All eyes are on China but not all for the same reason.

China is one of the most exiting mission fields of the world, and the church better take notice and perhaps learn a few things. To illustrate my point let me quote a passage from Philip Yancey’s book, “ What’s So Amazing About Grace?” (pgs. 258-259)

Not long ago I had a conversation with an elderly missionary who spent his early life in China. He had been among the 6000 missionaries expelled after the communist took over. As in Russia, the communist strove mightily to destroy the church, which until then had been a showcase of the missionary movement. The government forbade house churches, made it illegal for parents to give religious education to their children, imprisoned and tortured pastors and Bible teachers.

Meanwhile the exiled missionaries sat on the sidelines and wrung their hands. How would the church in China fare without them? Without their seminaries and Bible colleges, their literature and curricula, without even the ability to print Bibles, could the church survive? For 40 years these missionaries heard rumours, some discouraging and some encouraging, about what was happening in China, but no one knew for sure until the country began opening up in the 1980s.

I asked this elderly missionary, now a renowned China expert, what had happened in the intervening 40 years. “Conservatively, I would estimate that there were 750,000 Christians when I left China.

And now? You hear all sorts of numbers, but I think a safe figure would be 35 million believers.” Apparently the church and the Holy Spirit Fared quite well on their own. The church in China now constitutes the second largest evangelical community in the world; only the United States exceeds it.

One China expert estimates that the revival in China represents the greatest numerical increase in the history of the Church. In an odd way the government hostility ultimately worked to the church’s advantage. Chinese Christians devoted themselves to worship and evangelism - the original mission of the Church - and did not much concern themselves with politics. They concentrated on changing lives not changing laws.

The words of Jesus are still pertinent for this generation; “Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.“ Mat. 28:19-20

That article, written in 1997 and stating 35 million believers, is updated today to 50 to 70 million believers.

Paul Weresch