book circulation process.

Publications

• Enhance the 1-Year Bible Reading Plan to a quarterly rolling system. Instead of a reading plan starting on January 1st, there are four reading plans, starting on 3/1, 6/1, 9/1, and 12/1 respectively. This allows more brothers and sisters to participate.
• Plan to automatically email the scriptures of the day to the 1-Year Bible Reading participants.

Again, I am grateful for the Lord’s provision of many dedicated brothers and sisters to serve in the Adult Education Ministry. May God bless them abundantly for their faithfulness and service. I am also grateful for the congregation’s prayers, and their participation and support of the ministry programs. We always welcome brothers and sisters to join us in impacting lives for Christ through sharing and teaching the Word of God.

Rev. Shen's Report

What a blessed and exciting year! Although I would love to share with you everything that has taken place this past year, given in this limited space, with great joy and gratitude, please allow me to share with you some highlights of how the Lord has been shepherding us and pouring out His grace upon us:

1. At the Pastoral Staff, Elders & Deacons Retreat (“PED Retreat”), we were given the privilege of visiting each location where DCBC had previously met as a church. Listening to Elder Edward Lee‘s sharing of our past had helped me realize that our Good Shepherd had never allowed DCBC to remain in one spot (our current Richardson location is in fact our 4th location in the past 50 years). This leads me to ask myself, “Will I be faithful and obedient as DCBC’s church founders and earlier members were, and be willing to go wherever whenever the Lord leads? Will I be sensitive to the needs He is putting before us? Will I choose comfort over mission?” ~ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." (Ps. 136:1)
2. In January we saw the first Cantonese speaking young adult community group being formed and piloted. Although the Cantonese Young Adult (CYA) fellowship that meets bi-weekly still exists, a subset of brothers and sisters had the courage to learn and try living out certain key biblical values of Christian community modeled by the first century church (Acts 2:42-46). They are committed to devote daily in their relationship with Jesus (John 15:5), to pursue one another relationally (Romans 12:10) and to live authentically (James 5:16). They also began meeting online daily to share what the Lord has taught them through Scripture and pray together. Although there have been conflicts, trials and even heartaches, it is evident that the Holy Spirit is working in these brothers and sisters’ lives, growing their love for Him and dependence on Him. ~ It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Ps. 136:23)
3. In April, our pastoral staff together with a number of lay leaders had the opportunity to spend a few days at the Church Leaders Conference hosted by Watermark Community Church in Dallas. We learned to keep going back to the question “why do we do what we do”; make every ministry in the church a disciple-making ministry (including ushering, security, everything... because that is our Christ-given mission!); and I was reminded that following Jesus means practicing the forty-something “one another” passages (Rom. 15:7; 1 Thess. 5:11; Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:18 etc) in the New Testament Bible , not just knowing what they are. We had a lot of fun together, but also a precious time of confessing our sins to one another, had communion together and truly bonded together as a team. ~ Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Ps. 136:2)
4. During the second half of the year, the Lord moved a group of sisters from Fellowship Group C to get together and pray every morning (via online conference call) and share His Word and seek God’s will on the growth of their fellowship group. After two months, the Lord led fifteen to twenty brothers and sisters from our Fellowship Group C, Sports Fellowship and a few ex-DCBC members (currently serving at Chase Oaks church) to be trained on the “Six Core Values of Biblical Community Group” (a Watermark publication) across seven Saturday mornings as they desire to further live out the true meaning of fellowship (i.e. life impacting life) in a small group setting. As part of course preparation, they tirelessly worked together to translate 25 pages of course materials into Chinese and people volunteered to prepare breakfast for every class. We learned, we laughed, we prayed and there were so many constructive discussions it was simply overwhelming. As of now, three “life groups” are meeting regularly as well as two women prayer groups (morning and evening) that convenes online everyday. A men’s prayer group is also being formed. Watermark Community Church has approved the translated course materials and given us the full rights to own and further distribute them. Hopefully this will bless not only DCBC but other Chinese churches. ~ Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever; (Ps. 136:3-4)

People often ask me “How is pastoring?” My response is always “Blessed beyond imagination—so rewarding!” Why? Because it is true! There is nothing more rewarding to me than seeing God in His perfection transforming His children to be more like Jesus—a day at a time, and be given the opportunity to witness it! Earlier this year someone said to me, “Our Cantonese congregation is aging, are you committed to maintaining it?” But as I write this report, I am absolutely convinced that the Lord is not only “maintaining” our congregation, but actively renewing us. What the Lord is bringing about appears not to be an increase in the number of regular attendees, but more devoted followers of Christ who are committed to love one another (1 John 4:20-21). None of the above is the result of my planning, but when our brothers and sisters get together and pray, our God acts (Matt. 18:19-20)!

As we look forward to 2019, I am praying that the Lord may allow us to continue to be an effective channel of His grace corporately to our surrounding communities and individually to every precious soul He has placed around each and every one of us. Church is not about us because it is all about Him. Therefore let us be “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith” (Heb. 12:2), experience the Spirit’s regeneration as we walk daily with God in community and live out Gospel-transformed lives for His glory.

Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever. (Ps. 136:26)

Minister Cheng's Report

The mission of DCBC kids is to reach kids by partnering with parents so that they have the greatest opportunity to become mature followers of Christ. We praise God for all the loving brothers and sisters who participated in this mission and served in children’s ministry this past school year! Below are the programs we currently run to achieve our mission.

• Children’s Worship seeks to train kids to worship God corporately by providing a worship experience appropriate to their development. We hold two services that run simultaneously on Sundays at 9:30am—Preschool (3-5 years old) and Elementary (1st-6th grade). Children listen to Bible lessons from the Gospel Storybook Bible curriculum, which goes through the Bible in 3 years and emphasizes the gospel in every lesson. Each week, around 60 kids and 8 leaders gather to sing songs, hear God’s Word, and respond to His Word. We appreciate our 24 volunteers (including song leaders, Bible teachers, and room coordinators) that led our worship services this year. In Elementary Worship, children served by playing the piano and reading Scripture passages. In addition, our 5th & 6th graders serve on ministry teams (A/V, Welcome, and Offering Teams) to take ownership of their worship service and learn to serve others.
• Children’s Sunday School seeks to disciple kids through Biblical instruction and life application in small groups. We have four classes that run simultaneously on Sundays at 11am—2-3yrs old, 4-K, 1st-4th, 5th-6th. We have aligned preschool and elementary classes to use Lifeway’s Gospel Project curriculum. Each week, 80 kids and 20 leaders meet in the Large Group/Small Group format. Our leaders serve for an entire school year! We are so grateful for our Sunday School coordinators—Linda Chen and Stephanie Shyu—who dedicated their time to recruit and lead their teams. We also appreciate the youth students for partnering with us to serve both Preschool and Elementary classes in the summer.
• Nursery classes help kids 0-2 years old know and love Jesus by providing a safe and caring environment that fosters growth and learning. Nursery is provided Sundays, Fridays, and during church-wide events. This past year, we had 15 young ones go through our nursery. We really appreciate our 3 paid-sitters and 15 volunteers who get to know our babies really well. Furthermore, we are extremely blessed to have Pat Lee coordinate our nursery!
• The Welcome Team seeks to create a friendly and welcoming environment on Sundays, as well as a fast and accurate check-in experience. We are grateful for our team of 8 greeters for welcoming and checking in our kids every Sunday. We currently have electronic check-in on Sunday mornings and Friday nights (Awana).
• Awana is an international ministry that seeks to help churches and parents raise children to know, love, and serve Christ. At DCBC, leaders and kids meet in three Awana Clubs—Cubbies (3-4 yrs. old), Sparks (K-2nd grade), and T&T (3rd-4th grade)—on Friday nights during the school year. This past school year, we also launched LIT (Leaders in Training) for our preteens (5th-6th grade). LIT aims to empower the next generation by recognizing the uniqueness of every child, reaching them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, disciple them in their personal walk with Him, equip them to do ministry, and then release them to serve in the church and in the world. This past school year, around 60 kids and 25 Awana-LIT leaders met each week for games, ministry teams, D-group/handbook time, and large group time. We are grateful for Adam Wong’s dedication and leadership in his first year as Awana-LIT Commander! We are also thankful for the many college students who take time in their schedule to serve our kids!
• Children’s Special Events are one-time or annual ministries that have a specific purpose in reaching, teaching, and equipping kids to be like Jesus. VBS was a 5-day summer program that brought kids on an adventure where they learn more about Jesus. Kids moved in crews to the crafts, snacks, games, and Bible station. We are thankful for Stephanie Shyu for directing our VBS team as Assistant Director. We are extremely thankful for the VBS core team, teens, and adult volunteers that made the event possible.
• Resource Room – Aside from our programs, Children’s Ministry could not run without the vital support of our Resource Room ministry. Pady Hoh and Linda Chen have devoted countless hours to organizing and managing our awesome Resource Room. Every year, over 70 volunteers are served through this important resource that God has given us.

In August 2018, we celebrated Minister Sherry Cheng’s sixth year anniversary as full-time Children’s Minister. In addition, we are grateful for our Children’s Deacon Adam Wong for his amazing passion in ministering to our kids and his creative and energetic leadership in his third year as deacon! We continue to pray that God would use all the parents and volunteers to challenge our children to become committed followers of Christ!

Deacon Wong's Report

Praise the Lord for another blessed and fruitful year in children’s ministry. The children attendance are gradually steady, and we continue to receive new volunteers with a heart for children. The ministry continues to grow under the leadership of Minister Sherry Cheng. We truly blessed to have Stephanie Shyu to be our Sunday School coordinator, Assistant Director and Awana Sparks Director in our Children’s Ministry team. Moreover, we also appreciate many parents, youth students and college students serving in different capacity of Children’s Ministry team.

While all of our teachers and volunteers are amazing, I’d like to give a special “thank you” to our CM core team: Sherry Cheng, Jerry and Linda Chen, Pat Lee and Stephanie Shyu, giving of their time, energy and talents to share the love of God with our infants through elementary children. We continue serving DCBC Kids with six aspects of our core values:

1. Safety and Security
2. Leadership Development
3. Gospel Centered Content
4. Relationship Building
5. Relevance
6. Parent Discipleship

This year is a very special year for me because I am so glad to have the opportunity to serve as a commander, work with and minister to your child. Please allow me to take this moment to share a “Successful” Awana/LIT 2017-2018 year:

“Success”! Exactly what is success?? I have given that a lot of thought since last Awana/LIT year’s closing ceremony. Webster’s describes success as “a favorable outcome”. We as parents spend a lot of our time striving to be successful at work…and God knows that we spend a tremendous amount of time trying to help our children achieve success. Whether it is sports, dance, drama, band,…we as parents sometimes tend to go overboard in the “worldly things” while missing out on the “Godly things.” Success is not helping our children to be what we want them to be or even to be what they want to be. No success is helping our children become what God wants them to be!!

Deuteronomy 6:5 says…”Love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” It goes on in verse 6 to say, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts." God’s not looking for some “Do’s or Don’ts” list for you to perform. He’s looking for something much deeper…the hearts of our children!! Why?? Because you’ll naturally follow after something that you really love. If you love watching T.V, you’ll naturally gravitate to the remote control. No one will have to remind you to do that. If you love shopping, you will not need an accountability partner or a “secret pal” to go to the mall each week. Where you heart is also your treasure.

Let me share a little “impact moment” for me when I was a child. I was in the school grade in Hong Kong similar to the 7th grade in the U.S. Well, I decided that day to skip school with seven school soccer teammates and played at the video game store. Then, we all went home and told a lie to our parents and teachers that we didn't feel well that afternoon. Well…in a perfect world, that plan may have worked, but as you and I know…when you do something wrong and more than one person knows about it…that’s one too much!! Well!! My dad and mom didn't talk much and they were unusually quiet the entire evening.

Next morning, My dad took me to go hiking and we ended at a place called Hong Kong Pik Uk Correctional Institution for young prisoners . As we stood on the top of the hill and looked at the fenced area, I could see boys playing soccer, running and just seemed to be having fun! I didn’t know that they couldn’t leave!! As my dad started reprimanding me and giving me the speech of “if you keep this up my boy, this is where you will end up! You will lose everything.” Well, I was quiet during this speech but I was balling my eyes out thinking,…”What am I going to lose??” Well, I found out that my soccer coach kicked me out from the school team and my mom threw away all my precious metals and trophies. This impact on me was tremendous!! I achieved perfect attendance in many of my grades in school including all but five days of my high school years. I determined to study so hard in order to earn my coach's trust and my spot back to my school team two years later.

Now flash forward 25 years….when my son was about 5 years old. We were at Target picking up a few items and as we got back into the car, I looked back and saw that he had some candy in his hand. I asked him, “where did you get that candy?” and he replied…”I forgot to ask you could we buy it.” I said, “Samuel, that is stealing and we headed back into the store to the same clerk that we checked out from. I made him apologize for the event and then he handed the clerk the money for the candy.

As we got back into the car, he was very quiet. When we arrived at the intersection at 75, I turned on East 15th street near downtown Plano and in just about 5 minutes, we arrived at the entrance to the Plano City Jail. As we parked outside the fenced in area, I explained to Samuel that this is where men go that steal things and if this habit were to continue that this is where he would end up! Later that evening…I called my dad and told him what I did and all he could say was, “well,…you love your child and you are my boy!!”

You know, God has granted us as parents, an overwhelming power and influence in the hearts of our children. A teacher at school cannot train a child’s heart. At best, they can only scratch the surface. An Awana/LIT teacher cannot train a child’s heart. At best, they can only give good knowledge and encouragement. It all comes down to one thing as parents…LOVE!! Parents…love your children and tell them that you love them every day of your life because you never know, just like in Santa Fe, Texas last week….they can leave home one morning for school and never come back to us! Tell them that you love them today!! Our DCBC Awana/LIT Leaders love your children and we thank you for letting us love them!!

Thank you for letting us be a part of your child's walk in the faith! Let us depend on the Lord together as we labor in love for His glory and our good!

DCBC’s English ministry exists to help all generations follow Christ and grow in his family. The core values are God’s Word, community, evangelism, equipping, and unity. We will make the report in light of our core values.

God's Word

• During the worship service, the main way God’s Word is taught is through the sermon. We started the year teaching through a ten-part series on the Sermon on the Mount. The topic of stewardship, followed by spiritual renewal in conjunction with the DCBC 50th Anniversary celebration. In the fall, we will be teaching from the book of Revelation as part of the church-wide 50th anniversary series, and close out the year with a series on Advent. By God’s grace, our average attendance in Sunday worship for 2018 has been around 250 people. We continue to praise the Lord for new college students, young adults, and families.
• In terms of Sunday school, we continue to have age-specific Sunday school classes (college, young adults, family) during the school year. We covered topics such as the theology of worship, finding one’s unique “shape,” and “marriage, singleness, and dating.” In the summer we had sermon-based discussions among the men and women in gender-specific classes. This is our fifth year doing Band of Brothers (men) and Tapestry (women), and the brothers and sisters enjoy the time of discussing how to apply the weekly sermon in their lives. English college ministry covered various topics and is currently teaching the college students on how to read the whole Bible.

Community

• We currently have 11 community groups that range from 5 to 20 people in the group. About 60 percent of the English-speaking adults are in a community group. We are grateful for the formation of new groups.
• The groups spend time growing in their relationship with Christ, with one another, and seek to grow as a disciple-maker for Jesus Christ.
• We have had several disciple groups complete the Essentials of Discipleship material by Greg Ogden. We are in the process of getting new groups started.

Evangelism

• This is something that we still need to grow as the English ministry. Please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters to share the gospel message with others in their spheres of influence both locally and globally.
• Rev. David Tang had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador with Compassion International this past summer. We are praying for discernment to see how we can potentially partner with Compassion International and maybe other churches to help the poor overseas as well as do missions work.

Equipping

• English College Ministry had training events in the winter as well as the summer for the college mentors.
• English Praise Team Leaders have been engaged in a book-study on A More Profound Alleluia by Leanne Van Dyk. The English Praise Team is planning to start a new book-study on Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family and Church by Keith and Kristyn Getty in the coming year.
• There are regular meetings for the community group leaders (online and in person), and we use these meetings to do brief training how to lead the groups better and also have a time of fellowship as group leaders.
• We are planning to have an AV cross training for all the AV team members before the end of the year so everyone will know the basics of the entire AV system.
• We are leveraging the Sunday school hour for Sunday School teacher equipping, so we are planning to teaching Old Testament Survey next year.

Unity

• In March, we had the opportunity to fellowship together at Falls Creek Conference Center in Davis, Oklahoma for Rekindle, our biennial English Ministry Retreat. The theme was Igniting a Heart of Worship with guest speaker Dr. Richard Allen Farmer teaching three sessions from Psalm 100. This was a great opportunity for the brothers and sisters in English ministry to grow closer to one another. We had over 150 people attend the retreat.
• Many of the brothers and sisters in the English ministry serve in the broader church. Many serve in the children and youth ministry. For this year’s church-wide retreat, many English-speaking brothers and sisters served on the planning committee. Others serve on ministries such as English praise team, AV, or as community group leaders. Almost 80% of those who are in community serve in some capacity.

Praise God because he continues to work in the life of DCBC English ministry at work. Please continue to pray for the English ministry and the English ministry coworkers.

TBA

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

Our heavenly Father is faithful and always provides DCBC with funds and resources to meet our needs for His glory. The financial summary for 2018 through September at DCBC is as follows:

• Total Offering was $1,050,217 against outflows of $1,231.758, a decrease of $181,541.
• The General Fund cash inflow was $884,461 against an outflow of $1,118,634, a decrease of $234,173 with a balance of $1,575,410.
• The Building Fund cash inflow was $66,831 with a balance is $84,798. $120,000 paid back to the Long Term Development Fund by February 2018.
• The Mission Fund offerings were $98,925 against outflows of $113,124. Balance is $345,721.

Finance Department at DCBC encompasses four areas:

• Accounting – manages all aspects of inflow and outflow of funds, financial statements and financial record keeping
• IT/Technology (ITT) – keeps all the computers, servers, printers, software, etc. up-to-date, running and functioning
• Human Resources – manages staff compensation, benefits, and employment
• Investments – provides treasury oversight of our reserve funds

The ITT team continues to improve the communication infrastructure at DCBC with fast internet access and VOIP phone service while reducing overall communication expenses. Accounting and ITT teams continue to support Children and English Ministry in enabling Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) for VBS, Awana and English retreat registrations.

I give thanks to God for our Finance Department co-workers’ love of our Lord Christ Jesus. They have been using their gifts from God to serve our Lord faithfully for many years. They are vital to the smooth operation of our church’s affairs so that our pastoral staff can devote themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow them and their future generations all the days of their lives until the Second Coming of our Lord Christ Jesus. Amen.

This year the general services budget comprised of two major repair/maintenance expenses. The first repair was related to the leak checks, repairs and parts replacements for the Family Center HVAC system which consists of five rooftop cooling/heating units controlled by a computerized control system. The maintenance expenses were in the ordinary course wear and tear and are expected to be recurring every year. The second repair was related to the replacement of the kitchen water heater, which replacement is expected to occur every few years.

Due to the complexity of our proprietary family center HVAC system and the high cost associated with each service call to Johnson Controls, we are exploring alternate solutions to replace the proprietary Johnson Controls system with a generic control system. While the replacement will require upfront cost, a generic control system will lower the cost of each service call and renders faster response time, which in the long run, will result in net savings and less down time.

We are blessed to have a church member May Houng who coordinated and negotiated with our vendors to ensure the projects were completed in a timely and cost-efficient manner. While May truly cares for our church and has for years taken care of it as if it were her own, the day-to-day maintenance of a large commercial building like DCBC is both challenging and demanding. As such, May has requested to resign from her role as the facility manager. In April, we sought May’s replacement by advertising for a part-time facility manager position. After conducting several interviews, the Lord provided George Howell, who has experience in maintaining the facilities of a large hotel chain in Dallas. George has served with us since mid-June and you may have seen him working in the church on evenings or Saturdays. Additionally, we thank William Siu who assisted in the hiring process and contributed his expertise in this matter.

For the calendar year 2019, we have budgeted the purchase/installation of LED lights to replace the exterior lighting in the parking lot and the interior lighting in classrooms and fellowship halls. This plan will reduce the frequency and maintenance cost to replace the light bulbs.

Rev. Lo's Report

The ministry's report is in Chinese only. Please see 教會事工年度報告(繁体中文), or 教会事工年度报告(简体中文).

Minister Kong's Young Adult Ministry Report

The ministry's report is in Chinese only. Please see 教會事工年度報告(繁体中文), or 教会事工年度报告(简体中文).

Deacon Jan's Report

TBA

Praise be to our Heavenly Father! The Lord has taught me the lessons of humility, patience and serving with each other while serving as a membership deacon this past year.

Below is a brief report from the Membership Ministry:

• We have a total of 25 new members that joined DCBC this year.
• We are thankful to have 12 different teams that serve us lunch on Sundays after worship services.
• The church now owns a 14-seat passenger mini bus and a 7-seat passenger van that provides transportation for over 20 seniors to and from Silver Garden Senior Living Center to church every Sunday. We thank God for the 15 brothers and sisters who volunteer to drive and serve in this ministry.

I would like to take this chance to thank all the brothers and sisters for their love and willingness to serve in the Membership Ministry. We praise God for watching over all the events that happened this past year. May the glory be to God!

His servant,

David Cheung

Rev. Lo's Report

The ministry's report is in Chinese only. Please see 教會事工年度報告(繁体中文), or 教会事工年度报告(简体中文).

Deacon Wong's Report

Roman 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. "

It is God’s will for us to save those who bring their faith to trust in Him, regardless what kind of people they are. However, we have all been assigned to certain segments of tribes or people that we can serve and work with by His expectation. Here is the 2018 reflection for Missions Commitment:

Mandarin College Ministry: Weekly Bible study gathering with a major focus on studying God’s word. The two tracks are: Gospel of John & Acts. Average 30-50 people with the helpers.

EE: Two semester each year together with visiting & follow up teams. Right now we are on the 43rd track this Fall. There are two students each in both the 1^st & 2^nd stage.

STM: Praise God for Jon’s leadership in taking the role each year to Fukouka, Japan & has been building up a long-term strategic partnership with Peter & Jenny Oh, missionaries. A team of six were in action during December, 2107 for various serving. Southeast STM were also in place although the saints were under severe persecution. May the Holy Spirit be always be with them during this transition period. Our prayers are vital for their comfort and encouragement as part of body of Christ.

Moreover, I cannot say enough to those who have dedicated their time on top of serving on a weekly basis. These services include Bible study, caring, cooking and more- in addition, you see fruits locally and overseas. Lastly, praise the Lord for my last term to experience His blessings in Missions His faithfulness does not change even though this world is rapidly changing around us. May God bless and be with us in order to prove His vision is not created by the church or individuals, but Christ alone's fulfillment of promise. Glory to God.

Emmanuel,

Davis Wong/Missions Deacon

This year has been a busy year for different ministries. Music ministry is of no exception. Different choirs and orchestra were represented in various 50th anniversary celebration events.

Joint Adult Choir – The choir was able to participate in several services.

September 8 – 50^th Anniversary Thanksgiving Concert. After months of preparation, rehearsals and by the grace of God and the faithfulness of choir members. The concert was a testimony of God’s love to our church. Several former choir members who left our church for many years were so willing to come and joined the choir for this special event. There were close to 500 people that attended the concert.

50^th Anniversary Worship Service – Choir sang two songs to praise God for His love and faithfulness to our church.

The Greater Dallas Chinese Churches Joint Evangelistic meeting – The choir was able to sing in one of the meetings.

Handbell Choir – Throughout the year, the handbell choir has been presenting special music in Sunday worship services. The choir presented an excellent program at the Thanksgiving concert. The choir has made much progress over the years. The young people have worked hard and learn to serve God too.

Children’s Choir – The choir sing in several worship services. The children presented a delightful rendition of “This Little Light of Mine”. They also sang together with the adult choir in the concert.

Orchestra – An ensemble accompanied the congregation in the Thanksgiving concert and the 50^th Anniversary Sunday Worship. They added so much to the festivity of these occasion.

Though the celebration has ended, but there is much more to look forward to. Encourage more people to join in serving. Provide training and develop younger generation to become leaders in the ministry.

“When in Our Music God is Glorified”

But in all These things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Romans 8:37

Praise the Lord! 2018 is a year of DCBC harvest and victory. God is faithful. He led DCBC through the last 50 years. Although challenges and setbacks are inevitable, with faith and hope from God, we witnessed that He led DCBC through the storm and came to a new place. Working together with the pastoral staff led by Pastor Ling, we saw the weather of the church's renaissance and foreseen the new image of the next 50 years.

During the first year serving as a Worship deacon, I deeply experienced the unselfish contributions of brothers and sisters in the holly body, and they cooperated with each other to serve various ministries. Special thanks to Pastor Tang, Director Irene, and brother Issac Chow for their leadership of the 50th anniversay planning. I appreciate Brother Robert Stevens, Eric Tai, and Gilfred Fang for their leadership of leading the AV team, as well as every ushers from the three language usher groups. The teamwork make the celebrations of the 50th anniversary went seamlessly. The decoration group sisters Phoebe, Renee, and Pady also put lots of efforts to make the church and banquet look vivid. I also thank Brother David for coordinating and preparing the snack bags so that each guest can feel at home. It has to be the spiritual connection in the Lord and the leadership of God to make it all possible; It can't be done by the power of man alone. Give Him all the praise!

In addition, I would also like to thank all brothers and sisters for your prayers of the education building renovation, so that the project can be carried out smoothly. Special thanks to Sherry and Clement for their dedication and planning and Brother Walter leading the project. God specially chooses the contractor Ashton; Ashton's Nick is also the brother in Christ, so that the project can not only be completed on time, but also exerts the greatest effect in the existing budget, so that our children and youth group can have their own place to worship our Lord. There are too many God's graces in 2018 that are worthy of our commemoration and careful calculation.

Looking forward to 2019, we continue to ask God to add grace to DCBC; make us fishers of men. Pray the sanctuary renovation will bring more people to worship the Lord. May The Lord strengthen the AV and usher teams. Lead more brothers and sisters to join the worship ministry, experience God through the service of large and small, and update our spiritual life. Emanuel.

Our God is sovereign and He is good. The 2017-2018 school year is yet another proof of His providence. Some of our leaders had to leave our ministry for various reasons and we are always sad to have to say goodbye to serving alongside godly men and women who have a heart to see teenagers follow Jesus, but God always provides the workers for His ministry. We are thankful for the following leaders that God continues to put in the lives of our teenage students and their parents: Melissa Pan, Camellia Chan, Sarah Li, Eric Chui, Ella Yim, Rachel Pang, Jonathan Hsu, Andrew Chow, Jason Cheung, Linda Chen (for half a year), and Christy Purnadi.

Our ministry focus is to partner with parents to help teenagers follow Jesus and to grow up in His family. For us, this means that as a ministry, we understand we are not the student’s primary spiritual influence or discipler – the parents are. As such, we come alongside parents to equip parents with understanding of youth culture, Scripture, and the important call of teaching their child who God is, what Jesus did, how to live transformed lives characterized by Gospel obedience lived out in biblical community.

In youth group, we help teenagers by fostering an authentic community where the Gospel is communicated, experienced, and lived out. So our programs are not chosen randomly to fill a time slot. Instead, we pray through and prioritize things that we deem would aim to grow our teenagers in their intimate knowledge of God and would help students understand their faith, why it matters, why living in community and being known is important, and how faith is lived out in their daily lives.

In the past few years, our leaders have demonstrated a growing sense of ownership of the youth ministry. As we meet with our leaders, we are so thankful to see our leaders growing in their own relationship with the Lord and develop a genuine care and pastoral heart for our students. We see their heart, their struggle, their prayer and their tears as they wrestle in prayer for our students to love God and love people. God has indeed gifted us with wonderful leaders whom we depend on heavily as, first and foremost, our friends in ministry and as small group leaders for our students. This past year, we saw our leaders take steps of faith in taking students under their wings.

Regular Programs:

1. Friday Night Youth Group – We finished studying and preaching through the books of James this past year. We switched format this past school year, alternating between small group Bible study and large group preaching. Students got to learn to study the Bible under our adult leaders and to hear preaching of the Word. The dynamics of our youth group has changed as well. As the youth got discipled, we saw an influx of their unbelieving friends coming into our youth group and staying in our youth group. Over the last year, we have seen approximately 5 new students that are new to church and new to youth group. We witnessed an increase in students serving in the church and in youth ministry as we set up serving teams and created a student leadership team. We saw older student leaders take charge and care for the younger student leaders in the group – one of our seniors taught and disciple a sophomore into a praise team leader. The Lord has definitely been working in the hearts of our youth as they are challenged have been discovering who Christ is to them and who they are in Christ.
2. Youth Sunday School – We have 3 youth Sunday School classes – 7^th graders, 8^th to 9^th graders and 10^th to 12^th graders. During the school year, the 7^th graders went through a curriculum on the Gospel and its impact on our lives. The 8^th to 9^th graders went through Genesis. We were blessed to have Uncles Gordon Ngo and David Jee and Sarah Li teach our 8^th and 9^th graders. The 10^th to 12^th graders learned to study scripture in groups, had to present it to the rest of the group, and at the end, fielded hermeneutical questions from students and Clement and Angel. In the summer, the 8^th to 12^th graders had their teaching practicum. They all served in:
   1. Children’s Sunday School under Stephanie & Sherry
   2. Preschool Sunday School under Linda & Sherry
   3. Taught 7^th grade Sunday School under Angel

Camps:

1. Winter Retreat 2017 – Our theme was “Do Justice, Love Kindness, Walk Humbly” (Micah 6:8). Through a series of connections with previous retreat speakers, we were able to invite Pierre Cannings, who is the associate pastor in Houston, TX. Pierre did a great job challenging our students to care for those whom God cares about as he led our students through the book of Jonah.
2. DCCYC 2018 – The theme at Dallas Chinese Church Youth Camp was “See Beyond You.” Ric Sun spoke in the Middle School sessions; D.C. Choi from (Young Nak Church) spoke to the High School students. We had approximately 18 students attend from DCBC and approximately 5-college students/young adults lead from DCBC.

Serving Opportunities:

1. Nursing Home – The youth ministry goes to Lindan Park Nursing Home every fourth Saturday of the month. We continue to extend the invitation to our parents in youth ministry as we believe teens and parents grow together as they serve together. Every month, approximately 7 teenagers wake up early Saturday morning to come. They are blessed for coming. They enjoy the time spent with the elderly and the elderly love seeing their faces. This past year, while we have seen many pass, we have also seen more elderly deepening in their faith.
2. Preschool Worship – Angel trained a group of seniors to lead preschool worship. The prayer is for those seniors to stay at DCBC after graduating so that they can train a new group of teenagers. Melissa Cheng also started training a group of sophomores/juniors to help in preschool worship.
3. Micah 6:8 Project – Focus on Homelessness – As we studied James, it became very clear to us that God’s heart is not simply for us to stick to the people we are comfortable with, but really be intentional in caring for the lost and for those whom the society deems as “hopeless”. This was how our idea for Micah 6:8 Project was born. We invited Patricia Chen to speak to our youth group on the issue of homelessness and then we packed blessings bags. Two weeks later, the founder of OurCalling, Wayne Walker, to come speak to our church at the end of February. This was our kick-off for the blessings bags fundraiser for OurCalling which raised $2,254.77. We saw parents getting to talk about homelessness with their students. We got emails from DCBC members after witnessing how touched a person living on the streets was to receive one of these bags. We saw our church get excited over a youth initiative. Our students began to see that they can make a difference. They began to see and understand 1 Timothy 4:12 ESV “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”
4. Summer Missions – The youth ministry visited OurCalling for a week at the end of June (6/25-6/30). 6 students, 1 Small Group Leader, and Clement and Angel slept at church every night and drove to OurCalling every morning for a week. We did all the physical labor, making sure to do all that they asked of us so that the regular day staff could continue their ministry with the homeless friends they had built relationships with. We served coffee and pastries, we prepared meals and washed dishes, we mopped floors and cleaned toilets and showers, etc. for 8 hours a day. We were definitely stretched in terms of how physically tired we were, but we learned so much about who God is, His love for all of His people. In our daily interactions, we saw the many reasons for homelessness and we saw the injustice that our new homeless friends were against. Our students and leaders definitely experienced what God was doing and how God was moving. Please speak to Clement and Angel if you want to learn more. We will connect you with our teenagers who can share with you what they learned.

Parent Ministry:

The youth ministry continued parent ministry this year with one event and one on-going meeting where we tackled dating, relationships, and sex with the parents.

This year, September 2018, we welcomed a group of approximately 13 seventh graders into youth group and we said goodbye to about 12 seniors in May of 2018. With our renovations, we see our youth room beginning to fill out nicely. Pray with us for our students. We are thankful for what God is doing in DCBC’s youth ministry. It is an exciting time to be in youth ministry. Until next year!