Monday, July 30, 2012

CLS 44th Commencement

        On June 16th, we joyfully celebrated our 44th Commencement in which 41 graduates received the following degrees: M. Th., M. Div., M.A. in Care and Counseling, and the Certificate for Grassroots Ministry. We also granted our third M. Th. degree diploma to Rev. Chi-Chieh Miao.


President Chow and President Yu
        Dr Siu Chun Chow, President of Lutheran Theological Seminary (Hong Kong), was this year’s commencement speaker. During the ceremony, a memorandum was signed to promote cooperation between the two seminaries, including the exchange of teachers and students. We believe this arrangement will benefit the development of theological education between China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.


Commissioning
          President Chow’s address was titled “Serve
wholeheartedly.”Using John 12:26“whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be,”Dr Chow explained how serving God is not going wherever you want to go, but rather it means following in the steps of Jesus. What this means is further spelled out in Mark 8:34, “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” The result of submitting oneself to God is that “my Father will honor the one who serves me.” As a concrete example of this, Dr Chow cited Mark 14. In this passage, Jesus comments on the woman who anointed him at Bethany by saying, “she has done a beautiful thing to me.” We pray that each of our graduates will be both a dynamic witness to the Gospel and a living gift to the people they are called to serve.