The Local Church

Nothing Better

When I was born in September of 1980, I was born into the fourth generation of a family meeting with the local churches. Honestly, we're a pretty typical Chinese family in the United States, except for the unique fact that almost all one hundred of us are connected by our life in the local church. Our substantial participation in the local churches has added a vision for our lives that gives us good reason to continue to live on this earth. Two cousins are doctors, a few will be or are lawyers, some are in school studying engineering or biology, but all have a conviction that underneath this outward activity, there's a fundamental reason why we are living--to accomplish God's will.

We are here, meeting with the local churches. It is here that we know God's will, purely and without the influence of self-will or selfish motives. In my whole twenty-one years in the local church, I have never experienced backstabbing, hatred, or deception from anyone in the local churches. People are here for God and only God, and we find God among each other. There is an unparalleled trust here because, although we know that we are still fallen and that we do have bouts with sin, we know that God is the only One that is good and so we try to base all our relationships on the only trustworthy foundation--God.

So we live our normal lives. And though a few of us, like I did, opt to spend years serving for the Lord, most in my family live typical lives working, going to school, and spending time with a variety of people, but with a realization that our lives are for God and His eternal purpose.

With this view in mind, I came to the Full-Time Training in Anaheim and in my first weeks here, I had a real struggle as to whether or not this was worth giving my life to or whether the Lord was real or not, or if I only came because my family had brought me up to believe in the Lord. I talked to my dad and he never tried to convince me that the local church was right. He just said that he had seen many other religions but that he had found “nothing better”. A few days later, I attended a meeting of 12-13 year olds and when I heard their singing, a stream of love, peace, and grace flowed into my being and I could not deny the years of wonderful experiences I had had in the local churches.

Phoebe Chang | Back to List

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