Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
On November 14, 2024, nearly 200 Chinese pastors, church leaders, theologians, and educators from around the world gathered at the picturesque Biola University. Together, they celebrated the historic establishment of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Chinese Christianity (IASCC) and the Biola Research Initiative for Chinese Theology.
Will you join us in praying for the unreached peoples? Together, let us commit to being part of God’s mission to make disciples of all nations and to plant healthy churches that will reproduce to surrounding villages and across generations.
Rather than assuming their long experience, carefully honed strategies, and ready resources will carry the day, leaders from traditional sending nations need to learn to listen to others at the table whose ideas may seem foreign, perhaps even misdirected, and whose available resources pale in comparison to the perceived task at hand.
This article is a follow-up to a series of articles written by this author on Chinese medical missionary sending in 2017, published by ChinaSource. Reflections expressed herein grow out of the successes, setbacks, and surprises encountered after the implementation of many of the ideas conveyed in that series of 13 articles.
From the first evening, Lausanne Chairman, Pastor Michael Oh, set the tone for the event in his address by quoting the Lausanne Covenant. He called us to humility, repentance, and a renewed commitment to the unfinished mission. His desire was to set a tone of unity, listening, and collaboration. He warned that the global church’s greatest danger lies in this phrase: “I don’t need you.”
Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep leaving 99 sheep to go after the one lost one. At a recent missions conference held by a church in China, one of the speakers commented that the ratios for China are almost the opposite with leaving five sheep to go after the 95 lost ones.
After a 12-year study experience abroad (4 years at a Christian university and 8 years in seminary), I have some insights and reflections on studying theology abroad. For most Christians and pastors, I believe that it is no longer necessary to spend four years studying theology abroad.
Above all, we hope you will see that Chinese Catholics live with a strong awareness of Our Lord Jesus’ presence with them amidst many challenges, that they live in hope in exceedingly challenging times, and they remain faithful to him in ways that can inspire us all.
Much of the program at last week’s Fourth Lausanne Congress was structured around 25 issue areas, or gaps. Yet some have pointed out that this granular approach to the overall mission effort ignores the context of each of the gaps, as well as the ways in which they interrelate.
The Lausanne Covenant included Christians on both sides of disagreements who might otherwise be divided. Instead, the leaders of the congress sought to create a covenantal community across such differences and in service of a shared mission for “the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole world.”
The finish line of the Great Commission is not merely evangelism or church planting; it is to bring about the obedience of faith among all peoples, resulting in healthy, biblical, local churches that display the glory of Christ in their communities and beyond.
It is our responsibility to actively seek the opportunities for building shalom and to pray earnestly for the authorities until we see the alternative doors opened for holistically blessing the people in China.