When the ChinaSource journal first appeared in 1999, it included a call to forty days of prayer and fasting for Beijing.
The second issue of the journal contained a different kind of call to pray. It picked up on one of the articles included in that issue, “Why I Would Not Become a Christian: Reflections on God and Culture” by Fan Xueda and encouraged readers to pray via this sidebar.
While not always explicit as these two early examples, the hope has always been that the content provided by ChinaSource, whether in the journal or in the publications and events that followed, would stir believers to pray for China.
In the spring of 2006, the ChinaSource journal got a facelift in design and a new regular feature was added—Intercessory Notes. Drawing on the articles in that issue of the journal, we provided several suggestions for praying for China and for the church in China as they lived out their faith.
This feature continued after the journal was renamed the ChinaSource Quarterly (CSQ) in 2011.
A few years later, when we reorganized the features in CSQ to gain more flexibility in the content included in each issue, we moved the Intercessory Notes to the ChinaSource newsletter—The Lantern. If you read this month’s Lantern, you will see prayer items listed for the 2022 spring issue of CSQ, “Reaching Migrant Workers in China” in “Ways to Pray.”
Or look for them at the bottom of this post.
There have been other steps taken to encourage prayer. We have a section in ZGBriefs titled “Pray for China.” Our ChinaSource Connect events conclude with breakout rooms for fellowship and prayer. Internally, prayer is an important part of our weekly staff meetings.
As we move forward, we hope to increase our attention on prayer and the opportunities we can facilitate for prayer.
Pray with us as we seek to faithfully pray together for China.
In the March Lantern—Ways to Pray
From the 2022 Spring Issue of ChinaSource Quarterly
- Ask God to strengthen those who are preaching the gospel, making disciples, and planting fast growing churches in migrant communities across China. For more details, please see “Thinking about Multiplying Migrant Worker Churches in Urbanizing China” and “The Unfinished Story of Living Waters.”
- Given the new wave of urbanization in China, pray that China’s churches will have a new vision of God’s kingdom that will keep them planting vigorous churches with new concepts and new models.
- Lift up church planters using new models that focus on reaching migrants in all tiers of China’s cities.
- Pray for China’s internal migrants facing the challenges brought about by the hukou system and living between rural and urban environments.
- Call on the Lord to bless China’s left-behind children and the relatives, often grandparents, who care for them.
- Pray for migrant women, both married and single, who usually must help support, or may be the only support, for their families.
- Pray for all of China’s migrants as they so often face instability in both location and employment as well as family separations.
Narci Herr
Narci Herr and her husband, Glenn, lived for just over 30 years in Hong Kong. They were first involved in working with the church in Hong Kong and then for the last 20 years of their time in Asia they served workers living in China. During that time Glenn traveled extensively throughout China and Narci …View Full Bio
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