History of Our Church


For many years prior to 1946, the Methodist church operated a Chinese mission at 222 N. 10th St. in the Chinatown section of Philadelphia. In 1946, the Methodist work was discontinued. The pastor and some members organized the Chinese Gospel Church(CGC), an independent, non-denominational local assembly of born again believers. At that time, the church had no pastor, but was organized by Rev. Robert Downs. On June 6, 1946 the new church was invited by Dr. George Palmer, a Christian radio broadcaster to hold services at 201 S. 13th St. The church officially incorporated itself in New Jersey on January 24, 1947 and members were moved to raise a building fund to build a new church. Rev. Stanley Yu started as the first pastor in 1950 and in 1952 Dr. Palmer's radio family raised enough money and the building at 936 Race St. was completed in April 1953.

Rev. Robert Downs founded the Chinese Gospel Church (CGC). He continued his service to the Lord and to the many young Chinese members who later went forth. At that time, the service was held mostly in English because the majority of members were American born Chinese.

During the early 1960's a group of Chinese Christian students and professionals from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China began a weekly Chinese Bible study which was often led by Rev. Downs. Their hearts yearned to have a Sunday service and in 1965, Rev. Downs welcomed the Bible study to hold Chinese services in the afternoon at the church. The afternoon service grew in numbers which gradually surpassed the morning English service. After a while, the two congregations were united and the morning service was held in both English and Chinese. Rev. Hermann Wang became the first Chinese pastor in 1965 and served until 1969. The Lord provided another pastor, Rev. Timothy Chang, who, with a short interruption, served until 1979. The church outgrew its space at 936 Race Street which could only hold about 85 people and had no facilities for Sunday school. In 1975, space was rented at 222 N. 12th St, until it had to move the Sunday service to the Church of the Saviour at 3723 Chestnut St. in the spring of 1976.

In the winter of 1976, the Central Gospel hall planned to close their mission at 222 N. 12th St. and gave CGC priority in purchasing the property. The church sold the property at 936 Race and purchased the present building in December 1977.

The Lord guided Rev Edward Knettler to minister to CGC in 1979. He helped renovate the church quite a bit in the early eighties by adding classrooms for Sunday School.

In the fall of 1990, Rev. Knettler retired and Rev. Kurt Teng was ordained and installed as pastor. In 1991, Rev. Sunny Lee became the pastor for the English congregation after many years of being a coworker. The first floor of the church underwent considerable renovation in 1993. In the same year, the Lord led the church to start forming a cell group church and many members of the Philadelphia Chinese Bible Study which met weekly at the Church of the Saviour left the Bible Study to form a large cell group which subsequently multiplied into several groups. Rev. Sunny Lee left to pastor Buffalo Chinese Christian Church(牛城華人基督教會) in 1996. One cell of leaders expanded to 12 cells in the first four years and continues to grow. In the fall of 2003, Rev. Teng left to pastor a church in Boston.

In 1999, The building foundation was crumbling and unsafe due to aging and termite. Sunday Services were moved to the lecture hall in the Hahnemann University. On December 21st, 2003, renovations on the church building were completed and worship resumed for Christmas celebration.

In 2006 CGC invited Rev. Michael Phua to serve as Interim Pastor. In 2008, Rev. Stephen Tan was invited to serve as Interim Pastors at CGC. The church then asked Rev. Shirong Chia to take up the role of Senior Pastor in 2009. He graduated from Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. Prior coming to Chinese Gospel Church, Rev. Chia had served for more than 10 years as pastor in the greater Philadelphia area. In Summer 2009, the church called Mr. Timothy Kao to serve as Associate Pastor in English ministry. In 2011, Rev. Timothy Kao was ordained by the Greater Philadelphia Fellowship of Chinese Pastors. He was trained at Westminster Seminary and obtained his D.Phil. at Oxford University in 2008. In 2012, Rev. Chia left and started a Campus Ministry to Temple University students. Then Rev. Timothy Kao took on the leading role to shepherd the congregation till he left in December 2014.

In 2015. CGC called Mr. Isaac Lai to serve as Associate pastor in English Ministry. He was a pastoral Intern at CGC before he graduated from Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia in 2014. He left to pastor Covenant Church Hatboro in 2017.

In July 2019, CGC called Mr. Jun Qiang Wu to serve as Associate Pastor in Chinese Ministry. In September 2019, Mr. Charles Shin was called to serve as Associate Pastor in English Ministry. They graduated from Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. In January 2020, Rev. Charles Shin was ordained by the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). They have particular passion for preaching the glorious riches of Gospel and have hearts for discipleship of who are eager to grow in their faith.

One of the great passions CGC has is to see the good news of Jesus Christ and his salvation being spread all over the world. Christian Missions have always been given a high profile in the church and over the years the congregation has provided generous support for many missionaries who serve in numerous countries overseas.