wfn.org | [APD] Adventist president's visit to China first by a top church leader in decades

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

[APD] Adventist president's visit to China first by a top church leader in
decades 

Hub congregations support nearly 40,000 Adventists 

Shenyang/China, 20.05.2009/ANN/APD   Two Seventh-day Adventist 

congregations in the Northeast Chinese city of Shenyang illustrate 

the dynamics of the church in China, where local churches 

often serve as both ministry and administrative hubs for smaller 

>congregations. 

The Beiguan Church, with nearly 3,000 members, worships in a

building situated in a modern neighbourhood and is often 

visited by sightseeing tours. Four miles away, the Beishi 

congregation shares an aging, overcrowded structure with 

another Protestant church amid a densely-packed tangle of 

shops and homes. Church leadership at both locations is 

responsible for dozens of area church plants. 

On the fourth day of a weeklong trip to the People's Republic of 

China, world church president Jan Paulsen and a team from 

the church's world headquarters and Northern Asia-Pacific region

worshipped with both congregations in the city of 7 million. 

Overflow crowds of 2,500 at the Beiguan Church and 1,200 

at the Beishi congregation greeted Paulsen as he made his first 

visit to China since becoming world church president 10 years 

ago and the first by any Adventist world church president to 

>mainland China in more than 60 years. 

During an afternoon service on May 16, 500 church members 

crowded the sanctuary at Beishi as Paulsen spoke on the final 

counsel Jesus gave his disciples on the night they celebrated 

>Passover together in the Upper Room. 

In a literal upper room two stories above, another 500 Adventists 

jammed an overflow chapel, watching the service below on a 

single 26-inch TV screen. Two hundred more worshippers lined 

every hallway and stairway, listening to the music and words 

that drifted down the corridors from bullhorn-style speakers. 

"Half of us are here, half are two stories up and 10 percent are sitting 

in the stairs," Paulsen told the audience. "And maybe there are 

some out there who say, 'I wish I were there, but there's no room 

today.' ... I want to honour you for your faithfulness, for your trust in 

>God and for your devotion." 

Both the Beiguan and the Beishi congregations are historic 

churches in China, responsible for planting and nurturing dozens 

of smaller Adventist congregations across this industrial city about 

100 miles from the North Korean border. More than 100 congregations 

serving a total of 7,000 Adventists are coordinated by the 

Beiguan church, which acts much like a local conference 

does in typical church administrative structure. Likewise, the 

Beishi church oversees the ministry for 70 smaller churches and 

>"meeting points." 

Church planter Zu Xiu Hua, who started 380 congregations 

in the northeastern province of Jilin, spoke with Paulsen through 

an interpreter during his visit. Her congregations, now attended 

by more than 20,000 members in the province's mostly rural 

region, are served by dozens of volunteer women whom she 

trains to conduct Bible studies, preach, and offer spiritual care. 

More than half of Adventist pastors in China are women, and 

>a majority of the members are also female.

Other local church leaders, some from as far as a three-hour 

train ride away, gathered at the two main churches to meet 

their world church president. At the Beiguan Church, Pastor Hao Ya Jie 

described for the church leaders the ministries and outreach 

services she and her fellow leaders coordinate, including literacy 

classes, ministerial training, lay preacher training and wedding 

services. Up to five Shenyang couples are married in the church 

per week, which is often their first exposure to Adventism.

"You have managed to make this church what we hope 

Seventh-day Adventist churches everywhere would be," 

said Paulsen after he learned of the church's community-based 

ministries. "It is a center for worship, a center for ministerial training, 

>a center open to the community."

Pastor Shi Wei of the Beishi Church doesn't have the opportunity 

to run such a full-fledged ministry program because the 

congregation doesn't own the building it meets in for Saturday 

(Sabbath) services. Training events and prayer meetings 

are usually scattered among dozens of smaller congregations 

and meeting points that have sprung up around the ministry 

of the Beishi Church when Christian churches began to reopen in 

China in the 1980s. During the Cultural Revolution, a dozen 

turbulent years that marked the greatest difficulties for religion 

in modern China, all Christian churches were closed, pastors 

forced to take up other work, and Bibles burned.

While some Chinese pastors have earned formal degrees 

through seminaries sponsored by the China Christian Council 

(CCC), the umbrella organization that coordinates the 

affairs of the nation's estimated 20 million Christians, an 

increasing number are emerging from training centers 

>established by local congregations. 

In meetings with both the national and regional branches of 

the Christian Council, Paulsen expressed the Seventh-day Adventist 

Church's interest in assisting both established seminaries and 

training centers in preparing larger numbers of pastors 

equipped to serve the distinctive needs of Adventists in the country.

Nearly 400,000 Adventist Christians are believed to worship at 

thousands of locations across the nation. [Editors: Bill Knott and ANN 

>Staff, Christian B. Schaeffler APD)

>*********************

This article is also available on the Internet at:

>http://www.stanet.ch/apd/news/2190.html
><http://www.stanet.ch/APD/news/2183.html> 

>*********************

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