July 7, 2008
With approximately twenty percent of the world’s population – and one-third of the world’s non-Christian population – living in China, the mission field in that country can seem overwhelming. Yet as Bible publishers, relief organizations, and book sellers are finding, the harvests are plenty.
The American Bible Society is effectively fulfilling the Christian commission through its efforts to provide millions of Bibles to people in China. “The Mission of the American Bible Society is to make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford, so all people may experience its life-changing message,” said Rev. Dr. Kuo-Wei Peng, a translations officer for the Nida Institute For Biblical Scholarship, American Bible Society. “From our first involvement in China in the 19th century, when we began to support Bible translation and publication work, to our support, in recent years, of Amity Press, which has now printed over 50 million Bibles, we have employed a myriad of methods to help spread the Word of God in China.”
A joint venture with United Bible Societies (UBS), which includes the American Bible Society (ABS), and the Amity Foundation in China, provides the cost of paper for Bibles printed at Amity Press in Nanjing, China. The Bibles are distributed internally through the China Christian Council. One current initiative also includes creating a Chinese Study Bible.
“The Church is growing and the Word of God is spreading,” said Kua Wee Seng, the coordinator of China Partnership with United Bible Societies. Amity Press began printing the Bible in 1987, and half a million copies were printed and distributed in 1988. Now, the annual volume of Bible distribution in China is 3 million copies a year.
“The Bible is now the best-selling book in China. This is the miracle of God,” Kua said.
The numbers of Christians in China has grown exponentially in the last half century. Kua said that in 1949, there were an estimated 2.7 million Christians in the country. During the years of Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, all churches were closed and the Bible was banned. Today, there is an official estimate of 23 million Christians. Unofficially, some estimate it as high as 90 million Christians.
As high as 90 million sounds, however, only 1.7 percent of the Chinese people are officially practicing Christians. The unofficial count may be as high as 7 percent, but there are estimates that 1.2 billion people still have not heard the Gospel in China.
According to Kua, the public education is secular and most Chinese consider themselves as atheists. Buddhism is gaining popularity. Christianity is also on the rise, especially in the rural areas and amongst young people in the cities. Yet, Christianity is still viewed as a foreign and Western religion by many. Many are ignorant about the Christian faith. The Church is also not very engaged in organized community services and social work.
Also, the current state could affect the future in regard to ministry and mission opportunities in China. “Unless there is a reversal of the State’s policy towards religion, the opportunities for ministry and mission will remain in China. In fact, if the current trends continue, the opportunities will increase. But, the Church needs to redouble its effort in training and community services in order to continue to grow, not just in numbers but in strength,” Kua said.
According to Peng, one of the greatest challenges is the need for well-trained pastors and church leaders, which is well beyond the capacity of the 20 or so seminaries in China.
Open Doors, which has worked in China for over 40 years, noted another challenge. Open Doors Director for China Xiao Yun said (his real name not given due to security issues), “In China, you do not see the same developments everywhere. In the large cities, the standard of living is improving, whereas in the rural areas, everything is actually the same as it used to be. The churches in the rural areas see their young people leaving and going to the big towns. The migration is so great that the Church outside the large towns is actually decreasing in size. In contrast, Churches in the cities are growing. They are facing a great challenge, because they do not know how they should deal with the migrants. Country people are very different from city people. Churches outside the towns have already been sending pastors to the towns to counsel the rural youth. Unfortunately, this has not proved to be very successful.”
Christians in China also deal with a limited sense of calling. “Most Christians in China think that there is only one way in which they can serve God: by becoming a full-time pastor or evangelist. Of course, this is not true,” Yun said. “Even if you have a job in a factory or an office, you can be a witness to Christ. This is why we want to help young people discover God's personal plan for their lives,” he said.
Meanwhile, the impending Olympic Games are also having an impact on house churches, as authorities become more skittish. “They are afraid that society will become unstable and therefore they want to have a hold on all aspects of society. The House Churches are one of the focuses of attention,” Yun said. “In the Olympic towns in particular – Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenyang, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, etc. – surveillance has considerably increased. The House Churches have been told that they are to stop. The House Church movement is a thorn in the flesh of the Chinese government. Abroad much is being written and said about the Chinese House Churches. The government sees this as a loss of face. This is why attention is being focused on 'illegal' gatherings.”
Yet authorities can’t seem to stop the impact that Christians are making physically and spiritually in relief efforts after May’s 7.9 magnitude earthquake.
Open Doors has been actively involved in earthquake relief efforts, and will also continue its work even after the relief efforts conclude.
“We’re very thankful that Open Doors has a holistic approach” said Open Doors Director of China Training (his name is not given due to security issues). “We’re buying medicines and buying tents to shelter those people who are completely soaked by rain after the disaster struck. We’re seeing schools re-opening. Some 7,000 schools were devastated with only a handful of students surviving, so they lost everything. We provide basic necessities for those students going back to school, but we want to do more than that. Doctors are thinking about establishing a medical program – interviewing and examining these students’ who are sometimes malnourished.”
He said that even after the disaster struck, there are more opportunities to evangelize. “Sichuan is a poor province and churches are not very strong. One church we visited, a small church with about 40 households, lost half of their members because the Eastern Lightning (a Chinese cult) attack caused them to discontinue believing. Pastors struggle with poor surroundings and hilly roads when they make their rounds.”
He continued, “But the earthquake may have changed all that. People suddenly became aware of the importance of death and people are more willing to listen. At the same time, Christians can go to witness to them. We also went to hospitals and were quite surprised – things are quite open. The leaders wanted people to visit, not only to identify their own family members, but to encourage and comfort those traumatized patients.”
Beyond Bible publication and earthquake relief, Christians are also finding that the changing face of the Chinese economy has created new opportunities for trade with the West, and growing possibilities for Christian publishers in China.
For those in the publishing sector, unique opportunities for missions with a twist are popping up. For example, the Global Publishers Alliance (GPA) recently represented titles from 17 Evangelical Christian Publishers Alliance (ECPA) member houses and one guest publisher at their exhibit during the 14th annual Beijing International Book Fair, which, according to one source in a Publishers Weekly press release “…is now considered by many as one of the top four international book fairs in the world.”
GPA’s collaborator for the week, ZDL Books, organized a half-day series of business-related seminars for the ECPA member houses present at Beijing International Book Fair. “We enjoyed a morning of important and timely updates on the development of the retail side of the business in China and the steady improvements in enforcement of intellectual property protection,” GPA President and CEO John Eames said. “We were surrounded on all sides with evidence of the robust growth of the market for English language religious content in China.”
He continued, “For Christian publishers with a vision for missions, the Chinese market is worth exploring… There is a great opportunity to reach this mission field now, while we have an open window. And for publishers willing to commit resources, there is an added incentive—the possibility of a strong business upside in the future.”
Indeed, for all those willing to commit, the ground is fertile and ready to yield a harvest for the Kingdom.
