Surveying the fraught relationship between church and state in China, the late Chinese church historian Daniel Bays asserted that government control of religion has been a constant feature from Imperial times to the present.
Traditional China’s worldview—Confucianism, Daoism/folk religion, Buddhism, and the management of “heterodoxy”—shaped how Christianity was first seen: foreign, sometimes tolerated, and often misunderstood.
When we peel back the layers of opposition we face in ministry, we often find something nasty and dark disguised within ourselves, calling out for “innocent clout,” legitimate influence, or ministerial camaraderie, but is it really just that we want to be liked?
China’s Church Divided tells the story of the fraught relationship between the Chinese Catholic Church, the Vatican, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), focusing on the post-Mao reform era that began in the late 1970s.
Unlike Chinese Gnosticism, which emphasizes "feelings dominating, reason suppressed, and the mind set aside," Orthodox spirituality emphasizes "reason as gatekeeper, mind in charge, and feelings set aside."
He carried a knightly spirit, expansive in presence, yet gentle in manner, his manner free of the aloofness common among intellectuals. I knew immediately: this was the mentor I had been seeking.
I used a soccer match as an analogy for forming effective teamwork in an outreach program for delivering holistic blessings to the community. The ministry can be initiated by a faith-based non-profit with church members joining the endeavor.
God also moved me to become a channel of the gospel to my family, friends, classmates, childhood companions, and even strangers I meet.
When grand narratives no longer serve as the backdrop for self-definition, the question of how an individual can better become themselves arises.
The volume’s case studies mirror many of the challenges Chinese cross-cultural workers and churches face today. The book covers not only culture-specific pressures on the field but also how national churches and agencies responded—or did not respond—to missionary stresses.
Diasporic Chinese Christians are reimagining their identity and purpose in God’s mission. Once viewed primarily as recipients of outreach, they are now emerging as active agents in cross-cultural ministry, reaching beyond co-ethnics and engaging in global collaboration.
A new series adapted from Sam Ling’s 2025 HLS lecture asks four guiding questions across four axes—China, the West, the church, and ideas—to help us think and serve faithfully as we look toward the 2040s.