Articles from 2017
The Resource Library is where you will find the latest resources from across our publications.
The International Church Role in Chinese Missionary Sending, Part 1
Strategies for General Partnership between Chinese and International Mission Senders
The Chinese church passionately desires participation in missionary sending. The international church seeks to partner with Chinese missionary senders. In addition to prayer, the international church can support Chinese missionary-senders through resource sharing, mission-sending organization support, and through business cooperation. Chinese medical missionary tentmaking as a business opportunity is examined as a prototype for other potential Chinese tentmaking missionaries. Leadership of Chinese missionary sending efforts must remain in Chinese hands.
Towards More Effective Youth Ministry
The 2015 Survey on the Current Situation and Future Prospects for the Church in China, undertaken by the China Gospel Research Alliance, indicated that pastoring the next generation is a priority for Christian leaders in China. The needs of youth in China are great and the church in China must reach and minister to them or risk losing the next generation of believers—which will not just be the loss of individual believers but also the potential loss of Christian families and church leaders.
Difficulties with Church-Based Models in Chinese Missionary Sending
Understanding the Need for Mission-Sending-Organizational Development in China
The Chinese church passionately desires participation in missionary sending. In China, there are problems with current church-based mission-sending models. Mission-sending organizations can deal with many of the unmet needs of the Chinese missionary and facilitate missionary sending.
The Impact of Family Issues on Chinese Missionaries
Thinking Through an Approach to Spouse- and Children-Needs of Chinese Missionaries
The Chinese church passionately desires participation in missionary sending to unreached peoples. Field research findings with Chinese missionaries and with prospective Chinese medical missionaries highlight issues related to the needs of the Chinese missionary’s nuclear family. Although mission-sending organizations can help, much of the impetus for resolving difficulties faced by the Chinese missionary’s spouse and children must come from the Chinese missionaries themselves.
Book Reviews
A Much-Needed Update about Chinese Christianity
China’s Urban Christians: A Light that Cannot Be Hidden by Brent Fulton
Reviewed by Li Jin
Due to urbanization and social change, China’s churches look different today than they did a number of years ago. Urban churches, with unusual diversity, now comprise a major part of Chinese Christianity. Fulton identifies many of the changes the church has experienced that now characterize it and discusses challenges it faces in current society.
Peoples of China
Conversation with a Migrant-Worker Church Minister
An interview by Dr. Mary Ma with the minister of a migrant worker’s urban church which identifies a number of issues characteristic of urban churches comprised of migrant workers from rural areas. These concerns include living conditions, economic status, long work hours, mobility, and other factors that all contribute to the church’s spiritual health and stability.
View From the Wall
Pastoring a Charismatic Church in Shanghai
Pastor Cui shares how his church has dealt with a growing congregation and the need for room by adopting a “big church, small congregations” model. He explains this concept and details the benefits this model has brought to the church, the pastors, and the congregations.
Supporting Article
Urban Public Space and New Media Ministry
After defining “new media” and what it encompasses, An looks at the various ways the church in China views it, what it means for the church, and how it can affect the church. He then gives some thoughts on how the church should deal with it—not only the challenges it brings, but how it can be used positively.
Lead Article
The City and the Church
Towards an Urban Theology in China
As China becomes increasingly urbanized, an urban theology for ministry is needed. As modern man finds himself slowly enmeshed in urban living, he experiences materialism, relativism, and an increasingly segmented society. He questions what is real and true, and who God is. These questions can become points of contact for urban ministry. Dr. Ma provides some guidelines for forming an urban theology for ministry in urban China.