Rev. Samuel Ling
Rev. Ling is a pastor in his 50s with two Asian American young adult children. His passion is to train Christians in a deeper commitment to the Word of God, toward effective involvement as salt and light in the world. There is a great hunger for sound Scriptural teaching today. How can Scripture be understood and applied, so that we can stand firm in postmodernity, and clearly know our mission at each stage in life? The primary role of the pastor is teaching God’s Word. A former church planter and former senior pastor, he is a doctrinal-expository preacher. He enthusiastically teaches biblical counseling and classical Puritan spirituality, to guide the church away from secular ideas of psychology and spirituality, to return to the Word of God as our sole authority. He is ordained in the Presbyterian Church in America, an evangelical, Reformed denomination.
Rev. Ling is a Chinese theologian, engaged in writing and editing works on theology, apologetics, biblical counseling and culture, and lectures in numerous graduate schools. His passion is the exploration of the historical development and the future direction of Christianity and Asian and western culture, and the faith-foundation of the church. Dr. Ling has been a church planter and senior pastor in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. He lives in Southern California with his family. He founded China Horizon in 1989.
A 4th-generation pastor, Rev. Ling was born in Hong Kong with roots in Ningbo, China. At 14 he moved to the U.S., and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania (A.B. intellectual history); Westminster Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity, Master of Theology), and Temple University (Ph.D. history). He did research in modern Chinese intellectual history, and the history of Christian thought. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the Protestant Christian response to the Anti-Christian movement in China (1919-1927), and has been published in Chinese by Christian Communications Inc. of Canada.
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Dr. Ling is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and English, and is a bi-cultural Chinese. He has pastured English and Chinese congregations, and for many years worked to build bridges between Chinese and Western churches. He authored The Chinese Way of Doing Things (P&R, 1999), exploring the cultural distinctives of American-born Chinese and their relationship with immigrant Chinese. He edited Chinese Intellectuals and the Gospel (P&R, 1999), dealing with the cultural and religious background of mainland Chinese.
Dr. Ling loves to dialogue with his students (many are overseas mainland Chinese intellectuals) and answer their questions. Recently his teaching focuses on systematic theology, apologetics, church history, Puritan spirituality, biblical counseling, and the culture and history of the Chinese church. He has taught at Westminster Theological Seminary (California), Covenant Theological Seminary, Reformed Institute, International Theological Seminary, Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary, Alliance Theological Seminary, and Logos Evangelical Seminary; (Canada): Regent College and Tyndale Seminary; China Graduate School of Theology and Bible Seminary of Hong Kong; and Bangkok Bible College and Seminary, Singapore Bible College, Malaysia Bible Seminary, Bible Seminary of the Philippines, Southeast Asia Bible College, Bandung Theological Seminary, Reformed Institute (Jakarta). He was consultant to the White House and related agencies on Sino-American relations and religious freedom.
Dr. Ling studied piano from the age of 4, and has released Christianity and Western Culture: A Piano Lecture (Chinese VCD; English VHS). He is burdened to bridge contemporary and traditional worship music with theological and historical insights. He is the translator of the late Professor Lit-Sen Chang (1902-1996), former advocate of Confucianism and Buddhism and author of 80 works.
Rev. Ling firmly believes in Scripture’s inerrancy. His doctrinal stance is posted online.
http://samling.ccim.org, www.chinahorizon.org
His websites are: http://samling.ccim.org (Chinese only) and www.chinahorizon.org (English and Chinese).
