Chinese churches in Germany often bring together people whose paths might otherwise remain separate: migrants from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia; students and businesspeople; recent arrivals and long-term residents; people carrying very different political memories and assumptions.
Hadn’t we tried our best? If you don’t need to use me, what am I supposed to do?
Following the first installment in our Stories from Inside the Church in China series, “The Pressure of Ordinary Faith”, these three stories circle around a question facing some Chinese Christians today.
Through my many travels and encounters, I have discovered that the non-fitting place is precisely where I am meant to be as a disciple of Jesus among God’s people.
When I moved to China, I had no idea what would happen or where God would lead me. All I knew was that he had clearly led me to Shanghai.
What drew me out of that familiar shadow narrative was the even sweeter voice of Jesus, calling me to abide in him and rest in an identity found in him before bearing fruit.
Knowing our final destination is not only hope for the future—it changes how we face sorrow today.
We did not choose this path to raise elite children, nor to escape the pressures of school. We need to stay close to the Lord with the simple trust of a child and seek his will for us.
Instead of being treated as an obstacle to be removed, difference becomes a prompt for inquiry and conversation, and, one hopes, for unexpected revelation.
Chinese churches are going abroad—but are they truly entering mission?
Ghost Month sets the table to invite wandering spirits to dine and be satisfied. The gospel announces something altogether different.
Prompted in part by Sam Ren’s recent article, “The Displaced Minority,” these brief vignettes offer glimpses of ordinary Christian life in Mainland China that often remain unseen.