China Partnership - November 2021 Update

The Outreach Foundation’s friendship with China is one of our most enduring and we are so thankful for the connections maintained through this long season of not being able to see one another face-to-face. By God’s grace, our bonds of friendship continue in tangible ways and this update highlights two.  

“Telling It Like It Is,” an ongoing forum on the state of Christianity in China

“Family and the church” gave focus to our conversations during our second China Forum on Friday evening, October 29. Our primary presenter was Frida, a single mother to a four-year old son who teaches Spanish full time to Chinese students at one of China’s prestigious universities in Suzhou Province. She is also a lay assistant in a local unregistered multi-site house church, with occasional preaching duties. 

This forum’s discussion helped to deepen our understanding of spiritual burnout and increased governmental pressure on families with children. Frida explained that many of her friends are leaving the registered, official church in favor of the house church in large part due to the rising influence of legalism, shaming, and a heavy emphasis on intellectual forms of discipleship coming from the western reformed traditions. Such influences are wearing down her generation’s joy in the Lord. In a very transparent moment, she shared how her divorce from an abusive man exposed her to judgment and shame as if she were not a real Christian. Sadly, her experience is not unique.

She and others on the call noted that authentic relationships, mission, and outreach occupy less space in favor of a more intellectual study-conscious form of being church. People are hungry for the flourishing that comes through relationships of encouragement and love. All this culminated in a thirst that many quench in the house church movement. Frida observed that in the house church, even with less trained pastors, “people feel they matter to Jesus and one another.” 

Chinese families’ children face a particularly difficult challenge. Since 2017 the government has been enforcing legislation that no child can be in church. The root cause of this has been the rise of more extremist groups and the impact this has had on children. Yet, the government has applied this to every non-Chinese religious group including Christianity. Pictured here are some of the families present during our forum. Let’s keep them in our prayers as we look forward to the day we will meet each other face-to-face! 

News from Hong Kong about the Book-Gifting Ministry

In early November we received an exciting update from the dear staff of Christian Communications Limited led by Thomas Tang. This ministry provides state-approved printed and electronic resources for graduates in fifty seminaries and Bible colleges throughout China. They informed us they have been given the green light from the government to provide libraries to nearly 4,000 graduates for the 2021 school year! In ten years this ministry has printed over 600,000 copies of valuable book resources for pastors and other church leaders in all but one of China’s provinces, which helps the demands of ministry among families and children and helps build worship and teaching skills. See the map for locations of the graduates who are receiving these mini-libraries.

What can we do?

Pray!

·         For Christian families who are struggling to make ends meet and care for their families while also being active participants in their churches, both house churches and registered

·         For Frida and her son as they navigate the challenges of a new living space without the help of her mother who lives further away

·         For churches and families as they struggle to find creative ways to overcome the legal pressures of having no children at church

Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Boone
Associate Director for Mission

THE OPPORTUNITY
The Outreach Foundation is seeking gifts to support the China Partnership. All gifts of any size are welcomed to provide start-up libraries for lay leaders and recent seminary graduates; to support continuing education opportunities for Chinese Church leaders; to help provide support for Jiangsu Seminary; to help provide support for Shandong Seminary. You may make a gift HERE or by sending a check to our office.