Interview with Pastor Peter Lin
We interview Pastor Peter Lin Ken En, the new Chinese Congregation pastor. He shares with us about himself, his testimony and how we can be praying for him.
Pastor Peter with his wife
1. Could you introduce yourself and how you came to faith in Christ?
I was born in 1958 in Taiwan, Keelung City. In 1983, I married my wife, Jane who is the same age as me. We both grew up and served in the same church. I have two sons, David and Paul. David is residing in Europe and Paul is living with us.
I'm a fifth-generation Christian in my family. My great-great-grandfather was a student of the missionary Dr. Mackay (George Leslie Mackay) who was sent by Canada Presbyterian Church to Taiwan in 1872. However, it was only at the age of 10 that I first stepped into a church (Cheng-Gong Quaker Church, Religious Society of Friends, Taiwan Keelung).
I recalled it was a Sunday morning of summer in 1968, my dad suggested to my mum to bring the kids to the church service. My mum was not a Christian then but she was touched by the Holy Spirit and happily brought the five kids to church. From then on, the salvation of Jesus Christ came to my household.
I was baptised during my third year in middle school. That same year in a church retreat dedication night, I was deeply moved by God's calling. I stepped forward to the altar, knelt down, lighting the small candle in my hand, and prayed sincerely, "O Lord! I want to follow you all my life and become your disciple!"
In 1975, I became more certain of God's calling during the rally of Billy Graham's Gospel Tour in Asia. It was held in an open-air stadium in Taipei. For many nights during the rally, there was heavy downpour but the crowd stood on the lawn holding umbrellas worshiping, praising and listening to the message of God.
One of the nights when Billy Graham called out to the crowd to respond to God's salvation, I was in tears and raised my hand crying out to God that I would be fully committed to Him all my life. Thereafter, I became very active in rendering my services to the church. In 1984, I was ordained as a church deacon.
2. How did you become a pastor? What led you to pastor at GBC?
After my National Service in 1982, I started my business. I had two aims. Firstly, I wanted to build up my wealth for my family needs once I became fully committed to my future kingdom ministry. Secondly, I wanted to build up my social experience and broaden my life vision so that I would be better equipped in ministering the church.
God granted me a great chance to let my business flourish and I was able to support a small new-planted church. Praise the Lord!
During the summer of 1988, after five days of fasting and praying, it was time for me to respond to God's calling so I decided to hand over my business. Then I started to train my successor. With God's grace and mercy, I was able to sell my business company in 1995.
I migrated to Singapore in 1996 with my family. In July that year, I enrolled at Singapore Bible College for my theological training. After graduating, I started serving in Calvary Baptist Church, Grace Baptist Church and Glory Joy Christian Church from 2000 to 2018. I left Glory Joy Christian Church at the end of 2018 hoping to dedicate my remaining life to Myanmar Missions. In Business Missions, I planned to train the local people to be self-sufficient in order to build up their own church and also to set up a Discipleship Training Centre etc. But the plans couldn’t keep up with the changes and had to be stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the political turmoil in Myanmar.
However, God gave me another Macedonia calling. I accepted the offer of Grace Baptist Church in 2022 and joined this big family of the Chinese congregation smoothly. I greatly believe it's God's will and His guidance! I also believe that the Myanmar Missions can be in partnership with our church's Mission Department.
3. How can we be praying for you and your family, as well as the Chinese congregation?
Please pray for me and my wife, Jane, who is a pastor with the Singapore Presbyterian Chenli Church. We need God's wisdom, God's love and God's Word to do pastoral ministry. I would also like to pray to God to make our English and Chinese congregations become one united church allowing God's Word to reach out to the different gospel need groups. Lastly, I pray to let our church's desire be to build up, not to destroy and to live out a gospel-filled life, obeying Biblical authority and displaying humility. Amen!