WSCCC

Our origin

WSCCC was established in 1978 as a branch of the Chinese Christian Church (CCC), Milsons Point. It was only the third Chinese church in Sydney, and was set up with the vision to reach out with the gospel of Jesus to the inner western suburbs. Five families, including twelve children, set out to form the congregation, meeting for the first year in the Burwood Gospel Chapel.

It is a testament to God’s grace that all five of those families remain involved in the church, and those twelve children are now actively involved in Christian ministry around the world.

Growth at Strathfield

The church moved to the first of its current premises at Strathfield in 1979, and became and independent of its mother church in 1982. Over the following years, Cantonese, Mandarin and English services developed, and currently there are six separate services each Sunday, as well as their adjuvant ministries.

The first English service began in 1983, along with its Youth Fellowship. The English congregation has had a rich heritage of evangelical teaching from the Bible throughout its history. We have had 5 ministers in our history: Revs Wilfred Chee, Joe Mock, Bruce Dipple, Edison Wee and Mark Boyley. Even during periods without a full-time minister, there was great growth, with strong support from the staff of Sydney Missionary and Bible College (SMBC). An evening English service was started in 1991.

Planting of new churches

In keeping with our vision to reach out with the gospel to different parts of Sydney, WSCCC has established 3 church plants over the years, in the Hills District, Auburn and a Cantonese congregation in Croydon Park.

A tradition of serving in ministry

WSCCC has had a strong tradition of theological training and serving in ministry. This has been through training courses as well as theological colleges. Many from our congregation have become ministers, such as:

• Eugene Hor, minister at Gracepoint

• Andrew Hong, minister at Northern Districts Chinese Christian Church

• Brian Tung, minister at Hope Anglican Church, Chatswood

• Elim Hiu, pastor at Christ Evangelical Centre, Australia

• Ernest Chiang, pastor at Christ Evangelical Centre, Australia

• Tom Tokura, minister at Chinese Christian Church, Milson's Point

• Donald Yee, pastor at OCM Boon Church, Flushing, New York

Yet others continue in theological training and ministry in many churches across Sydney. There is also a healthy culture of the general congregation training in lay ministries.

We are also blessed to have an academic theological ethos, with several members of our congregation becoming lecturers at Bible colleges:

• Sam Chan teaches Preaching and Theology at SMBC

• Peter Lau teaches Old Testament at SMBC

• Rolf Lepelaar teaches Bible and ministry at Phnom Penh Bible College

We have also had a strong emphasis on global missions, with several families nurtured and sent from our congregation, including:

• Phil and Irene Nicholson (in Taiwan with OMF)

• Lawrence and Liling Tan (in Bolivia with SIM)

• Rolf and Bonnie Lepelaar (in Cambodia with CMS)

• Wayne and Angela Chen (in Taiwan with OMF)

• Alex Fung (in Japan as Ministry Intern with OMF)

• Bian Tan (recently retired from serving in Spain with WEC)

Many from our congregation have undertaken short-term missions around the world, and more recently, we have planned short-term mission teams sent from our church to Central Asia and Taiwan.