Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
Overall, the conference featured not only an array of varying perspectives on Chinese ecclesiology—some stretching the interpretation of that term to its limits—but also diverse approaches to the importance of perspective itself, which was eye-opening.
Discipleship does not scale. When making disciples is reduced to the realm of activity, the church loses sight of the essential relational nature of its mission.
For a moment, it was easy to understand the dream of finding something of home among one’s own, even far from home. Yet I wondered about the reverse: might someone still feel like a stranger among people who shared their language and cultural memories, longing for a belonging that familiarity alone could not provide?
For the past three decades, Song of a Wanderer has been a go-to apologetics resource in many overseas Chinese churches and student fellowships seeking to share the gospel with students and scholars from China.
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.
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.
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.
Have we prioritized certain Great Commission activities to the neglect of other less tangible yet no less essential aspects of what it means to glorify God in the world?
Sometimes another tradition gives us language for something we have encountered in our own lives but have not yet been able to articulate clearly.
If AI has become the only place where we disclose our inner lives, we should consider whether our human relationships are in trouble.
Perhaps what I need is not another answer, but to remain with a passage of Scripture long enough for it to begin questioning me.