CHINA INSTITUTE – GLOBAL CHINA CENTER
THE CONTEXT, NATURE, AND POTENTIAL VALUE OF OUR WORK
Context
Christianity in China
After several decades of remarkable openness and toleration, China has once again shut its doors against foreigners and has launched a full-orbed campaign to suppress religion, including Christianity.
Chinese Christians can no longer meet together in many places, though there are many exceptions. Church leaders can’t gather for conferences or retreats, or to communicate and coordinate ministries with other churches. The Internet is basically shut down for Christian content, except for government-approved material.
The government pursues a policy of “Sinicization of Christianity” – attempting to bring all teaching, worship, and activities under the control of the Party-state and to mobilize Christianity for the goals of the state. Unregistered congregations are either not meeting or are under great pressure. No one knows how many church leaders are in jail. News is scarce, all foreigners being either expelled or denied access.
The church continues to grow, however, under very capable leadership. New churches are being planted, despite restrictions. Believers are going deeper in their faith and commitment to Christ. The Chinese church will emerge from this latest persecution stronger than ever, though no one knows when.
Foreign Christians working in China have almost all had to go home. Some have redeployed to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, or the West. Others have not been able to continue direct ministry to Chinese for lack of support.
Christianity in the West
Morally, the “democratic” world is bankrupt. “Freedom” means license, with corruption and sexual degradation unknown since the last days of Rome. “Democratic” governments gather more and more power to themselves; outside of sexual gratification, individual liberties are shrinking. Christianity has been rejected in almost every public domain. Secularity, now expressed primarily by unbridled greed, lust for power, and self-indulgence, has won the “culture wars.”
The United States, the self-appointed “leader” of the “democratic” countries, is hopelessly divided and has been for many years plagued by disastrous leadership. Such a nation cannot stand (see Luke 11:17).
The Christian church – I speak here mostly of evangelicals and charismatics – have much for which to be thankful: vibrant worship, many faithful and eloquent teachers of the Word of God, vast technological expertise, a continued (though decreasing) commitment to the worldwide spread of the gospel, and the deepest and broadest array of theologians, biblical scholars, philosophers, artists, writers, and cultural critics since, perhaps, the Reformation and its aftermath. These riches have been liberally shared with believers around the world. Praise God.
On the other hand, we are all too familiar with the shallowness of much preaching, the almost total lack of any theology of the cross or of suffering, worldliness, moral compromise, and endemic divorce that are greatly hindering our witness to the world.
More and more thoughtful Christians believe that God will soon allow Christ’s followers in the West to learn how to trace his footsteps through the valley and up to Golgotha. It is time for us to repent, cast away our idols (including the idolatry of politics, both on the Left and on the Right), and turn to him in heartfelt worship and absolution dedication.
China and the West (including Russia)
The West is locked in its third internecine war in about one hundred years. Almost all its nations, as well as Japan, are technically bankrupt, and must either monetize debt by hyperinflation or default outright. Europe, the United States, and Japan will not be able to afford the massive military expenditures now being directed to ward off Russian and Chinese advances. Domestically, governments will fall and social chaos may threaten the foundations.
Whatever the political or military outcome(s) of the war in Ukraine, the winner will be China. The West, including Russia, will be too exhausted to counter its continued drive toward hegemony.
Taiwan, where church growth has been very slow, though perhaps increasing, is daily more vulnerable to “recovery” by China. How and when this will take place no one knows, except perhaps China’s leaders. Some believe that Taiwan will not retain its current autonomous status beyond the end of 2022. Others predict an earlier fall to China, while many give Taiwan several more years.
It is true that China faces its own massive problems. The resurgence of the pandemic and a sluggish economy pose existential threats to the communist regime. Some say that the Communist Party cannot survive these crises. Others believe that the Party-state now has such a grip on the entire nation that it cannot be displaced. If the Party somehow loses power, the military will mostly like step in to “save” the nation from dissolution and chaos. Given the atheistic DNA of the PLA, it’s hard to say what a military government would mean for Christianity. It is difficult to believe that the generals and admirals would turn away from what has been an incredibly well-planned and executed “marathon” to dominate the world.
The Nature of our Work
Hundreds of Christian ministries have labored long and well over the past several decades. Their work has borne fruit, both in China and overseas. In the West, thousands of Chinese students, scholars, and others have responded to the gospel. Very effective Chinese-led organizations are continuing to take the gospel to more than a million Chinese living in the U.S., but the younger generation is less receptive than before. Some are still able to reach people living within mainland China.
Aside from broadcast ministries like Far East Broadcasting Company and TransWorld Radio, sharing the truth and love of Christ with “overseas” Chinese remains the most effective way for those outside of China to help build God’s church among the Chinese. For this, personal relationships based on true friendship are key.
In addition, publications about Chinese church history, as well as books of theology and the Bible in Chinese, are helping to lay a solid foundation for the growth of an intellectually and theologically healthy new generation of Chinese Christian leaders.
CI-GCC are two related ministries. Together, we are very small. Other organizations are doing much more than we are, and doing it well. (The list is long, but it would include ChinaSource, Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, the Navigators, CRU, OMF International, China Harvest, Asia Harvest, China Partnership, Ambassadors for Christ, Overseas Campus, China Outreach Ministries, and many others). We thank God for them. Still, we believe that we have a distinct part to play as members of the Body of Christ working among and for the Chinese.
Perhaps our greatest contribution is to call people to pray. Again, others, notably the “Pray for China” material regularly republished by ChinaSource in their weekly ZGBriefs bulletin, reach a wider audience. I only mean to say that, of all we do, our prayers, and our monthly and weekly prayer letters, stand at the core of our work.
Our publications – three websites and the Studies in Chinese Christianity series published by Wipf & Stock – seem to be well regarded and widely read.
All of us have Chinese friends, both Christian and non-Christian, whom we try to encourage.
Most of our colleagues have regular opportunities to teach Chinese or to teach about Christianity among the Chinese. Several are engaged in pastoral work; others teach in universities or seminaries; others give lectures online or in person.
All except me and my three part-time assistants are self-supporting.
The Potential Value of our Work
First, let us remember that we are laboring to be witnesses of Christ among the most numerous people group in the world, the Han Chinese. (I know that the Han comprise hundreds of distinct subcultures, but they share a broad cultural core). We are trying to help build what has become one of the largest Christian churches, perhaps the largest, in the world, which has experienced the fastest growth in Christian history. This growth has come despite, or perhaps because of, waves of terrible persecution and suffering, producing a large corps of disciples with a proven record of courageous endurance. Despite immense opposition, these believers are seeking to be “salt and light” in a nation and to a culture that seem headed for unprecedented world power and influence. The leaders of this huge Christian movement have recently received excellent training in the best that Western Christianity has to offer, and they are ready to create a distinctly Chinese form – or forms – of Christian life and expression. We have much to learn from them and their heritage of faithful discipleship.
At the same time, we must realize that Christians represent no more than five percent of China’s millions. In my opinion, at least one billion Chinese have never heard a balanced presentation of the core gospel message from a follower of Christ. There is a wide scope for evangelism.
In other words, anything we can do to encourage Chinese Christians and evangelize non-Christian Chinese will contribute to one of the great movements of the Holy Spirit in the world today (the others being among Indians, Muslims, Latin Americans, and Africans).
That is the first “value” of our work.
That brings me, finally, to the second “value” of our work, which is what China Institute and Global China Center can contribute to this vast movement of God’s kingdom.
Though the West is dying fast, Christians in the West still have the Word of God and the promises of God to answer prayer.
The “value” of what we do depends, it seems to me, upon the vitality of our walk with God. Our impact will flow from the fervency, faith, and faithfulness of our prayers, backed by personal sanctity and loving relationships with other believers.
As we hold forth the word of life in our various spheres of influence, and as we speak the truth as it is in Jesus, the Lord will make his Word fruitful.
Above all, we must allow the Word of God to dwell in our hearts and our homes richly. Only as we delight in God’s Word, meditate upon it, believe and obey it (by the power of the Spirit), will we be daily transformed by the Spirit into the likeness of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.
May God’s love so fill our hearts daily that we overflow with gratitude to him, “filled with wonder, love and praise.”
And may the Lord be pleased to use our meager efforts as part of his worldwide, and surely victorious, plan to build the church of Christ among the Chinese, to his greater glory.
Wright Doyle