Issue 497-The Chosen – A Community of Believers Reaffirming Its Callings in the Midst of Hardship
Rony Tse, Acting Director of the Inter-College Department
Released in 2023, the Hong Kong film The Mad Fate tells the story of a fortune-teller who predicts that a cafeteria owner’s son, with a pathological personality, will become a murderer. Begged by the young man, the fortune-teller embarks on a journey with him to change his fate as if he were fighting against divine will, in an attempt to save the innocent from the tragedy of destiny, only to realize that he himself has no choice but to be caught up in this greater destiny. “Fate” is a paradoxical existence, hidden in our daily lives, only to be revealed, questioned and complained about when we are in distress. In recent years, we have all been thrown into this tug-of-war with the times, where everything falls apart and the rest is yet to be reset. In such a destiny, how can the believers on college campuses establish their “fate”.
The “fate” of the Christian community is both external to itself and rooted in a larger destiny. Our togetherness is born of a call, anointed and communed by the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ. Thus, free from this outward righteousness, we have no righteousness of our own. Our fate is the fate of our calling. It is only through the constant action upon this calling that we can recognize our own destiny, where we are going, and what we are living for. In addition to this calling, the destiny of the Christian community is deeply rooted in the context of its own feet, intertwined and multifaceted, integrated into, juxtaposed with, or protruding from, the complexity and variety of its own context. We need to continually recognize the context that mirrors our roots and reflect on who we are in the present moment and how we can appropriately intervene or collaborate to witness to the value of the Christian faith.
Our Year’s Theme
The Inter-college Department’s theme for the 24th-25th year will be “The Chosen – A Community of Believers Reaffirming Its Callings”. We aim to work with students to rediscover their callings in troubled times, to become a community of disciples living out their vocations, and to continue to witness God’s work on campus. We are convinced that the Lord is still committed to the college students who remain behind in this time and place of destiny, as a community of hope and goodness in the midst of a nearly forgotten past and a devastating future. We hope that through various exercises and understandings on the journey of pursuing one’s calling, students will be able to know and accept themselves more openly, understand God’s heart in their lives, and live out their own lives courageously in the present moment. This is not an individual event, but a community exercise, whereby each person is reminded and encouraged by the community, and it becomes a common goal to be pursued by the community, and a true fellowship of the body and mind living together.
Our Ministry
Our ministry will attempt a new model to meet the needs of our students, giving them more flexibility in choosing the areas in which they desire to be equipped, including small group Bible study training, personal virtue development, spiritual disciplines, and theological and situational reflections. We seek to help students find their own passions in the various trainings, to return to the campus to inspire others, to form mini-communities, and to gather students of different vocations to respond to and serve the unique needs of the campus. We may not change our fate, but we are the “Chosen” who continue to be faithful disciples in God’s calling.
Full text is available in Chinese version.
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