"It affected my generation of university students very deeply," Jin said of the crackdown [note: Tiananmen Square] that is known in Chinese as "6-4," for the date, June 4, 1989. "The university students in the '80s were groomed by the country. Our fees and living expenses were paid for by the country. The 6-4 event left many students hurt. ... Like all my other university peers, I felt an immense sense of hopelessness."
"We [had been] taught not to learn from God, that God is a fake," said Wang Qingying, a 37-year-old member of Jin's church who grew up the daughter of a Communist Party member. "After I started to believe, I realized that everything that happens is a part of God's design."
~ Chicago Tribune
China is in a great awakening of colossal proportions. The World Christian Database estimates that Christians number 70 million now in China, mostly in underground churches. The growth rate is staggering. In the last 10 years, the average growth of new Christians is about one million per year.
Bibles are selling like hot cakes. Tune into PBS t'nite at 9:00 for a report on this remarkable transformation of a nation. All by God's design.
From the Chicago Tribune article:
The Zion Church opened its doors in May 2007...
"Most of our members are highly educated—master's degree holders, PhD holders, university professors," he said.
I work with a number of scientists from China, and I was surprised when I realized that virtually all of them attend a Chinese language church. Many of them will eventually move back to China and take their faith with them. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the next 10 or 20 years.
Posted by: Nick | June 25, 2008 at 08:33
"Many of them will eventually move back to China and take their faith with them."
I think we are seeing a shift in our life time where those from China will say the same thing about us. In other words, I work with a bunch of Americans, and some of them will be going back to America with a new found faith. I think China is on path to replace America (and the West) as the largest nation sending Christian missionaries. I would be surprised if they don't view America as a mission field already.
Posted by: Mr. D | June 25, 2008 at 09:19
I would be surprised if they don't view America as a mission field already.
You're probably right. I think it's pretty clear that some African churches already view us as a mission field.
Posted by: Nick | June 25, 2008 at 12:30
I'd be careful about reading too much into this. 70 million sounds like a lot, but that's less than 5.3% of China's total population. By way of comparison, about 5.2% of the US population self-identifies as some non-Christian religion (Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, generic spritualism, etc.). Fully 15% of the US population classifies itself as nonreligious, atheist, or agnostic. So 5% of the Chinese population relegates Chinese Christians to a decidedly minority status.
Even the growth rate of 1 million Christians per year is paltry; if your figures are correct, Christianity in China grew by 10 million, while the population grew by 60 million during the same span -- so you have five times as many new non-Christians as new Christians. That means that while the total number of Christians in China is growing, they're becoming an ever-smaller percentage of the population, meaning they can be expected to have less influence.
Not what I'd call "staggering" by any means.
Posted by: tgirsch | June 25, 2008 at 17:39
"Not what I'd call "staggering" by any means."
Disagree. One, many of those children that were born are now being born into Christian homes. Chances are pretty good that they will follow Christ as well. Two, Christianity is a missionary endeavor. This means that China's one million new Christians per year are going to produce millions of new missionaries which will produce tens of millions of new followers of Christ ... both within China and outside of China.
Exciting stuff.
Posted by: Mr. D | June 26, 2008 at 07:33
tgirsch, I think your math is incorrect. 1 in 6 is 16.67%. That is more than 3 times as high as the current percentage of Chinese Christians, 5.3%. So the percentage of Chinese Christians is obviously rising dramatically. As Mr. D points out, the spread of Christianity might also be expected to increase in the future.
Posted by: Steve Clarke | June 26, 2008 at 14:48
Steve:
I think your math is incorrect. 1 in 6 is 16.67%. That is more than 3 times as high as the current percentage of Chinese Christians, 5.3%. So the percentage of Chinese Christians is obviously rising dramatically.
Let it not be said that I refuse to admit error. You're right, of course. If growth (in both population and number of Christians) continues at the current rate, the rate will hit nearly 10.7% in 20 years. They'd still be a small minority, but their representation would nearly double in that time, assuming current trends continue.
I stand corrected.
Posted by: tgirsch | July 14, 2008 at 12:52
[And, of course, because I'm a math geek at heart, I had to figure it out. Assuming those rates stay static -- a completely unrealistic assumption for a myriad of reasons, I'll grant -- the percentage of Chinese Christians would approach 16.67% along a logarithmic curve as a limit. I revised my previous math to use percentages rather than a fixed 60 million, and the ratio would hit 10% in 13 years, 15% in 44 years, and 16.67% in 198 years, assuming the second coming and Armageddon haven't hit by then. :)]
Posted by: tgirsch | July 14, 2008 at 13:02