Teaching Teachers

October 2023

“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2).

This familiar verse has directed and shaped my ministry since I first encountered it in 1970.

To prepare for seminary level teaching, I pursued a PhD in Classics, which led to teaching Greek and New Testament in Taiwan for seven years, supervising the translation of the standard Greek New Testament lexicon into Chinese, and then itinerant teaching and lecturing in the decades since then.

In place of classroom instruction, I now have opportunities to lecture by Zoom at least twice a year. On October 13, I gave a lecture on Augustine’s Doctrines of Grace to college professors in China. This built on previous work that I have done on this great theologian, starting with my dissertation.

In January of next year, I am to present a paper on Carl Henry’s apologetics to the Chinese Evangelical Theological Fellowship, again by Zoom. As you know, I have published a book on Carl Henry, which has been translated into Chinese (www.amazon.com/Carl-HenryTheologian-All-Seasons-Introduction/dp/1608990737).

My abridgment of the Chinese edition of his six-volume God, Revelation and Authority also came out last year in Taiwan.

The lectures in Chinese take a great deal of time to prepare. I first write the English text, and then get the most important Chinese words and phrases into the document, which I use when I deliver the lecture, for the most part directly from the English outline, translating in my head as I go along. You can see how challenging this is to someone who hasn’t lived in a Chinese-speaking environment for a long time!

But you can also see why I accept these invitations. They give me a marvelous opportunity to present evangelical, biblical truth to people in positions of great influence in the Chinese academic and theological world. They are all already “teachers,” whom it is my great privilege somehow to “teach.”

To some degree, my other writings also reach “teachers,” though they are accessible to educated Christians of all sorts. The stories for the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (https://www.bdcconline.net/), reviews of books about Christianity in China, and articles on various subjects that I post on academia.edu are read by both Chinese and non-Chinese thought influencers all over the world.

Likewise, Truth and Life, the doctrinal and ethical commentary on the Bible that I’ve been working on in fits and starts for many years, aims to help students and teachers of the Scriptures everywhere, as do other works available on our website. (See https://www.reachingchineseworldwide.org/books). Finally, I am in the process also of completing several books for a publisher in Hong Kong who is able to get them into China as eBooks.

Would you please pray for my ongoing projects, that God would give me wisdom, strength, and discipline to do them well?

Yours in his truth and grace,
Wright