When ChinaSource first launched, the focus was very much on serving the church in China. The immediate needs were many, and new opportunities were rapidly developing for foreign Christians to engage with believers in country.
Today we recognize that “the church in China” is no longer just in China. This reality is captured in ChinaSource’s revised vision statement:
China's Christians engaging the society inside and outside of China as they contribute to and influence the global church conversation for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.
To engage with China’s church today means not only connecting with what Chinese Christians are doing in China, but also with what they are doing outside China.
As a catalytic organization, we see ChinaSource’s role as helping to facilitate a global conversation. It is a conversation about China, its role in the world, and, specifically, how the global church and Christians in or from China can collaborate in advancing God’s purposes, whether in China or abroad.
For me personally, the conversation over just the past few weeks has included interaction with:
- A US university dean, originally from China, whose global student body includes Chinese Christians and people of other nationalities who serve in China.
- A pastor who is launching a new journal as a platform for sharing ideas among his fellow believers in China and with China-minded Christians abroad.
- A young social entrepreneur advising a Chinese Christian businesswoman whose overseas investments are benefiting the church in Africa.
- A local evangelist whose insights into the ethnic minority area where he serves are helping bring clarity to an often-murky picture of what is happening in a far-flung region in China.
Conversations like these help ChinaSource keep its finger on the pulse of China. Together with data gathered from dozens of sources each week, they help to make sense of the rapidly changing context affecting China’s Christians and those who serve with them.
Through our weekly ZG Briefs news summary, our blog, the ChinaSource Quarterly, and gatherings (virtual as well as in-person) around the world, we hope to inform the larger conversation as China’s Christians continue to play a more significant role in the global church.
Brent Fulton
Brent Fulton is the founder of ChinaSource. Dr. Fulton served as the first president of ChinaSource until 2019. Prior to his service with ChinaSource, he served from 1995 to 2000 as the managing director of the Institute for Chinese Studies at Wheaton College. From 1987 to 1995 he served as founding …View Full Bio
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