News from the Chinese Church

YOUNG PEOPLE —A GROWING FORCE

The old church in the center of Hangzhou was packed full. The large halls on every floor were full of young people. In fact, there were over 1,000 exuberant young people including many students and graduates. This was the weekly young people’s meeting. It began with a half-hour of singing—including many modern worship songs and choruses. Then a young pastor gave a 45-minute Bible exposition taken from the book of Exodus. His theme—being sensitive to the guidance of God at key stages in one’s life.

When China’s churches first began to re-open over twenty years ago there was often a preponderance of elderly people. But now a high proportion of many congregations is made up of young people in their late teens and twenties and thirties. Young people make up about 40% of the congregation of the Mu’en Church in central Shanghai, as is immediately apparent from a glance at the crowded galleries every Sunday morning.

Many educated young people also attend house-churches. A growing number of them are linked to the Internet and producing their own training materials.

STEADY GROWTH IN GANSU

Gansu is one of China’s poorest areas in the dusty northwest. It has a population of 26 million. The church has grown modestly compared to many other areas of China. However, according the statistics issued by the TSPM and government handbooks, the church has grown over three times in the past twenty years (from 30,000 in 1989 to 106,000 in 2002).

Although there are only 20 officially TSPM-ordained pastors in the entire province, they are helped by 96 teachers and elders as well as an army of voluntary church workers (yigong) numbering about 1,000.

Apart from at least 20,000 registered believers in the provincial capital of Lanzhou, where there is now a fine new church center, Christians are particularly numerous in the Tianshui district in the southeast of the province. Wudu County had 33 registered meeting-points in 1998 and Gangu County 22 meeting-points. Qingyang in the far northeast has also seen growth from about 200 Christians pre-1949 to about 14,000 by 1996.

The China Inland Mission and the Christian and Missionary Alliance had extensive work in Gansu before 1950. Later the indigenous Jesus Family came in. Today there are also many house-churches. Unfortunately, cults have also come in—particularly Eastern Lightning and the Mentuhui (“Disciples”—an indigenous cult, not related to any denomination of that name overseas). Church growth is hampered by poor communications and endemic poverty in the parched villages. Islam is very strong—in 1990 there were at least 1.25 million Muslims in the province.

CHRISTIAN LEADER ON HUNGER STRIKE

The leader of an underground Chinese church sentenced to life in prison has gone on a hunger strike to protest his jailers’ refusal to allow him to write letters and file an appeal. Gong Shengliang, founder of the South China Church, has refused to eat since November 14th. He leads a vibrant evangelical Protestant group that claims about 100,000 members. Started in 1991 it has dispatched missionaries throughout China and is active in 10 provinces. It illegally operated a seminary, a publishing house and a bimonthly magazine.

Gong was sentenced to life in prison on October 10th in a case that underscored China’s off-again, on-again persecution of groups operating outside government-allowed organizations. Twelve other members were sentenced to terms ranging from life to two years. Gong was originally sentenced to death in December 2001 by a court in Hubei for various crimes including “using an evil cult to undermine the enforcement of the law.” He had also been convicted of raping some of his followers. A Hong Kong-based expert on Christianity in China and other sources familiar with the case said such charges, while occasionally true, are usually tacked on by police or prosecutors to justify a death sentence.

Hubei’s highest court threw out the death sentence on September 22nd along with the cult charges which was taken as a sign Beijing had interceded. In a retrial a few weeks later, Gong was given a life-sentence but several of his co-defendants were cleared. Authorities in Jingmen, however, re-arrested four of them and sent them to labor camps. (Washington Post, 7 December 2002)

CHURCH GROWTH IN HUBEI

Church work re-started rather slowly in Hubei after the end of the Cultural Revolution. It only really began again in 1985 and real growth was only seen after 1995. Thereafter church building projects and pastoral work has been trying to catch up. The church has also been involved in social service activities. Today there are more than 300,000 Protestant Christians in Hubei. (Tianfeng, October 2002)

THE THREAT OF CULTS

In many places in China the Eastern Lightning cult continues to make inroads among the Christian community, especially in rural areas. It targets existing evangelical churches and infiltrates its own workers who are skilled at praying in biblical language. Its greatest coup was on 16 April 2002 when they kidnapped 34 leaders of the evangelical house-church network known as the China Gospel Fellowship. All have now been released after a harrowing experience, and only one is reported to have been brainwashed into joining the cult.

This cult now has a website based in America and is actively seeking to infiltrate overseas Chinese churches. It rejects the authority of the Bible, salvation through grace, and instead preaches that Christ has come again in the form of a Chinese woman living today in Henan province.

NEW RELIGIOUS REGULATIONS IN BEIJING

New religious regulations were introduced in Beijing at the end of 2002. They allow approved religious organizations in China to conduct business and charity work according to the law. No unregistered organizations or individuals are allowed to conduct religious training.

Fines of up to 30,000 RMB may be imposed on individuals who conduct unregistered theological training. Illegal religious activities may be punished by having their property confiscated.

BACK TO JERUSALEM!

Large sums of money are now being raised overseas by some organizations to train rural house-church Christians to take the gospel to Muslims in China’s far northwest (Xinjiang, etc.) and then through Central Asia back to Jerusalem. One of China’s top house-church leaders has expressed skepticism: “There’s a lot of talk, but little action!”

However, a young theological student at one of China’s best TSPM seminaries has outlined a well-thought out plan to train Christian university students to undertake the formidable tasks involved in learning foreign languages and cross-cultural skills. Pray that this vision for evangelism will not be spoiled by sensational advertising and appeals for money. Pray that young people in both the house-churches and the TSPM churches and seminaries will be guided by God—not man—as they seek His will for cross-cultural evangelism.