About

Who we are and what we believe

HISTORY

Richmond Chinese Evangelical Free Church was planted by the Vancouver church in 1983 and has since grown under the Lord’s grace and watchful eye. As the first branch of VCEFC, the total population of the church was approximately 30 people, and worship services were held in a rented church building. Due to the tremendous growth of the church, a decision was made to move the Sunday worship services to Palmer Junior High School in 1988. After 10 years, the church was moved into the current church building on March 1, 1998. Currently there are 3 Sunday worship services – Cantonese, English and a children’s worship, and approximately 450 people come on a regular basis. The Lord has blessed our church with resources and continual growth and all praise to him.

OUR GOD-GIVEN PURPOSE

The English Ministries, as part of RCEFC, exists to glorify God by Committing ourselves to Christ, Applying the Word of God, Serving others with our Spiritual Gifts and Telling the world about Jesus.

Committing ourselves to Christ

Acknowledging that Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, is the one in whom all God’s fullness dwells bodily (Col 1:19), and that there is no other way to the Father than through him (John 14:6), we obey his call to believe and place our faith in Christ and in his atoning work on the cross (Rom 3:25). This is the basis of our spiritual life with God and as a community of faith this is our foundation upon which all else is built.

Applying the Word of God

We are built up in our faith as we seek to learn from the word of God and apply it (James 1:22) to our everyday lives, knowing that God intends to work in us through his word (2 Tim 3:16-17), which is the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17) that he wields in our hearts to accomplish his good purposes.

Serving others with our Spiritual Gifts

The Spirit not only wields the word in our lives but also gifts us with specific spiritual gifts he intends us to use for building up others (1 Cor 12:4-7). With humility and in the context of the larger church body we each work at discerning the particular gifts the Lord has given us (Rom 12:3-8). We then exercise our spiritual gifts in concert with our brothers and sisters in unity as we are each members of the body of Christ, serving with our diverse gifts (1 Cor 12:21-27).

Telling the world about Jesus

We exist as a church to fulfill the mission and purpose of our Lord. As such, we are always seeking to live out the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-20), telling others about the good news of Jesus and teaching them what it means to receive him and to follow him. We also pray for the Lord to raise up more preachers of the gospel (Matt 9:37-38), and we make it our aim to encourage one another in this holy task (Rom 10:14-15) for the advancement of his kingdom.

VISION STATEMENT

We strive to be a Christ-Centered community where people are deeply connected to one another for the advancement of His Kingdom

CORE VALUES

We believe God’s will for humanity is revealed through Biblical Authority, that we disciple by creating Authentic Relationships, communicate the gospel as our Proactive Missions, that we have a Prayer Dependent Living all through a Christ-Centered Worship.

Bibilical Authority

We believe that the Bible is the complete revelation of God’s will for humanity. It is the sole and final authority for faith and for life. Thus, we value the teaching and preaching of God’s word accurately and in a culturally relevant manner. Furthermore, since it is the foundation of a God-honouring life, we value life transformation as people respond with their lives to the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:14-17; 2 Tim. 4:1-5; Jas 1:22-25).

Authentic relationships

We believe that life transformation and discipleship were intended by God to occur most effectively in the context of community. Thus, the experience of love, grace, forgiveness, belonging, discipline, and accountability (to name a few) occur as we choose to do life together. Therefore, our desire is to see all people relationally and intimately connected to a component of community life within the church (Heb. 10:24-25; Jas 5:13-16).

Proactive Missions

We believe that the church is God’s vehicle of communicating His Gospel to the world. As such, we believe that every follower of Jesus Christ must be an active and intentional testimony of His Gospel in order to impact the world in word and deed both locally and globally (Matt. 5:13-16; Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; James 1:27).

Prayer Dependent Living

We believe God invites us into new life with Him that is to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and enabled through consistent and faithful prayer. Our desire is to see prayer weaved into the very fabric of our lives and church community so that we might become a church that truly impacts homes, communities, and the world (Prov 15:29; Matt. 6:9-13; 1 John 5:14-15; Eph. 6:18-20).

Christ-centered Worship

We believe that the ultimate goal for every person is to give glory to God. As Christ is the perfect revelation of God, we desire to make Christ the focal point of our worship in all that we do – singing, preaching, teaching, family life, work, community, and culture. Our desire is to see every person offer a daily, sacrificial response with their lives first to Christ and subsequently, towards the world (Ps. 96:7-8; Matt. 22:37-39; Rom. 12:1-2; Acts 2:42-47).

PASTORAL TEAM

Pastor Will Burgess

ENGLISH MINISTRIES

Pastor Will Burgess joined RCEFC as our pastor of English Ministries in March 2018. He has been involved as a lay leader in the EFCC since 2006 and first developed a passion for pastoral ministry in pastoral internships at our sister churches of NDEFC and FLEFC.
Will is a life-long student and has keen interests in history, theology, and linguistics, which he pursued at UBC and ACTS (TWU), graduating with his Masters of Divinity from Trinity Western Seminary in 2015.

Will has a passion for teaching followers of Christ to believe and live the truth, and for apologetics and lifelong evangelism in the local community. He is always happy to get to know people better and can be reached via phone, e-mail, or social media to set up a chat.

Rev. Wong Tin Yat

SENIOR PASTOR

Rev. Wong graduated from the Alliance Bible Seminary in Hong Kong, Bethel Bible Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the United States, where he received a Masters of Divinity (Biblical Research), Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy, and Doctorate in Pastoral Theology (Marriage and Family Counselling). In 2011, Rev. Wong was ordained as a Reverend by the Evangelical Free Church of China.

After serving in pastoral ministry for over a decade, Rev. Wong was invited to return to his alma mater the Alliance Bible Seminary in Hong Kong in 2015 to serve. During his tenure, he served as Dean of Students, Associate Professor in the Department of Practical Theology, with a focus on marriage and family therapy and homiletics, etc.

Rev. Wong is married, his wife Kim Lai is a researcher of church history in China, and teaches the history of Chinese churches and related disciplines.

Rev. Wong’s research interests include marriage and family therapy, over the years his research has focused on the integration of family systems theory into church ministry and administration. In addition, his research focus also includes biblical teaching, pulpit preaching and biblical teachings about the church community. For Rev. Wong, teaching and pastoral ministry are of equal importance. He hopes that the church community will take root and grow in the word of God, and that community relationships will reflect Christlikeness.

Rev. Edmond Fong

CHINESE MINISTRIES

Rev. Edmond Fong graduated from Alliance Bible Seminary and Carey Theological College and was ordained by the Canadian Pacific District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. He began serving the Chinese Ministry at RCEFC in December of 2016. He immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong over 20 years ago with his wife Grace and daughters Sharon and Jasmine.

Rev. Edmond Fong’s has a passion for adult and senior’s ministry at RCEFC. When he has the opportunity he enjoys spending time in nature, taking pictures and reading. He also enjoys collecting antique items such as stamps, pens and cameras…

Pastor Kwok-Yin Ho

CHINESE MINISTRIES

Pastor Kwok-Yin Ho graduated from Carey Theological College, and began apprenticeship at RCEFC in 2012, transitioning into the pastoral team in 2015. His wife Joey and children Chloe and Lemuel have grown to love the community at this church.

Pastor Kwok-Yin has a passion in working with young adults and family ministries. He hopes that he can bring life-changing experiences through spiritual growth with God. His passion towards spiritual growth has lended his focus towards spiritual theology.

RESOURCES

RCEFC Safety and Protection Policy (04-13-24)

RCEFC-Safety-and-Protection-Policy-DB-adopted-on-Apr13_24 Download

RCEFC Constitution and Bylaw

https://chinese.rcefc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/281018-App-V-constitutions-and-bylaws.pdf