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Luis and Doris
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China Press Release - Message from Church in 21st Century China

Let China Know the World and the World Know China Update
"A Message from the Church in Twenty-First Century China"

Luis Bush

It's been almost 10 years since I was in Beijing to meet with a group of top-level Christian leaders of networks of churches in China as part of the World Inquiry to "Let China Know the World and the World Know China".

Recently, I returned to Beijing to get an update to the 2002 meeting. It was graciously organized and hosted by one of the leading third wave churches in the city.

In the course of the original meetings the participants expressed their desire to send a message to Christians outside of China. This press release, read and carefully reviewed and endorsed for publication, represents a core part of that message as it came through in the papers, formal and informal discussion and the Inquiry process. It is outlined in three sections.

  1. Our vision and dreams for the Church in China
  2. Our commitments emerging from the consultation "Let China know the world and the world to know China"
  3. New realities in China

Section I. Our vision and dreams for the Church in China.

  1. As Christians, we wish to be a blessing to the country of China of which we are citizens.
  2. We envision an evangelized China and move from the coastlands in the east to the relatively less evangelized central and western parts of our country.
  3. We dream of the unity of the whole Church in China.
  4. We are being called by God to engage in cross-cultural vision not only within our own nation but beyond.
  5. We are calling forth a mission force to take the gospel back along the "Old Silk Road" from where it first came to us in 635 A.D. We call this the Back-to-Jerusalem Movement as our intention is to take the gospel back to Jerusalem itself where the Commission to be witnesses was first given by the Lord Jesus to his disciples (Acts 1:8). This was 1930’s home-grown movement which began with the idea of carrying the gospel on foot all the way back to Jerusalem retracing the steps of the Old Silk Road.
  6. We desire for the Church outside of China to join us in the Back-to-Jerusalem vision and invite them to help come and prepare us for the cross-cultural mission.
  7. We desire to bless our country of China by engaging in constructive, compassionate holistic mission to help build our society in the twenty-first century.

Section II. Our joint commitment made at "Let China know the world and the world to know China."

  1. We are committed to bring glory to God in all we do and by faith, joyfully receive and willingly embrace the gift given to by our master when he prayed to our heavenly father saying: "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one" (John 17:22).
  2. We dream of the unity of the whole Church in China and appeal to denominational church leaders and representatives inside and outside of China to join us our commitment for unity and the intercessory prayer of Jesus: "I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (John 17:23).
  3. Start cross-cultural mission training in our networks and churches.
  4. We commit to the raising up younger leaders and mentoring them in the ways and mission of our Lord by identifying a young man and a young woman in each city who is between twenty-five and forty-five years old, seeking to build a community of love and truth among them and send fifty to represent the emerging leaders of China.
  5. We commit to serve our country of China as upright citizens desiring God's blessing on our land.
  6. We commit to a new way of thinking when it comes to children and youth ministry. We will strive to be more intentional about the spiritual development of our next generation.

Section III. New realities in China

  1. In the past 10 years the urban churches have been explosively growing, the Gospel work has been expanded throughout the country. A new model for the urban church has been developed. But there has not been the expected reformation within the Three-Self Church System.
  2. The Chinese Church continues to need assistance from the Global Church not in the traditional missions paradigm but as an equal partner to help the Chinese church more holistically in affecting all parts of the society.

We, participants in this consultation, sensed in the Spirit that this is not only a tipping point in the life of China as a nation but that this is also a tipping point in the life of the Church in China. We sense that God is bringing forth a new stream of the Church in China and the influence of the Church is growing increasingly on the Chinese society.