Christian and Missionary Alliance
Peninsula Chinese Alliance Church
Church Profile
I. Our History
After many months of praying and waiting, a group of brothers and sisters held the first service of Peninsula Chinese Alliance Church on the first Sunday of 1996. We rented a neighborhood church as a meeting place. About six months later, we moved our services to Mills High School and rented an office space on El Camino Real. In 2000, with God’s grace we were able to purchase a residential house in Millbrae as Church office and fellowship hall, and continue having our services at Mills High School. In 2003, we moved our office and fellowship meetings to Old Bayshore Highway. With God’s abundance provision and perfect timing, in 2004, we sold the residential house and used the proceeds as a down payment on a church building located in San Mateo. After numerous difficulties of obtaining financing, God has given us this church building which we have been utilizing for all our activities since October 2005.
II. Our Mission and belief
As one of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Churches, we emphasize in carrying out the Great Commission under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to proclaim Jesus Christ as the only savior and redeemer for all mankind. He is also the sanctifier, the healer and the coming King. We believe that the Bible is infallible and hold firmly on biblical truth.
III. Our Leadership
The church is administrated under a 7 member Governing Board. The Board consists of a chairman who is our Senior Pastor, a secretary, a treasurer, an assistant treasurer and three members at large. Besides, the Senior Pastor, all members of the Board are elected through the annual Membership meeting. They also act as deacon/deaconesses of the Church. They hold a two-year term and can be elected for another two-year term.
Our Senior Pastor, Rev. Luke Poon is the spiritual leader of the Church. Not only does he shepherd his flock, he also oversees all church departments, makes long term planning and promotes activities to reach out for the lost souls.
Our Associate Pastor, Rev. Aetos Chung is partially in charge of the English Congregation. He uses good resources in planning and promoting Bible reading programs among members. He assists the Senior Pastor in caring for members and carrying out activities to meet our mission goals.
Rev. Tony Tsang, is our Assistant pastor who volunteers to work with other pastoral staff closely to carry out the Great Commission. He actively participates in short term mission to different parts of the world.
Our church administrator, Mrs. Ida Hau handles all office and clerical works for the church. She assists the Senior Pastor to keep official church records.
IV. Our Membership
In order to become a member of this church, one needs to be baptized at our church or officially apply and be approved for membership. We have 125 active members and among those we have 4 members who are under the age of 18.
Membership meeting is held once a year, typically on the third Sunday of January. During this meeting, members approve the annual budget, the nomination of new deacons and other important issues as necessary.
V. Our Worship
Our English congregation meets every Sunday at 9:30am. Our attendees are mostly high school students with a few college students and career adults. The number of attendance is averaging 22 people. Since we do not have a full time pastor for this congregation, we have to rely on outside speakers. Our Sunday services include worship praises, scripture reading, praying and sermon time. The Chinese Service is held after the English service at 11:00am. Our pastors rotate as speakers for the service, and at times, we may engage outside speakers. The average attendance is 97.
Sunday school for children takes place at 11:30am with an average attendance of 7 students. The Sunday school for English congregation starts at the same time, with an average attendance of 15. The Chinese Sunday school takes place at 9:30am with an average attendance of 17. Most of the Sunday classes are studying materials in conjunction with the Church’s Bible reading program. We have been reading the Old Testaments book by book.
Our Bible study and prayer meeting is held every Wednesday at 7:45pm. An average of 20 brothers and sisters get together to study the book of Psalm and to pray for the church and our missionaries.
VI. Our Fellowship
One of the goals of our church is to make sure every brother and sister belongs to a fellowship and/or a small cell group. Our fellowships are established based on age group and cell groups are based on location.
Caleb Fellowship is for those who has retired and reached their golden age. They meet every Friday morning to have Bible Study and then have lunch together.
Faith, Love and Hope Fellowship is for those who have families. They meet once every month on the first Saturday evening. They plan their own meetings which include Bible Study, special topics, and sharing.
Women’s Fellowship is for our ladies at church to gather together to have sharing and support among one another. Their important role in missions is to pray and care for our missionaries who are in different parts of the world working for God in spreading the gospel.
Men’s Fellowship has been having joint meetings with the Women’s Fellowship.
Humbleness and Faith Fellowship is for those young working adults. They meet every Sunday afternoon. This group is full of energy of new ideas and is the future leaders of the church.
Emmanuel Fellowship is for young couples and they meet every second and fourth Friday evening. Most of them serve in church in various capacities and are considered as young leaders of the church.
Youth Fellowship is the only English fellowship in Church. The attendees are mostly high school students and young adults with a couple of younger junior high students. They meet every Friday night and concentrate mostly in Bible study in building up Christian character.
There are several small cell groups in various locations including San Francisco, Daly City and on the Peninsula. They meet in members’ house and on different days and times. They hold Bible studies, pray, and fellowship with one another to build up their relationship in Christ.
VII. Our Stewardship
Our Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer have the responsibility of handling all financial issues, budgeting, and government reporting for the Church. In our books, we have several independent funds which were established for the different functions and purposes.
The General Fund is for recording the offerings and disbursements of general and operating expenses. The largest item in our operating expenses is the staff payroll, which amount to about 40% of the expenses. Besides the staff payroll, the second largest expense is the monthly mortgage payment for the Church building. When we purchase this Church building in 2004, we took out a mortgage loan from the Alliance Development Fund. Our mortgage payment is amount to about $7,400 per month and the outstanding balance of the loan is approximately $1 million. Our General Fund has been in deficit for a while since the economic downturn. Our reserve has been gradually depleting. Even though we are in financial difficulty, we fully trust that our Lord will provide.
The Mission fund is a fund established for Mission purposes. Our Church has been supporting the C&MA missionaries; missionary sent out by our church; missionaries who work in different parts of the world; mission organizations; and campus ministries. We pledge to be partner with these mission works by faith.
The Benevolent fund was established to assist members of the Church during their financial difficulties. As brothers and sisters, we want to not only support each other with love, care and prayer but also with financial assistance.
VIII. Other Departments
In addition to the above ministries, there are division/departments which are the integral part of our Church in carrying out the Great Commission.
Mission Department prepares the budget, plans mission annual conference and arranges short-term mission trips. Its main responsibility is to promote and educate members of the needs of Mission and by laying a burden on members’ hearts to participate in worldwide missions.
Local Mission Department concentrates in reaching out to the local community to bring them to Christ. They plan outreach activities and evangelistic training to equip us to be Gospel soldiers.
Christian Education Department provides members with internally trainings to help build a solid root of our faith through the Bible. It prepares daily devotional material so all of us will read the same scripture together.
General Services Department handles miscellaneous duties throughout the Church. It maintains and upkeeps the building and facility to make sure that we all have a nice, clean and comfortable place to meet.
Caring Department helps to connect all members together and to make the new visitors feel welcome at our Church. It coordinates and encourages members to make periodic visitations to gain better acquaintance and to help establish closer relationship with one another.
Children Department coordinates all activities relating to children ministry which includes the nursery and Sunday school. At times, it holds activities to outreach to the children in the community.
IX. Our Future Development
We humbly submit to follow God’s guidance. Even though our church experiencing very slow growth, the expansion and development of our English ministry will be our immediate emphasis. At the same time, we are planning to outreach to our community to bring lost souls to Christ; to promote and participate in community activities to show our love and care to others.
X. Our Contact
Your comments and suggestions will help us improve. So please feel free to contact Grace Yip, Secretary of the Governing Board at gsyip123@hotmail.com or (650)343-7677 if you have any concern.
