I am truly grateful to China Source and to guest editor Robert (Bob) Menzies and his fellow contributors for the 2023 summer issue of the ChinaSource Quarterly that focused on the Pentecostal church in China.
My first opportunity to lead someone to the Lord in China was in Guangzhou with Dennis Balcombe during one of his English outreach events. In his article, “Pentecost in China (2): Church Growth in the ‘New China’ Era,” Dennis writes, “From 1979 to 1997 I made multiple trips throughout China. Weekly, I taught English in Guangzhou, led a few hundred students to Christ and baptized them in the Guangzhou reservoir.” It is amazing that I can say, “I was there!”
During this time, it was estimated that one in every four students who heard the gospel would receive Christ.
Bob’s article, “The Pentecostal Legacy of the Indigenous Churches in China,” reminded me of many similar experiences encountering Chinese Christians with a Pentecostal heritage. He writes after teaching with the China for Christ network:
I noted that their theological tradition was similar (lei si) to mine (he [a Bible school leader] knew that I was an Assemblies of God minister). He stopped, looked at me, and said emphatically: “No, our theological traditions are the same (yi yang).” Later, with great excitement, he spoke of the hunger for the things of the Spirit in the churches in the countryside.
While pastoring in Beijing, I was invited by Dr. Kim-Kwong Chan, with the Hong Kong Christian Council, to join him on a tour of churches in Hebei province. To my surprise, the provincial leader of the Hebei Three-Self churches had a Pentecostal heritage (Assemblies of God). I discovered that many of the larger churches in the region were being led by men and women who considered themselves Pentecostal. The gospel came to Hebei in large part through Pentecostal single women from Scandinavia. Dennis Balcombe writes in his article, “Pentecost in China (1): Origins:”
Significant Pentecostal revivals came to the Scandinavian nations, and many Pentecostal missionaries from Norway, Sweden, and Finland travelled to the interior of China taking the Pentecostal message. . . . Many of these early Pentecostal missionaries were single young women who, at great cost and in the face of much opposition, spread the Pentecostal message throughout China.
While with Dr. Chan in Hebei, in the rural community of Zhaoxian, we were introduced to an elderly Bible woman named Xie Lingmiao. Granny, as they called her, had come to faith through the Swedish Pentecostal mission’s work in nearby Baoding. In 1928 a Swedish Pentecostal woman missionary was sent to Zhaoxian and soon there were several hundred believers meeting together in the Zhaoxian Gospel Hall. In Zhaoxian, the expectancy of the Spirit’s empowerment is still very much alive nearly 100 years later. Zhaoxian’s current pastor, knowing I was an Assemblies of God minister, said to me, “Where there are tongues, there is fire!” This church continues to train and send out ministers with a heart for Spirit empowerment.
While serving at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship (BICF), I had the privilege of meeting Rev. Kan, an elderly pastor who had served at Beijing’s Chongwenmen Church. Rev Kan was quick to share from his own personal journey. In our conversation he said, “You many want to know how we made it through the troubled times of the Cultural Revolution. I can tell you. It was my mother’s prayers and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.” He went on to share how at a Methodist revival meeting in Beijing, as a teenager, he had received a “baptism” in the Holy Spirit that changed his life. It is to this empowerment he credits his ability to stand strong during difficult times.
As we revisit China’s Pentecostal history it is amazing to me how rich their Pentecostal heritage is. From Methodist revival meetings in Beijing, to Pentecostal Scandinavian missionaries in Hebei, to indigenous groups like the True Jesus Church (see “The Pentecostal Legacy of the Indigenous Churches in China,”) to individuals like W.W. Simpson, Leslie Anglin, Sister Løland, John Sung and so many others. And we have not yet touched on the tremendous work of the Pentecostal training centers that were scattered across the county.
Dennis Balcombe, Zhang Li, and Evan Liu draw our attention to present day Pentecostal influencers. Dennis writes, “…thousands of Spirit-filled Christians from overseas entered China to provide Bibles, teaching materials, and to pray with countless tens of thousands of Chinese Christians to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.”
In Beijing alone, during our 20 years of ministry there, I witnessed hundreds if not thousands of overseas Chinese and world Christians enter China with the express purpose of impacting the Chinese church. Many of these were Pentecostal church planters from Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Zhang Li mentions a Singaporean in his interview “Yan’s Conversion and Pentecostal Experience.” The Pentecostal fire from around the world has jumped borders and ignited new spiritual fires across China through visiting pastors, teachers, businessmen, students, and even diplomats. There is a growing relational network connecting Pentecostal and charismatic-minded Chinese with their brothers and sisters outside of China. Often, my China-based friends are more informed than myself concerning global Pentecostal and charismatic developments and resources.
Zhang Li in his article, “China’s Pentecostal Churches: Changing Times, New Approaches,” tells us of a pastor in Southern China who illustrates this global connectedness:
This man received the Pentecostal gift in 2002 after encountering missionaries associated with the Canadian Assemblies of God. In 2004 he started his own church. The Canadian missionaries worked behind the scenes, praying with him, encouraging him, accompanying, and comforting him when he was lonely.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s more than three million Fire Bibles (Full Life Study Bibles) were distributed in China. This Pentecostal-oriented study Bible gave Chinese Pentecostal Christians a resource with notes that addressed many of the questions that arise concerning the work of the Holy Spirit. How fun it was to show up at Chinese training center and see Fire Bibles being used in the classroom.
Evan Liu, writes in “Spirit-Empowered Chinese House Churches (2) Urban Revival:” “Ezra Jin and Daniel Li studied at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and they both embraced evangelical study of the Bible and charismatic ministerial practices.” This kind of story is true for hundreds of Chinese pastors both in the Three Self and those leading house churches. I know we all have concerns about our church divisions outside of China being introduced into the Chinese church. If I learned anything at the multi-denominational Beijing Fellowship, it was that each of our church traditions have something special to offer to the broader body of Christ.
I believe the church in China can survive without the global church, but how much more exciting to find ways to continue to be part of the China revival experience. I love the way Robert Menzies captured the essence of what is happening in his closing article, “Learning from the Larger Story:”
Pentecostals the world over celebrate the present-ness of the kingdom of God. God’s awesome presence in our midst, his gracious willingness to bestow spiritual gifts, his desire to heal, liberate, and transform lives—all of these themes, so central to Pentecostal piety, highlight the fact that God’s reign is now present.
And to this I say Amen.
Image credit: Piqsels.
Jon Davis
Jon Davis has been an ordained Assemblies of God minister since 1984. Jon and his family arrived in Hong Kong in 1986. From Hong Kong, Jon served with a China placement organization called the Sunrise Educational Foundation, working with China’s Foreign Experts Bureau and Chinese Universities. In 1997, Jon relocated to …View Full Bio
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