Curated briefings, guides, reviews, and tools for learning, ministry, and prayer.
With over 800 million Han Chinese in China (and over 1.2 billion in China as a whole, including minorities), it's one thing for a church or mission group to "adopt" or "engage" the Han - and another to figure out what that means. This is the situation of many groups in the world that are huge in size. "Who to adopt" can be addressed by websites like the Joshua Project. But "where to go" requires a different approach.
Today we are starting a new feature, linking this blog with another of our publications, the ZGBriefs Newsletter. Every Friday, we will highlight articles from the ZGBriefs newsletter that we consider the "must read" articles of the week.
After a summer of confusion, China's new visa regulations went into effect on September 1st. New visa categories have been added and requirements for some existing categories have been changed.
If you're interested in China (or any place), I think we're in agreement as to the importance of understanding the historical context. The more you know what has happened, the more you understand what is happening today. Yet at times, the thought of reading history results in a gag reflux, I get it. I really do, some historians are terrible writers. And for those of you who roll your eyes at the mere mention of historical fiction, I'm with you.
For those who are beginning or have just begun a life of service in China, the list of skills to master and concepts to grasp can seem daunting. The summer 2013 edition of Chinasource Quarterly (due out this week) is designed to provide a roadmap for the process of entering into the Chinese ministry context.
This weekly newsletter containing condensations of news items gathered from published sources is available via email and on the ZGBriefs page of the ChinaSource website. For daily updates follow ZG Briefs on Twitter @ZG_Briefs.
In my last entry, I stressed the importance of having a high-level, high-impact Christian presence among the leadership in higher education institutions around the world, both Christian and non-Christian. In this post, I want to describe a program that, I believe, is the perfect vehicle for providing the tools for this presence. The program to which I am referring is Azusa Pacific University's PhD program in Global Higher Education.
I am frequently asked for advice on how to learn Chinese. My answer always includes a pitch for perfecting pinyin. (Pinyin is a system which romanizes Chinese Characters, whereby is rendered nihao.)
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.
"Intercessors for China 2013" is ready.
Liao Yiwu interviewed Christians in Yunnan Province and other parts of China to hear their stories and help the world understand the true spirit of China. In so doing, he also tells the story of the power of the gospel to change hearts and provide sustaining grace.
In China, printed Bibles are still only legally sold and distributed through registered churches. However, online Bibles such as O-Bible and YouVersion, and audio Bible machines (mp3 player) are becoming popular. This article is about an audio Bible player that is currently on sale in China.