On September 16, the Gospel Church in Shanghai's Pudong New Area held a Bible study activity focusing on the Acts of the Apostles.
Centering on the core content of the Acts of the Apostles, the Bible study activity was designed with two major sections: "Scripture Completion and Term Explanation," which focused on deepening participants' familiarity with the content, and "Exploration of Knowledge Points on the Missionary Journeys of Peter and Paul," which took the deeds of these two apostles as the thread to guide the congregation to get closer to the footprints of faith inheritance. The activity also set up a point redemption session, where the participants could exchange the points obtained from answering questions for exclusive gifts fit with the theme.
At the first point-collecting station at the entrance were two pictures themed "the Ascension of Jesus" and "the Coming of Pentecost." After scanning the QR code and watching the relevant videos, the participants could get a stamp engraved with "Gospel Proclaimed Everywhere" to start this Bible study journey.
Walking along the path inside the church, the participants would arrive at the area for "Exploration of Knowledge Points on the Missionary Journeys of Peter and Paul." Under the sign "Tracing the Footprints of the Apostles," a map of Paul's three missionary journeys was presented, accompanied by text explaining in detail the key experiences he had during each journey. Besides the arrow sign "Bravely Undertaking the Mission of the Gospel," Peter's life story was fully outlined through vivid pictures and descriptive text.
On the other side, for the "Scripture Completion and Term Explanation" section, the activity organizers set up three answer desks on-site, where the participants could answer questions freely. The questions included random recitation of classic passages from the Acts of the Apostles, as well as explanations of key events such as "the Martyrdom of Stephen" and "Saul Persecuting the Church." Through answering these questions, participants became more familiar with the content of the Acts of the Apostles.
In the end, all participants received the customized gift for this activity—"Gospel "Socks" printed with the portraits of Paul and Peter.
The Gospel Church in Shanghai's Pudong New Area traces its origins to the "Jesus Church," established in 1922 by an American missionary of the Apostolic Faith Mission. Serving as the Christian center of Pudong at the time, the church was later destroyed during the war. In 1949, local believers rebuilt it on the original site and renamed it "Gospel Church." Worship services resumed in 1981 after the Cultural Revolution. With the redevelopment of Lujiazui, the old church was demolished in 1997, and a new building was completed in 2004 on Pudian Road. The current church has a floor area of 1,710 square meters, with a main hall seating 800 and a side hall seating 400. By 2018, it held three Sunday services each week, drawing about 2,000 worshippers, and offered services in Cantonese and Korean, along with English simultaneous interpretation.
Originally published by the Gospel Times
- Edited by Karen Luo and translated by Oliver Zuo