China!

Re-blogged from: Desiring God

China's Changing Church

March 13, 2009 | By: Seth Magnuson | Category: Commentary, International Outreach

As China has risen from the ashes of the Cultural Revolution to have one of the largest economies in the world, the Chinese church has seen similar growth. And it has come at an amazing pace.

Some Chinese government officials have estimated the church in China to be as large as 130 million people. While it is very hard to gauge a realistic statistic, one thing is for sure; the church in China is growing by leaps and bounds.

While the bulk of this rapid growth has been in the underground church movement, there has also been a significant expansion of the sometimes-criticized Three-Self Church, the officially recognized and government-supported church in China.

But recently there has been a new side to the Chinese church, a movement that has been coined “the urban house church.” It is not part of the underground church which has historically been a rural movement and is also not registered or supported by the government.

These new urban house churches are popping up in large cities all across China. Some meet in high-rise apartment buildings and some have even begun building large multi-purpose buildings for their growing congregations to meet in.

Last May, Christianity Today carried an insightful article about what is happening with the church in China and the explosive growth of the new urban house church movement. And last month the Chicago Tribune posted an audio slideshow called “Christianity Sweeping China,” which also gives a glimpse of the various faces of the Chinese church.

The overall atmosphere for our brothers and sisters in China still varies from day to day and region to region. While some believers face resistance, others are finding more freedom and opportunities to worship.

While many challenges still exist for Christians in China, God is growing his church and bringing about a major missionary movement through it. The Chinese church is poised to play a significant role in future missionary endeavors. Some of China’s Christian leaders have a vision to carry the gospel “Back to Jerusalem” through some of the most gospel-resistant lands which lie between China and Israel.

Despite this increasing interest in spreading the gospel, the one consistent thing that we have learned from our partners working in China is that there is a significant need for God-centered, Christ-exalting resources and teaching.

Please pray that God would provide all the teachers and material that the Chinese church needs to continue growing. And pray that Christ would be the fuel and sustainer of this amazing missionary calling he has given to the Chinese church as he seeks to gather worshipers from all the peoples of the earth.

Desiring God Launches Chinese Language Website

April 14, 2010 | By: Bill Walsh | Category: International Outreach, DG Resources

As many of you have seen in the news and on our blog, amazing changes have been occurring in mainland China over the past couple of decades. Very recent signals continue to point to an expanding openness to Christian faith and practice on the part of governing authorities. While sporadic persecution does still occur throughout the country, there are also massive shifts underway and increasing freedom of worship. We rejoice in these opportunities for the spread of the gospel.

At Desiring God International Outreach one of our strategies is to develop resources in formats and languages that will help equip our network to meet the needs of indigenous churches and believers around the world. Several years ago we began dreaming about new projects to provide those resources in Simplified Script Chinese for the mainland.

One project was to create the first John Piper book in that language, published legally within the country. The translation work for this is now complete and we are awaiting approval to publish. Please pray for that process!

Today we are announcing the launch of the second project which is a Chinese-language website with sermons and articles posted weekly. Internet usage in China continues at a rapid pace—384 million by the end of 2009. That’s more than the entire population of the United States! That is why we believe this project is so strategic.

Over the past year we have been at work, along with our project manager in China, translating Pastor John’s messages and preparing them for online access. Each week we will post one sermon and one article that have been translated into Simplified Chinese characters. Much of this work has been done through volunteers, and we are always looking for additional skilled translators.

The new site can be found at http://www.kemushen.org and at http://www.yangmushen.org.

If you are a Chinese reader or know someone who is, please bookmark this site and also help us spread the word! Then come back every week for newly translated God-centered resources.

And pray for our brothers and sisters in China!