Editor’s note: Dalian is an important port and city in northeastern China. The city is at the southern tip of the Liaoning Peninsula, and its harbor is ice-free all year, making it a crucial city for trade and military strategy. With a history of colonization by both Russia and Japan, interesting architecture, tree-lined streets, and a cosmopolitan society, Dalian is a popular tourist destination. Local pastors say their heart is burdened for their beautiful city, and that people in Dalian are full of despair. They long for the church to be a lighthouse, shining brightly with the hope of the gospel and showing that another way of life is possible.
China Partnership: What are some common challenges, fears, and struggles that you and your church encounter as you minister to people in your city? How can we pray about this?
Displaying Hope
Song Fugao: In China, there is not much relationship between the church and the city. Because of China’s special situation and because of political pressure, we can’t preach openly. That’s the biggest challenge – we’re almost cut off from the city.
We evangelize through personal relationships, bringing friends, acquaintances, and people we know well at work to church. The main challenge is how to enter the heart of the city. The church needs better strategies, to do more than just share the gospel in Sunday sermons. We need personal evangelism.
If a church truly lives in the gospel, that displays our hope. In gathering, in community life, in our attitude toward life – the church is visible in all these things.
At the cultural level, we need to take part in the life of the city. We could spend a lot of time serving people in need – for example, people with depression. But doing things like serving people with depression requires equipping believers with good methods. It takes a lot of time to prepare for that kind of work.
Many families in the city have problems. In China, there’s not really an issue of serving the poor, because the government manages the poor. If we serve the poor, that becomes a political problem, and the government will suppress us. In cities, we don’t outwardly see poor people. In Chinese culture, it’s an insult to someone’s dignity to define them as poor. There are no “poor people” in China – but many families have problems with their children or their health.
There are great needs, but churches haven’t prepared for how to care for these people or enter into culture like that. Our challenge is how to do more than evangelize directly. How can we enter into the city and become friends with the people of this city?
We need prayer in two areas. First, if a church truly lives in the gospel, that displays our hope. In gathering, in community life, in our attitude toward life – the church is visible in all these things. Pray for our church to become what the Bible calls the “light of the world” and the “salt of the earth.”
Many people in Dalian are full of despair about the world. They have no hope about the future or about interpersonal relationships. But – they might see a glimmer of hope through the church community. Through community, they could see a group of people who do not live in despair. In this community, we have love, mutual care, and the gospel. Through us, they see hope.
Second, I hope that brothers and sisters in the church can live out the gospel in their lives. I want them to do more than simply say, “I’m a Christian, my position is different from yours.” I hope the gospel can change our lives, our thinking, and our attitudes toward others. I hope the gospel can be made clear through our relationships between parents and children, our marriages, and our attitudes towards work.
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Many people in Dalian are full of despair about the world. They have no hope about the future or about interpersonal relationships. But – they might see a glimmer of hope through the church community. Through community, they could see a group of people who do not live in despair.
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Patient Prayer
Perhaps, as we take part in the larger culture, people will see in us a different way of life, a different attitude. This might do very good preparatory work for the gospel. Perhaps it will lead people to be interested in seeking the Lord. Then we can witness to them about the God we believe in.
These are some of the difficulties we face now. We hope people will pray for us, and we hope we can become people like the ones I described. But something like this cannot happen in a short time. It might take five or 10 or 30 years to see an effect, or it might not even happen until after we are gone. I hope God gives us patience to place our work within God’s work, instead of thinking this is something that can be accomplished through just us. We hope for something that would take place many years later.
We urgently pray for Dalian. I often take church co-workers to sit on the streets and pray together, hoping our hearts will be deeply touched. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t cause us to love this city, we have no way to do it. Our hearts have no way to love, no burden to enter into the life of our city.
Abundant Life in Suffering
Zang Xile: What fears and challenges do we face? The greatest fear is probably related to children’s education and elder care.
In suffering, we can experience and know God more, and our faith becomes more real.
This year, our church has experienced more suffering than in the previous two years. Over these past several months, brothers and sisters have gotten sick, and relatives have passed away. I think people are really afraid of how to face death. This is a real fear, including for believers. When people face illness or major suffering, they are still afraid.
We pray and hope that brothers and sisters will ask God to make their lives more abundant in suffering. In suffering, we can experience and know God more, and our faith becomes more real. We are recommending Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Keller, hoping that, in suffering, brothers and sisters can experience the Lord and know more of Jesus’s suffering. We hope that their lives can continuously grow through their suffering.
Wang Fu and Zang Xile are pseudonyms for house church pastors in Dalian.
Pray for believers in Dalian to be a community of hope and love, and for that church community to attract people to the Lord.
