Recently, we have been discussing what drives our passion to publish articles and resources that explore Chinese Christianity. Do we want global Christians to be informed about what God is doing among his people in China? Absolutely!
Do we want global Christians to gain new insights into the unique challenges facing Chinese Christians, whether inside China or in diaspora communities spread around the globe? Absolutely!
But it doesn’t stop there. Most of all, we want God to use our content to mobilize global Christians of every ethnicity (including Chinese) to be engaged. This can take a variety of forms. Maybe it means reaching out to your Chinese neighbor, classmate, or coworker. Maybe it means going to China to work or study (yes, there are still opportunities). Certainly, no matter who you are or where you are, it means praying.
As we wrote in an article in July titled “From Deep Thinking to Deep Prayer,”
We have never wanted the act of reading our articles and using our resources to be merely an intellectual activity that makes us “better educated.” Instead, we want reading to inform our thinking, which will in turn influence how we pray. We long for every article and resource we produce to serve as a catalyst that helps us pray with greater depth and focus.
To help move us from information to insight to intercession, here are some ways to pray. They are based on three articles we have published over the past few months.
“The Legacy of Song of a Wanderer”
- Praise God for the legacy of Pastor Bingcheng Feng, the author of Song of a Wanderer, who recently passed away. Give thanks for the ways God used the book to help Chinese students, scholars, and seekers explore the claims of Christianity.
- Pray that God will raise a new generation of Chinese Christian apologists and evangelists willing to engage a new generation of young people with wisdom and compassion as they address questions of identity, science, and faith.
“I Thought I Was Looking for a Better Church”
- Pray for greater understanding and unity among churches in China, that God will help Chinese Christians look beyond denominational differences, church structures, and personal judgments and see that God is at work in a variety of contexts.
- Pray that God will give courage and perseverance to young Chinese Christians who, perhaps for the first time, are facing government pressure, uncertainty, or interruptions to their ministries.
“Reframing the Mission, Part IV”
- Pray for Chinese believers serving the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized, that their good works will reflect Christlike compassion, open doors for relationships and gospel conversations, and bring glory to God.
- Pray that God will free international and Chinese workers from measuring success only by numbers, programs, and evangelistic outcomes. Pray that they will remain rooted in Christ and find ways to collaborate with those whose gifts and callings may be different, thus demonstrating the transforming power of the gospel.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (I John 5:14–15)
