In my previous article, I have outlined the four stages in the historical development of the modern Chinese church, as well as the impending fifth stage of revival.
They have also noted that the contemporary Chinese church is currently undergoing a process of shock and reorganization across its various forms, and it is moving toward a new stage of stability. During this process of shock and reorganization, many problems have surfaced, and many things are changing. The imbalance of the old order and the desire for a new order have become inevitable.
I firmly believe that the Chinese church will certainly experience a fifth stage of revival and achieve a new stability. If the Chinese church revives again, Chinese pastors in the current stage of shock and reorganization are facing, or will inevitably face, multiple challenges brought about by this revival.
The inevitability of these multiple challenges stems from the contrast between the homogeneity of the Chinese church and its theological growth versus the plurality of Christian theology and social development. This essay will present the formation of homogeneity in the Chinese church and its theological growth, alongside the development of plurality in Christian theology and society.
It will then propose how to prepare comprehensively to meet these entirely new pluralistic challenges.
If more people can recognize and value this inevitable reality and future, more people will consider and prepare for how to respond when these challenges arrive.
I. The Homogeneity of the Chinese Church and Its Theological Growth
The homogeneity of the Chinese church and its theological growth primarily originate from three factors: ideology, short developmental periods, and narrow theological exposure.
Modern Chinese history is a history of turmoil (see Appendix). The modern Chinese church emerged precisely alongside this history of shock. We must explore what kind of ideology the Chinese church, which developed in tandem with such a turbulent history, would adopt as it enters the church, serves the church, and envisions the future. One resounding answer is a sense of security. Extreme social turmoil causes people to deeply desire and cherish the sense of security that brief periods of stability bring. This is especially true for those who have personally experienced turbulent times. They have formed a monolithic ideology that prioritizes maintaining the security they already possess. Even when new space for development appears, they do not dare to pursue it rashly.
After it experienced multiple periods of turmoil in the past, the Chinese church has now fallen into a new period of shock. The monolithic ideology of seeking a sense of security still occupies a dominant position today. The primary manifestation of this is that almost all forms of the Chinese church will first pursue the correctness of its own traditions. At the same time, they place the traditions of other church forms, as well as new church forms or traditions, in an oppositional position. They reject them, guard against them, or examine them critically. The best outcome is mutual recognition, but cross-form unity remains highly difficult. This monolithic ideology causes people to vigorously defend and remain within the sense of security they established in the past. Consequently, they face immense difficulties in outward expansion and in accepting new things.
Short developmental periods also constitute a major factor that causes homogeneity in the establishment and development of the Chinese church and its theology. The growth and theological understanding of the Chinese church have accompanied the turmoil of modern Chinese history. This has resulted in very short periods for the Chinese church to adapt and adjust during each turbulent phase. Furthermore, the church has constantly remained in a position of passively facing turmoil. It passively seeks God and passively searches for answers. Often, before it can grasp the answers, it has already entered a new phase of turmoil. The primary manifestation of the homogeneity brought about by short developmental periods is, therefore, passive acceptance and conformity. The church lacks the ability to actively explore and expand in multiple directions. This directly leads to the homogenous phenomenon of narrow theological exposure.
Because they pursue a sense of security in theological acceptance and learning yet are limited by the reality of short developmental periods, the Chinese church has developed a rather narrow theological exposure up to the present. Different forms of the Chinese church prioritize accepting and maintaining traditional theological views and theological guidance. They transitioned from a long period in the past where they lacked opportunities for multidimensional theological exposure, to a later period where they did not dare to engage with theological understandings outside their traditions. Ultimately, this caused their own theological perspectives, theological methodologies, and theological guidance to form a monolithic closed loop. This not only reduces the willingness to engage with multidimensional, holistic theology but also makes such engagement extremely difficult.
However, human understanding of theology must inevitably face multidimensional, continuous renewal and expansion. The Chinese social environment is also undergoing pluralistic changes at an astonishing speed. Participants in the Chinese church must, therefore, perceive these pluralistic changes from a higher and broader perspective to avoid the crises that deep homogeneity might bring.
II. The Plurality of Christian Theology and Social Development
Christian theology is a discipline that starts from specific contexts and continuously explores and understands the unchanging God in order to respond to those contexts. Its development has always proceeded synchronously with social development. The plurality of social development that the Chinese church faces depends on two levels. The first is the plurality of international theological understanding and theological guidance. The second is the diversity of regional cultures within the country and the diversity of class ideologies brought about by economic development.
International theological development has a history of nearly two thousand years. Especially in the more than five hundred years since the Reformation, theological development has been highly diverse. Today, global theological plurality is widely recognized. Although China’s Reform and Opening Up has been underway for over forty years, China’s theological contact with the outside world and its theological openness have existed for less than forty years. First, after the Boxer Rebellion, a large number of missionaries were able to return. They entered various parts of China carrying different national backgrounds, different cultures, different theological views, and different theological guidance. This inadvertently laid the groundwork for the future pluralization of the Chinese church’s theological understanding. Later, many Christians who had studied or worked abroad gradually returned to China. In contrast to the Chinese church’s historically narrow theological exposure and its monolithic, rigid theological adherence, missionaries and returning Christians introduced more numerous and more fragmented theological perspectives. These perspectives held considerable appeal for Chinese Christians. Consequently, they quickly took root across the country and have long since borne fruit today. Although this process experienced some setbacks, the pluralistic challenges brought by the importation of international theology have become fully apparent. This primarily manifests in the increasing number of church forms that emphasize specific stances. The boundaries between different church forms are becoming clearer, and their oppositional nature is even becoming more obvious.
Regarding the Chinese mainland itself, China has a vast territory and numerous ethnic groups. The cultural differences between the south and the north, and between the east and the west, were already enormous. Furthermore, the wealth accumulation gap caused by the rapid economic development of the past forty years has caused churches in various Chinese contexts to differ drastically in their theological understanding and responses. In general, churches with higher education levels and correspondingly more affluent economic contexts exhibit a stronger breadth and depth in their theological pursuits, and their theological understanding becomes more complex. Conversely, those with weaker breadth and depth in their theological pursuits maintain a simpler understanding of theological faith. Additionally, churches that opened to the outside world earlier and to a higher degree demonstrate stronger theological reflection and critique. They have higher demands for theological expansion and certainty, while other churches will gradually follow and accept these developments. In this way, the Chinese church has already formed a pluralistic landscape in its pursuit of theological breadth and depth.
III. Comprehensive Preparation to Meet the Challenges
Since China’s social development and the pluralization of Christian theology in China have become inevitable, pastors, leaders, and participating co-workers in the Chinese church must prepare to meet these pluralistic challenges rather than passively resist them. If the Chinese church is to respond to pluralistic challenges more comfortably, it must make full preparations in areas such as theological confidence, personal spiritual cultivation, open collaboration, and the ecological construction of the church.
Theological confidence does not mean that individuals are sufficiently equipped in theology to feel confident in facing pluralistic challenges. Rather, it refers to the entire Chinese church explicitly reaffirming its conviction in God’s sovereignty. It means believing that God’s self-existent, eternal immutability, omnipotence, and omnipresence can address the pluralistic development of any era. The conviction that God controls everything is the foundation of our preparation to meet pluralistic challenges, and it is also the locus of the Chinese church’s theological confidence. When we look at all the events recorded in the Bible involving relational interactions between humans and God, especially in times of crisis, people can struggle for a period when they attempt to rely entirely on themselves. Ultimately, however, they will fall into a state of difficult coping and eventual failure. Although those who firmly rely on God will also experience perilous crises, they remain proactive and full of hope throughout the process, ultimately experiencing the moment when God’s power is revealed. Within the monolithic tradition of the Chinese church, the phenomenon of valuing human relationships over the relationship between humans and God is already ubiquitous. This is one of the reasons I propose theological confidence here.
The elevation of personal spiritual cultivation among the group of pastors, leaders, and participating co-workers in the Chinese church is an urgent matter. Spiritual cultivation includes a genuine relationship with God through spiritual experience, a dual rational and emotional understanding of God, a constant reverence for God, a basic and continuously growing understanding of theology, and a sufficient familiarity with the Bible. China currently has at least 600,000 churches, which means there are currently more than 600,000 pastors in China. Not many, however, dare to confidently express self-approval regarding the aforementioned levels of spiritual cultivation. This is, therefore, not only a crisis in the face of pluralistic challenges but also an immediate crisis for the current Chinese church. Consequently, current pastors in the Chinese church must continuously grow and improve in the above spiritual cultivation. Furthermore, they must prioritize the development of spiritual cultivation during discipleship, so that successors can face pluralistic challenges directly with spiritual capability.
In the face of pluralistic challenges, open collaboration within the Chinese church is essential, especially domestic open collaboration. It is an indisputable fact that no single church can address all pluralistic needs through its own efforts alone. Even if a church can do so for a brief period, it will be impossible to sustain later. As pluralization becomes increasingly widespread and stable, moreover, the demands for professional expertise in every field will also rise. This requires Chinese churches to strive for excellence in their respective familiar fields while engaging in open collaboration with other churches familiar with different fields, thereby achieving complementary and mutually reinforcing results. For pastors in the Chinese church, familiarity with the Bible, biblical study, and theological understanding constitute their primary profession. In these fields, they must surpass everyone within the group they shepherd. Subsequently, based on their own gifts, life experiences, and other factors, they can improve and utilize their abilities in other areas of expertise.
The ecological construction of the church is a matter that the majority of current Chinese churches have not considered. They either have no time to attend to it, have never thought about it, or have never heard of it. Ecological construction is a type of construction that requires systematic thinking. It involves not only holistic, consistent thinking and the building of an interconnected, organic framework for current and upcoming matters, but also systematic thinking and the building of a foundational framework for the existence and growth of several future generations. In other words, this generation does not do the work that the next generation should do, but it must solidify the foundation and provide conveniences for the next generation. Ecological construction does not emphasize individual needs or individual strength. Instead, it emphasizes a large, organic environment capable of accommodating the existence and growth of all healthy individuals. The elevation of spiritual cultivation mentioned earlier precisely requires such an ecological environment to provide a guarantee.
Conclusion
The Chinese church is entering an entirely new and unfamiliar stage, which is precisely the prelude to the inevitable revival of the Chinese church. Pluralistic challenges are merely the foreseeable challenges. In reality, when the Chinese church revives again, the challenges it must face will extend far beyond these. Regardless, if the Chinese church can prepare in advance, it will be able to respond proactively when the revival arrives. If it does not prepare in advance, it will inevitably be panicked and passive. Even if we do not know exactly what to prepare for the time being, the preparation of spiritual cultivation is foundational. It is never outdated, and one can never prepare too deeply. This essay aims to remind the many members of the Chinese church that challenges inevitably exist. We must think proactively and actively seek the elevation of spiritual cultivation, so that when challenges arrive, more people will be fit for the Lord’s use.
