Blog Entries on Church Life
Key Issues for the Church in China: A Local Perspective
If you asked most Christians in the west to identify the major issues facing the Chinese Church, the answer would probably be persecution and lack of Bibles. But what about Chinese Christians? What challenges do they see?
Keys to Effective Leadership Training in China
Decades of overseas involvement in equipping Chinese church leaders have shown that training involves much more than unloading knowledge on a classroom of eager students. In discussions with dozens of experienced trainers over the course of several years, the following have emerged as essential factors for effective training.
Chinas Leadership Shuffle and the Church
"Shiba Da," the 18th Party Congress, concluded last week with the seven (not nine!) members of the reconstituted Politburo Standing Committee appearing together for the first time on the red carpet in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Many have asked what implications the Congress has for Christians in China. While it is known that religious policy was on the agenda this year, only time will tell how the closed-door discussions on this topic will play out in terms of actual policy.
A Chinese Voice from 120 Years Ago
The following is a suggestion made by a Chinese pastor to the rest of the attendees at the 1890 Shanghai conference of all the Protestant missionaries in China. It must have taken a lot of courage and strong convictions for him to address the room full of foreigners in this manner (there were only a handful of Chinese delegates at the 1890 Conference). Yan's purpose in speaking was to remind the missionaries that in addition to attracting new converts, there was still much work to be done to care for the believers already in the churches.
The Church in China: A Place at the Table
I sat across from a Chinese Christian in the lobby of a Beijing hotel as he rearranged the cups and plates on the coffee table between us. Having cleared a space at the center of the table, he pointed to a cup sitting at the edge, near one corner.