A Short History of Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church
The inception of the Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church of the Southern Baptist Convention goes back to 1979. At that time, the only Chinese Christian community in Ann Arbor was the Ann Arbor Chinese Bible class, which has been active since 1960’ s. Its primary function was to reach out to overseas Chinese students through Friday night Bible studies. Victor Chu, the chairperson at that time, observed that the participants of the Bible class did not attend regular Sunday worship services. Victor shared his concern with the pastor of the Packard Road Baptist Church , of which a participant of the Chinese Bible class was a member. With the help of Packard Road Baptist Church and the Baptist State Convention of Michigan, Joshua Wong, a student from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was introduced to the Chinese Bible class. Wong served as pastoral intern in the summer of 1981. He began working among the Chinese families in both Packard Road Baptist Church and the Chinese Bible class. Soon afterwards, a worship service in Mandarin was started on Sunday afternoon at Packard Road Baptist Church . Later that year, Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church was established.
Joshua Wong graduated from the seminary in 1982 and returned to the church as an interim pastor with financial support from North American Mission Board. In 1983, the congregation voted to become affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and called Joshua Wong as their first full-time pastor. The name of the church was officially amended to Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church, Southern Baptist Convention. Around the same time, a group of members who opposed the decision of affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention formed an interdenominational Chinese church.
Joshua Wong left the church in 1985. Efforts to merge the two Chinese churches were initiated by Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church. After extensive investigation and discussions, it was concluded that changes needed from Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church in order to merge would negatively affect the church’s stability. In late 1985, more than three quarters of the church members voted to remain as a Southern Baptist church and thus terminate the merger discussion. The congregation also voted for the church to become a mission church of Packard Road Baptist Church. The search for a new pastor soon began. In the fall of 1986, Jacob Lintang was called as the church’s second pastor, who served until February 1988.
The church called Wah-Yiu Fu, a young graduate from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, as their third pastor. Fu and his family moved to Ann Arbor in September 1989. His eight-year tenure provided the church with stability and consistent growth.
In February 1997, the church purchased an eight-and-a- half-acre plot of land located in northeast Ann Arbor . The construction of phase one of the church buildings was completed in April 2001, and the building was dedicated in September 2001.
In the fall of 1997, the church called Brent Hoover to start the English and youth ministries for a growing group of American born Chinese and persons of Asian decent.
Andrew Teo was called to be the church’s fourth pastor in April 1999. He and his family arrived from Perth , Western Australia on August 31, 1999 .
James Chuang, an American-born Chinese, who is also a member of the Church since 1992, joined the pastoral staff in March 4, 2002 until end of 2003.
The church grew from 20 in 1983 to 63 at the end of 1989. In the 1990s, the percentage of professional families began to rise at a rate out of proportion to the students. At present, the church has a weekly average attendance of 360 including approximately 100 children from new born to twelve grades.