Changing Asia and New Mission Strategy

Transcription

1 Changing Asia and New Mission Strategy I. Asia s Four Degrees of Religious Persecution 1. Asia-1 Nations 2. Asia-2 Nations 3. Asia-3 Nations 4. Asia-4 Nations II. Paul s Mission Strategy for Asia Today 1. Similarities between Ephesus of the 1 st C. and Asia Today 1) Largest Population 2) Religious City 3) Sinful City 4) Persecution 2. Paul s Mission Strategy to Evangelize Ephesus 1) Small number of Christian population 2) Christian conflicts between the Circumcised and Uncircumcised 3) Spiritual immaturity: spiritual babies 4) Emphasis on the leadership spiritual gifts III. Three Major Developments for Missions in Asia Today 1. Rapid Church Growth 2. Emphasis from Contextualization to Globalization 3. Development of Mass Media IV. Five Main Issues in Missions in Asia Today 1. Christianization of the Nation by the Nationals 2. Proper Redistribution of Missionaries 3. Theology of Mission Issues among the Evangelicals: What is the Mandate of the Church? 4. Urgent Leadership Training in Islamic Nations 5. How to Mobilize Chinese Churches for Missions? Conclusion

2 To discuss intelligently about Christian missions and mission strategies in Asia is not easy. Asia which contains 60% of the total world population of over 7 billion people has many complex and diversified cultures, languages and historical backgrounds. The rapidly changing present situations in the political, socio-economic, intellectual and religious areas mean there is no one unified Asia. The author served in Asia as an OMF missionary for 30 years: Singapore ( ), Taiwan (75-89), Korea ( ) and taught Church History and Missions at different seminaries in Asia as well as in America. This paper first points out the importance of using the Pauline mission strategy of leadership training in Ephesus in the New Testament which is relevant to the present situation in Asia. There are differences as well as similarities between the Ephesian Church of the 1 st C. and the Asian Church in the 21 st C. Paul pointed out the necessity of the spiritual gifts of leadership (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) in order to evangelize Ephesus, a large city in Asia Minor. Likewise, the Pauline strategy of training leadership is very strategic in Asia today. Finally, this paper discusses five important missiological issues in the light of increasing opposition and persecution against the Christian Church in Asia today. Asia contains at least 44 separate nations. N.E. Asia (6 nations): Japan, S. Korea, N. Korea, China, Taiwan, Mongolia, (Hong Kong). S.E. Asia (10 nations): Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. South Asia (8 nations): India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives. Central Asia (5 nations): Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan. Middle East (West Asia) (15 nations): Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Somalia. I. Asia s Four Degrees of Religious Persecution These nations are largely divided into four different categories according to the degrees of religious freedom. 1. Asia-1 Nations: Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, (Hong Kong), Singapore, India. These nations generally allow religious freedom and Christian missionary activities. With rapid economic development, the national churches have experienced different degrees of church growth and have sent their own missionaries to foreign lands. For example, the Korean Church has sent 25,000 Korean missionaries working in 170 nations. The Indian Church has over 30,000 Indian missionaries mostly from South India to North India. 2. Asia-2 Nations: China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Israel, and Lebanon. The governments of A-2 nations allow different degrees of religious freedom but under government restriction. Most of the A-2 nations belong to the Buddhist, communist, and moderate Islamic nations. Each nation strongly promotes its own traditional religion(s) and political ideology, but allows limited religious freedom to Christianity. 3. Asia-3 Nations: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, most Islamic nations in the Middle East, Central Asia. The Christians in the A-3 nations are experiencing severe religious persecution even to the point of having their lives threatened. All of the A-3 nations represent radical Islamic nations. For example, on September 22, 2013 two suicide Taliban bombers blew themselves up in the midst of Sunday morning worship at All Saints Church in Peshwaru, in north Pakistan that killed 81Christians and wounded 140 people.[1]

3 This type of Islamic terrorists threat against Christians can be multiplied by hundreds of other cases throughout the Islamic nations. The Christians in A-3 nations are afraid for their lives; many of them are even reluctant to attend Sundaymorning services and other Christian activities at their local churches. Christian persecution by the Jews and the Roman soldiers in the Early Church is being replicated in the Islamic nations in the 21 st C., particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and Nigeria. In fact, the very survival of Christianity in some A-3 nations is at stake, just as the Muslim military forces conquered North Africa and the Middle East and exterminated the Christian Church in the 7 th C. Therefore, new mission strategies are needed in A-3 nations to strengthen the national churches. 4. Asia-4 Nations: N. Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Maldives, Afghanistan, Yemen, Mauritania, Uzbekistan, and Laos. ( 10 worst nations ) 2 The persecution against Christians is so severe that any one who confesses faith in Jesus Christ will be in danger for his life or put into prison. North Korea presents the worst case of Christian persecution. Physical torture and suffering in prison camps in North Korea are explicitly portrayed by two former labor camp prison escapees in their respective books. Lee Soon-ok, a former communist party member, who was in prison ( ) met many Christians in her labor camp in North Korea. She described the suffering Christians as Shining Eyes of the Animals without the Tails, because they put their heads between their two legs and looked like monkeys running around without tails. She said there were 200,000 prisoners in 12 labor camps in North Korea including 40,000-60,000 Christians. Shin Dong-hyuk is a recent escapee from a North Korean prison after two dozen years in labor camps. He wrote about his terrible experiences of torture in his new book, Escape from Camp Likewise, it is increasingly difficult for Christians in the Middle East and other radical Islamic nations in Asia to openly confess their faith in Jesus Christ; consequently, the number of secret Christians is increasing in A-3 and A-4 nations. II. Paul s Mission Strategy for Asia Today History often repeats itself with developments. The Oriental view of history is the cyclical view of life; i.e., from birth to old age and to sickness and finally to death without any meaning. On the other hand, the Western secular spiral view of history is that civilizations develop from the agricultural society to feudalism then to capitalism and to modernism and finally to post-modernism. Pauline mission strategy in the 1st C. can teach a significant lesson to the mission strategists of the 21 st C.; there are important similarities and differences between the 1st C. church and society and the present situations of our church and society in Asia. If Paul were living today in Asia, he would certainly point to the city of Ephesus and to his mission strategy for the Ephesian Church as a model case for the Asian Church. 1. Similarities between Ephesus of the lst C. and Asia today 1) Largest Population: 500,000 people Ephesus was the largest city in Asia Minor in the 1st C. with a great harbor, emporium, and library and was a commercial, cultural, and education center. Likewise, Asia today contains 60% of the total world population. As it was a tremendous missionary challenge for Paul to reach this vast number of people in Ephesus with the gospel, so it is a tremendous mission challenge for a minority Christian community (5%) in Asia to reach out to the 95% non-christian population. 2) Religious City: Temple of Diana (Romans) also called Goddess Artemis (Greeks) The great Temple of Diana was situated outside the city of Ephesus. This temple was 342 ft long, 164 ft wide, supported by a forest of columns (each 56 ft high) and had a sacred museum made of shining marble. The Goddess Artemis was enshrined in the temple for worship (Acts 19:27-28).

4 Likewise, today all the living world religions are found in Asia. There are 800 million Hindus in India and Nepal, 400 million Buddhists in East and South East Asia, over one billion Muslims in Asia, and other millions of believers of Shintoism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Asia is the continent of multi-religions; these religions are reviving today with the support of their governments. 3) Sinful City: Loss of moral value Paul described the immoral condition of the Ephesians as, They become callous, have given themselves over sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. (Eph. 4:19) Likewise, injustice, bribery, and all kinds of immorality are rampant in the religious Asian society today. 4) Persecution: In Acts 19:23f Demetrius, a silversmith in Ephesus, who made money by selling the statues of the goddess Artemis, mobilized the Ephesians to demonstrate against Paul and his message by saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. (Acts 19:28) The Christians throughout the Roman Empire in the Early Church experienced persecution and were known as the catacomb Christians. Likewise, there has been an increasing amount of persecution against the Christian Church by religious fanatics, particularly in the A-3 and A-4 nations in Asia. Hundreds of Christian persecution incidents in Asia and Africa have been reported through newspapers, TV, and radio and have alarmed many Christians around the world. The present Christian persecution in Asia reminds us of the severe Christian persecution in the Early Church during the Roman Empire until religious freedom was granted through the Edict of Milan by Emperor Constantine the Great in 313 AD. 2. Paul s Mission Strategy to Evangelize Ephesus There are also a number of similarities between the Ephesian Church and the Asian Church. First, the Ephesian church had a small number of Christians just as the Asian church today represents a small minority (5%) of the total population of 4.5 billion people in Asia. Second, the former had a problem of disunity between the Jewish and Gentile Christians (Eph. 2:11) just as the latter has disunity with its many ethnic languages, provincialism, and urban-rural disparities. Third, as the Ephesian church had a lack of discipline and training that produced spiritual babies (Eph. 4:14), so the Asian church has today a tremendous shortage of mature Christian workers. Therefore, Paul s strategy for the Ephesian church was to train the leadership of the church by emphasizing the spiritual gifts of church leadership (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) (Eph. 4:11). Today these trained spiritual leaders should mobilize their church members to do the work of evangelism, student ministry, social work and many other grass-roots ministries. It is the ministry of modern discipleship training programs to train the key leadership of the local church. How can a small minority of Christians in Asia reach the vast majority of the non-christian population with the gospel? The Pauline mission strategy of leadership training at the local church must be applied to Asia in the 21 st C. In order to become an effective witness for Jesus Christ in the Asian society, Christians must be trained in the Scriptures. With spiritual enthusiasm, he can effectively share his faith with non-christians. III. Three Major Developments for Missions in Asia Today Civilizations of mankind have developed many changes from one generation to another in political, socioeconomic, cultural and religious spheres. Certainly, we do not live at the time of St. Paul. The author would like to point out three particular areas of changes in Asia today which were not present in the Early Church and which can make their positive contributions to modern mission strategies in Asia. 1. Rapid church growth has been experienced in some of A-1 and A-2 nations. When the author began to work for Asia Theological Association (ATA) as its first General Secretary ( ) in Singapore in 1970, the Asian church in general was an infant in its development and growth. All Asian nations except Japan and Thailand were under Western colonialism but eventually received their political independence. However, they still depended on economic assistance from the West. Consequently, Western

5 missionary activities were quite significant in the areas of church planting and theological education in Asia; many Asian church leaders still depended on western mission dollars and missionary personnel through a Paternal Relationship. Today, the Asian churches in A-1 and A-2 nations are generally in the mature stage without depending on western mission dollars and missionary personnel. With the rapid economic development in most Asian nations, the Asian church now is able to support its own ministries becoming independent from the influences of western nations. In fact, most A-2 nations and all of A-3 and A-4 nations do not issue visas to foreign missionaries; therefore, missionaries have to find other ways to get their visas to work in these nations. The rapid church growth in recent years in China, South Korea, the Philippines, and Singapore is quite noticeable. The church growth rate in Korea in 1970s was Six New Churches Everyday. 4 The church growth explosion both in the Three Self Patriotic Churches (TSPC) and house churches in China for the last 20 years has amazed world-wide Christianity. Even in the area of theological education in Asia, Asian seminaries have become more mature and do not have to depend on theological seminaries in Europe and North America. As ATA General Secretary for 20 years, the author laid the foundation of ATA. The following successors (Drs. Ken Gnanakan, Derek Tan, and Joseph Shao) have built ATA into the present mature stage. ATA has now 275 member seminaries through accreditation and has become the largest accreditation body in Asia. ATA also organized Asia Graduate School of Theology (AGST) in The AGST-Philippines, AGST-Japan, AGST-Indonesia, AGST-Alliance (South East Asia) have produced more than 200 graduates with their Ph.D., Ed.D., D.Min., and Th.M. degrees within Asia. The AGST-International (Korea) was also established in 2013 in cooperation with 11 seminaries which are accredited by ATA. The AGST degrees are accredited by ATA and are recognized by the International Evangelical Theological Education (IETE) which are consisted of the six continental accrediting associations. 2. Emphasis from Contextualization to Globalization. Since the Theological Education Fund (TEF) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in London introduced the Third Mandate Period: with $3,300,000 financial assistance to main line theological seminaries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the concept of contextualization became very popular. TEF wanted to formulate new theologies from different contextual issues in the Third World. Consequently, the contextual theologies became very popular in the theological arena in the 1970s-1990s. Asia had its own contextual theologies known as Asian Theology such as Kazuo Kitamori s Pain of God Theology (Japan), Kozuke Koyama s Waterbuffalo Theology (Thailand), Son Chen-shen s Third Eye Theology (Taiwan), Kim Young-bok s Minjung Theology (Korea), and Stanley Samartha s Unbound Christ Theology (India). 5 Today, the focus is on Globalization. Globalization is taking place culturally and sociologically in Asia as the world is becoming much smaller because of its extensive international trades, travels, and communication. Christianity which used to be associated with modernity and Western culture has become part of the global cultural symbol among younger generations in Asia today. This cultural transformation contributes to the global presentation of Christianity to many open-minded younger generation Asians in A-2, A-3, and A-4 nations. 3. Development of Mass Media The development of mass media through internet, TV, radio, smartphones, and publication has made the world a global village. We can observe in our living room what is happening at a remote place in Asia, Africa, and anywhere in the world. Parents can talk to their children far away face to face through the internet. This rapid development of modern mass communication will continue to grow in the future. Christian mission organizations must find ways to utilize this mass media to develop church leadership training programs, particularly in the persecuted regions of A-2, A-3, and A-4 nations known as the Restricted Access

6 Nations. Visible church activities are restricted due to the anti-christian persecution and terrorism. By utilizing modern mass media communication tools, theological education in the Restricted Access Nations can develop internet and on-line training. IV. Five Main Issues in Missions Today in Asia 1. Christianization of the Nation by the Nationals This concept of Christianization of the Nation by the nationals teaches that the national Christians have the primary responsibility of evangelizing their own people. The traditional Western mission leaders in the 19 th and 20 th C. often emphasized the goal of evangelizing the world through their Western missionary effort. Even though they established Bible institutes and seminaries to train national leaders, they did not develop the concept of Christianization of the Nation by the nationals themselves. They couldn t imagine the thought that the number of Third World Missionaries would surpass the number of Western missionaries in the 21 st C. However, time has changed. The relationship of foreign missionaries with the national church has changed from the Paternal Relationship to Partnership and now Under the National Church. This means that the role of western and Asian missionaries in the mission fields has also changed. The missionaries in A-1 and A-2 nations have to acknowledge the maturity of the national churches and have to work closely with the national church leaders. Therefore, the most important mission strategy in A-1and A-2 nations in Asia is the concept of Christianization of the Nation by the nationals. This means that the chief responsibility of evangelizing the nation rests upon the national church itself, and not on foreign missionaries. The role of missionaries in these nations is how to assist the mature national churches to evangelize their own people with the gospel. A mission theory that if we send more missionaries to a country, more people will become Christians is not necessarily correct. For example, Japan which has more than 450 years of mission history has only 1.1 million Christian population (0.8%) including 641,351 Protestant Christians (0.4%) out of 127 million people. However, compared with other nations, Japan has the largest number of foreign missionaries (3,500) from 245 mission agencies in 33 nations. The additional missionaries to Japan is not the key answer to evangelize the Japanese. The key issue is to mobilize over a million Japanese Christians in 8,023 churches to take seriously the task of evangelizing their own people. It is the question of Christianization of the Nation by the nationals. 6 The church growth explosion or wildfire church growth in Korea has been widely known and was reported in a book, Korean Church Growth Explosion. 7 The first two Protestant missionaries came from America. Dr. Horace Underwood (Presbyterian) and Dr. Horace Appenzeller (Methodist) came together to Korea in With many other missionaries they planted churches, established popular schools for boys and girls, and established hospitals, and orphanages. They produced many church leaders through Christian universities and seminaries, and laid the foundation of the Korean Church. The agonizing experiences of persecution during the Japanese colonial period ( ) plus the Korean War ( ) caused thousands of Christian leaders to be imprisoned or executed for their faith in Jesus Christ. They opposed the Japanese Shinto shrine worship and communism. The Korean Church was known as a suffering church, and consequently was reaping the fruits from the Christian martyrs. The Korean church leaders emphasized the Christianization of the Nation Movement which stressed that the main responsibility of evangelizing Korea rested upon the Korean Christians themselves. In 1990 there were 12 million Protestant Christians and 2.6 million Roman Catholics in the nation of 40 million people. Rev. Kim Joon-gon, founder and former president of the Korean Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC) was one of the key promoters of the Christianization of the Nation Movement. The western missionaries laid

7 the foundation of the Korean Church, but the Korean Church has taken the main responsibility of Christianizing the country with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. Proper Redistribution of Missionaries Missionaries are called to do different kinds of ministry such as church planting, student ministry, factory work, missionary kids (MK) ministry, seminary education, etc. Although every ministry is important, not all ministries are equally important depending on the field situation. The traditional mission agencies such as OMF Int., World Evangelical Crusade, Sudan Interior Mission, and many others have strongly emphasized church planting in A-1 and A-2 nations where there are already wellestablished national churches. One key issue today in Asia is that there is a tremendous shortage of trained national pastors and theologians. To produce more pastors and theologians is the work of theological education. Therefore, mission agencies must recruit more spiritually and academically qualified missionaries to assist theological seminaries in Asia. For example, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. The Christians represent 15.8% (including 5.6% evangelical Christians) of the total population of million people. Since the fall of President Suharto in 2000, the Indonesian government has established policies against Christianity, particularly Christian colleges and seminaries. The government recently moved all Christian higher educational institutions from the Ministry of Religious Affairs to the Ministry of Education and applied more government restrictions. Dr. Bruce Nicholls, a New Zealand missionary to India for over 30 years has assisted ATA since its inception in He appealed to the Korean Church in 2012 to recruit Korean theologians with PhD. degrees to teach in Indonesia, because the Indonesian government now requires at least five Ph.D. level theologians at a seminary in order to acquire the government accreditation. And yet, the number of Indonesian theologians on the Ph.D. level is quite limited, so that many Indonesian seminaries are requesting help from other countries. On the other hand, there are more than 2,000 Korean theologians who have either Ph.D. or D.Ed. degrees, and it is difficult now for Korean theologians with their doctoral degrees to find teaching positions within Korea. While the Korean Church has an abundant supply of pastors and theological lecturers, many seminaries in A-1 and A-2 nations are looking for qualified pastors and theologians. Dr. Nicholls also appealed to his own Interserve Mission Agency for theologians for Indonesia but failed to get them. Let the mission agencies both in the West as well as in Asia recruit more theologians for Asian seminaries in order that the national seminaries will be able to produce needed church leaders. 3. Theology of Mission Issue among the Evangelicals: What is the Mandate of the Church? Since the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE) jointly sponsored the Consultation on the Relationship between Evangelism and Social Responsibility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, June 19-25, 1982, missiological discussions on this topic have continued until the present. Some 50 evangelical theologians, mission executives, and evangelists from six continents attended the Grand Rapids Consultation. Rev. John Stott served as the Director, and Rev. Gottfried Osei-Mensah from Africa and Dr. Bong Rin Ro from Asia served as Co-Chairmen of the Consultation. 7 The key missiological issue at this meeting was, What is the Mandate of the Church? Is it evangelism or is it Christian social concern? One group emphasized that the mandate of the church is evangelism upon which Christian social concern should be built while the other group emphasized that evangelism and social responsibility are equally important and cannot place one as more important than the other. There is an increasing tendency of emphasizing social responsibility over evangelism even among the evangelical organizations especially in the West today. Dr. Robertson McQuilkan, President Emeritus of Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, expressed his concern after attending the Lausanne Congress III in Cape Town in October The evangelical churches around the world must not

8 forget the Great Commission of Jesus Christ that is to bring people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He made his comment in the article, Jesus vs. Paul in Christianity Today magazine (December 2013), The thesis was that a great battle rages in evangelical circles over whether the mission of the church is primarily to follow Jesus who cared for the sick, the oppressed, or whether we should primarily follow Paul with the gospel of justification, or extending the hope of eternal salvation. The author maintains that this is the major confrontation in the evangelical churches of America today. 9 The author fully agrees with Dr. McQuilkan that the mandate of the church is evangelism upon which Christian social concern must be established. 4. Urgent Leadership Training in Islamic Nations More than 235 Asian evangelical theologians from 30 countries attended the ATA Triennial Theological Consultation in Jakarta, Indonesia in August 12-15, Dr. David Kim, President of Torch Trinity Graduate University in Seoul interviewed several Asian theologians from the persecuted nations. A theologian from Jordan expressed his deep concern for the continual decline of the Christian population in the Middle East. He gave three main reasons. 1) Many Muslim men are marrying Christian girls, and this mixed marriage family must raise children in the Islamic faith according to the national constitution. On the other hand, Christian men are forbidden to marry Muslim girls unless they agree to change their religion to Islam. In Jordan one third of Christians girls marry Muslim men, and in Egypt 15,000 Christians are becoming Muslims annually. The annual decline of Christian population through marriage is 17%. 2) Many Christians immigrate to Europe and North America. The following rates show the continual decline of Christian population: 13.3% (1894), 7.59% (1945), and 2.25% (2000). 3) The Islamic nations are applying the Islamic Sharia law to all citizens and are trying to restrict religious freedom. Christians suffer persecution under the Sharia law; consequently, the number of Christians is continually declining each year. As the Christian leadership disappears at the local church level, the local church will eventually disappear. 10 The growing Muslim persecution and the terrorists threat to many Christians in the Islamic nations today bring a tremendous missiological challenge and concern to the Christian church around the world. This pressing situation in A-3 and A-4 nations challenges the very survival of Christianity and is very different from that of the A-2 nations. Historically speaking, the Islamic conquest to North Africa and the Middle East during the 7 th C. by their swords is reoccurring in the Islamic nations in the 21 st C. During the time of St. Augustine of Hippo ( ) there were 500 bishoprics and thousands of churches throughout North Africa, and yet today, this entire region became Islamized. 11 To discuss a desperate need for new mission strategies in the 55 Islamic nations, the author proposes two areas of leadership training to mission agencies. 1) Theological Education by Extension (TEE) becomes very important. During the Cold War period ( ), TEE was extensively utilized in the communist countries to train church leaders. According to TEE programs, a Bible teacher meets a small group of Christians each week to teach the Scriptures with the Programed Instruction Materials (PIM) even up to different degree levels. Thank God for the availability of modern mass media and for many different kinds of extension education materials (written, internet, DVDs, radio, and smartphones) for students. 2) Theological seminaries in the Islamic nations need help from ATA and other seminaries in A-1 nations. The statement of As the seminary goes, so goes the church is very relevant in this situation. It is a mandate that theological education in A-2, and A-3 nations must be strengthened. The Middle East Association of Theological Education (MEATE) which has 18 member seminaries in four countries had close association

9 with ATA in the past. MEATE leaders must find ways in the present to have much closer links with ATA and other Asian seminaries. 12 Therefore, the author makes the following suggestions. 1. ATA must find ways to strengthen seminaries in the Islamic nations not only through its accreditation program but also through the existing Asia Graduate School of Theology (AGST) in the Philippines, Japan, Alliance (SE. Asia), and Korea. AGST- Middle East needs to be established in the future. 2. Many well-established seminaries in A-1 nations like Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Philippines should find ways to assist seminaries in the Islamic nations, especially in the area of TEE and distant education. 3. Mission agencies must recruit more missionaries to develop relevant TEE materials to train leaders for local churches. 5. How to Mobilize Chinese Churches for Missions? The author believes that the task of world evangelization would be accomplished largely by the Chinese Christians. In other words, the Chinese Church around the world will play the major role in this task for four main reasons. 1) China has the largest population in the world with 1.3 billion people in China, and 71,385,700 ethnic Chinese around the world. There are 9,609 Chinese churches among the Chinese in diaspora outside China including 3,728 churches in Taiwan, and 1,250 churches in Hong Kong, 1,215 churches in America. 13 The Chinese Coordination Centre of World Evangelism (CCCOWE) office in Hong Kong coordinates the ministry of Chinese churches in six continents. The economic power of China today along with the oversea Chinese business enterprises and the Chinese churches around the world can contribute to the cause of world missions for the Chinese Church. 2) The Christians in China represent the largest number of Christian population in Asia. There are 60 million Protestant Christians (including 16 million Three Self Patriotic Church members) plus 23 million Roman Catholics totaling more than 83 million Christians. There are 80,000 house churches or meeting places with 36,000 Christian workers. 14 The number of new converts to Christianity in China daily is 20,000 people. 15 For this fantastic church growth, God has been reaping fruits of many Chinese Christians who suffered persecution and many other Christian martyrs during the communist rule under Chairman Mao Tze-tung. Tertullian of Carthage (c ) in North Africa said before his execution, The blood of the martyr is the seed of the church. Certainly, this is the hour that God is working in China to bring countless Chinese to Jesus Christ. Now is the time for the Chinese Church to build their church leaders through theological education to provide needed leadership for thousands of house churches before secular materialism will set in the growing churches in China. As Jesus said, The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few (Mathew9:37). In fact, some Chinese church leaders have already expressed their concerns for the inflow of materialism into the Chinese Church. The Chinese church must learn from the Korean Church from the last 40 years and learn a spiritual lesson. After the explosive Korean Church growth in the 1970s, the church began to decline from 1990s with the rapid economic development of the country and secularism. One of the challenges of the Korean Church today is the growing number of Christian young people who are leaving the church. One Korean pastor said in her sermon in Seoul recently, God already left Great Britain, God is leaving America, and God is preparing to leave Korea. Nevertheless, thank God that the Korean Church has already produced a large number of Christian workers through 250 theological seminaries under religious freedom. However, the political situation of the Chinese Church today is quite different from that of the Korean Church. 3) Some 700 theological seminaries (schools) in China

10 Dr. Thomas Lee, President of Global Chinese Bible Institute in Hong Kong, stated at the Asian Missiological Society Conference in Korea in 2012 that there are approximately 700 theological seminaries (schools) in China including 21 TSPC seminaries in all different academic levels. 16 Many of these house church seminaries are located in urban cities and are openly operating their teaching ministry. For the last 5 years ( ) the TSPC churches performed 2,4 million baptisms, established 5,195 churches, ordained 1,057 pastors, 482 assistant pastors, and 1,443 elders. There are 21 TSPC seminaries with 292 professors and 4,369 graduates. 17 One key issue is the tremendous shortage of theological lecturers with theological degrees. A very small number of Chinese theologians with their Ph.D. degrees are teaching in China today, and we all know that it will take years to train theologians outside China. Recently, many of these house church seminaries in China want to receive ATA accreditation in order to raise their academic standards and their degrees to be recognized by other seminaries in Asia and the West. The next years will be very important for the Christian Church in China, and the Chinese Church must find ways to train more pastors and theologians inside and outside China to meet the demands of the growing Chinese Church just as the Korean Church had done before materialism seeped into the minds of many Christians. One major difference between the Korean Church and the Chinese Church is the communist government restriction of religious freedom in China. Now is the time for the evangelical seminaries in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines in A-1 nations to train Chinese pastors and theologians. The oversea Chinese seminaries, particularly in North America and Australia/New Zealand ought to work with Asian seminaries to produce more Chinese theologians. ATA and other theological institutions outside China must cooperate to assist many house church seminaries which are seeking help and also to promote internationalization of the Chinese Church. The Chinese Church has been isolated from the international Christian community for so many years. In order to promote missions among the Chinese Christians, it is essential for the Chinese seminaries to catch the missionary vision. This means that more Chinese missionaries and mission professors for 700 seminaries are needed in the future. Due to the present political situation, it would be difficult for the Chinese Church to send many missionaries overseas; and yet, it is the right time to bring mission emphasis to both TSPC and house churches. 4) Back to Jerusalem Movement (BJM) The origin of the BJM goes back to Mr. Jing Dianying of Jesus Family in Shangdong Province, China in 1921, and it was spread to the house church movement throughout China. 18 The main thrust of BJM was that Christianity which originated from Jerusalem in the first C. was spread to Europe and N. Africa during the Medieval period, and then to N. America in the 17 th C.. From the 18 th C. Western Protestant missionaries went to Asia, Africa, and Latin America to evangelize the Third World. Now the promoters of BJM believe that time has come to the Chinese Church to take the gospel back to the Middle East and to Jerusalem. There are over 25 million Muslims (2%) in China including million Uygurs in the Xing Jiang Province of West China. Chinese Christians need to catch the vision of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to evangelize the Muslims in China and in the Middle East and Central Asia. The 4 th International Consultation of the Back to Jerusalem Movement was held in Jerusalem in June 1-4, 2010 in commemoration of the Centennial celebration of the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference. Many oversea Chinese church leaders such as Dr. Thomas Wang, Founder and President emeritus of the Great Commission in Mountain View, CA, and Dr. David Chow of the Ambassador for Christ in Paradise, PA., are strong supporters of BJM. One of the seven points in the Declaration of BJM Conference in Jerusalem states, We firmly believe that as we bring the gospel to Muslims, Jews, and other unreached people groups, the spiritual struggle will become intense, probably similar to what the apostle Paul has encountered (Phil. 1:30). 19 Conclusion:

11 The Asian Church which represents approximately 5% Christian population out of 4.5 billion people in Asia has a tremendous task of reaching the unreached peoples. This challenge comes from two directions. First, the challenge of materialism and secularism especially in the A-1 nations which hinders the task of world missions. Second, the increasing persecution against the Christian church in A-2, A-3, and A-4 nations in conflict with Islamic fundamentalism, Buddhism and communism have become a great challenge to the Christian church in Asia. Pauline mission strategy in Ephesus in the 1st C. has a very relevant message to the Asian Church in the 21 st C. We can understand the reason why Paul emphasized the spiritual gift of church leadership, because he wanted to train this small number of leaders in order to reach the great multitude of that great city of Ephesus. Likewise, in the Asian church, theological institutions, and mission agencies must concentrate their efforts on leadership training. The average Christian at the local church should be trained to do the work of evangelism, church planting, student ministry, social work, and other grass-roots ministry. Ultimately, the concept of Christianization of the Nation by the nationals is the answer to evangelize the great mass of people in Asia with the gospel of Christ. It is my responsibility as a Korean to evangelize my Korean people with the gospel. The foreign mission agencies of the West as well as of Asia must change their mission policy to provide more missionaries in the area of theological education. God is working in Asia and will mobilize the Asian church to accomplish the task of world evangelization. Endnotes 1. Taliban bombers cut down 81 Christian worshippers, Honolulu Star-Advertiser (Spt. 2013), p. A ,000 Christian Martyrs for one year (2009) in the World, The Korean Christian Press (May 8, 2010), p Fleeing Hell, WORLD (March 22, 2014), p. 45. See Ageless Antagonism, WORLD (Sept. 2013), p Kim Joon-gon, Six New Churches Everyday: Korean Church Growth, Asian Perspective, No. 7 (Taiwan: ATA, 1978). 5. Bong Rin Ro, Ken Gnanakan, and Joseph Shao. New Era New Vision (Manila: ATA, 2010), pp Kim Kyu-dong, The Missionary Church in the Mission Field of Japan, The Korean Christian Press (July 14, 2012), p Bong Rin Ro & Marlin Nelson, eds. Korean Church Growth Explosion (Seoul: Word of Life Press, 1995). 8. John Stott, Evangelism and Social Responsibility, Lausanne Papers No. 21 (London: LCWE an WEA, 1982), 64p. 9. Robertson McQuilkan, The controversy at Lausanne III, CIU Connection (Columbia, SC.: Columbia International University, Spring 2013), p Bong Rin Ro, Missionary Mandate of the Korean Seminaries, The Korean Christian Press (Nov. 2, 2013), p Dwight L. Baker, How a Whole Church Vanished, Christianity Today (Nov.25, 1966), pp Middle East Association for Theological Education (MEATE) Magazine, vol. 6, Issue 1 (December 2012). 13. More than 9,600 Oversea Chinese Churches Continue to Grow, The Korean Christian Press (April 16, 2011), p Continual Growth of House Churches in the Midst of Religious Persecution, The Korean Christian Press (Sept. 7, 2013), p Ryan Morgan, The Silent Persecution in China, Persecution (Silver Spring, MD: International Christian Concern (Sept. 2013), p Interview with a Chinese Missiologist, Thomas Lee, Chinese Language Mission Journal (Jan. 2, 2012), p TSPC Churches Added 2.4 million members for 5 years, The Korean Christian Press (Sept. 21, 2013), p Paul Hattaway, Brother Yun, Peter Xu Youngze, Enoch Wang. Back to Jerusalem (Carlisle, CA: Gabriel Pub., 2003), pp A Declaration of the Fourth International Consultation of the Back to Jerusalem

12 Movement, in Jerusalem (June 1-4, 2010), p.1. Bong Rin Ro, Th.D. Professor of Church History and Missions Hawaii Theological Seminary ATA International Senior Advisor AGST-International Author s Copy Journal of Asia Evangelical Theology," Vol. 18:2 (September 2014)