The Rev Danny Au Yeung, assistant minister at St Paul’s, Carlingford, is a man on a mission. He wants to spread the use of a Mandarin translation of Moore College’s Preliminary Theological Certificate (PTC) course material among Chinese-speaking Christians.

“Chinese PTC is a very valuable resource to build up our lay people and prepare them for leadership among our Chinese congregations,” Mr Au Yeung says. 

“It has been digitised and its six subjects are now available over the internet. This allows for flexible study and provides useful practice questions. But, in spite of its good potential, it has fallen out of use in the past two years or so.”

St Paul's Carlingford launched the Chinese PTC

As a first step, St Paul’s, Carlingford launched the Chinese PTC in its Mandarin-speaking congregation and formed a group for three months to study the Introduction to the Bible or Old Testament 1 units. Mr Au Yeung says he was “blown away” by the response. 

“When registrations closed, we had 35 people sign up!” he told Southern Cross. “The aim is to raise people’s horizon to have a deeper appreciation of God’s wonderful plan of salvation as revealed in the Scriptures. 

"We had 35 people sign up!" 

“At the end of the day, we need leaders who are deeply convicted and have a sound knowledge of the Bible, so that they can lead others to do likewise. Chinese PTC allows us to achieve this.”

It will become a regular pattern of life 

One participant, Grace, says studying Introduction to the Bible “really helped me to understand the flow of the whole story within the Bible and how the books fit together”. Another student, Dong, says his Old Testament 1 unit deepened his knowledge about the purpose of Leviticus and Numbers, which are two books he had often struggled with.

The correspondence course uses the PTC material translated into Mandarin by Moore College’s Centre for Global Mission, and is run in conjunction with its ministry partner www.mimaixuetang.com. It offers various checkpoints to give students further input and the opportunities to ask questions.   

After testing the ground, Mr Au Yeung plans to make studying Chinese PTC a regular pattern of church life at Carlingford, with the possibility that other churches could link up to host groups and share resources. 

“Prayerfully this can ignite a PTC movement to equip our leaders, since Chinese churches desperately need to raise up the next generation of Bible-loving leaders for growth,” he says.

For more information visit www.mimaixuetang.com.