The journey from mythmaking to mission entails putting aside our chosen metanarratives, seeing with fresh eyes and listening with fresh ears, not only to the facts as we perceive them but also to the narratives of those in the stories as they interpret their own reality.
As the experience of China’s church demonstrates, the gifts of Advent seem to come strangely wrapped. The gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love are received through suffering and sacrifice.
Understanding China today requires a sense of where China has been.
We bring to China our view of the world and our place in it, our sense of “the way things ought to be,” our values and priorities. Through this lens, we try to make sense of a culture and people very different from ourselves.
Surveying the fraught relationship between church and state in China, the late Chinese church historian Daniel Bays asserted that government control of religion has been a constant feature from Imperial times to the present.
While honestly embracing their own evangelical legacy, with its imperative for gospel witness, the Mennonites also found in their heritage values of “hosting, listening, waiting, learning, inquiring, affirming.”
Beyond the story of suffering lies the sacred narrative of how the church continues to be the church.
The persecution story may be unending, but neither is persecution the end of the story.
Metaphors have the power to expand our imaginations or limit our thinking. May the lived experience of China’s Christians, both inside and outside China, inspire new images of what is possible in Christ’s kingdom.
The role of China’s church in world evangelization has more to do with intentionality of heart than with getting to any one particular destination, whether Jerusalem or someplace else.
In this era of development, China’s Christians are telling new stories, some of which challenge our familiar narratives about China and its church. Are we listening?
Research and advocacy organizations who have kept the world informed of rights violations in China and other countries are now laying off staff, resulting in decreased visibility into the lives of those who suffer for their faith.