Receiving the Gifts of Advent
As the experience of China’s church demonstrates, the gifts of Advent seem to come strangely wrapped. The gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love are received through suffering and sacrifice.
傅邦宁博士是华源协作的创办人,并担任首任总裁,直至 2019 年卸任。
傅邦宁博士曾于 1995 年至 2000 年担任惠顿学院(Wheaton College)中国研究所执行主任;1987 年至 1995 年担任中国福音会(China Ministries International)美国分会创会主任;1985 年至 1986 年则任职于香港中国教会研究中心,负责英文出版物的编辑工作。
傅邦宁博士拥有南加州大学(University of Southern California)政治学硕士及博士学位,以及弥赛亚学院(Messiah College)广播、电视与电影学士学位。
傅邦宁博士长期关注中国发展,对中国教会及中国社会与政治现象有深入研究,并广泛撰文及授课。他著有 China’s Urban Christians: A Light That Cannot Be Hidden,并与 Luis Bush 合著 China’s Next Generation: New China, New Church, New World。
2006 年至 2017 年间,傅邦宁博士与妻子 Jasmine 居住于香港,目前定居美国加州北部。
傅邦宁博士目前负责协调一个宣教士关顾专业人员网络,为从中国差派至海外的宣教士提供支持。他也为其他机构提供咨询,帮助他们理解中国宗教政策所带来的影响。
As the experience of China’s church demonstrates, the gifts of Advent seem to come strangely wrapped. The gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love are received through suffering and sacrifice.
发生在中国的事,从来不会只停留在中国。随着华人基督徒散居世界各地,中国教会的经验与声音,也正在成为全球教会对话的一部分。
Understanding China today requires a sense of where China has been.
We bring to China our view of the world and our place in it, our sense of “the way things ought to be,” our values and priorities. Through this lens, we try to make sense of a culture and people very different from ourselves.
Surveying the fraught relationship between church and state in China, the late Chinese church historian Daniel Bays asserted that government control of religion has been a constant feature from Imperial times to the present.
While honestly embracing their own evangelical legacy, with its imperative for gospel witness, the Mennonites also found in their heritage values of “hosting, listening, waiting, learning, inquiring, affirming.”
Beyond the story of suffering lies the sacred narrative of how the church continues to be the church.
She lifted others, not for recognition, but for the sake of God’s kingdom.
The persecution story may be unending, but neither is persecution the end of the story.
Metaphors have the power to expand our imaginations or limit our thinking. May the lived experience of China’s Christians, both inside and outside China, inspire new images of what is possible in Christ’s kingdom.
The role of China’s church in world evangelization has more to do with intentionality of heart than with getting to any one particular destination, whether Jerusalem or someplace else.
International human rights lawyer Knox Thames lays out a vision for how governments, legislatures, NGOs, and religious leaders can work together to combat religious persecution globally.