Chinese Pastor Looks Toward Ordination

Now that he has graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary, Paul Wang is looking forward to the next milestone in his ministerial career.

He will be ordained inSeptember as the pastor of Hyde Park Christian Reformed Church, a predominantly Chinese congregation that has been without a full-time pastor for several years.

One of the nearly 100 men and women – including a record-number six PhD students -- to be awarded degrees on May 23 in the Calvin College Fine Arts Center, Wang is no stranger to the role of minister.

A former Hindu and a lawyer, he worked as a pastor for a Full-Gospel church in his homeland of China before heading to Grand Rapids, Mich., to learn more about the Reformed faith that he had begun to appreciate through reading and friendships.

“My time at the seminary has been fantastic,” he said in an interview before his graduation. “I’m leaving with a more complete picture of what is the biblical truth of the Reformed faith.”

About half of the seminary graduates were at the CRC offices in Grand Rapids, Mich., on May 22 to undergo interviews as part of the process of being presented as candidates for ministry to Synod 2009. These were the graduates from the seminary’s Master of Divinity degree program and are men and women who have not yet been ordained as ministers of the Word.

Since Wang had already been ordained in China, he didn’t need to go through that process.

Like Wang, some of last week’s graduates come from other countries and backgrounds. One woman, for instance, learned about the CRC while living in Egypt. Others are more traditional candidates, having grown up in the CRC and even worked on staff at CRC congregations before moving on to seminary.

“For all of them, graduation from seminary is very important,” said Rev. David Koll, director of the CRC’s Candidacy Committee. Wherever they are from, he added, they are “another of our children” and the CRC will care for them.

Wang, 43, earned a master’s degree in theology. He has been preaching on and off for four years at the church in the Chicago area. The church has since called him to serve as its pastor.

Calvin Seminary, he says, has taught him how to be a better pastor, how to be more compassionate and how to work together to create a unity of faith out of the diverse believers in the church.

While in Chicago, he says he hopes to enroll in a PhD program. Eventually, he would like to return to China. At age 43, he has already translated several Reformed texts into Chinese.

“I have an optimistic view of the transformation of the church in China, that it will be free, open, and transparent,” he said. “God is in control. I believe he has a plan for China.”

His studies at Calvin Theological Seminary will help him to articulate the Christian faith in a way that matters and makes intellectual and spiritual sense, he said. Too often, a lack of understanding of doctrine can turn Christianity in China almost into a kind of folk religion.

“Calvin has taught me that as a pastor I can serve all aspects of the person and of society,” he said. “It has given me a proper foundation. I’ve learned that Christianity is about the heart, our character, and our love and proper respect for others.”