China’s Ambassadors of Christ to the Nations: A Groundbreaking Survey by Tabor Laughlin explores factors that contribute to Chinese missionaries’ ability to build relationships cross-culturally and the extent to which their experiences contribute to their retention on the mission field.
Let’s continue to learn from our Chinese brothers and sisters and join with them to support their efforts in bringing the gospel to those who have yet to hear.
A handbook that introduces a holistic approach to caring for Chinese missionaries.
It is our prayer that the articles in this issue will raise the profile of this vital service to God’s servants, prompting deeper discussion and sparking new practical efforts to prepare and to come alongside those being sent.
For missions to be successful, cross-cultural workers need to be equipped to understand the new culture. Churches need training on how best to support their workers. FieldPartner is creating online content in English and Chinese to support both workers and sending churches.
Serving China’s missionary church will require seeing “success” through a new lens, defined not by big-budget projects and exotic stories, but by the faithfulness of those who are willing to labor in obscurity on the margins, often unannounced and unnoticed, with perhaps few visible results.
The Lord is building this eternal dwelling and the stones he is using to construct this beautiful “holy temple” include dedicated young men and women from various parts of China like the two martyrs in Pakistan and like the Bernheims.
A PhD dissertation analyzing the experiences of cross-cultural workers sent from China is now available in Chinese.
China’s Ambassadors of Christ to the Nations by Tabor Laughlin was published in 2020 by Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock, as part of their Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph series.
The book is based on Laughlin’s PhD dissertation analyzing the experiences of missionaries sent out from mainland China and delves into the cross-cultural challenges they face and other issues affecting their ability to remain on the mission field.
A Chinese translation of the original dissertation is now available.
A paper considering several Chinese honor-shame cultural constructs that could potentially encourage retention and avoid premature and preventable missionary attrition of Chinese cross-cultural workers.
There is a Chinese saying 《十年树木，百年树人》 which means, “It takes ten years to grow a tree but a hundred to cultivate a person.”
With the Chinese church’s increasing interest in missions, the authors look at factors that have encouraged this interest and made mission endeavors increasingly possible. They point out fifteen lessons already learned from their involvement in mission.