The full title of this article is "How to Make the Church Chinese: Perspectives from the Religious, Academic, and Political Spheres" and is posted on the website of the China Christian Council/Three-Self Patriotic Movement (CCC/TSPM). Originally published in the official China Nationalities News, it examines the question of how Chinese the church is in China. While most Chinese Christians would likely agree that today's church is already Chinese both in character and leadership, many in the larger society have yet to acknowledge Christianity as genuinely a Chinese religion. The process of Sinicization, this writer argues, involves not only Christians themselves, but also China's intellectual and political elites.
ChinaSource Team
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October 2, 2012
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Ideas
Hong Kong-based ministry CCL called for September to be a month of prayer for China. This article, in the Christian Times summarizes the prayer requests included in the ministry's September newsletter. Of course you can use these as prayer points for October.
ChinaSource Team
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September 28, 2012
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Resources
Encouraging and supporting local believers as they pursue God’s calling in their lives is much more difficult than simply teaching what is most comfortable for the teacher. Here are a few suggestions to help ensure that outsiders ministering in China remain focused on serving local Chinese Christian communities.
Andrew T. Kaiser
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September 21, 2012
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Ideas
Crossing the river by feeling the stones, a popular Chinese idiom, is a fitting way to describe Chinas emerging urban church. Its leaders have no older generation to look up to, and the opportunities and challenges they face are unprecedented in Chinas history. In this article published in the Christian Times, one pastor describes the dangers facing todays urban church leaders. He cautions them to be humble and teachable, as the decisions they make will affect an entire generation.
ChinaSource Team
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Ideas
With translated sermons, articles and blog posts, this new web site provides a platform from which non-Chinese speakers can access conversations taking place within China's on-line Christian community to broaden their understanding of the issues facing the Chinese church.
ChinaSource Team
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September 20, 2012
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Scholarship
I sat across from a Chinese Christian in the lobby of a Beijing hotel as he rearranged the cups and plates on the coffee table between us. Having cleared a space at the center of the table, he pointed to a cup sitting at the edge, near one corner.
Brent Fulton
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September 12, 2012
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Ideas
This article from the Gospel Times website in October of 2011 is about the launch of BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) in Beijing.
ChinaSource Team
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July 23, 2012
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Stories
Pastor Jin briefly looks at the history of the church in China and how it influences today's church as well as the changes the present-day church faces. He identifies six challenges facing the church and also looks to the future. In a side bar, he challenges the North American church.
Ezra Jin
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June 7, 2012
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Stories
中国教会应有的转变… … …
Brent Fulton
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April 11, 2012
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Scholarship
If there are to be more active and mature working relationships between foreign and local believers, it is essential that there be a better understanding of the degree to which local Chinese churches are poised to be able to take one the responsibility of helping their own communities and those beyond. The time may be ripe for there to be more dialogue on how foreign believers can transition from taking an active initiative in reaching out to local communities to that of taking on a more supportive, facilitative and mentoring role.
Tiger Lily
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October 29, 2011
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Scholarship
Editor's note: This editorial originally appeared in "The Structure of China's Urban Church" (CS Quarterly, 2011 Spring)
Brent Fulton
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March 31, 2011
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Scholarship
China's rapid economic and social changes have compelled the churches in China to transform. By far the factor that contributed most to the need for structural changes within the Chinese house churches has been urbanization. Other factors have contributed as well: the one-child policy, increasing availability of higher education, and increasing opportunities for theological education and leadership development.
Wei Sheng
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Scholarship