Lutheran Church in Malaysia
[3] The first Lutherans to arrive in what is now Malaysia were Hakka Taiping Rebellion refugees from China closely linked to Theodore Hamberg and Rudolph Lechler of the Basel Mission Society.The meeting was convened as the First Southeast Asia Lutheran Consultative Conference from the 26th to 29 March 1952 at the Wesley Methodist Church in Penang.[6] The Board of Foreign Missions of the United Lutheran Church in America (BFM-ULCA) responded to the decision of the conference by sending Dr. Paul Anspace, a former missionary to China, to conduct a field assessment of Malaya.As a church in the Lutheran tradition, it accepts the teachings found in the unaltered Augsburg Confession, Luther's Small Catechism and other confessional articles and symbols of the Book of Concord.Most services conducted by the LCM congregations are in Mandarin and the other varieties of Chinese commonly spoken in West Malaysia like Hokkien and Cantonese.It has a sixfold focus based on an acronym formed by the name of Martin Luther: Lutheran identity, Unity in ministry, Transformation of lives, Human resource development, Expansion in mission, and Renewal of structure.Specialized subcommittees and divisions include structures to support missions, education, social concerns, and youth ministries.In addition, the LCM operates many pre-school education and special schools among the congregations to serve the local community faithfully.