| John McCall
Taiwan Seminary
Number 20, Lane 2, Sec. 2
Yang-The-Ta Road, Shihlin
Taipei 11106
Taiwan
Email: John
McCall
Email: John
McCall 2
John McCall teaches at Taiwan Theological Seminary in Taiwan’s
capital city, Taipei. He instructs students in the areas of spiritual
formation, preaching and worship, and the theology and practice
of ministry. John’s passion is helping to prepare students
to be visionary, healthy, and faithful pastors. He oversees a program that helps young pastors have a positive experience in their first pastorate.
John has been under appointment as a mission co-worker since
1996. After two years of language training, he worked for several
years with the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan on the east coast.
There are 13 aboriginal tribes on the island who speak 13 different
languages. Some 65 percent of aboriginals are Christian, while
people on Taiwan as a whole are only 3 percent Christian. The
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, with whom John works, is the largest
Protestant denomination.
John also works with the seminary’s Center for Spiritual
Formation, which organizes small groups in which every student
participates. These groups are led each week by local pastors
who receive training. John also leads training events, retreats,
and conferences for pastors and lay leaders in various presbyteries
around the island.
The seminary also runs an academy for laypeople interested in
studying the Bible and theology. “I teach in this academy
on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30,” writes John. “These
are mostly working people who ride their motorcycles or take the
subway from their places of work to the eighth floor of a high-rise
church in downtown Taipei. More and more young adults are attending
these classes. After spending a long day at work myself, I am
always inspired by the energy and interest they bring to class.
Their energy gives me energy. And it thrills me to think that
they leave the class to be Christ’s light in their families,
jobs, and in the world.”
Taiwan is a small island 100
miles off the southern coast of China. John’s work situates
him on the frontiers of the Christian faith in an increasingly
integrated world. Working in predominately non-Christian Taiwan,
one of the most advanced and sophisticated places on the globe,
his calling requires him to rethink constantly the place of his
faith tradition in its encounter with other faith traditions and
with cutting-edge modernity. |
