Personal Data
Name: Peter Tung-pei Chou
Birth Record: Born in Shanghai, China on December 7, 1945
Family: Married to former Miss Ting Chen in 1968
Daughters: Margaret (married to Ian Listen, 2 children, Charles and Sophia), Dorothy (married to Tom Proudfoot) and Katherine (married to Patrick Briney)

Christian Experience
1967--Received Jesus Christ as personal Savior on December 31
1972--Answered calling from the Lord and entered into ministry on July 1
Ministry Vision: Eph 4:12

Education
1966 - BS, Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei
1971 - MS, Applied Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
1993 - MA, International Theological Seminary (ITS), CA
1994 - ThM, International Theological Seminary, Los Angeles, CA
2007 - PhD, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK

Ministry Experience
1972 - 1977—VP, Testimony of Christ Mission (Home of Disciples), Culver City, CA
1978 - 1996—Founder and Sr. Pastor, Orange County Christian Assembly, CA
1983 - Founder, For All Saints (FAS), a quarterly Christian magazine in Chinese
1987 - FAS Cassette Tape Ministry, reaching all saints
1991 - Producer, Speaker, Far East Broadcasting Company-Chinese Ministries
1992 - 1995—Program Host, Thinking with You, a local Christian radio program
1996 - Founder, Chairman and President, For All Saints Team Ministries
1999 - Assistant Executive Director, FEBC-CM
2000 - 2004—Executive Director, FEBC-CM
2004 - 2005—Director of Chinese Program, ITS
2006 - Vice President for Development and Administrator, ITS
2006 - Present—Chairman and President of the International Biblical Seminary
2008 - Organizer, Chinese International Theological Seminary (CITS) in June
2008 - 2011—President and Board Member, CITS
2010 - Interim Pastor for Chinese Congregation, IFCBC in May
2010 - Vice President for Development, ITS, in June (Reappointment)
2010 - Present—Chinese Pastor, IFCBC

Publication:
6 Titles (in Chinese):
And God Calls, The Pursuit of True Love, Problem Church, church Problems, The Essence of Church, Spiritual Gifts, Spiritual Lives of the
Patriarch (FAS)

Short Biography—A Ministerial Experience
By Peter T. Chou

I was born in Shanghai shortly after the end of WWII. My father, a chemical engineer, followed his college professor to Taiwan, who was appointed by the government as a transfer team to receive the enterprises from the hands of Japanese militia. I grew up therefore in Taiwan through the intensely competitive educational system and finished my college degree in physics from National Taiwan University. After completing my military duties in 1967 I came to the United States and was enrolled in Applied Physics at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY to pursue my scientist career. But the Lord knew better.

My wife, then fiancée, became a Christian earlier that year and encouraged me to join the Bible Study Group at Cornell. I went with an open but inquisitive mind. After several months of interaction with Christians I was challenged by the leader to seek Jesus seriously. My first prayer was a committal to the following three things: 1) If God is real, I want Him to reveal Himself to me, by whichever way He sees fit. 2) If He chooses to do so, I want Him to remove all my hindrances. 3) If He does so, I will have no reasons then not to believe in Him and be totally committed to Him—never to change mind later.

To make my story short, He met me in Missouri where my fiancée’s church held a Winter Retreat. On the night of conversion, December 31, 1967 I was stricken with the reality of sin and my emptiness of life. The Lord also removed my pride and showed me from a scientist’s view how impossible it is to have all things come to being without God. That night I confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God in a fashion very similar to Peter the Apostle’s in Mt 16:16. And I knew instantly that I was born again, had received the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit, and was called to serve Him—all at once.

Returning to Cornell I was zealous in my new involvement with the Bible Study Group. I grew spiritually, and eventually became the leader when friends my senior graduated. It was in my fourth year as a Christian the Lord gave me the burden for the lost souls and renewed His calling to me. In a Summer Retreat, I gave my life to Him, willing to do anything and go anywhere He bid me. I still struggled whether I should finish my Ph.D. degree or not. I gave myself a full year to find out His will for me. During the time I discovered my gift as an evangelist, in a span of nine months I led 42 people to the Lord. I can still remember several of their names and stories.

By faith I left Cornell in 1972 with a Master’s degree in Applied Physics and joined the Home of Disciples, a newly formed ministry of apprenticeship in California. I stayed for five years and learned the necessary skills for ministries, from evangelism to visitation, from preaching, teaching to counseling, etc. I started a church in a new location in Orange County, CA on January1, 1978 with a handful of friends. With God’s blessing the church grew quickly and eventually owned a regular church property in five years. With a mind to use God’s money wisely, we paid off the mortgage in four years. I stayed as the Senior Pastor in OC Christian Assembly for 19 full years.

During the long tenure I was given an opportunity to complete my theological training in 1992, I finished my M.A. and Th.M. degrees in less than three years with International Theological Seminary in LA.

I was also involved in other ministries; the more important ones are FASTeaM and FEBC. I started the For All Saints Magazine in 1982 and gradually developed it into the For All Saints Team Ministries (FASTeaM), fully incorporated in 1997 and I was the first Chairman and President. Our vision is to build all saints spiritually first, so that they each can involve in ministries according to their gifts. We believe in team ministries and our team has successfully nurtured some sick churches back to their strength. This ministry is now under the leadership of my worthy coworkers for daily operation and I remain to be a board member.

In 1990 I was invited to do a few programs for Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC)-Chinese Ministries, then in Monterey Park, CA. Little would I know this was to become my next “career,” for soon I became a regular on “Good Shepherd,” a preaching program aired to China. In 1999, after it became clear that I could no longer resist Rev. John Lin’s invitation to succeed him I sought counsel with my FASTeaM board. Surprisingly, they all agreed that I should accept this challenge. Within ten months, John retired and I became the Executive Director for FEBC-CM. I served at this capacity until July, 2004 when the headquarters underwent some leadership change, reducing the independence of Chinese Ministry.

I was then invited to teach in International Theological Seminary, my Alma Mater, also fulfilling my promise when I graduated in 1995. At the time the school sent me to U.K. on a Junior Staff Development Program, intending for me to teach when I finished my PhD. This program was in cooperation with Evangelical Theological College of Wales (now Wales Evangelical School of Theology), U.K. I joined ITS faculty in 2004 and was later named the Director of Chinese Program, and the Vice-president for Seminary Development. I received my PhD from University of Wales in January, 2007, after a rigorous academic discipline of twelve years with Dr. Eryl Davies.

In 2008, ITS had a change of direction with an incoming President and the Board decided that the Chinese Program should become a school of separate entity, and I was ordered to form a new board and later, I was named the President of Chinese International Theological Seminary by the new board. This project, however, was again redirected when the New President of ITS suddenly resigned in 2009 and a few months later ITS board was re-organized in June, 2010; with these changes CITS was invited to rejoin ITS. Now, I am in the Exe Board of ITS and reappointed as the VP for Development of ITS.

Meanwhile, I continued my pastoral career as an intentional Interim Pastor with several churches since 1997, eventually ending up with Irvine First Chinese Baptist Church in 2010. After one year, IFCBC invited me to become the regular Chinese Pastor for the next 5 years to mentor the leadership of the church; I took it as a confirmation from the Lord to wrap up my ministry before my retirement.

I am glad that IFCBC is a part of TM, which I think is compatible with my ministry experiences.

Dated: May 12, 2011