Editor’s note: As we pray for Chongqing this month, several house church pastors told us about the needs and issues they see in their urban city. These pastors feel that Chongqing people are disconnected from their history and their roots. Perhaps due to the trauma of war or upheaval, they have noticed that many locals, both believers and unbelievers, are not aware of their heritage. For the church to flourish and move forward fruitfully, these pastors believe that local people must understand their background and know where they come from.

Be sure to look up Parts One, Two, and Three of our series on Chongqing. This interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity and length.

Abnormal Relations

China Partnership: How has your city changed over the last five years? How have things changed for your church?

Xu Jingle: Due to the pandemic, people spend more time online. Because everyone is addicted to the Internet, it causes all sorts of problems. For example, everyone’s health has been affected by spending long hours on their phones. Gradually, people become abnormal. A normal person eats and sleeps on time, but people can’t do that anymore. Church life is also abnormal.

All this abnormality creates a kind of chaos. There is anxiety, and a lack of security or “authenticity.” People feel that nothing is real. Once a person becomes inauthentic, they have fewer and fewer interactions with others. Everyone puts on a front. It’s like when you hold a basin of water: if you hold it too long, it will eventually spill.

This impacts families. For example, couples live together like roommates. It’s the same for the church: people just make do and lack genuine fellowship. No time is spent building real relationships.

All this abnormality creates a kind of chaos. There is anxiety, and a lack of security or authenticity. People feel that nothing is real.

Men and women – or rather, boys and girls – don’t get married when they reach the age of marriage. To put it bluntly, they’re not even as good as animals. When animals reach that age, they send signals to each other. But humans don’t send signals. Instead, they do all sorts of things. Now in China, young people generally don’t want to get married. They get married very late.

Ke Dong: Many people notice the percentage of homosexual relationships in Chongqing is kind of high.

Zhang Peihong: It is the highest in the country, along with Chengdu.

Rootless Faith?

Xu Jingle: Why aren’t churches be united here in Chongqing? I think the reason is there is no one influential pastor. Chongqing lacks a bishop.

Zhang Peihong: Yes. They need a bishop.

Ke Dong: No, I don’t think so.

Xu Jingle: Our faith has no roots. Rootless faith, is what we have here in Chongqing. There’s no heritage.

Ke Dong: No roots, no tradition, no succession.

Xu Jingle: Once there is heritage, it’s easier to talk about unity.

Ke Dong: Every group here comes from a different background.

Xu Jingle: The lack of heritage is related to the problems of Chongqing. People don’t have a sense of belonging to this city. People are indifferent. Whatever happens to Chongqing, they don’t care. If you want to connect with the issues of the city, you have to look at the city’s history: feel it, know what happened.

Ke Dong: I think it might be easier for young church leaders to have conversations and build relationships with each other. Maybe we still do not have very deep unity, but I think we are perhaps not like the older generation, who are more cliquey.

Rootless faith, is what we have here in Chongqing. There’s no heritage.

Zhang Peihong: One thing that is different in Chongqing than other cities is that it’s relatively easy to build relationships. If you genuinely care about your brothers and sisters and spend time with them, that matters. Most of all, many people have never heard the gospel and don’t know God’s law. If you tell them what is good and what is evil according to the Bible, while having a loving and good relationship with them, it will strongly impact them.

To Understand the Present, Look to the Past

Xu Jingle: Let me add one more point about this rootlessness, this indifference. For example, I asked brothers and sisters in our church, “What’s your grandfather’s name? What’s your grandfather’s father’s name?” Most couldn’t answer. They don’t care what happened to their grandfathers, why they came to Chongqing, or if they were originally from here. They don’t care at all.

But as Christians, you need to pay attention to these things. Our biblical faith, our salvation in Christ, is inherited, passed down from generation to generation. From Adam to David to Christ, the faith can be traced back.

But both believers and unbelievers seem to think heritage is not important. If they don’t think it is important, then they have no roots. Once you think history is important, then you look back on what happened here. Of course, I am not saying we should look back on history to “recall past bitterness and reflect on present sweetness.”[1] That is not the point. Rather, we look to history to see how those before us responded in their circumstances, and to understand what it means for us today. Faith does not happen in a vacuum.

We look to history to see how those before us responded in their circumstances, and to understand what it means for us today. Faith does not happen in a vacuum.

Ke Dong: Our history and our spiritual roots have a very important meaning for us, for our purpose and our edification.
There might be a historical background to the reason things are like this in Chongqing. During the Anti-Japanese War,[2] Chongqing was very developed and had many churches and denominations.[3] But people didn’t stay after the war.
After 1949, after the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, many left. All of a sudden, Chongqing emptied. When China was resisting the Japanese, Chongqing was the temporary capital of China. At that time, there were many churches and many famous people. They were all in Chongqing, because those people were in the government. But most left when the war was over. I think this had a big impact on this city.

Zhang Peihong: A local person from Chongqing doesn’t know their grandfather’s father’s name or what happened to them. Their parents don’t want to mention it to them – maybe their parents didn’t know, or just want to forget.

Yes, there is some trauma.

Ke Dong: This city actually has a long history. But people here have no sense of history.

[1] This is a Chinese proverb: “忆苦思甜” or “yiku sitian.” It was a standard part of thought education during the Cultural Revolution to encourage Chinese to reflect on how their present situation was better than the past, and that people should be grateful to the Party for this goodness.

[2] This war happened from 1937 to 1945, although it remained undeclared until 1941. It is considered to be a part of World War II. The war began as China started to resist Japan’s occupation of their territory, fighting back against the invaders. It is often considered to be the beginning of World War II in Asia. The conflict ended with the end of World War II.  

[3] Chongqing was the wartime capital of China from 1937 to 1945 as the country endured Japanese attack.

Ning Lu, Ke Dong, Xu Jingle, and Zhang Peihong are pseudonyms for house church pastors in Chongqing.

Pray for Chongqing Christians to understand their heritage and history as believers, and to have a heart for the heritage and history of their city.