China Partner is involved in many training capacities sharing the Gospel. (Photo courtesy of China Partner)
China (MNN) — For years, China has been viewed as a country that lacks Bibles and has few Christians.
But that view is a few decades out of date and couldn’t be more wrong.
According to a report from Charisma News, more Christians go to church in China than in Europe, and the nation will likely become the largest Christian nation in the world by the year 2030.
While Christianity is spreading like wildfire in urban areas, minority groups, which tend to be in rural and remote areas, are facing a challenge unique to their area. According to China Partner, there’s a lack of people ministering to minority groups. “The Gospel is available, it’s just not accessible in some areas,” says Erik Burklin of China Partner. “The best way that the Gospel is going to be accessible to most of the minority groups is through the minority Christians themselves,” he adds.
Through the work of indigenous missionaries, the Word of God can be brought to the most isolated locations in rural China. Relationships are forged, creating a connection that’s often hard to find between foreign missionaries and locals otherwise.
“We go to an existing Bible School that’s already bringing these students and Christians to their location to give them training. We then participate with this training program to equip them so when they graduate, when they’re finished with their education and training, they go back to their remote village to continue the ministry,” Burklin says. China Partner was recently invited to help train students at a registered Bible School in Guizhou, where 90% of the student body came from minority groups.
They found many of the students continue on to other seminary schools to receive their Masters or Doctoral degrees before starting their missionary careers. “That’s what’s so needed in China,” Burklin explains: “Christian Chinese leaders that become professors and Bible School and seminary professors and teachers. They can then, in turn, equip more Christians who are coming through the ranks.”
China Partner asks for your prayer for the students, the school, and for the training sessions to help in spreading the Word of God to the forgotten people. “God is on the move; He is raising His church; He is building His church. And we as believers–no matter where we are, whether that’s in the United States or Europe or in China–can rejoice with God in this building of God’s church.”
