wfn.org | [APD] Church president calls Chinese Adventist faith 'vibrant'

[Christian B. Schäffler <APD@stanet.ch>]

[APD] Church president calls Chinese Adventist faith 'vibrant'

Adventist Church delegation discusses ministerial education

Wuxi/People's Republic of China, 20.05.2009/ANN/APD   A rendition of a
popular 

Adventist hymn by a 45-member choir of the Wuxi Seventh-day Adventist
Church, 

"Lift up the Trumpet," welcomed Pastor Jan Paulsen on his first official
visit to the 

People's Republic of China as the world president of the Adventist world
church.

"I am often asked, 'How are our brothers and sisters in China?' Now, I will
be able 

to say -- they are well and vibrant," Paulsen told the congregation of
several 

hundred gathered in a 108-year-old city-center Protestant church, May 13. 

One of the Wuxi Adventist congregations packs this sanctuary every 

>Saturday (Sabbath). 

The Adventist faith community throughout China is a growing body of
believers, 

who are part of a larger Protestant Church in the country, whose activities
are 

coordinated by the China Christian Council/Three-Self Patriotic Movement 

(CCC/TSPM). The Wuxi Adventist community, which makes up 10 percent of 

Protestant Christians in the metropolitan area, has 35 congregations.

Preaching on the meaning of the Christian gospel, Paulsen encouraged 

believers to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. "We are a
witnessing 

>community," he said. 

Seventh-day Adventist believers are among the three distinctive Christian 

groups in China, which includes the Little Flock and the True Jesus Church. 

Today, there are 20 million Protestant Christians in China, according to
Council 

officials. There are nearly 400,000 Seventh-day Adventists in China
worshiping 

in some 4,000 congregations, including house churches, throughout the
country. 

Some local congregations own their church buildings, like the newly-opened 

Dongting Seventh-day Adventist Church in Wuxi. But in other areas Adventist 

believers hold Sabbath services in Protestant churches. On Thursday morning,

the delegation visited the Dongting church, which opened last November. 

The new church complex can seat 1,200 and was designed to offer facilities
to a 

>variety of training programs and services. 

"I cannot think of another church, even in the Western countries, built with
such 

beauty and forethought to become a center that can respond to many needs," 

Paulsen said. "It underscores the importance of training lay people to play
a 

>greater role in responding to the community."

Paulsen commended church leaders and local authorities for their support in 

making this church project a reality. "We see growth and increase of
freedom. 

It is a testimony of progress that has been made," he said. "When you
protect 

religious freedom, the news spreads internationally," he added. 

Earlier on Wednesday in Shanghai, Paulsen and leaders from the church's
world 

headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of, and the
Korea-based 

regional headquarters, were welcomed during a visit to Shanghai by Reverend 

>Gao Feng, CCC president. 

In a symbolic act of the common Christian roots in the Holy Scriptures,
Paulsen 

presented Reverend Gao with a copy of the Bible which Seventh-day 

Adventists are taking around the world in a "Follow the Bible" initiative. 

Launched in October, the initiative is taking a multi-language Bible to each
of 

the church's world regions to emphasize Bible study. The initiative will
culminate 

at the church's world business session in Atlanta in 2010. 

"We brought this copy of the Bible with us to China as a symbolic act of our

common commitment to the Scriptures," Paulsen said to the congregation in 

Wuxi, as together with Pastor Jairyong Lee, president of the church's
Northern 

Asia-Pacific Division, they displayed the Bible.

Paulsen and Gao discussed challenges facing the Christian community in China

and agreed to explore ways to provide more extensive training to ministers. 

"We need to have more partnership and cooperation," Gao agreed. Such
interest 

in exploring ways to further expand ministerial education, Paulsen said,
would not 

only benefit the training of the current and future Adventist pastors, in
particular, 

but could also meet the ministerial education needs of other Christian
groups.

The Adventist delegation also met with the leaders of the Shanghai Christian
Council, 

which coordinates the affairs of some 300,000 believers in the region. The
delegation 

also discussed ministerial training for the region. 

During a visit to the Shanghai city-center Protestant church headquarters,
which is 

currently being renovated, Paulsen also said that the visit expressed a
"special 

attachment to the international faith community ... as Adventist believers
in China 

>are a part of a larger faith family."

Chinese-born Pastor Eugene Hsu, a general vice president of the world
church, 

is coordinating the week-long visit to China of Paulsen and the Adventist 

delegation. Following Shanghai and Wusi, the itinerary includes stops in
Shenyang 

and Beijing with visits to the State Administration of Religious Affairs,
the Northeast 

Seminary and Yanjing Seminary, the provincial and city Christian Councils,
as well 

as meeting with three Adventist congregations.[Editor: Rajmund Dabrowski and

>Christian B. Schaeffler for ANN/APD]

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