Spiritual Discipline

In addition to encouraging students to engage in daily personal devotions, our institute has established a pastoral office. The pastoral members include Ms. Chen Yu-en, Pastor Guo Jian-min, Pastor Lin Guo-bin, Dr. Liang Jian-zhang, Pastor Zhang Pei-yi, and Pastor Zhang Yao-hui-shih's wife. They are dedicated to caring for the spiritual lives of teachers, students, and fellow workers, and by coordinating and promoting various regular spiritual activities, they help them build close friendships in the Lord and become a source of spiritual support for everyone.

The regular spiritual activities held at the Seminary are as follows:

1. Spiritual Formation Camp: it is held in August before the commencement of an academic year and gives students a good opportunity for relaxation, meditation, renewal, and commitment before God, so that they may regain strength and power in their studies and disciplines in the new academic year.
2. Spiritual Formation Day: it is held on the first day of the spring semester when teachers and students gather to discuss a specific topic of Christian spirituality and then put it into practice.
3. Morning Chapel Service: it is held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings for teachers and students to have a time of worship, praise and prayers.
4. Seminary Prayer Day: it is held once every semester during the Morning Chapel Service for all teachers, students and staff to promote the experience of spiritual union of all members of the Seminary.
5. Spiritual Formation Group: In this three-hour session monthly group meeting, first-year students are encouraged to build each other up in Christ under the Chaplain’s guidance.
6. Faculty-Student Mentoring: each student has a mentoring session with the Chaplain or a teacher once a month.
7. Fellow Traveler Initiative: the Spiritual Cultivation Division of the Student Union invites senior year students to join the program while the Chaplain will assign a senior year student to every first-year student. The purpose of the program is to arrange a companion to support new students at the beginning of their theological training.
8. Morning Prayer Meetings: they are weekly meetings for students held by the Spiritual Cultivation Division of the Student Union.
9. Noon Prayer Meetings: they are held twice every semester by the Spiritual Cultivation Division of the Student Union.
10. All Seminary Staff Meeting: it is held on the first Monday of each month as seminary staff gather together for a time of worship and praise with a short message from the Chaplain and the President’s brief report on the recent Seminary development. It is concluded with a time of prayers in small groups.

Apart from the above, there are also regular inter-class prayer meetings, prayer groups of various combinations, and the launching of the prayer partner scheme where students and staff are encouraged to pair up for regular sharing and prayer gatherings. It is hoped that spiritual life, through the implementation of the above programs, will not only be a part of Christian life but be the spearhead of it.