John McCall
Mission co-worker in Taipei, Taiwan
Presbyterian Church of Taiwan
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About John McCall’s ministry
John McCall responded to a renewed call to mission service in 2011. He will travel throughout Taiwan teaching courses on ministry and spiritual formation to pastors and lay leaders of the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan. John will help pastors find encouragement and challenge by helping them develop intentional communities, and he will facilitate mentoring relationships between older pastors and younger pastors. He also will assist churches seeking to serve the growing population of urban aboriginal people who have left their villages for jobs in the cities, and will teach courses at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Taipei.
About John McCall
The experience of John McCall demonstrates that the mission legacy of Presbyterians casts a light that crosses time and cultures.
“I served as pastor of the Black Mountain (North Carolina) Presbyterian Church next to Montreat Conference Center, and we had about 40 retired mission co-workers in the congregation,” John says. “They had an amazing ability to cross cultural boundaries.”
Their adeptness at building relationships across cultures was evident when the Black Mountain congregation worshipped and worked alongside ethnic churches, John says. Their commitment to service showed when volunteers were needed to tutor at the local elementary school or fill some other community need.
“I learned a great deal from them, and God used them to cause me to ponder international mission service,” John says.
John sensed that God had called him to follow in the mission tradition that had been modeled for him so powerfully. In 1996 he accepted an appointment to serve in Taiwan.
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John became fluent in Mandarin Chinese, taught seminarians preaching, worship, and spiritual formation, and preached regularly in pulpits throughout Taiwan.
“I have fallen in love with Taiwan and its people,” John says. “There are different people groups who bring such rich gifts to Taiwanese society. Their hospitality and welcome of people from afar is amazing.”
John has spent a considerable portion of his time in Taiwan working with the island’s aboriginal people who are believed to be of Malayo-Polynesian origin. They make up less than 2 percent of Taiwan’s population, but about 70 percent of the aborigines are Christians. They are the most marginalized group in Taiwan and have limited employment and educational opportunities.
While the aboriginal people face many challenges, John finds them to be unselfish and committed followers of Christ. “The generosity of the aboriginal people continues to teach me,” he says.
The aborigines compose about 65 percent of the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan, whose 200,000 members make up about one-third of the island’s Christian population and 1 percent of the total population. Though a tiny minority of the population, John says the faithfulness of the Taiwanese Christian community inspires him.
John worked for 13 years in Taiwan before returning to the United States and serving for two years as pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. A “renewed call to serve again” in Asia led him back to Taiwan, John says. “God has given me a missionary’s heart, and it is such a privilege to learn from and serve with folks in a cross-cultural setting.”
John’s philosophy of mission stems in part from a theology of incarnation that he draws from John’s Gospel. “I love the way Eugene Peterson translates John 1:14: ‘The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood,’” John says. “As Christians and mission co-workers, we are called to move into the neighborhood to live with and love the folks to whom we have been called. It’s a privilege and a wonderful opportunity.”
In a sense, John’s going back to Taiwan is a return to the neighborhood. “I grew up in the United States, but I feel just as comfortable in an aboriginal village on a mountainside overlooking the Pacific Ocean, sharing with Christian friends around an open fire.”
Birthday: December 29