Extending Blessings
When the officials find that the service satisfies their interest, they would even introduce us to connect with some other channels which we can leverage to multiply our impact.
When the officials find that the service satisfies their interest, they would even introduce us to connect with some other channels which we can leverage to multiply our impact.
Onesimus went back to Colossae as a powerful agent of change, demonstrating the gospel’s power to redeem and break down barriers. May those returning to China from around the world also be used powerfully for God’s kingdom.
In Pastor Hsi, written by Mrs. Howard Taylor, we can tell that the pastoral problems Pastor Hsi encountered when the Shanxi Church was established more than a hundred years ago are exactly the same as those we face today: there is the danger of false teachers, the pain brought by church division, and the various different voices from inside and outside the church.
As this painful summer passed, poor Pastor Hsi endured unspeakable suffering and pressure, but most of his co-workers still supported him firmly. The love and loyalty of people were a great comfort to him. But they still had to go through this refining furnace together. Sometimes it even seemed that God’s hand had withdrawn, and Satan was destroying the ministry at will.
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.
This is an invitation to listen to the echoes, following the recent Fourth Lausanne Congress on Evangelization held in Incheon, South Korea. When the noise dies down and silence starts to reign, what are we hearing and seeing? What is rising within? Here I share a small glimpse from the lens of an observer and virtual participant.
Lausanne’s Fourth Congress on World Evangelism (L4) took place in Seoul (Incheon), South Korea from September 22–28 this year. Representation for L4 increased to 5,200 participants coming from over 200 countries. Rather than attempt complete coverage of the Congress in this blog, reflections will be framed around a series of questions to highlight several significant aspects.
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.”
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.
Many Chinese Christians suffered to love others and endured hardship in their native land because they loved the Lord. Pastor Hsi was one of them. Ordained by Hudson Taylor in 1887, he was the first pastor ordained by the China Inland Mission in mainland China.