Timothy Dzao

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Timothy Dzao (1908-1973), also known as Timothy Chao, was a Chinese Protestant evangelist and the founder of the Bread of Life Church (Ling Liang Tang). Born Zhao Yuanchang, he came from a family tied to the Song dynasty founder Taizu. He found Christianity through a cousin and was baptized on Christmas Day, 1924. At a 1925 revival in Shanghai led by English missionary Paget Wilkes, he decided to dedicate his life to evangelism and changed his name to Shiguang, meaning “World Light.” He studied at the Bible College of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Shanghai and, in 1928, became pastor of Beulah Chapel, later ordained in 1932.

Dzao carried out revival campaigns across East Asia, but World War II stopped these tours. In 1941, he said he received a vision from the Holy Spirit and started a small independent missionary group, which became the Bread of Life Church in 1943, based in Shanghai. The church grew quickly in China and beyond, and in 1946 the Christian World Ling Liang Evangelistic Association was formed.

Because of political changes, the headquarters moved first to Hong Kong (staying until 1952) and then to Taiwan. He also began missionary work in Indonesia and founded a Christian university there, but political shifts halted it in 1958 (it restarted after his death in 1980). Dzao became a well-known international evangelist, with revivals across Asia and even collaboration in Germany with Billy Graham.

He married Tang Ling-An in 1930 and had seven children. He died in 1973, but his Bread of Life Church continued. He founded Hong Kong’s International Theological College and wrote more than 40 books, including many devotional and theological works; some were translated into English. He was also a gifted musician.