The Gospel in China

Looks like the worst part of the summer slump is over. Some of our closest members have made their return and were with us in services this weekend. Plus a really solid group of visitors – a lot of guys. The Lord has been blessing us so immensely in this area – He has brought […]

Got one of those phone calls today. The ones that cost you lots of time, money, and stress. Home owner of our first place calling to remind us that next month our one year rent is due… oh yeah, and they want to raise the price by fifty percent. Which is pretty much a nice […]

Still looking for ways to capitalize on a smaller summer audience. So Sunday night we tried to change up the second service a little bit. Since the people that stay on board in the summer tend to be the more faithful, we have higher repeat-attendance percentage – they like to stay for the other services. […]

Another weekend wrapped up. I’m trying to learn to see every week as an important opportunity for growth and progress. Sounds obvious enough, but not as familiar as the opposite sounds: week after week unconsciously slipping by, with services and programs become more and more ritualized. Tough question for me to answer: Is my weekly […]

It’s been a long time since I’ve written – been pretty busy lately, plus my wife has been sick this week. All but one of the American students has returned home, and tons of our regular attenders have returned to their hometowns for a couple weeks before the next semester starts. So things are starting […]

One of the things that I believe with really be important for the future of the work here is how people on the outside of the church see us. I think this really started to sink in when I was talking to a guy from Taiwan last year who travels extensively here in the mainland. […]

Good weekend. Most churches go through a “summer slump” – try having a church of all students. That’s the bad thing about college students – they’re migratory creatures. Summer vacation isn’t as big deal as winter vacation, so a lot of people are still around. And most of the people that are leaving are only […]

More security concerns all around. Yesterday after class, J. tells me we’re in constant grave danger and we need to think of a solution. He’s most afraid for me, I think – he’s of the opinion that we could have lots more problems than other churches because of a foreigner’s involvement. That point I can […]

I was thinking about this yesterday after struggling through another hermeneutics lesson. This is a strange part of language learning. I know lots of words, know how to use them – in fact, if I could just write down everything I wanted to say, there’d never be a problem. Now we’re dealing more with comfort. […]

Quite a week! It’s been fantastic having our field director here – he’s flying back to Beijing this morning. He preached and taught for us four times in the couple days he was with us, and really made quite an impression on the students (Chinese and American). It’s really a joy to work with someone […]