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Intergenerational Challenges in Christian Marriages

Over recent generations, marriage expectations have changed. For young Christians in China, marriages are taking on new ethical norms that include challenges. Parental pressures in finding a spouse as well as in planning a wedding can create much tension. After marriage, child-bearing and rearing continue to generate challenges between the young couple and their parents. The one-child policy has exacerbated these difficulties. Christian couples are swimming against many secular tides in these areas.

• July 11, 2016 •

The Preeminence of Love in Chinese Families

The author begins by explaining “love” as historically defined by Mohism and Confucianism, that is, universal love versus love based on blood kinship. He delves into the differences between these two kinds of love, especially as they relate to family structure and authority as well as to extended family relationships. He then turns to Christian love, its relationship to these two ideologies and how it can influence the culture.

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The Decay of the Chinese Family

The stresses and conflicts found within Chinese families are increasing with urbanization that often forces families to live apart. After discussing some of the major pressures that families face in today’s China, the author delineates some of the principles needed for building a good family foundation.

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A Christian Lawyer Discusses China’s New Domestic Violence Law

In March China introduced its first-ever comprehensive domestic violence law. While celebrated as an important step toward the protection of women and children (and, occasionally men experiencing abuse) the law also raises a number of questions within the Christian community. Here lawyer and Christ-follower Cheng Pangzhi wrestles through these issues, ultimately offering hope for reconciliation of families and a call to make use of the new law in order to protect victims of violence.

• June 21, 2016 •

I Will Go with You

The following is a translation of an excerpt from a wedding sermon preached by Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Reformed Church in Chengdu. In it, he exhorts the couple to remember that they are not entering into this marriage alone, that God is going before them and with them.

• April 26, 2016 •

Tearing Down the Walls

If you’ve been to China you have probably noticed that it is a society of walls. There are walls around schools, factories, and housing estates. Sometimes the entities within these walls are huge, covering many city blocks. In an attempt to alleviate congestion and open up more through ways through the cities, the Chinese government in February issued a new regulation calling for walled communities to open up their roads and streets to through passage. In other words, they want the walls to come down. In this article, originally published in the mainland online journal Territory, the writer uses this new regulation as a starting point for a discussion of the walls that we build in our hearts and how only through the cross can we tear them down.

• April 12, 2016 •

Copying the Bible by Hand

Over the years, many stories have come out of China about believers who, having no access to the printed Word, painstakingly write out the Scriptures by hand. The 21st  century has put a new spin on that practice—copying out the Bible by hand not because of its unavailability but in order to break an addiction to online games! This story, from the Gospel Times, tells of a man in China who has decided to write out by hand a chapter per day.

• April 5, 2016 •