Firsthand accounts of faith lived out in the context of Chinese Christianity.
Home and family are very vital topics to a Chinese person, often providing bridges to their heart’s desires and offering a way to present Christ as the way to give a perfect home and family—the home and family found in knowing him.
Hearing the incredible stories from both the children and their parents, I feel I understand why the Chinese church is once again facing severe oppression… This implicit self-exodus happening in China seems to embody God’s mercy and unfailing love. Without this persecution and oppression, we would undoubtedly lose our children forever; under the communist schemes, our children would be brainwashed and become poorly educated rebels against the truth.
A truly “Christian” Chinese church will not only be thoroughly enculturated, but it will also retain the entire “rule of faith” shared by the rest of the universal church. Finally, Chinese Christians, knowing they are part of the universal church, will continue to seek to share the joys and trials of the indigenous churches of all other cultures. Such a church would be biblical, God-pleasing, and truly Chinese.
Worldviews are extraordinarily resistant to change, and archetypical cultural and gospel metaphors shape how missionaries convey the gospel across cultural boundaries. That is why it is so important for Chinese missiologists to “understand and critically integrate” imported cultural and metaphor worldview presuppositions lest what they “staunchly affirmed as biblical may have had more to do with nurturing cultural mores…than with God’s eternal truth,” as Brent Fulton writes.
Dr. Ming Wang says of his first step toward faith, “Although I had been exposed to world literature in my education in China, I knew very little about religion and spirituality. The concept of faith was very foreign to me, but at that moment, a thought emerged deep inside me: if there is indeed a God in the universe, now would be the time for him to appear.”
Three months ago, I returned to China, and upon returning, I found the situation more urgent and needed than I imagined. From a spiritual perspective, China is like a dried-up pond, and I hope more people will come to serve in China, as it urgently needs your help. I am waiting for your arrival here.
Perhaps the Passover dinner was not as delicious as the dumplings eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival…Before the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Lord God prepared a banquet for his people, filling their hearts with sweetness, happiness, and joy. God has prepared another banquet for his children, which is the Holy Communion prepared by Jesus for his disciples…where Jesus' love is fully poured out.
Readers who appreciate a detailed, chronological account of Christian work in China over the past few decades, and are also interested in Anderson’s personal journey, will enjoy this book….and will most likely enjoy the stories Anderson shares, including the joys and challenges he encountered along the way.
A group of devout Christians, who lived out the Bible's teachings, made its words come alive—tangible, and visible. As I was influenced by them, I began to experience joy, gradually transforming from a person prone to anxiety and worry to one filled with hope.
As with Abram, so with us: we are the beneficiaries of that promise and blessing. We are invited to leave, to go, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with Jesus Christ, the living image of our living God. Going includes learning to minister cross-culturally. That is our blessing, our calling, our mission.
![A young boy in a blue and orange shirt with a blue backpack, carries some food on the way home from school. Ours is just one story among millions in China facing similar challenges. Due to the rigorous demands of the college entrance exams and pervasive competitive pressures in education, many Christian families here opt to send their children to unregistered Christian schools… [Our son], however, is among the few who remain within the Chinese educational system, compelled more by financial necessity than choice.](https://media.chinasource.org/uploads/2024/05/BL240521-header-ChinaSource-Chinese-Christianity-Chinese-Education-Private-Education-Christian-Education-Chinese-Families-Chinese-Christians-Isaiah-55-8-9-300x150.jpg)
Ours is just one story among millions in China facing similar challenges. Due to the rigorous demands of the college entrance exams and pervasive competitive pressures in education, many Christian families here opt to send their children to unregistered Christian schools… [Our son], however, is among the few who remain within the Chinese educational system, compelled more by financial necessity than choice.
I am not Chinese, and yet I was so helped by this exploration of the Year of the Dragon. And I realize that for my Chinese Christian brothers and sisters this series of articles may have produced a much deeper sense of relief than mine. For this I am grateful and looking forward to an eternity in which I can know them better.