Tag: Narratives

Blog Entries

Variations on a Theme

Our China stories are not merely descriptions of an objective reality manifesting itself in the Chinese church; they speak to where we believe China’s church is (or should be) going.

Blog Entries

Seeing Things Differently

In proposing that we need to get beyond the “persecuted church” narrative, I am not advocating . . . that we leave it behind completely, but rather that we recognize its limits.

Blog Entries

One Virus, Two Cities

If the global pandemic has laid bare our shared vulnerability, then it has also highlighted our interdependence as global citizens.

Blog Entries

Stopping the Spread

Those partnering with China’s emerging missions movement would do well to consider what they may be passing on without even realizing it. Careful filtering of concepts and methods—but more importantly, values and unspoken assumptions—could help guard China’s future mission leaders from replicating painful mistakes.

Blog Entries

Going Glocal in the Age of COVID-19

The COVID-19 epidemic has not only driven home the stark realities of living in a flat world where what happens in one country is able to radically alter life around the globe; it has also made possible a type of cross-cultural sharing among Christians that may not have happened otherwise were it not for the shared experience of a global pandemic.

Blog Entries

From Here to There

The Straight-Line Fallacy

Those who stay in China for any length of time often discover that their most meaningful work is quite different from what they had originally envisioned doing when they first arrived.

Blog Entries

You Can’t Do That in China!

Except they were. And they still are. 

Blog Entries

The Evolving Narratives

Looking at the development of the church over the past four decades we can identify two significant dynamics. One is the level of political persecution upon the church. The other is the church’s own internal capacity.