“Oh! For eloquence to plead the cause of China; for a pencil dipped in fire to paint the condition of this people!” — Hudson Taylor, Founder of the China Inland Mission
When Westerners first learn about China and global Missions, they typically learn about a 21-year-old missionary named Hudson Taylor who departed Liverpool harbor for China in September 1854.
There are some defining distinctions about this man's life and how he viewed global Missions that have implications and importance for us today. For example, after losing his financial support from the Chinese Evangelization Society, Taylor would start another Mission Agency reflecting his own missional DNA based on his experience serving there. Taylor founded the China Inland Mission in 1865 on the premise that it would never solicit funds from donors but simply trust God to supply its needs. Today, 131 years later, though changing its name to Overseas Missionary Fellowship International, the organization has not changed its policy.
Taylor stands in stark contrast to others that also undertook missionary efforts in China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before the 1920s, churches in China were essentially western ecclesiastical models fully dependent on western missionaries for theological and organizational leadership. When money was involved, it always remained under the control of a western administrator. This insistence on western authority presented a "constant reminder that their country was weak, poor, dependent, overrun by foreigners, and entirely lacking in self-respect".1 Soon, Chinese nationals acknowledged the church in China as influenced more by westerners than nationals, fueling anti-Christian sentiment and reinforcing the notion that Christianity was a foreign religion brought to China by western nations with colonialist intentions.
In the 1920s and 1930s, in response to the anti-Christian movement spreading across China, many Chinese Christians broke away from the traditional denominations and formed independent groups.2 Circumstances had reached a tipping point. "They were willing to pay a price to achieve indigenization so that a Church that was really Chinese could be established to counteract the accusations raised by the anti-Christians movement".3
This autonomy was necessary for three fundamental reasons:
- To eliminate the western ingredient in Christianity and clear the charge of being foreigner slaves;
- To reconcile believers with their fellow Chinese;
- To conduct more productive evangelistic efforts among the Chinese population.4
During this period of rebirth in China, new indigenous churches experienced great revivals and a generation of revivalists emerged, greatly shaping the church for years to come.
After ongoing persecution and governmental control by the Chinese Community Party (CCP), the church split into two factions: the registered Three-Self Church and the unregistered Underground Church. These factions endured atrocities during the ten-year “Cultural Revolution” called for by the CCP in 1966. During this time, all churches were closed down or destroyed, Bibles were burned, and church personnel were told to change their profession or were sent to "re-education" camps. Both the Three-Self Church and the Underground Church suffered the kind of persecution that "has very few parallels in mission history of the Christian Church".5
Following the death of Mao Zedong, China re-opened to the world in many ways and its citizens were granted forgotten freedoms. The Three-Self Church was eventually reinstated as a registered church, but also, every church in China had to be registered with the government as part of the Three-Self Church Network. Holding to the gospel, the unregistered Underground Church began its explosive growth, becoming the most significant renewal movement in church history.
The Born Again Movement, also known as Word of Life Church (WOL), All Ranges Church, and Total Scope Church, was founded by Peter Xu in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. Peter was sentenced to ten years of “re-education through labor,” suffering torture, interrogation, and mock crucifixions. But the church he was so instrumental in pastoring has not faltered. In fact, it has grown exponentially. While exact numbers are hard to gather since members meet in homes out of the eye of the government, it was estimated in 1998 to have 20 million members, nearly twice the size of the registered church. With more persecution over the years since then, that number is likely much higher in 2021.
The Fuel for Growth
This growth is funded, fueled, and led by native Chinese Christians tested by persecution and refined by injustice.
Yalin writes, “From the very beginning, the WOL movement was a self-sponsored movement. Leaders and co-workers did not receive a salary. Expenses necessary for ministry such as travel, food, and materials and equipment for Theological Education come from the local Christians … Some local Christians devote the income of their businesses such as small hotels, and restaurants for church use, which provides substantial support for ministry … Co-workers have been enduring great financial difficulties as they serve in ministry. Sometimes support may come in from different avenues that help temporarily. For the past few years, Leaders of the WOL have been strategically planning on tent-making kind of businesses”.6
Their ability to quickly adjust to changing cultural climates and maintain their faith and faithfulness would be impossible if led by the western Missions enterprises. Well-intending Americans would be airlifted out, furloughed, or otherwise absent when leadership and understanding are needed most. Begging the question, are westerners needed there now?
Chinese church history and growth remind us that as local believers assume the responsibility for their nation’s evangelism and disciple-making, it is the duty of the west to support through prayer, and be vigilant against creating dependencies that might distract local believers from their gospel efforts. If, as westerners, we are to become better stewards of generosity, then we must recognize the cause of the Chinese church. The church that writes its own story.
- Yalin Xin, "Inner Dynamics of the House Church, "Mission Studies", pg. 11
- pg. 24, 13
- pg. 24, 14
- pg. 24, 15
- pg. 29, 16
- pg. 105, 20