Our History

Tainan Living Water Church was formerly known as Christian Gospel Team, out meeting place was at pastor Rob Sugg’s (a U.S. Southern Baptist pastor) home, located in Tainan city on Zhong-Hua north road, section 2, no. 20.

During their own devotional times with the Lord, God gave Pastor Sugg and Pastor Matt the same, uniting vision. According to Matthew 9:17, which says: “No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins. Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins. Both skins and the wine will then be safe.” Their vision inspired by this verse was that they are to found a “new wineskin church”. At the time, they did not fully comprehend the symbolic meaning of this name, but they were 100% convinced that this was the kind of church God wanted to build.

On April 1993, this church was officially named Living Water Church.

On July 1993, Pastor Thompson and Mrs. Thompson, also from U.S. Southern Baptist Church, joined our church and became part of our staff. In September 1994, Living Water Church moved to 5F no. 67 Kai-Shan road in Tainan. This new location offered a bigger meeting place.

From September 1994 till December 1996, Living Water Church entered a season of spiritual growth. The church attracted many newcomers, and the congregation experienced great spiritual growth. God led the church into a higher level of spiritual maturity and a whole new dimension. He also called out leaders, equipping them through church service. By God’s grace and work, Living Water Church installed Matt Chen as pastor; Ming-zhen Wu, Nathan Lin and Andrew Tsai as elders of the church.

From that time on, Living Water Church’s leadership was transferred from missionaries to native Taiwanese. In 1997, God called Pastor Song and Mrs. Song to serve in Taipei at U.S. Southern Baptist Church in Taiwan. Pastor Sugg continued on to serve as secretary- general at SBC headquarters office in Taipei and officially left Living Water Church.

When our church’s congregation increased to 50 people, the meeting place at Kai-shan road no longer fit our needs. In September 1998, our church moved to a new location on 10F #75 Nanmen road. From that time until 2000, our church grew to 100 people. On August, 2000, Pastor Matt attended a mission’s conference in Thailand hosted by our mother church, Kansas City Church’s Metro Christian Fellowship (MCF). It was at this conference that he met MCF’s senior pastor, Floyd McClung and they became great friends. They shared about discipleship, strategies, vision, etc. From then on, Living Water Church began to offer a series of classes, emphasize effective evangelism strategies, and build a cell group-based church structure. All of these things further accelerated our growth.

On July 2001, Pastor Rawdon and his family left Kansas City All Nations Missionary Organization to join our team at Living Water Church. In 2002, the Lord called Pator and Mrs. Thompson to serve at Lighthouse Ministries. Hence, they officially left Living Water Church that year. On July 2004, Pastor Rawdon and his family left Living Water Church to serve in Greece and Pastor Thompson and Mrs. Thompson moved back to the US that same year.

On November 2004, All Nations once again sent a missionary couple to us. The Chois family, a Korean American family of four, joined our church team. They returned to the US on July 2006. In their one-and-a-half year of ministry here, Living Water Church experienced growth and tons of blessingss.

In September 2008, Pastor Wen-wai Cheng was ordained to be Associate Pastor of Living Water Church, and Pastor Andrew Tsai was ordained to be the Senior Pastor of Da-liao Living Water Church. As of Fall of 2008, our church has 72 cell groups and 11 zones. Sunday worship attendance reaches around 530 people. About 450 attend weekday group gatherings. Thanks to the Lord’s blessing, Living Water Church was officially founded 14 years ago, but our sights are set on the future – making history together…