Continuing Partnership Beyond the Golden Age: Stepping Out
With foreign missionaries no longer welcomed and large gatherings impossible, how can discipleship continue? The answer is to step outside.
Firsthand accounts of faith lived out in the context of Chinese Christianity.
With foreign missionaries no longer welcomed and large gatherings impossible, how can discipleship continue? The answer is to step outside.
Rudolf was all of these—a dear brother in Christ who left an indelible impression on those with whom he served. His vision and unstoppable determination to seek the expansion of Christ’s kingdom in China were instrumental in shaping ChinaSource into the organization it is today.
This past year has been extraordinary for ChinaSource—a season marked by remarkable kingdom partnerships and unity that point directly to God’s faithfulness. Reflecting on the milestones of 2024, one phrase captures the essence of this journey: “unprecedented territory.”
We can work toward becoming what Sherwood Lingenfelter described as a 150 percent person, a person who retains 75 percent of their birth culture and adopts 75 percent of their new culture. Such a person becomes more than they used to, able to minister cross-culturally with greater empathy and impact.
I was born in a Christian family and my grandma is a faithful Christian. She likes reading the Bible in the afternoon even though she only has a primary school education. At that age, I couldn’t understand what this meant to me, but seeds of faith were planted in my heart though I didn’t know it yet.
As we close out 2024, I am filled with gratitude—for God’s goodness that has pursued us, for faithful partners like you, and for the lives being transformed through his love. Today on this Giving Tuesday, I invite you to join us. Your partnership helps us connect people, ideas, and resources to advance God’s work in China and beyond.
In Pastor Hsi, written by Mrs. Howard Taylor, we can tell that the pastoral problems Pastor Hsi encountered when the Shanxi Church was established more than a hundred years ago are exactly the same as those we face today: there is the danger of false teachers, the pain brought by church division, and the various different voices from inside and outside the church.
In just a few weeks we will celebrate Messiah’s birth, remembering the day when hope entered the world, forever changing the course of human history. Many of our China stories have a similar anticipatory quality. Whatever our stories may promise, our hope for China is more than looking forward to an ideal future.
As we prepare for Thanksgiving Day celebrations here in the United States, I’ve been thinking about expressions of thanks in Chinese culture and language. The most common way of expressing thanks in Chinese is xie xie (谢谢). But there is another word: gan’en (感恩). I love that en means “grace.”
As this painful summer passed, poor Pastor Hsi endured unspeakable suffering and pressure, but most of his co-workers still supported him firmly. The love and loyalty of people were a great comfort to him. But they still had to go through this refining furnace together. Sometimes it even seemed that God’s hand had withdrawn, and Satan was destroying the ministry at will.
The Lord builds his church, and the church he constructs will look a bit different in each climate and landscape. It is the seed that has power to grow roots down into deeply buried cultural expressions and expectations, roots that will produce fruit fitting the context, fruit that is both beautiful and empowering.
God’s truth remains constant across generations. He speaks to each one in unique ways while sharing the same message of salvation. What is he saying to the 150,000 Chinese students in the UK today? How can we meet their needs and invite them into God’s kingdom?