For the fifth and last session of summer school, we’re following Chinese cross-cultural workers as they seek to fulfill the great commission. We’re also sitting at the feet of several missiologists as they discuss and debate the challenges facing the Chinese church as it sends its people out.
These new opportunities are a great way to gather regularly to pray for China, to pray and ask our Father to show us what he has for the future [and] be a part of forming the new narrative for Chinese missions.
Changes in China over the past ten years are dictating changes for the church in China. Kim reviews the main areas of change and the ways these have affected the churches. Then he looks at new roles for both workers from overseas and China’s churches.
This little analogy from the retail world breaks down easily. But it does make me stop and think. Am I one of the “half-hearted creatures…fooling about when infinite joy is offered?”
As Christians in China study biblical peacemaking, many have had personal aha moments…they now see that conflict starts in the heart and that avoiding addressing the root heart issues in order to “avoid conflict,” only results in the heart conflict remaining.
People shared their conflict stories, how they viewed face issues (saving, giving, and losing face), the hindering impact of face on reconciliation, and how God enabled them to set aside face to apologize and forgive…They have demonstrated that conflict resolution and relational restoration in face-saving cultures is possible!
Many of China’s expatriate ministry professionals, increasingly finding difficulties in ministering, are turning to serving the church in China remotely. The author explores the issues influencing whether expatriate Christians can continue to live and minister within China.
Preventing infiltration through preaching, seen as a national security concern, has become a valid reason for prohibiting foreign missions whenever the pendulum swings towards the restrictive side…. I propose revisiting the concept of missions in order to find a breakthrough.
This thanksgiving glimmers with the hope that our engagement will help to complete the story…about what China is becoming. But what happens when we ourselves are the ones in need, with neither the opportunities nor the means to enter into the story in the way we thought we were supposed to?
Questions of money—supporting Chinese Christian workers, paying local assistants, giving gifts to “needy” Chinese—return like revolving doors as often as new expat Christians arrive in China.
From Bible exposition to K-pop worship, through seminars and workshops, Asia 2022 Congress participants were encouraged by the stories of what God is doing in countries all over Asia.
As the number of expatriate cross-cultural workers in China, and the scale of their work, has shrunk dramatically, it is vital that we take time to reflect on what we have done and how we have done it.