Editor’s Note: Following the first installment in our Stories from Inside the Church in China series, “The Pressures of Ordinary Faith”, these three stories circle around a question facing some Chinese Christians today: whether to stay, to leave, or to find another way forward. Ministry, family, education, security, and faith all shape these decisions, and none of the choices are simple.
After the Tea Has Been Drunk
One Chinese believer has been blessed with a successful family business and has pursued years of online theological training. With their financial resources and theological wisdom, they have served as a vital support and connector for a range of ministries in their local community and across China. For many years, they moved largely unhindered between different groups and individuals, encouraging and supporting vital Christian ministries.
Recently, their travels and online activity have attracted official attention, bringing a new level of surveillance into their life. Now they are trying to discern how to manage their resources and relationships in ways that continue to advance the Gospel without bringing additional official scrutiny upon others. Instead of attending their regular congregation of professionals, they now meet on Sundays at home with another family who is no longer able to attend their local congregation because of monitoring at their workplace. They are also avoiding regular meetings with individuals and visits to fixed ministry locations. This believer feels that their community and ministry shrinking and is unsure how best to use their gifts under these new constraints. Their financial resources make moving overseas a tempting option, but so far, they remain determined to continue serving and witnessing in China. The question they face now is: How?
Pray with Us: Pray for believers trying to sustain faithful witness and ministry in the face of increasing restrictions. Pray for new opportunities to be salt and light in this current climate, and for wisdom in using all God’s gifts for his glory in China.
Moving as Mission?
A group of seminary students was taking an online Introduction to Global Missions course to fulfill the requirements of their Master of Divinity degrees. For their final project, the teacher asked them to prepare a mission plan for their home church, outlining the various ways they, as a congregation, intended to participate in God’s global mission. The students, all pastors studying part time, produced a wide range of responses.
One submission outlined a plan to plant a church in a particular neighborhood in a city in another Asian country. The plan included a schedule specifying how many families from the original church would move overseas to the new plant and when they would move. It also and gave details for the organization and administration of the new church. The original congregation was a wealthy urban fellowship, and it turned out that they already had two families from their congregation living in that exact overseas community. According to the student’s plan, the overseas plant was envisioned as including only members of the sending church in China, functioning completely under the authority and governance of the sending congregation. The plan did not include outreach to other Chinese immigrants in the overseas community, let alone to local people in the destination country. In the end, the “mission plan” acknowledged that the goal of the project was to enable members of their congregation to leave China without having to give up their local fellowship. Ministry beyond the needs of their own congregation was a novel concept for many of these students.
Pray with Us: Pray for wisdom and grace for Chinese believers considering whether to remain in China or to emigrate in search of a safer space to practice their faith. Pray for the unified witness of the Chinese church in light of dramatic post-pandemic changes to Chinese diaspora communities.
For Children’s Sake
A Christian family had grown quite large by giving birth to several of their children overseas, thus avoiding the restrictive one-child policy. As the children grew older, education within China became a challenge. They tried various homeschool curricula, but the reliance on English language skills for both students and parents often made them impractical. A few years ago, they partnered with several other families in similar situations to start a small Christian school. The lack of a qualified instructor and limited curriculum choices led them to connect with a local Christian educational consultant who offered a curriculum and training resources that would solve their problems—for a fee. The consultant encouraged the parents to attend their home fellowship, where the consultant preached a prosperity Gospel message that included buying the consultant’s publications and becoming wealthy as key indicators of faithfulness. The family continued to ask the consultant for additional help with educating their many children, eventually prompting the consultant to lash out at them publicly, suggesting that “maybe God didn’t want them to have so many children.” The scales fell off the parents’ eyes, but unfortunately, some of the other parents involved in their new school continued to follow the consultant. The small school soon closed.
The oldest child is now studying overseas at a private Christian school, and their success has shifted the family’s focus to emigration. One spouse has a well-paying job in a private company. How much money would it cost to buy a home and live overseas? What kind of visas could the family get that would allow all of them to live together in another country for an extended period? And could their children attend local public schools, or must they have enough money for all their children to attend private Christian schools? And what about employment? Could the spouse continue to work remotely for their Chinese company? Or would that affect their visa status? And how would they move money between China and their overseas home? With fewer and fewer options available within China for educating their children in the faith, they are increasingly drawn to look overseas for solutions.
