Bread of Life Christian Church

This past Sunday, we visited a charismatic church called Bread of Life Christian Church in Changhua. It is probably one of the most attended congregations in Changhua, Taiwan. It is a congregation of the largest church in Taiwan, the Bread of Life Christian Church based in Taipei, which has over 170 congregations around the world including Torrance, California and Santa Clara, California . In Chinese, it is known as "Ling Liang Tong." This congregation here in Changhua, Taiwan has grown to three services on Sunday mornings. They have dynamic worship services. The sermon was about 45 minutes and Alice says that it had more of a biblical exegetical-teaching style. This seems to be the style of sermons here in Taiwan and Asia. I think this preaching style helps to build a believers knowledge of the bible better than the pastoral style of preaching. Done right, it can be a powerful style of preaching. This is the church that Alice first went to when she first became a Christian. This fellowship started with about 30 people in attendance but its attendance is about 400 each Sunday.

I have wondered why churches like this have grown so rapidly in Taiwan and Asia? Perhaps it is because of the freedom of the Holy Spirit in its worship? Perhaps it is their passion for evangelism? Whatever it is, it seems to be working because it is growing fast and more people are getting to know the Lord in a deeper way.

I also really like upbeat praise music. For one thing, an upbeat praise music helps wake me up in the morning if I'm not yet fully awake. The main reason I like worshiping God with an upbeat style of music is that it involves my emotions too. I naturally involve my intellect because I am a natural thinker. I have no problem involving my thinking ability but need some help to kick my emotions and feelings into gear. Personally, I think (or feel) that worship should involve both intellect and emotions. We all naturally tend toward stimulating our emotions in many areas so why not also in our worship? Most normal people listen to rock or upbeat music secular music and download music through their MP3 so why should Christians be so uptight about more emotional music in church? Too often, there seems to be an odd dichotomy in how we live and how we worship. Is this why some people see Christianity as odd or out-dated?