Anyone serving in China knows that one of the more vexing issues to deal with is "security." How public can / should I be about my faith? How public can/should I be about the faith and values that undergird my ministry?
Since China's great gǎigé kāifàng (Reform and Opening) experiment was begun by reformists in the Communist Party of China (CPC) under Deng Xiaoping in late 1978, tens of thousands of articles—in print and online—have been written about the huge changes and nearly miraculous standard-of-living improvements that have happened throughout China.
Reformed theology has found fertile ground in China, particularly among urban unregistered churches.
What does it mean to be Chinese? Three articles this week highlight the complexity of being Chinese.
On October 1, the Cornerstone Blog of The Religious Freedom Project at The Berkeley Center published two helpful posts on religious liberty in China.
On September 3, we posted a translated article about the trouble that anti-cult campaigns often cause for house churches because government officials, scholars, and ordinary people often don't know the difference between a cult and a house church.
During a recent conversation with a Chinese friend I listened as he recounted his conversion to Christianity and the difficulty he experienced overcoming his deeply ingrained tendency toward self-reliance.
Somewhere between my third and fourth trips to the bank to open a new account, it hit me. I realized why I was so frustrated. In my efforts to negotiate a system that seemed, to me, overly complicated, I had made a serious tactical error.
Learning and insights from a recent consultation for mentors and coaches are reported in this article. It delves into many aspects of mentoring, coaching, and spiritual formation including the value of both older mentors and peer mentors. It also provides helpful suggestions for finding a mentor and a mentee.
The author shares from her experience as a mentor giving us glimpses of three different women she has shared her life with, and how her interactions with each of them have brought about changes in their lives. She closes with a summary of what being a mentor has required of her.
Rose and Hunter look at characteristics of churches and businesses that indicate their need for coaching and go on to explain what coaching entails. Rose describes how she has put coaching into practice in the ministries she is involved with at her church and acknowledges the blessings this has brought to the church body.
Lee identifies five areas where Chinese leaders need mentoring due to a lack of positive influences in their lives. He examines each of these areas and shows how mentoring can fill the voids left by unfulfilling or nonexistent relationships.