Lausanne World Pulse – China Sending: A Mission Force on the Rise

By J. Smith
December 2012

On the sixth day of the sixth month of the year 2006 we gathered to pray, worship and celebrate communion together in our home in Beijing with Chinese and foreign brothers and sisters. We desired to seek ways to help mobilize the Chinese Church for Great Commission work. We wrestled with many questions: How does God want to use Pioneers in China to serve in the sending out of Chinese missionaries? What role can we have? Are we needed? The response came from our Chinese brothers who said, “We need you to ‘pu lu xian feng’ ”—to go ahead to prepare the road, to smooth the way.

First, they asked us to introduce them to contacts in Central Asia the Middle East and Russia. Second, they asked us if we would help find letters of invitation (NGOs, business, agriculture, medical, academic) for Chinese missionaries so that they could apply for visas. Third, they asked us if we would help with the training for a small pilot project. They spoke of the testimonies of Chinese already serving in the Middle East and we were amazed to hear of the many ways God has used Chinese missionaries in closed Islamic countries. We are grateful to be in a close relationship with some of China’s gifted missionary leaders.

It was a joy to travel with a friend to Central Asia and to stand by his side as he shared about the Chinese Church and its mission movement. As my friend spoke in Chinese, I translated into English and a Kazak brother translated into Russian.

 China is shifting from being a receiving country to becoming a sending country.

It was a joy to see the Kazak believers connecting with this dear Chinese mission leader. While traveling across Uzbekistan and Afghanistan we learned of the suffering of the Church. We heard stories of arrests and harassment of church leaders. In Dushanbe, we were told of more crackdowns and difficulties in the Church. Again and again they asked if we could send some of China’s house church pastors to teach on suffering in the name of Jesus. In Kabul, Bishkek and Kazakhstan, we saw the hand of God moving through his Chinese servants.

The Boom of China’s Population and Economy
China is shifting from being a receiving country to becoming a sending country. For nearly two hundred years China has been on the receiving end of missions. Since the day Robert Morrison arrived in Macao in 1807, many other missionaries have made the trip from the West to the East. Now the tide is beginning to flow back out! In fact, many Christians in China have already been sent out as missionaries to places such as Jordan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia.

To understand the size of China we can compare it to the US. The US has nine cities with a population over one million; China has between one hundred and 160 cities that have a population over one million.

As China’s economy grows, so too does the sending capacity of the Church in China. China’s economy has grown nearly ten percent in the past six months. By the year 2020 China will be sending out more than 115 million tourists a year.¹ China is making parts for Boeing 757s and is exploring space travel with its own domestically-built rockets. By 2010 half of all Chinese will live in cities. China now has the world’s fourth largest economy. The US has a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 11.7 trillion USD.² The official GDP of China is 1.9 trillion USD, but a more realistic estimate is about 7.3 trillion USD. China is already about four-fifths the size of the US economy. By 2050 China’s economy could well be seventy-five percent bigger than the US economy. The Chinese Church’s role in mission is only going to grow over the next thirty years.

J. Smith (a pseudonym) has lived among the Chinese for more than forty years and serves in leadership with Pioneers.