The Lottie Moon International Online Conference: Christian Mission Collaboration was conducted virtually to honor the 110th anniversary of the death of Charlotte “Lottie” Moon, a revered American Baptist missionary who gave her life to Shandong, China.
Held from February 25 to 26, the international conference was co-organized by the Department of Mandarin Studies at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) and the North Commitment Forum at South Korea and sponsored by the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention.
With the title of “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8), the conference aimed to celebrate Lottie Moon’s selfless service in evangelizing Chinese people and to encourage global Chinese Christians to be one in the mission field, regardless of denominational differences.
The main objectives were to make us “become a disciple of Jesus”, to “affect our colleagues, friends and students around us so that they follow Jesus and become disciples of Jesus”, for “mutual exchange among Christian experts and students in America, China, and South Korea”, and to “develop cooperation projects among Christian experts in America, Canada, China, South Korea” on education, social welfare, and medical treatment.
Professor Dr. Keun Woo Lee, President of Dental Hospital of VHS and also an elder, gave a welcoming speech on behalf of the North Commitment Forum in South Korea that missionaries with the dedication spirit of Lottie Moon were needed to be prepared for the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Forum had been devoted to providing theological training to Chinese house church pastors, Chinese doctors, lawyers professors, and media professionals as well as young people in its mission in China in the past years.
Pastor Myungjin Ko, Senior Pastor of Suwon Central Baptist Church, President of South Korea Baptist Church Convention, and Co-Representative of Korea Churches’ Association summarized the life of Lottie Moon who spent nearly 40 years living and working in Shandong with one sentence: she preached the gospel.
Although it was bad news that Ukraine was at war with Russia during those days, the gospel or the “good news” referred to the fact that sinners receive eternal life through accepting Jesus as their savior.
“Only Jesus Christ is our only gospel. So we should work hard, even if one more person comes to believe in the gospel. What is the earthly existence meaning of pastors and what should churches do in this world? I think there are two points: first, to make the unbelievers come to Christ and to make Christians more like Christ,” urged the Korean pastor.
All our life priorities should be put around Christ, he added.
Presentations were given by Dr. Todd Lafferty, Executive Vice President of International Mission Board, Southern Baptist Church, USA, and overseas Chinese church leaders and Christian professors.
Sent to the North China Mission in Dengzhou, Shandong in 1873 as a single woman at the age of 33, Moon started out as a teacher in a missionary school. Through short mission trips with the missionaries’ wives, she recognized the village women’s eager needs towards the gospel, who could be only reached by female missionaries. In 1885, she left Dengzhou for the countryside, going alone. Settling in Pingdu, Moon became the first American woman to attempt sustained independent life under genuinely Chinese conditions. In Pingdu, Moon visited women house by house, village by village on a donkey. During the war period, she withdrew all of her savings and gave the money to a famine fund. Due to starvation, her health continued to decline and she died on the voyage back to the U.S. on December 24, 1912.
