Taiwan Legendary Pastor Chou Lien-hua Dies at 96

On August 6, the Chinese famous pastor Rev. Chou Lien-hua died at 96 due to a heart disease and arrhythmia according to the announcement of the Cheng Hsin General Hospital.

The Central News Agency reported that he suddenly fainted on the steering wheel while driving a car with a church co-worker in company around the afternoon, as quoted by the hospital. He was rushed to the hospital at 5:20 pm, and he failed to survive after 50 minutes of emergency treatment.

Rev. Chou Tzong-lun, the chairman of the Chinese Baptist Convention, confirmed Chou's death, hoping for prayers for the renowned pastor's relatives who are estimated to return to Taiwan from the United States this Tuesday to deal with the funeral. 

The deceased Baptist minister had served the church for over half a century. He was also an experienced pastor, philosophy professor and theologist. He also worked as the former chairman of World Vision Taiwan, the president of Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary and the vice chairman of Nanjing Amity Printing Company. 

He was once the revision head for the New Testament part of the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV)  and the author of the book 'An Outline of Theology'.

In his early years, he got a bachelor's degree in business management at the University of Shanghai. In 1949, he advanced in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary for postdoctoral research.

Nine years later, he served as the chairman of the board of directors of Taiwan Tunghai University. He was appointed as the "court pastor" of Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling and presided the memorial service for Zhao Yidi, the wife of Zhang Xueliang.

As a secretary of United Bible Society, he introduced the world's most advanced printing machines into the church in the mainland and brought tons of the best Bible paper that could not be produced in the mainland,

He also united mainland China with Hong Kong and Taiwan into the effort to translate the Bible.

"As a preacher, I just want to be a preacher. Besides nurturing three generations of Jiang's family, I have preached in prisons, to the Hakka and the aborigines." Rev. Chou said in an interview, holding that love mattered the most in nurturing.

In December 2012, he visited the church in Beijing. Three years later, he joined a special symposium held by CCC&TSPM commemorating Bishop K H Ting's 100th Birth Anniversary in Beijing and invited the Chinese government's umbrella organizations for Protestant churches to visit Taiwan.

He thought that there should never be denominations in Christianity and the churches could play a large part if they were united. In addition, he encouraged the young Christians to read the Bible more deeply and do as the Bible tells without being affected by denominations.