In Pastor Hsi, written by Mrs. Howard Taylor, we can tell that the pastoral problems Pastor Hsi encountered when the Shanxi Church was established more than a hundred years ago are exactly the same as those we face today: there is the danger of false teachers, the pain brought by church division, and the various different voices from inside and outside the church.
In just a few weeks we will celebrate Messiah’s birth, remembering the day when hope entered the world, forever changing the course of human history. Many of our China stories have a similar anticipatory quality. Whatever our stories may promise, our hope for China is more than looking forward to an ideal future.
As we prepare for Thanksgiving Day celebrations here in the United States, I’ve been thinking about expressions of thanks in Chinese culture and language. The most common way of expressing thanks in Chinese is xie xie (谢谢). But there is another word: gan’en (感恩). I love that en means “grace.”
With Memorize What Matters, you’re not only given tools for memory but also an invitation to see Bible memorization as a spiritual discipline that equips you to serve, teach, and grow in your relationship with God.
As this painful summer passed, poor Pastor Hsi endured unspeakable suffering and pressure, but most of his co-workers still supported him firmly. The love and loyalty of people were a great comfort to him. But they still had to go through this refining furnace together. Sometimes it even seemed that God’s hand had withdrawn, and Satan was destroying the ministry at will.
The Lord builds his church, and the church he constructs will look a bit different in each climate and landscape. It is the seed that has power to grow roots down into deeply buried cultural expressions and expectations, roots that will produce fruit fitting the context, fruit that is both beautiful and empowering.
God’s truth remains constant across generations. He speaks to each one in unique ways while sharing the same message of salvation. What is he saying to the 150,000 Chinese students in the UK today? How can we meet their needs and invite them into God’s kingdom?
Will you join us in praying for the unreached peoples? Together, let us commit to being part of God’s mission to make disciples of all nations and to plant healthy churches that will reproduce to surrounding villages and across generations.
Our hope and prayer is that the keynote speaker, Scott Shaum, and the various workshops will help all of us to pause, hear, reflect, and live God’s call in our lives for the long haul, in sustainable and kingdom service for the glory of God!
As someone who has been involved with China for over 60 years, I’ve witnessed the shifts in Sino-Catholic relations, from the closed society of the Mao era to the cautious engagements of today. This Quarterly issue is especially significant, addressing both longstanding and emerging challenges faced by Catholics in China amidst ongoing socio-political pressures.
![An image of John C. H. Wu with two Westerners. When he finally found the truth, Wu felt that it was just like “tripping blindly over [a] threshold and being thrown flat on his stomach into the House of Light.” In other words, one must give up believing he or she has the power to attain truth by oneself, and humble oneself to the point of realizing that it is a gift.](https://media.chinasource.org/uploads/2024/11/BL241111-ChinaSource-Chinese-Christianity-John-C.-H.-Wu-Republic-of-China-St.-Augustine-Beyond-East-and-West-300x164.png)
When he finally found the truth, Wu felt that it was just like “tripping blindly over [a] threshold and being thrown flat on his stomach into the House of Light.” In other words, one must give up believing he or she has the power to attain truth by oneself, and humble oneself to the point of realizing that it is a gift.
We need to go beyond dogma and statements to show and tell in more holistic, contextual and embodied ways. As the apostles declared and displayed Christ through prayer and worship (Acts 4:24; 16:25; Philippians 2:5-10), so can we find unique expressions that are embedded and empowered in our own cultures and tongues.