This article follows the 2017 series on Chinese medical missionary sending, published by ChinaSource. Reflections expressed herein grow out of the successes, setbacks, and surprises encountered after the implementation of many of the ideas conveyed in that series of 13 articles. These reflections, then, don’t necessarily reflect on the other sending efforts in the wider sending movement from China. In fact, where I have had opportunities to collaborate with other Chinese mission-sending leadership, differences in the mix of strengths and weaknesses between organizations were evident. For example, firmer systems of control and stronger member care structures appeared to be in place in other mission sending organizations (MSOs) I encountered. Often, the strength in the bond between a sending MSO and those sent is proportional to the level of financial support provided by the MSO. With doctors, either because of their entrepreneurial endeavors or through direct fundraising contacts, MSO and medical missionary connections have not been blessed with nor, in some cases, suffered from the controls provided by a China-based MSO to those it sends.
The good news is, Chinese medical missionaries, despite the naysayers are inexorably going out into cross-cultural missions, both within China and outside of China. But this doesn’t mean it is happening in the ways that we thought it might.
Financial Backing for the Mission Sending Effort
In 2017, we proposed that Chinese medical doctors might open expat clinics for Chinese businessmen as a means to obtaining local medical licenses, visas, earnings to supplement financial shortages, and as a way to make sense to the people among whom they served.
The best-laid plans often go astray.
Chinese doctors (and one nurse) are going out for missionary service. But so far, only one doctor has positioned herself to potentially utilize the tent-making approach to mission service. One surprise, despite the Chinese church’s newness in mission sending, is that Chinese churches are financially supporting Chinese medical missionaries, in some cases exceeding previously held expectations.
It is true that this support is hampered by difficulties in communication between donors and missionaries, difficulties in transfers of funds, when and where fund transfers can be monitored, or through a lack of coordinated fund distribution that an MSO can provide. But where there are trusting relationships that have been built over time, Chinese churches and individuals, keen to participate in the Great Commission, find ways of getting their funds to those who are serving in missions, as well as to the supporting MSO infrastructure.
The Role of Mission Sending Organizations
The supporting MSO infrastructure has not been nearly as important to date as previously anticipated. In fact, some medical missionaries have joined foreign MSOs with many years of experience, feeling that the China-based MSO is still too new to provide the needed credibility and support. It isn’t that China’s MSO leadership is doing a poor job. But many Chinese missionaries, unless bound by organizational financial constraints, are reluctant to risk security breaches in an increasingly security-sensitive environment. They do not want any news of their work to go back into China. They are therefore wary of reporting even prayer requests back to a China-based MSO.
In such cases, an MSO can still coordinate prayer for missionaries. It can also connect with churches to help raise support for them. It can attempt to mobilize the church to action through disseminating resources like the course Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. But some aspects of traditional MSO functions, including member care, are hampered in the absence of frequent, clear, and open communication. Indeed, member care of Chinese medical missionaries is often relational, facilitated through trusted relationships, and frequently happens outside the structure of an MSO member care department.
With medical missionaries disconnected from varying degrees from a China-based MSO, strategic coordination of efforts is all but impossible. The sending that is happening is happening in the context of close relationships, trust, and friendship. It is more organic than organizational in nature, depending strongly on individual calling and, in some cases, circumstances and opportunities. The sending of Chinese missionaries to unreached peoples has at times felt more like the surging of flood waters rising above embankments rather than the strategic cutting of a channel in which water can flow.
International Church Cooperation
This is an area where, perhaps in some cases, things have gone better than expected. The international church has remained faithful in a consulting role, guiding the first steps in Chinese missionary sending and MSO development. Chinese doctors, when deploying overseas, through trusted relationships grown while in China, are connecting with networks of missionary doctors in the fields of service to which they deploy. These international doctors guide the Chinese doctors in how to obtain a local medical license, and how to gain access to employment in clinics or hospitals. Without these international connections, the process of adjustment to medical employment in the Middle East is formidable. The process of adjustment in Pakistan is not just difficult, but impossible, as the Chinese are unable to obtain a local Pakistani medical license without pursuing medical education and licensure testing through the Pakistani system. But working under Pakistani doctors in Christian missionary hospitals is possible.
Many from the West still misunderstand the needs of Chinese mission sending leaders. They believe what is needed is the affirmation of Chinese missional leadership and “release” of those sent. But the Chinese church is asking for specific wisdom and guidance. They want to know how to avoid problems and pitfalls that others have experienced. And they are humble enough to listen to the voice of the international church if it is brought with sensitivity. This doesn’t mean every voice should speak. The Chinese church mission sending leadership is rightly turned off by empty platitudes (“Go forward!”) when no workable, practical plan is presented, when advice given isn’t consistent with their understanding of the actual situation on the ground. A clear need exists, then, for those who have a command of the Mandarin language, who understand Chinese culture (i.e., those having spent 10 or more years in China) to take the lead in mentoring the mission sending movement from China. Those with less than 10 years of experience in China should not, a priori, excuse themselves from a role in missional coaching. “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). As always, the foreign church needs to listen before speaking. But it must speak.
Family and Social Issues
This generation of Chinese missionaries is deploying with their young children, or in some cases while still remaining single. It remains to be seen how issues like the gaokao (高考, college entrance exam) and college education will be handled when the appropriate time for advanced children’s study arrives.
Resistance to Chinese Missionary Sending
It perhaps goes without saying that the mission-sending environment has become more troubled, especially since 2018. Mission sending organization leadership, though in Chinese hands, is often managed through offshore international offices. Every effort should be made, in my opinion, to facilitate the Chinese government’s goals of positively developing China’s reputation abroad and expanding the influence and impact of its “One Belt, One Road” policy. International clinics that support Chinese expat businessmen in the Middle East, and charitable work caring for the poor in certain contexts, is a glory to China, and is less likely to provoke the Chinese government’s wrath.
Notwithstanding, the attitude of many of the Chinese church, including its MSO and those sent, is that we “must obey God rather than men.” If punishment comes, many hope to mirror Peter and John’s response when leaving the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:41, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.”
Final Varied Unexpected Surprises
Other surprises:
1) Chinese medical missionaries aren’t necessarily practicing medicine. They may be teaching business skills to local women as a platform for shining light. They may be accompanying their husbands while they study for an advanced degree in a place like Japan.
2) Chinese churches are unifying around missions and in some cases, those of similar theological persuasion, are joining together in larger “denominational-like” structures, or even in some cases, affiliating with international denominational structures.
Concluding Thoughts
Chinese medical missionaries are deploying cross-culturally, both within China and outside of China. The Chinese church has demonstrated a commitment to international missions which exceeds my previously held expectations. This has created an opportunity for flexibility in medical missions service. Not everyone has to use a tent-making approach. Although the Chinese church has taken up the challenge of developing MSO structures, Chinese MSOs are often not utilized to their full potential by Chinese medical missionaries. This is often because of fears of security leaks in the current security-sensitive environment.
The international church has, in my opinion, stepped up to its role of coaching. And it should continue to step up. False humility, desiring to not share what the international church does know, results in a repeat of many of the same types of mistakes that older sending countries have made for years.
Medical missionaries must navigate many challenges: family and social issues, children’s education, and resistance to missionary sending from the larger context.
Finally, though this should perhaps not have been a surprise to me in such a guanxi (关系, relationship) -oriented culture, the sending that is happening is happening in the context of close relationship, trust, and friendship. This has proved even more important than practical pathways and solutions for Chinese medical missionary service (though the latter should certainly not be neglected.)
A lot more missiological work is needed for the Chinese church to foster a mature mission-sending movement. But the Chinese church, though faced with many external difficulties is on the pathway, confident that, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
Si Shi (四石)
Si Shi (pseudonym) has lived in China for more than five years and has many friends who work in the medical profession.View Full Bio
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