<< Back to Summer E-Newsletter
China has almost one and one-half billion people – more than 20% of all people on the earth! She has rapidly become a military and economic superpower. Her massive factories and underpaid workforce, the world’s largest, are producing goods and services for the entire world.
 When the brutal dictator Mao expelled the Nationalists from China in the late 1940s, he established a reign of terror with an official policy to eliminate religion from Chinese society. Locked behind the Bamboo Curtain and reduced in number to 500,000 adherents, the Chinese Church seemed to have no hope for survival. The world assumed the faithful in China had been fully eliminated.
But in spite of persecution, the Wind of God was blowing across China. Many believers willingly became martyrs for the sake of the Gospel. An unprecedented spiritual revival reached millions. Today the number of believers in China is estimated at 130 million, with some experts insisting the number is much higher.
Are followers of Christ persecuted in China? Is there religious freedom in China? Are there a growing number of wealthy people in China? Do millions live in poverty? The answer to all these questions is YES… somewhere in China.
In recent years, EQUIP leaders have met with key Chinese leaders to ask how we can serve them. The reply is always the same: Bible-based leadership training and resources. Whether leaders of registered or unregistered churches, whether leaders of newly planted city churches or more traditional rural churches, whether university students or business leaders, they plead with us for materials and training to help them raise up effective servant-leaders to reach China’s many urban centers with the Good News, to launch a vanguard of well-equipped leaders to win all of Asia to Christ, and to take the message of salvation “back to Jerusalem.”
 As I have met in recent months with many of our ministry partners in China, it is apparent that the training launched by EQUIP in China just two years ago is having a powerfully positive impact. Of special significance are the thousands of new congregations established in Beijing, Shanghai and many other major cities by young marketplace leaders. They meet in offices, conference rooms, hotels, factories and apartments. When I asked one urban leader to share his personal dreams, he replied, “To know the Savior more intimately, to love Him more fully, and to serve Him more effectively.” He quickly added, “The EQUIP curriculum is the number one reason I have been able to minister effectively to city dwellers who are achieving financial success, but are discovering their hearts are empty and their lives are without purpose and meaning.”
It is also significant that as the leadership capacity of the Chinese Church grows, they are establishing numerous compassionate and humanitarian ministries, as diverse as disaster relief in the aftermath of the earthquake and outreach to the 30 to 40 million farmers who are migrating to the cities each year in search of employment. Many of these migrants need help learning basic life skills for survival in urban centers. These compassionate ministries provide an effective platform for spiritual witness.
Based on combined reports from our partners, abut 200,000 servant leaders are now studying our Biblical leadership curriculum in China. Strict accuracy in reporting results is a crucial accountability factor in use of funds provided through EQUIP.
These leaders represent several “streams” in which training is taking place on an ongoing basis:
-Rural churches in every province of the nation
-Registered churches located in 13 provinces
-Congregations in major cities
-Leaders in the marketplace
-University students
-Participants in the MLM training in Hong Kong
-Men and women being trained by our radio partner who broadcasts the EQUIP lessons throughout the nation
Our hearts were moved deeply by the vision, passion and commitment of the church leaders we met in China. Their burden for the lost stirred our hearts. One high-level Chinese leader wept openly as she passionately prayed for revival in America and Europe.
A key leader in one of the largest church networks expressed profound gratitude for the EQUIP training and its positive impact upon over 60,000 leaders being trained in their group alone. He said, “The EQUIP material is Biblical, practical, culturally relevant, and came just when we needed it most.” He explained, “This training is equipping us to reach out to the millions of educated people dwelling in the cities. They are the future of China.”
The Church in China has seen miracles. They have experienced tremendous harvest. They now firmly believe that leadership training is the crucial need of the hour.
EQUIP is committed to continue to respond to the Chinese leaders’ cry for help in raising up more and better leaders to win all of their nation and all of Asia to the Master. (Sixty percent of earth’s population lives in Asia.) We are currently investing about $30,000 per month in China, but this is woefully inadequate in light of the need and the opportunity. We must increase our training there. This can be done only with your prayers and financial partnership.
Doug Carter
Senior Vice President, EQUIP
|
|
