Christianity in China

The Asbury Jonrna/64/1:79-82

© 2009 Asbury Theological Seminary

YALIN XI N

The Future  of  Chrzstzanzry zn Chzna: An  Internal

Reflection

Xiaoqiang and his wife Fen started  a house  church  (Canaan  Church) in their rented apartment in T City in northern China about two years ago. They themselves had come  to the city for  job opportunities not  long  ago. The Canaan Church started to grow almost immediately as they ministered among the migrant workers  around them. In time, the Canaan  Church grew so big that  it had  to split several  times in order  to accommodate th e increasing attendance. Throughout the week, Xiaoqiang and Fen made itinerant visits to the churches they es tablished.  Today  the Canaan  Church has grown to more than twenty house churches with over 1,000 in regular attendance.

Canaan  Church represents an emerging kind of church presence that is closely associa ted with China's economic growth  and urbanization process in recent years. Traditionally, churches in China were often categorized into two bodies,  namely,  the  TSPM  church  and  the  Hou se Church. TSPM  is the government sanctioned organism  that was created in the 1950s to supervising the affairs of the Protestant churches in China. All churches were then requited to register with the TSPM. Those  churches  that have been registered with the TSPM  since the early 1950s  are then officially TSPM  churches. The House Church represents those churches, home or community, small or large, that are not  registered with the TSPM  and are therefore su bject to interference from state or local government. These two church bodies have grown separately and are responsible for 70-80 million baptized Christians.

In recently years, however, with the socio-economic change in China, the church body has become diversified. Christian  presence has been more and more evident in multiple layers of society among the urban poor, intellectuals, artists,  business  circle, and even party m embers  (cf. Aikman  2003:245-62). Stories  of transformed lives and communities are often  heard amidst  news of persecution and prayer requests  for imprisoned Christian  leaders. Perceiving the future, three issues stand out that will be closely relevant to the church  in China: Urbanization, Christian  education, and registration.

80 I   The Asbury Journal  64/1 (2009)

Urbanization

Urbanization and  economic growth in  China  has  seen  a phenomenal migration  of rural population into  the cities. Statistics  show  that more  than

100  million  young  and adult  from  rural  population have moved  to urban

areas since the 1980s when China adopted market economy policy. This has created both a crisis and opportunity. When young adult believers, including some in ministerial positions, had to leave for cities for job opportunities to support their families, rural church es inevitably experienced an immediate impact in all aspects of ministry: decreased  attendance, inadequate pastoral care, and shortage on evangelistic teams.

On the other  hand, this migrant Christian  force can create, if not already, great  opportunities in terms  of the future  of Christianity  in China.  At the moment, most urban churches, both the TSPM and house churches, seem to be limited  in their ability to provide  adequate  care for  the incoming rural believers. Cultural differences only add to the limitation.  We have seen, however, cases  of effective ministry established among the  migrant community. Canaan  Church  is one of  the examples. Typically, this kind of migrant church  retains much of the rural church characteristics and is able to address the specific needs of the community. Nfissiologically speaking, migrant churches  have the natural advantage of reaching their own, taking advantage of  the natural affinity toward the migrant  community.  In the initial stage of development, migrant church community is growing slowly but steadily. In time, a significant Christian movement  may well be ignited among the urban poor.

What's more, as some rural believers gradually settle in the urban churches, they bring with them  fresh blood  and vitality. Ripples  of  renewal  may well extend  through tl1ese rural believers to the urban churches. 

Theological education

Both the TSPM and the House Church community are and will be in great need for more  trained  pastoral personnel to care for their increasing congregations. Since the 1980s, the thirteen TSPM seminaries have produced approximately 3,000 graduates, an obviously inadequate number contrasted to the 20 million members within  the TSPM  churches. The  House Church community, on the other hand, especially in central China, started the intensive short-term training for pastoral and evangelistic ministry in the mid 1980s. In just three to six months the underground seminaries were able to graduate trained workers into Christian service (cf. Chao 1993:92).  In urban area there are also some  training centers  that offer  more  formal  seminary  courses for students to undergo one to three years theological education.

The challenge for operating these underground seminaries, however,  has been ever present. Above  everything else, these underground seminaries do not have legal status and are therefore subject to opposition. Secondly, shortage

XIN: THE FUTURE OF  CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA   I    81 

of  qualified  teachers  has been a constant reality. A lot of  the underground seminaries depend on overseas  church and organization to supply  teaching personnel, which  has  not  been  timely and  reliable. Thirdly,  coordination among the house  church networks has not  been as prevalent as desired.  In recent years, however, a trans-regional coworkers' meeting was established for the sake of coordinate ministry across the House Church  community, which has helped in areas of  underground seminary  training.

How  the churches, both  the TSPM  and House Church, respond to the challenges in theological education will be directly relevant to the total health of  the  Chinese  Church. The  House Church  community has come  to the realization, after years of  very successful  evangelistic effort in the pervasive rural China regions,  that they need to consolidate the new churches through Christian education. Some  house  church networks have since  been  re­ appropriating their workforce to meet the needs.

Returnees (those who studied in the West and were trained theologically) are making  a great  difference. They  tend  to attract  urban  young  adult  and educated group, taking advantage of the experience and training they received in the west. Overseas churches  have helped and can continue to help in terms of supplementing training  personnel and  materials.  It will be, however, a task primarily  of the Chinese  Church itself,  that  believers  prayerfully  find ways to meet  their  own  needs  for  the best  advancement of  the  kingdom work in China. 

Registration

In official  terms,  registration means  a house  church  gets legal status, is better guarded against false teachings, and receives better support in terms of Christian education. In the eyes of the House Church community, registration means restriction, limitation, and compromise. Historically, the House Church community has always been  antagonistic toward  the officially sanctioned TSPM  church. One  can  trace the feud as far back as the beginning of the twentieth century  when  two Christian camps  started  to emerge  onto the China scene: the Fundamentalists and the Modernists. When  some from  the Modernist camp settled in the newly created TSPM leadership in compliance with the new Communist government, while some from the Fundamentalist camp  were persecuted and imprisoned for refusing  to  join the TSPM,  the division became further widened. Today, even when the theological differences have already become much blurred  with most of the first generation leaders from both camps gone, some house church  leaders reject TSPM outright on the issue of registration. It becomes more complicated when a house church network, such as the Word of Life Church, has a trans-provincial membership of millions, with  underground seminaries in operation in various  areas of the country and trans-regional/ provincial  missionary activities.