Tag: Evangelism
Evangelism, Reformed Theology, and Church Life, Part 1
A growing movement of churches attracted to the Reformed faith is gaining steam in China. Although still comparatively small in number, these churches and several of their prominent leaders are gaining influence among Christians across China. This article, originally published in the journal ChurchChina, provides hard data on how Reformed theology has impacted the evangelistic efforts and gospel understanding of one church in Anhui province. This case study seeks to answer the question: How has Reformed theology impacted the spread of the gospel in “Y” Church?
Have We Failed Returnee Christians? (Part 2)
Last week we posted the first part of an article about returnee Christians who fall away from the church that was originally published on the blog The Gift of the Magi. The article discusses how Chinese living abroad come to Christianity but struggle to remain in the church after they return to China. Part one focused more on the overseas church, while part two looks closely at the church in mainland China. This week we post part two of the article with Chinese readers’ comments from the original blog.
Have We Failed Returnee Christians? (Part 1)
The number of Chinese Christians continues to grow, both inside and outside of China. As large numbers of Chinese move and travel abroad, particularly to the West, many encounter Christianity for the first time. Many of these Chinese come to faith while abroad. After living abroad, Chinese Christians often have trouble transitioning into church life once they return to China. Their experience of the overseas church is often dramatically different from their experiences in Chinese churches. Brother Sang Shang, a returnee himself, highlights the difficulties returnee Christians face when they return to China.
The Importance of the Gospel during Chinese New Year
This week sees the arrival of Chinese New Year, the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar. Most of China will shut down for the week as people return to their ancestral homes to celebrate with family. For Chinese Christians, the holiday can often bring them mixed emotions: happiness and distress. Christians are excited to celebrate with family and friends. But, they also experience instances when their Christian faith rubs up against cultural expectations. In a society where Christianity often runs counter-cultural, Chinese New Year is a particularly concentrated moment of trials. In this translated article from Christian Times, the author reminds Christians of what is most important when they return home for the New Year.
Christmas and Evangelism
In this article, originally published in Gospel Times, a Christian openly wonders about the effectiveness Christmas evangelistic services.
Using WeChat for Evangelism
Last month, we ran a series of blog posts by Joab Meyer about social media in China. He gave a helpful overview of the various platforms and tried to show how they (particularly WeChat) are useful for engaging with Chinese friends and building online communities.
Later in the month, the mainland site Christian Times published an article about how to use WeChat for the purposes of evangelism. The article is a report of a talk given by a pastor in Beijing. It is translated in full below. Please note that the terms Weixin and WeChat are interchangeable. Weixin is the official Chinese name of the app. WeChat is the English name.
What Are Our Young People Thinking: Post 95 Generation
In the past two weeks, we have posted part one and two of an article titled “What are our Young People Thinking: How to Witness to Youth of the Post 1980’s, 1990’s and 1995’s,”, originally published in The Church Magazine. Part one looked specifically at the unique characteristics of the post-80s generation of Chinese youth. Part two looked specifically at the unique characteristics of the post-90s generation of Chinese youth.
Part three looks at the post-95s generation.
What Are Our Young People Thinking: Post 90s Generation
In last week's post we published part one of an article titled titled “What are our Young People Thinking: How to Witness to Youth of the Post 1980s, 1990s and 1995s,” originally published in The Church Magazine. That post looked specifically at the unique characteristics of the post-80s generation of Chinese youth.
Part two looks at the post-90s generation.
What Are Our Young People Thinking? The Post 80s Generation
In the November 2014 issue of The Church Magazine, they posted a long article titled “What are our Young People Thinking: How to Witness to Youth of the Post 1980s, 1990s and 1995s,” written by Lu Zun’en. In it he describes the unique characteristics of each of these groups (generations) of young people, and suggests effective means of evangelistic engagement.
Sharing the Gospel with Your Family at Spring Festival
The annual Spring Festival migration has begun in China, with the transport ministry predicting that nearly 3 billion trips will be taken during the 40-day holiday period. Some have called it the world’s largest human migration, as millions of people head home to spend Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) with their families.