Our History
Our History Throughout his 30-plus years of ministry, Pastor Kwong-Wah Lau, the senior pastor of the Chinese Baptist Church of Miami (our mother church), regularly proposed a five-year plan for the church. In his proposal given in 1990, Pastor Lau encouraged the church to initiate a mission church in the Broward County within five years.
In 1991, Pastor Lau organized a team to begin the ministry of visitation and to locate a meeting place in the Broward County. Joining the team were Mrs. Oi-Lin Lau, Deacon and Mrs. Stanley Yu, Sister Bonnie Ma, and Mr. and Mrs. Bay O Tam. We spent some time looking at several churches, schools, and other buildings. Finally, under the recommendation of Rev. Herschel Creasman, the senior pastor of the Coral Baptist Church, we rented the cafeteria of Taravella High School for our Sunday worship services and Sunday schools.
On January 12, 1992, the mother church instituted the Coral Springs Mission Committee, with Pastor Lau as chairman. Members included Deacon Samuel Lee, Deacon Stanley Yu, Winnie Yu, Bay O Tam, Sixto Su, Kang Yen, Edward Au, and Bonnie Ma. After that, we stepped up our visitation ministry.
On April 17, 1992, Pastor Lau invited the mother junior church to present a special Easter musical night at the Coral Baptist Church, for the benefit of the local Chinese population. We issued 300 letters of invitation, in which we also announced our plan to inaugurate a mission church in Coral Springs. Thanks be to God – over 300 people came to attend the meeting. Pastor Lau preached a sermon, and personally invited the local Chinese kinsmen to join us for worship at the new mission church.
On June 14, 1992, we held the first worship service at Taravella High School, and the Coral Springs Mission was born that day. Over 50 people attended the inaugural service. Initially, in addition to Pastor and Mrs. Lau, the co-workers included Deacon Samuel Lee, Deacon Stanley Yu, Bonnie Ma, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Au, and Mr. and Mrs. James Feng, and others.
In the early days, we had two weekly Cantonese Bible study classes, held at the home of Edward Au. We also had a Mandarin Bible study class held at the Coral Baptist Church. In fact, one Cantonese Bible study class began long before the Coral Springs Mission. It was first held at Deacon Yu’s home. After Deacon Yu moved to Miami, we successively moved to the homes of Fun-Giel Chi, Wai-Hua Yu, and Tak-Ping Poon. By the grace of God, the mission became more and more prosperous. In order to nurture our brothers and sisters and the next generation, we established the Matthew Fellowship, Luke Fellowship, John Fellowship, and Enoch Fellowship. We also reorganized the children ministry, calling Sister Cathy Yeung to become its director.
On June 20, 1993, the mother church ordained Edward Au as deacon. Shortly after that, Deacon Ton-Lo Wang moved his family to Broward County and joined the ministry at Coral Springs. Concurrently, Brother Linus Lau came to faith in the Lord and was baptized at the mother church. Later on, he received the calling from God to serve in full-time ministry. After he graduated from seminary, Brother Lau was called to be a full-time minister. He was ordained as pastor on December 22, 2002.
In 1999, the Coral Springs Mission building was completed. A building dedication service, which also included deacon ordination and worship, was held on April 11. To accommodate the overflowing crowd, we conducted the service inside a huge rented tent. That day, Brother James Feng was ordained as our new deacon. With our own address, we also established a web-site to supply information about our Mission. The person in charge is Brother Gene Li. Because God continued to add to our numbers of believers, we felt the need again to ordain another deacon.
On March 16, 2003, we ordained Brother Jin-Gen Xu to be our new deacon. Pastor Kwong-Wah Lau retired in 2003. But before his retirement, Pastor Lau proposed his final five-year plan. One of his recommendations was to constitute the Coral Springs Mission as a church. Pastor Lau’s proposal received unanimous support and passage.
On January 4, 2004, the Coral Springs Mission officially became the Chinese Baptist Church of Coral Springs. During the ceremony, Pastor Lau led the entire membership to commit to the following Constitution Pledge: On the already laid foundation we pledge to:
- Follow the example set by our mother church
- Continue to grow
- Build up the body of Christ
- Obey and do what the Bible says
- Love one another
- Serve the Lord faithfully
- Preach the gospel unceasingly
- Exalt Jesus Christ
- Wait for His return
Amen!
