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STEP OUT in Taiwan offers a short-term, hands-on experience to people from all over the world to share the love of Christ throughout Asia. By encouraging and helping individuals to step out of their comfort zones while providing a strong missional foundation, STEP OUT has been –– and continues to be –– an integral tool in establishing devout communities of Jesus followers in Taiwan and beyond.
Over 90 per cent of Taiwan’s population follows Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, traditional religions or a combination of the latter. STEP OUT was created to help spread the gospel in Taiwan by providing an avenue to train and equip believers to share the love of Christ and mobilise others to do the same.
Christy Liou, the programme leader, describes STEP OUT’s main initiative as turning participants into ‘mobiliser seeds’ who can go and help spread the gospel and build more dedicated communities of Jesus followers in parts of the world that do not know Christ yet.
“[After the programme,] they can mobilise churches due to the fact that they have stepped out of their comfort zones and experienced what it is like to be a part of God’s Kingdom works in the world,” said Liou.
After being postponed for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, STEP OUT will resume in 2023. Along with individuals signing up from around the world, Liou has noticed an increase in local churches wanting to be involved in the programme as well as global missions in general. “After COVID-19, the world started to participate in more short-term mission projects, and churches also want to mobilise brothers and sisters to do missions,” Liou explained. “So, STEP OUT became one of the short-term mission projects for churches to attend.”
Open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 65, the first three days of STEP OUT includes various group sessions, workshops and cross-cultural training. After the conference, outreaches in various locations put into practice what participants just learnt.
A willingness to experience new things and learn from other cultures are key qualities for participants to possess. “Then they can experience the cross-culture ministry in Asia and know Asia’s culture during the time they are in outreach fields,” Liou said.
As STEP OUT continues to train and mobilise individuals to spread the gospel, the work is nowhere near finished.
STEP OUT’s hope for the future is very similar to its preliminary vision, according to Liou: to continue transforming as many willing people as possible into mobiliser seeds for the furtherance of the Church and the Kingdom of God. The more people that participate in STEP OUT, the more people that are positively influenced to step outside of where they feel comfortable and to step into God’s will for all to know His name.
This year’s STEP OUT runs 22-26 July in Xin-Chu, followed by outreaches of various lengths, focuses and locations, such as children’s ministry in Taitung and Kaohsiung.
If you’d like to find out more about the programme or experience the spiritual richness of STEP OUT for yourself, visit om.org/opportunities to find out more.
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