There’s a certain way to market the Great Commission that strikes a chord with bored twenty-somethings who are tired of college classes or are not looking forward to entering the rat race. And it goes something like… ‘Wouldn’t you like to do something meaningful with your life? Don’t waste your life in a cubicle when […]
Author Archives | Jake
The Li Bo Perspective #2
In review, we’re talking about the case for the Three-Self Church, the Chinese government-sponsored Christian congregations. Li Bo is just one of many voices in China that denounce the work of missionaries who plant unregistered churches and maintain that the rightful avenue for ministry is via the government church. But I am just one of […]
The Li Bo Perspective #1
A couple months ago, Li Bo gave some feedback to a post about Chinese churches that represents a certain perspective that I am still learning about. While I ultimately disagree with this view as a missions philosophy in China, it does offer a stronger challenge than I used to think and ought to be carefully […]
The Church that Paul Built
There’s a lot at stake when we address our understanding of Paul’s ministry. The bulk of our missiology comes from his missionary travels. What is the missionary’s goal? How is the missionary supported? Who does the missionary target? When does the missionary move on? How does the missionary preach? These are all questions that are […]
What Kind of House Church?
One of modern missions’ most romanticized concepts is the house church. But to talk about ‘the Chinese house church’ is somewhat akin to talking about ‘the American house’. It’s a useful concept in some very general ways, but practically useless if you’re trying to tell your realtor what kind of house you want to buy. […]
How to Become a Missionary in China
There seems to be a good number of people who make it to this blog in search of an answer to the question ‘how can I be a missionary to China?’ If that’s you, I would love to share a few thoughts with you as well as hear from you personally. It’s obvious that, in […]
Bible Smuggling in China
I recommend you go read a few short posts my teammate has written about smuggling Bibles in China. They are a worthy read, as he talks frankly about some of the overlooked aspects of this issue. POST 1 POST 2 POST 3 And, for your consideration, here’s some of the stuff that’s been […]
Trends and Traditions
There’s some clear trends among modern missions efforts in China. Missionaries and their organizations are, in general, moving… AWAY from urban centers, TOWARDS rural areas… AWAY from church-planting, TOWARDS supporting roles… AWAY from language-learning, TOWARDS English-based ministry… AWAY from bold witnessing, TOWARDS secretive witnessing… These trends are… discouraging. But over the past couple weeks, I […]
The Riddle’s Answer is in Your Heart
One of the questions that comes up most often about missions in China is about cultural adaptation. Probably due to the exoticism of China in their eyes, many Westerners find it hard to imagine themselves ‘living like the Chinese.’ While there is certainly a good and right place for studying new cultures, such efforts have […]
WHERE: To People Groups?
Over recent decades a certain theory has grown to be the informed, missions-minded Christian’s default answer to the question: WHERE does the Great Commission send us? The people-groups-focused understanding of the Great Commission goes something like this: ‘The Gospel is to be taken to all the different ethnolinguistic groups of the world; the priority of […]
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