Editorial reflection and analysis on issues shaping Chinese Christianity.
Decades of overseas involvement in equipping Chinese church leaders have shown that training involves much more than unloading knowledge on a classroom of eager students. In discussions with dozens of experienced trainers over the course of several years, the following have emerged as essential factors for effective training.
Reports of Christians being detained, harassed, fined or otherwise hindered from living out their faith have led many to conclude that persecution is the norm in China. Yet while such incidences do occur, a much larger number of Christians engages seemingly unhindered in a wide variety of activities on a daily basis.
"Shiba Da," the 18th Party Congress, concluded last week with the seven (not nine!) members of the reconstituted Politburo Standing Committee appearing together for the first time on the red carpet in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Many have asked what implications the Congress has for Christians in China. While it is known that religious policy was on the agenda this year, only time will tell how the closed-door discussions on this topic will play out in terms of actual policy.
作者回顾了家庭教会的起源和历史, 也探讨现时城市家庭教会的情况, 这包含了公民的参与和基督教的刊物
As Chinese churches, particularly those in the urban areas continue to grow and mature, leaders are increasingly focusing on where the church needs to go from here. This article, published in the Christian Times, is about Pastor Zhang of the Beijing Gospel Missionary Church, and his thoughts on the issues facing the Chinese Church in the near future.
In this post on the popular Christian site Voice in the Wilderness (kuanye), the writer addresses a fundamental theological question: What does it mean to believe in Jesus?
Amidst the rapid and relentless change taking place in China today, three dynamics in particular are profoundly affecting the role of traditional nonprofit efforts in the country. This raises the question of what sort of entities will allow for sustainable engagement in the future.
With the explosion of private schools in China has come an emerging opportunity for the faith-based community to offer an alternative to the current lopsided system. By taking a holistic approach to education, these schools can prepare students for life, not simply the next exams, and can also equip parents to fulfill their vital role in the academic, emotional, social, and spiritual development of their children. Variations on the traditional home schooling model developed in the West are also being pursued in China by believing parents who choose not to send their children to public schools.
For the fourth straight year in row, the number of college hopefuls taking the national university entrance exam, or gaokao, has dropped. Analysts trace the decline to a corresponding drop in the number of children born at the beginning of the last decade due to China's one-child policy. However, the decrease also suggests two realities facing young people in China today.
In the last post we featured an interview with Dr. Zhao Xiao, a prominent Beijing economist and outspoken Christian, conducted in 2008. This article, in the Gospel Times (January 2012), is a report on a talk that Zhao gave addressing the question of how China's future missionary sending movement will be supported.
An interview with economist Dr. Zhao Xiao.
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.