Though I cannot recommend that anyone purchase or read this book (see my review at the Global China Center for the reasons why), I do think that it contains some useful information and analysis.
Here are a few things that we can learn from the experience of Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church in Chengdu, as well as from Li Ma’s book:
God has raised up thousands of urban “house” churches in the past twenty years or so. Many of them, like Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church, moved from home meetings to gathering in large rented – or even purchased – spaces in commercial buildings.
This major development in Chinese Protestant Christianity has been well-documented in two books published in the Studies in Chinese Series published by Wipf & Stock and co-edited by Dr. Carol Lee Hamrin and myself: China’s Urban Churches, by Brent Fulton, and Surviving the State, Remaking the Church, by Li Ma (the author of Christian Entrepreneurism) and her husband Jin Li.
At the same time, God has raised up thousands of intelligent, creative, energetic, capable, and courageous leaders for these congregations of educated urbanites. Wang Yi (or, in Western usage Yi Wang) was perhaps the most famous leader of these unregistered congregations. His colleague Peng Qiang (Qiang Peng in Ma’s book) is another.
Thousands of these new leaders find Reformed theology attractive, not only because of its emphasis on the grace of God and its comprehensive world-and-life view, but also because of the Presbyterian form of government often associated with Reformed Protestantism.
Many educated urban Christians find this full-orbed understanding of Christianity to be very refreshing, for it provides them with mental categories with which to integrate all of life under the Word of God. Wang Yi’s history as a public intellectual and his clarion call to apply the Bible to all domains of life attracted people from all over China.
The rapid growth of China’s urban churches has brought many challenges to its leaders, as had happened earlier in the vast rural house church networks. Chief among these challenges is the awesome task of caring for large numbers of new believers when qualified leaders are spiritually young, too few, and not well trained.
Naturally, these urban church leaders, under tremendous pressure from many directions, have not always made wise decisions or followed biblical practices. Wang Yi was no exception here. Never trained as a pastor, self-taught as a theologian, and sometimes relying too much on his extraordinary skills as a visionary and rhetorician, he did not always follow the path of wisdom as the leader of his flock.
In particular, it seems that he tried to do too much, too fast. In his desire to build Christian institutions – church, school, college, seminary, and more – he may not have taken enough time to move slowly and nurture organic growth. Gifted leaders often commit this error in the rest of the world, as we know.
Some neo-Calvinists in the West have exported to China an emphasis upon the political implications of biblical Christianity that appeals to China’s public intellectuals. In some cases, this emphasis has led church leaders to confuse the core of the gospel with secondary matters, to distract them from their primary message, and to work for political change in China at a pace that could be unrealistic and provocative.
Wang Yi may have been the most prominent example of pastors with a strong voice on controversial social questions. Admirers praised his courage and prophetic boldness. Detractors charged that his sharp criticisms of some government policies provoked a harsh response.
Building-based Christianity is highly vulnerable to political restrictions. Early Rain and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of building-based congregations in China have been forced to stop meeting in public spaces since 2018.
Christian leaders whose communication skills create a highly visible presence on the Internet not only reach more people, but also run very high risks. Among these risks are criticism from those outside their church, unfriendly government attention, excessive admiration, and the perils of fame and renown. Wang Yi’s aggressive use of the Internet projected his message far beyond his own church, and even overseas, but it may have led to his eventual downfall.
Celebrity pastors often find it difficult to work with a team. In China, where an “imperial” style of leadership is almost the only model people have ever known, the safeguards of a plurality of elders often do not work. In Wang Yi’s case, the presbyterian form of government that was meant to protect him and the church from concentrating too much power and influence in one man may not have been strong enough to keep him from unnecessary mistakes. We see this in the West also, of course.
As in the West, and indeed in all the world, church leaders have sometimes been guilty of sexual sins against women in their congregations. To make matters worse, these transgressions have all too often gone without rebuke or discipline. When women (and boys) are abused in the church, failure to punish the perpetrators inflicts even greater pain upon the victims and introduces moral decay into the entire organization.
Accusations of sexual abuse against women by two of the leaders of Early Rain Church, though unproven, are not entirely implausible.
One could say much more, but now I want to express some caution about Li Ma’s book.
Even when apparently supported by copious references to interviews, posts on the Internet, and public documents, an author’s argument may lack internal consistency, factual accuracy, and honest use of sources.
In particular, Religious Entrepreneurism contains so many instances of errors, misquotation, subjective language without objective evidence, distortion of documented information, ignorance, and one-sided, biased presentation that it lacks overall credibility as a narrative and analysis of what happened.
Thus, though it contains much useful information, it cannot serve as a reliable source for our understanding of the “rise and fall” of Early Rain Reformed Presbyterian Church and its pastor Wang Yi. For the reasons for this evaluation, see my review at the Global China Center.
Caveat lector! (Let the reader beware!)