Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
On Tuesday, August 12, Brent Fulton was a guest on the "Connecting Faith" program of KTIS-AM radio in Minneapolis-St. Paul. If you were not able to listen to the broadcast live, have no fear; the entire one-hour program is available in podcast form on the radio station website.
According to Rob Gifford, China Editor for The Economist, much has been written about the growth of the church in China, but to understand the church's impact we need to look beyond the numbers.
Recently I found myself in a discussion with several colleagues about what it takes to "partner well" in China.
When US Air flight 1549 landed unexpectedly in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, the pilot, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, III, became an instant hero. But there were other heroes on the Hudson River that day as well.
Most large consumer-facing companies realize that they will need China to power their growth in the next decade.
"How many Christians in China?"
"Are believers still persecuted?"
A big part of observing China is trying to figure out what is really going on. For those following recent events regarding the church in China, this has been especially true.
China is in the midst of an education explosion.
Up until the beginning of this decade, China's elderly and young adult populations were growing at roughly the same rate.
We live in an era when partnership between the church in China and the global church is both desired and increasingly possible. The challenges facing the church in China have evolved significantly in recent decades A survey of these challenges may lead some to conclude that church life in China today is not that much different from church life in the West or among overseas Chinese communities in Asia. Postmodernism, urbanization, secularization, and family breakdown are endemic to industrialized and post-industrialized societies the world over. The difference for China is that it has experienced in thirty years what in most other nations has taken place over a century or more.
China's current policy on religion is spelled out in Central Party Document no. 19, "The Basic Viewpoint and Policy on the Religious Question during Our Country's Socialist Period," issued in March of 1982.
In this article, translated from the site jidutu123.com, the author looks at the challenges of doing urban missions in China. His main point is that doing urban missions, traditionally defined as ministering to the marginalized, is difficult in China because it assumes that Christianity is already part of the mainstream of culture, something that is not true in China. He then calls on the church to look for ways to engage with society rather than standing in opposition to it. Only by doing this will Christianity gain influence in Chinese society.