“What Will Thou Have Me to Do?”
Last month we considered Hudson Taylor’s call to pray the Lord’s prayer with personal reflection: “Lord, what will thou have me to do, that thy name may be hallowed, thy kingdom come, and thy will be done in China?” (China’s Spiritual Needs and Claims). Dr. Taylor had first laid out what he called “solemn facts” related to the great need for the gospel to go out to the Chinese people. He wanted the brothers and sisters of his day to offer personal, informed, Holy Spirit-quickened prayers of response, resulting in action. Those heartfelt prayers did indeed result in a great move of God.
In a recent third-party survey of over 475 ChinaSource constituents, 55% of respondents said they used ChinaSource resources to pray. We are thrilled by this, because a primary way the body of Christ in the West will grow in whole and fruitful relationship with the Chinese church will be through prayer; praying with and for our Chinese brothers and sisters. And, as we feature the voices of Chinese Christ-followers and leaders from the mainland and the diaspora, our prayers will be better informed and empowered.
Supplying Your Prayer Effort
ChinaSource content, education, equipping, and partnering resources can be applied to an abundance of prayer models and we hope you will feel very free to pass our publications on to individuals, groups and churches who would like to know more, and offer worship, praise, and prayers of personal and corporate response. We would love to help supply your China prayer groups!
Going forward, we will be pleased to participate in, and help facilitate, a variety of prayer models, trusting God to multiply his global networks of prayer partners. Meanwhile, please take advantage of the Ways to Pray section in each Lantern issue. In most cases a praise report or prayer request now includes a link to another source that will help inform and quicken your prayers.
Kerry Schottelkorb
President
News and Notes
ChinaSource Quarterly, 2022 Autumn Issue
Member Care for Chinese Missionaries, guest editors, Ruth C. Chang and Brent Fulton.
In their editorial, the guest editors write:
In our lead article, we seek to clarify what member care is as we look at the biblical basis for missionary care as ministry.
Asking why it is so difficult for Chinese workers to recognize the value of rest, Peng Xiaohui points to the Confucian emphasis on duty that is embedded in the language and symbols of the culture. Dennis Ahern surveys the role models of the Chinese church, for whom suffering was a key part of their Christian identity….
Daniel Sher continues this theme in his article on fatherhood and missions by looking at how the Chinese understanding of what Christ said in Matthew 19:29 has led some Chinese workers to neglect their families, believing that this demonstrates the depth of their Christian commitment….
In her article on missionaries and marriage, Lisa Tsai offers some surprising observations from her field research on cross-cultural workers from China….
Our book review for this issue looks at China’s Ambassadors of Christ to the Nations: A Groundbreaking Survey by Tabor Laughlin, who also conducted fieldwork on Chinese cross-cultural workers….
In the Resource Corner we feature Serving Together: Caring for Chinese Missionaries, a handbook newly released in Chinese and English.
To read this challenging and fascinating issue of ChinaSource Quarterly, go to Member Care for Chinese Missionaries.
ChinaSource Team News
- On September 9, Brent Fulton briefed global staff of Open Doors on the upcoming 20th Party Congress and implications for the church and religious policy in China.
- August 30-31, Brent Fulton and Joann Pittman each co-facilitated different working groups at Beijing Brief 2.0 in Dallas TX.
- On August 17, under a content-sharing agreement, Christianity Today featured an updated version of Kevin Xiyi Yao’s article, “Why Theologians Aren’t as Excited about Chinese Christianity’s Growth as Sociologists,” which was originally published in the ChinaSource Blog.
Ways to Pray
From the China Source Team
- Praise the Lord for the autumn issue of ChinaSource Quarterly entitled “Member Care for Chinese Missionaries,” edited by Ruth C. Chang and Brent Fulton, highlighting the need to improve member care for China’s missionaries.
- As we pray for China’s missionaries and their families, let’s take to heart what Lisa Tsai wrote in her article on married Chinese missionaries, “The well-being of missionaries is part of the mission.” Please pray for missionary marriages and families to know and experience the wholeness and abundance of life in Christ.
- Pray for those serving cross-culturally to be renewed in experiencing and exuding God’s metrics for ministry success: the fruit of the Spirit. Please see Amy Young’s blog, “When I Say Fruitful, You Think What?”, for ways to pray for a fruitful ministry, and a wonderful invitation!
- Praise the Lord with us for the special partnership between ChinaSource and Christianity Today to help inform global Christians about the church in China and tell the stories of God’s faithfulness to his people. Please pray for Song (Sean) Cheng, Christianity Today‘s Asia Editor as he seeks to continue building bridges between the church in China, the diaspora Chinese church, and the global church. To get better acquainted, please see, “An Interview with Song Cheng, Asia Editor of Christianity Today.”
From the 2022 Autumn Issue of ChinaSource Quarterly
- Lift up churches, mission organizations, and missionary “senders” as they grapple with issues of providing member care for Chinese missionaries.
- Pray that fathers would understand the significance of their role and embrace fatherhood within their families.
- Ask the Lord to bless Chinese pastors as they teach about the biblical concept of rest, and that both churches and missionaries would understand this teaching and allow it to impact their lives.
- Pray that missionaries and pastors would have a biblical understanding of suffering as Christians and for discernment to apply this knowledge to their daily lives.
- Call upon our Heavenly Father and ask that the importance of member care will become more widely recognized and accepted by churches and for the founding of organizations that will be willing to provide it.
In Case You Missed It
A selection of recently published items:
- Prepared in Advance, ChinaSource Blog, September 19.
- Bu Tai Qingchu, ChinaSource Blog, September 16.
- Special Education through a Teacher’s Eyes, ChinaSource Blog, September 14.
- When I Say Fruitful, You Think What?, ChinaSource Blog, September 12.
- An Interview with Song Cheng, Asia Editor of Christianity Today, ChinaSource Blog, September 09.
- A Hydraulics Engineer Finds True Success, ChinaSource Blog (CCV), September 07.
- Christians and the Hungry Ghost Festival, ChinaSource Blog, September 05.
- Exploring Member Care for Workers from China, ChinaSource Blog, September 02.
- Breakthrough: James O. Fraser, ChinaSource Blog, August 31.
- Yes, You Can Impact the People of China, ChinaSource Blog, August 29.
- Preparing for Cross-Cultural Ministry?, ChinaSource Blog,August 26.
- Protecting Children from Abuse, ChinaSource Blog (CCV), August 24.
- What if Christianity Is No Longer Successful?, ChinaSource Blog, August 22.
- The Culture Tree, ChinaSource Blog, August 19.
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