{"id":206,"date":"2015-08-19T13:18:51","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/everydayethics\/?p=206"},"modified":"2015-08-17T13:19:20","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T19:19:20","slug":"china-the-future-of-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/everydayethics\/2015\/08\/china-the-future-of-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"China: the future of Christianity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Today the greatest Christian evangelism movement ever to occur in any country in the world is taking place in China.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the most exciting developments to be happening on the world stage right now and most American and western Christians do not seem to be aware of it.\u00a0 In part I think that the reason why we are not is because the media that surrounds us in our electronically saturated culture is focused so much on other things.\u00a0 Perhaps in part also the reason why we Christians in the west are not aware of it is because we are so busy slugging it out in the trenches, trying to save the moral and logistical remnants of our Christian past in a western culture that seems rapidly to be turning in a different direction.\u00a0 To be sure, slugging it out for the gospel in the west is a valuable mission.\u00a0 It\u2019s a mission to which I am currently dedicating my life.\u00a0 But at the same time I do think that a case could be made for saying that we Christians in the west are needed every bit as much on the mission field in China.\u00a0\u00a0 At the very least our financial resources are needed on that mission field.\u00a0 Consider the following points.<\/p>\n

Shanghai, \"Shanghaiviewpic1\" by dawvon - Pudong.<\/a>
Shanghai, \u201cShanghaiviewpic1\u201d by dawvon \u2013 Pudong.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1) Chinese people right now are incredibly receptive to the gospel.\u00a0 Both the mainline, government-controlled churches and also the burgeoning house church movement are being overrun with people who are seeking the love of Christ.\u00a0 The openness defies region \u2013 from Harbin in the north, to Xian in the west, to Guangzhou in the south, to Tsingtao in the east.<\/p>\n

2) There is a deep need for grounded theological education on the mission field in China.\u00a0 While tens of millions of Chinese people are receptive to the gospel, from what my friends tell me there often is an unfortunate lack of theological training among their leaders \u2013 especially among the pastors and leaders of the house church movement.\u00a0 This lack of grounded theology is in part the reason why many house churches are spiraling off into syncretism, which is always a danger for Christian churches.\u00a0 Pseudo-Christian spiritualist movements like Falun Gong are an ever-present temptation in the absence of good theological training.<\/p>\n

3) The numbers do vary a lot, depending on the statistical source.\u00a0 It depends also on how you count the house church movement.\u00a0 But the Chinese church is probably today as large as 70-80 million people.\u00a0 Occasionally I have heard learned estimates of 90 million or more.\u00a0 If these numbers are right then contemporary China is the third largest Christian country in the world \u2013 behind the United States and Brazil.\u00a0 That\u2019s an incredible demographic shift in just a couple of decades of openness in the post-Deng Xiaoping era.<\/p>\n

4) Anecdotally, I have known dozens of Chinese people in my life.\u00a0 And every one of them has been receptive to the gospel.\u00a0 Mind you, they certainly are not all Christians.\u00a0 But every one of them has been interested in hearing the Christian message \u2013 considering what it has to say \u2013 and not a single one of them has approached spiritual discussions with me in the hardened and cynical way that we Christians have become so familiar with among many of our peers in the west.\u00a0 Among Chinese today there is not a cynical cultural memory of past Christian misdeeds.<\/p>\n

When you think of a Christian today, you still think of a white American Evangelical, or a Latino Catholic or Pentecostal<\/a>, or an African Anglican.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s what I think of when I reflect on it.\u00a0 But one hundred years from now the largest Christian church in the world, by far, will almost surely be in China.\u00a0 So when our descendants at that time think of a Christian they will probably think of a Chinese layman, a Chinese worship leader, or a Chinese missionary.<\/p>\n

The future of Christianity is in China.\u00a0 It\u2019s time for western Christians to embrace that reality.<\/p>\n

(This blog post originally appeared on the Houston Baptist University School of Christian Thought blog<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today the greatest Christian evangelism movement ever to occur in any country in the world is taking place in China.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the most exciting developments to be happening on the world stage right now and most American and western Christians do not seem to be aware of it.\u00a0 In part I think that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2178,"featured_media":207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChina: the future of Christianity?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today the greatest Christian evangelism movement ever to occur in any country in the world is taking place in China.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the most exciting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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