An Overview of Beijing

Beijing (formerly called Peking, Beiping, Dadu, Jingcheng, and Yanjing in different periods of Chinese history) is the capital city of the People’s Republic of China. It is also the nation’s political and cultural hub. Additionally, it is the focal point for the country’s transportation, scientific and technological development, education and communication. Its present-day population is over eleven million; thus,it is the second largest city in China (source).

Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic of China, is the nation’s political, cultural, scientific and educational heart as well as a key transportation hub. Beijing has served as the capital of the country for more than 800 years. The city has many places of historic interest and architectural/scenic beauty. Beijing’s travel industry has forged forward after China’s economic reforms in 1978, and the city is now one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Beijing became the focus of world attention in 2008 when it hosted the Olympics. The games were a symbol of both China’s progress and China’s tradition with high-class and eye-catching facilities and spectacular ceremonies. Beijing shows, better than anywhere, the rapid development of Chinese society. The depth and breadth of Chinese civilization is laid before you every day in Beijing–neon lights, giant malls, and contemporary architectures. You can see a lot in one day, too little in a week, and not enough in a lifetime (source).

Religion in Beijing

Religion is complex in Beijing, and in China in general. Many of the belief systems hover somewhere between traditional religion and old philosophy, as they universally believe in a sacred or spiritual world, but vary in how influential that world is in everyday life. Religions in China also do not demand exclusivity from their members. Chinese citizens may practice several different religions at one time, without feeling any sense of disloyalty.

 That said, there are three main religions (or philosophies as the case may be) prominent in Beijing culture: Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. Daoism (also called Taoism) is the only one native to China. Islam and Christianity have made minor inroads into the city (source).

Would you pray that God would send more laborers to this city and country to lift His name high?

Source: AustinGardner.net

We will have this special day of prayer again next year on the last Sunday of January.

Leave a comment letting us know that you and/or your church participated in this special day. Did you do anything special?

Once again, thank you!

One smuggling bibles is probably likely to tell you that he has a “network” of people that the bibles get passed on to and they distribute them throughout China. Not knowing much about China, the person sitting in the pew easily accepts this answer. But I want to challenge the “network.” Why? Because statistically one-half to two-thirds of China’s house church Christians are somewhat Charismatic (or liberal theology, such as, speaking in tongues, woman as pastors, and belief that one’s salvation can be lost). If you believe in historical Christianity, are theologically conservative, and/or are a fundamentalist that stands on the Word of God, then this is a problem.

Should conservative churches be using their missions money to help build and equip the charismatic churches?

I challenge the network because we know little about it and we are not allowed to know about it. For the purpose of “security reasons” we have allowed the “who” to not matter and have no accountability.

Is the “network” made up of like minded believers who are in need of Bibles? Is there accountability in the system to deliver the Bibles and make sure they are getting delivered and used? Can the we know about the network and how everything operates?

Think about it this way: If there was a Charismatic church teaching their doctrine in your hometown and where requesting 200 Bibles from your church (to keep teaching their doctrine), would you provided them with bibles? Would you use your missions money to provide that Charismatic church with bibles?

Conclusion: I am not against bible smuggling “if” the church needing the bibles is of “like faith and practice” can’t afford to buy bibles on their own, don’t have a local place to obtain them, and need more than what we could obtain by legally buying them in China. Otherwise, I think there are better places that we could be spending our time and missions’ dollars. For example:

• Bible smugglers would have their time free to help train the local churches in correct doctrine.
• We could have more money available to help legally publish Christian books in China.
• We could support more missionaries to plant churches and train national leadership.
• Money is saved from the short-term teams used to smuggle Bibles in or their efforts could be re-directed toward evangelism.

So three post later, what do you think? To smuggle or not to smuggle, that is the question!?

• Need. The Chinese “Church” (whoever that may be) are requesting bibles and are supposedly in limited supply, unwilling or unable to buy them from the government Church. Anytime we as Christians hear someone is in “need” of a bible, we will almost always do whatever it takes to get them one.

• Availability. Not every city, town, or village has a government Church or a Christian bookstore where bibles can be purchased. A church of 10 people from a village of 150 people probably doesn’t have a local place to purchase bibles. They would have to travel to the nearest major city.

• Money. China still has many poor people, living on a dollar a day, who just don’t have the means to purchase a bible. They can’t afford to stop work for a day, travel to a large city, and find a place to purchase a bible. This person also most likely doesn’t have a computer, iPad, or internet in which he can freely obtain a copy of the bible.

So if there was a person in America who couldn’t afford a bible, didn’t have a place to purchase one nearby, and was truly in need of one, I would say let’s do whatever it takes to get them a bible. We should also do the same for China. Sounds simply enough, right? Well it is not that easy.

The logical conclusion to this would be, let’s legally buy bibles in China and give it to that person. But what happens when you have the “church” or people wanting hundreds or thousand of bibles? Can you legally buy thousands or hundreds of bibles? I have never tried this so I can’t give an exact answer, but we will assume that the government most likely will frown on this. If not, distributing them, like any Christian literature would be illegal.

Now we have a problem, and the answer seems to say, “we have to smuggle bibles into China to equip the Chinese Church!”

It sounds right, but there is one more part of the equation that many leave out.…(Continued in Part 3)

It would not be unheard of for a church member to hear a missionary talk about the need of smuggling bibles into China and then hear another missionary say something completely opposite, such as, “we no longer need to smuggle bibles into China because you can freely buy bibles in a Christian bookstore.”

The person sitting in the pew is confused and doesn’t want to judge that one of them is wrong. The likely result is to set the subject aside and simply be happy throwing money at missions to check off the box on your tithing envelope.

I want to take a couple post and talk about this subject of bible smuggling in China.

First things first, let me give some clarifying statements so there will be less confusion throughout this series of posts:

• This is not an attack on bible smugglers. It is an open discussion. It’s an attempt at the disconnect between the two different ministry philosophies. It’s a way to see if there is a better way to use our resources for China.

• Just because a pastor allows a missionary to speak in front of the the church doesn’t mean that missionary is being truthful, has the best plan for a country, or that he is not ignorant of the true condition and need of the country he is representing.

• Senders need to be investors, not simply givers. Be good stewards of God’s money and invest it with wisdom and faith.

• Just because I think there are better options than bible smuggling doesn’t mean that I am against the bible.

• I am not against “bible smuggling,” I am just considering its’ relevance in modern China.

• I may be wrong in some of my assumptions and information. Thus, I am willingly to learn from those who are leading the way for bible smuggling in China.

Now, with these clarifying statements being understood, let’s answer two important questions:

Is it legal for a Chinese person to buy a bible in China?
Yes! A Chinese person can legally buy a bible from a government approved Church and some Christian bookstores located inside China. Also, they can buy bibles online. Bibles are being legally and illegally published in China. Bibles are inexpensive, affordable and fairly easy to obtain.

What formats can Chinese people access the Bible?
Besides buying a traditional Bible, a Chinese person can freely access and read the Bible on the internet through many unblocked websites. They can access the Chinese audio Bible for free download on many websites, as well as access podcast, CDs, and audio players that contain the Word of God. The digital age has really put an end to the days where people only have a few pages of the Bible where they are reading with candle light.

Now, you are probably thinking that if the answers to these two questions are true and accurate then why are people still smuggling bibles into China. Good question, right? …(Continued in Part 2)

• Free Resources for January 29, 2012
• Global Day of Prayer for the Chinese

May we see more Chinese people worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ this year!

Trends and Traditions

There’s some clear trends among modern missions efforts in China. Missionaries and their organizations are, in general, moving…

• AWAY from urban centers, TOWARDS rural areas…
• AWAY from church-planting, TOWARDS supporting roles…
• AWAY from language-learning, TOWARDS English-based ministry…
• AWAY from bold witnessing, TOWARDS secretive witnessing…

These trends are… discouraging. But over the past couple weeks, I have happily been exposed to the works of several independent Baptist missionaries across the country who are bucking these trends. They are bright exceptions to the dull landscape that is Chinese missions. While I’m sure that there are good men of other affiliations who are equally opposed to these trends, I have yet to encounter a group in China with higher percentages of people moving in the opposite direction of the trends listed above. Though there’s not many of them, our missionaries, by and large, are ministering in Chinese. They are located primarily in big cities. They’re generally not afraid to witness. And they’re working in unregistered churches – many of them planting.

Since I’m an independent Baptist myself, I’d be more hesitant to glory in this tendency, were it not for a few things…

1. Second Corinthians is my flavor of the month, and as Paul says, ‘all things are of God.’ There is no place for boasting in the ministry of the new covenant, for, at our most faithful, we are but executors of the message of reconciliation entrusted to us. So anything that our men in China have gotten right, they can only glory in the God who both founded and prospered their work. God is the architect of every church planted. He alone gives the language. He grants boldness. He puts us in strategic places. To glory in these things rightly is to glory in Him!

2. We’re still not doing as well as we would wish. Our churches aren’t as strong or as numerous as they should be. Our Chinese is not as good as it should be. We’re not as bold as we should be. So while I’m excited that we’ve got the right bearing, I think we all mourn the limited progress in that direction. It’s a good start, but not much more.

3. This ministry strategy was not hit upon by creative problem-solving or innovative, out-of-the-box thinking. Rather, the opposite is the case: this strategy is the result of a lack of creativity! The biggest reason our missionaries in China are planting churches, learning the language, and living in cities is… well, they’re traditional. It’s just what we’ve always done! Our missionaries’ works in China are almost embarrassingly similar to what we do in the West, and to what we did as missionaries fifty years ago. It’s ironic that what many perceive to be our churches’ most critical weakness in the States would prove to be our most critical strength in China!

These men are so traditional, it’s refreshing! Because all the creative ministries are just about played out! No longer is ‘using English to reach people’ a novelty – it’s a cliché. Speaking in missionary code isn’t much of a secret anymore. Targeting minority peoples is now the majority position.

Of course, these anti-trends are all connected to each other. Most of these men have been motivated in their language learning by a desire to be integrally involved in church leadership (this isn’t the place to discuss it, but this is undoubtedly one of the biggest reasons why people can’t learn Chinese – they have no such motivation). They can plant a church because they have been more bold in inviting and evangelizing. They’re in urban places because that’s where the bulk of people are. See? It’s really like they just couldn’t think of anything trendier to do!

Creativity in missions is overrated. How much is there really about the Gospel ministry that we’re comfortable fiddling with? We have a tendency to talk about ‘all these traditions that we’ve heaped onto the Western church.’ Which traditions exactly? The church-planting tradition? Many missionaries in China are so creative, they don’t even go to church. Or maybe the tradition of boldly declaring the Gospel? Many missionaries in China are so creative, they can be a Gospel witness simply by being a positive example. China has had quite enough of these novelties!

The Gospel ministry isn’t kindergarden. We don’t get points for creativity. Our standard is faithfulness to the biblical model. Anyway, little bit of a rant there at the end, but I wanted to share with you some of the excitement I’ve been feeling this week as I’ve learned about some faithful men serving in this country! Before you get sucked into any of the trends I mentioned at the beginning, either as a missionary or as a sender, know there’s another way. It’s not very creative, but that might be the best thing it’s got going for it.

Source: The Gospel in China

Some Statistics on Bookstores and Publishing in China

• There are 167,000 bookstores in China of which 43,000 are state owned. The balance are private – about 120,000 bookstores.

• There are 300 online bookstores.

• In 2003 there were about 15 private Christian bookstores in China. Today there are approximately 150 with a new store opening every month.

• Of the 577 publishing houses that have the authority to issue ISBN numbers (a licence given by the central govt): 37 are alligned with various Beijing government administrations; 9 are publishing groups; 101 are university presses; 413 are provincial which are often not known or distributed outside of their province. They represent 60% of the market share of all book publishers in China.

• There are 10,000+ private book companies that are “allowed” to edit, design, print, market, etc. They do not have the authority to issue ISBN numbers and so they must go through one of the publishing houses.

• There are approximately 6 to 8 private Christian publishing companies. Many house church members (even in Beijing) are still unaware that it is possible to legally buy a Christian book.

• In 2002, more than 60,000 titles were published in China, only 36 of them were Christian. In 2002, one Christian bookstore in Shanghai stocked more than 60 titles. Today, they sell about 600.

• China’s literacy rate is 93%.

• 50% to 60% of publishing revenues are text book related. Scale and profits are declining due to “free content” and “sharing.”

• There are 50,000 libraries which are primarily located in colleges and schools. There are only 2,000 public libraries. Consequently, in many locations the private bookstores have become the local libraries with the aisles filled with people reading books.

• The top publisher is Higher Education Press (or possibly China Machine Press) with 2.56% market share. Higher Education Press (HEP) releases 2,000+ new titles every year. They annually sell over 121 million units and have $343 million in annual revenues. A woman representing HEP said that book publishing in China is a “fast changing world” including “digital” and “customized” publishing. She added that to succeed HEP is pursuing “innovation, globalization, and partnerships.”

• The top 10 publishers have 25% market share. Compare this to the top 10 trade book publishers in the USA which have 71% market share. It is clear that book publishing is still developing and not concentrated, representing great opportunities.

• Currently, the total number of Christian books in legal circulation is about 600. Reformed books are a very small fraction of that amount.

Source: Robert Morrison Project