Editor’s note: It’s hard to share the gospel in Xiamen these days for many reasons: lack of interest, people who are too stressed about their finances to think about their souls, persecution, cultural differences between native Xiamenese and newcomers, and the need to build gospel conversations on strong relational connections. But despite these difficulties, people are still coming to faith. When this happens, it is clearly the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.
As we continue to pray for the city of Xiamen this month, four local pastors shared the challenges and struggles they face as they minister to their city.

China Partnership: ⁠As you minister to people in your city, what are the common challenges, fears, and struggles you encounter?

How Will Faith Benefit Me?

Preacher Yang: This is a second-tier city with a population of 5 million. The city has beautiful scenery and relatively excellent urban hygiene and order. Because it is a tourist city, it is also a relatively comfortable and unenterprising. Xiamen people have a strong sense of island consciousness, feel good about themselves, and money and comfort are more obvious idols. This has also affected the culture of the church Xiamen. Xiamen Christians are more focused on pursuing comfort and being satisfied with the status quo. Their enthusiasm for evangelism and church building is relatively low.

Jin Dajun: People are increasingly apathetic towards faith. They don’t care about what is true or right. They’re numb. They’re more concerned with money – the less they have, the more they fixate on it.

People also prioritize pleasure and instant gratification. If you talk about faith, people will want to know what they’ll get out of it immediately. If someone is struggling with debt, they might ask, “Will believing in Jesus solve my financial problems? Will it give me money right away?”

People are increasingly apathetic towards faith. They don’t care about what is true or right. They’re numb. They’re more concerned with money – the less they have, the more they fixate on it.

That’s the general attitude, especially among working people, who are under immense pressure. Many people rely on excessive overtime just to keep their jobs.

Huang Minzhu: When ministering to non-believers, the indoctrination of China’s educational system is quite powerful. Many seekers are deeply influenced by materialism. Concepts like “the law of the jungle” and “survival of the fittest” are ingrained in them. They feel they need to be better than others to prove their worth. When people face economic hardships or can’t even support their own families, external things lose meaning.

People are very pragmatic. They want to know how faith will benefit them: “What will I get out of it?” If the benefits don’t live up to their expectations, they aren’t interested.

In the current situation in China, many people want to “lie flat,”[1] but can’t. Many people want to “let it rot” but can’t[2]; many people want to get ahead, but fall short. People are deeply confused about their own identity. Faith seems distant, unattainable, or insignificant. Because of this,cspreading the gospel is very challenging. It is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. We do our part, but I see conversions and awakenings as miraculous. Every year, our church sees a few such miracles. This encourages us. But the difficulty in evangelism hinders outreach. We need to reflect inwardly.

As pastors caring for the flock, we should help people worship with the right heart. The purpose of hearing the Word is to do it; the purpose of knowing is, with God’s grace, to act. By God’s grace, we need to guide our brothers and sisters through their struggles.

A City of Transplants

Wei Yan: More than half of Xiamen’s population come from elsewhere. I myself am not local, although I’ve been here a decade and a half. Our church has very few true locals, people who were born and raised here and speak the dialect, not just people who moved here later. Only about 10 percent of our church are from Xiamen. We want to reach locals, but there are not many opportunities. People in our church don’t have many local friends.

Spreading the gospel is very challenging. It is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. We do our part, but I see conversions and awakenings as miraculous.

My wife is local. I’ve interacted with her friends, but I’ve noticed that young locals seem to look down on – or even exclude – outsiders. When I’m talking with people from Xiamen, sometimes I feel like I’m at a disadvantage. It can be hard to share the gospel with them, because it feels like you need a certain social standing to have an equal conversation. To me, it’s challenging to share the gospel with young Xiamenese. Even churches with local members seem to have mostly older people.

Five years ago, our church held evangelistic events, like book studies or lectures. Back then, many were interested. But in the past few years, we’ve noticed that people are more interested in building relationships than receiving information.

There’s a contradiction: people crave love, but are hesitant to open up; people are slow to trust, yet deeply desire connection. As Christians, this can be challenging, because a lot of us are more comfortable sharing information, especially during Sunday services. But people are longing for slow, relational connection.

Evangelism Built on Relationships

Zu Dong: For myself as a preacher, I think I need to repent. There are many reasons, including the persecution our church faced a few years ago. Before persecution, things seemed easier. Back then the environment allowed us to be bolder in doing outreach events at church, where we would invite seekers to come participate.

People crave love, but are hesitant to open up; people are slow to trust, yet deeply desire connection.

Many people use social media, but it doesn’t seem safe to share information about things like this on the Internet. This is a dilemma. Young people are used to communicating online, but everyone has concerns. I feel brothers and sisters hesitate when we want to share the gospel, or do outreach, or even invite people to church for the holidays. People are afraid that, if they bring their classmates or relatives or friends to church, and the church suddenly faces persecution, it will be difficult to explain what happened. Most people probably wouldn’t be very upfront about the reality of persecution beforehand. There’s a lot to repent for.

Our momentum in evangelism and personal witnessing has been weak these past few years. Of course, there are many church ministries, and internal shepherding is also part of evangelism. Still, we may have neglected strategically and intentionally sharing the gospel with non-believers around us.

What we learned in seminary about evangelism is theoretical. Things need to be communicated and discussed, often with conversations on deeper topics. But people in everyday life aren’t interested in these things. It seems distant to them. People are more concerned about food and drink, life, or career planning. When I try to talk to friends and relatives about life, faith, and the soul, it’s difficult to get started. They are not interested.

But God has put us in an environment where we can interact with unbelievers as we build friendships. For example, my small group has two seekers, one of whom is now a baptized Christian. He was willing to have conversations and was interested in questions of faith. After about six months of fellowship, he was baptized and became a Christian. The other is also willing to have conversations with us, so we can use our gifts and strengths to connect with him.

You have to spend time with people, make friends, open your home, share your life stories, and respect them. This is a higher requirement. We do not convert others through reasoning, but need to accompany people with our time, energy, and our lives.

But these dialogues need to be built on a foundation of mutual trust. You have to spend time with people, make friends, open your home, share your life stories, and respect them. This is a higher requirement. We do not convert others through reasoning, but need to accompany people with our time, energy, and our lives. This helps them feel secure, because in Chinese society, people are suspicious of someone who actively initiates conversation, wondering if they have ulterior motives, like trying to sell something. When we are willing to be open, for instance in friendship, things will be easier – but it requires us to spend more time.

[1] “Lie flat”  (“tang ping” or “躺平”) is a common phrase in today’s China, and refers to those, especially young people, who have given up and decide to “lie flat” instead of striving to better their circumstances.

[2] “Let it rot” (“bai lan” or “摆烂”) goes a step further than lying flat, and refers to completely giving up and letting things go.

Wei Yan, Huang Minzhu, Jin Dajun, and Zu Dong are all pseudonyms for house church pastors in Xiamen.

Pray for Xiamen Christians to persevere as they patiently pursue gospel relationships with their friends, neighbors, and family members.