Echopedia

Rev. Lai Junming (賴俊明牧師)

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Rev. Lai Junming (賴俊明牧師)

Rev. Lai Junming (賴俊明牧師) appears in GSTPC bulletin records as a visiting preacher in 2022–2023.

Role in the Community

The TAH community memoir Our Journeys 305 (大聖路易台灣人長老教會 founding memoir) records a Rev. 賴俊明 of Taipei Shuanglian Church (雙連教會) who was interviewed in Taiwan by 張理美醫師 — the delegate sent by the founding group’s search committee — and invited to a founding-pastor position. He arrived in St. Louis in November 1984, holding a three-quarter pastor position with the remainder for doctoral studies at Eden Theological Seminary (聖路易伊典神學院). The congregation was formally registered as 大聖路易台灣人長老基督教會 in September 1988 and joined the Kinkeith–Lafayette Presbytery on 1988-10-02 — the first Taiwanese church in the US Midwest admitted to a US mainstream denomination.賴俊明牧師 was inducted as its first pastor on 1989-05-07 and immediately launched a Bible-study movement (with weekly Wednesday small-group study) that drew over half the congregation, growing membership to sixty or seventy.

HOLD: whether the GSTPC (Southern California) visiting preacher documented 2022–2023 is the same person as the 1984–1989 St. Louis founding pastor — same canonical entity key, no bridging evidence yet.

Further founding-memoir detail (same source, Our Journeys 305): the search committee decided to join the US mainstream denomination (美國長老教會) after consulting Rev. 黃武東牧師 — former long-time General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan — then verified that finances met presbytery standards for a full-time pastor before inviting 賴俊明. After his arrival the congregation moved worship to the parlor of First Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood (克可伍德市第一長老教會) to allow Sunday-morning services. When the session (小會) was formed it comprised the pastor and six elders: 高銘憲、林逸民、張理美、陳克充、鄭紀昭、蘇希三.

2026-09-24 re-check (slice 09230600-5): fresh ZH+EN grep 賴俊明/Lai Junming over works/+articles/ returns only Our Journeys 305, already fully absorbed — hit set saturated, SKIP-deepen.

2026-09-23 re-check (slice 09221200-3): fresh corpus grep for 賴俊明 returns only Our Journeys 305, already fully absorbed above. The memoir’s remaining detail (the congregation’s later building campaign on a five-acre presbytery-donated site) concerns the church, not the pastor personally — no new personal facts; verified saturated.

2026-09-25 re-check (slice 09240600-7): fresh ZH+EN grep 賴俊明/Lai Junming over works/+articles/ returns only Our Journeys 305, already fully absorbed — hit set saturated across all scans, SKIP-deepen; GSTPC visiting-preacher vs St. Louis founding-pastor identity HOLD stands.

2026-09-25 re-check (slice 09250900-2): fresh ZH+EN grep 賴俊明/Lai Junming returns only the GSTPC bulletin-derived corpus records (already reflected in Evidence Coverage) and Our Journeys 305, fully absorbed — verified saturated, SKIP-deepen; identity HOLD unchanged.

Historical Significance

Supported worship and special events including Father’s Day and regular Sunday services.

Evidence Coverage Summary

  • Canonical bulletin entity key: 賴俊明牧師
  • Bulletin pages with mentions: 6
  • Year spread: 2022, 2023

Context Highlights

  1. Preaching on special occasions
    • Father’s Day and regular worship.
    • Examples: GSTPC Bulletin 2022-06-26, GSTPC Bulletin 2023-01-08
  2. Founding pastor, 大聖路易台灣人長老基督教會 (per community memoir)
    • Interviewed and invited 1984; arrived November 1984; inducted first pastor 1989-05-07.

Source Notes and Confidence

  • High confidence: named preaching.
  • Community memoir (primary material) records the St. Louis founding-pastor narrative; identity link to the GSTPC visiting preacher is unconfirmed (see HOLD).
  • Needs verification: expanded ministry relationship.

Name Variants / Disambiguation

  • Chinese: 賴俊明牧師
  • Romanized: Lai Junming

Contribution Invitation

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Identity Snapshot

  • Era: 2022–2023
  • Geography: Southern California
  • Core roles: visiting preacher, ordained minister

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