We will be joining the work of other Project China missionaries in Northeast China. In this region of 100 million people there are four key cities, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, and Dalian. Around 5% of citizens of this region are professing Christians with about half of them being evangelical. Our focus is on cities and from the cities we can send national leaders into the surrounding towns and villages.
Share the Good News
Bold evangelism: Due to China’s history of aggression towards Christians and missionaries, many fear evangelizing the lost. We aim to boldly share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not advocate recklessness but rather faithfulness to biblical models of fearless evangelism. Since the overwhelming majority of people in China speak no English at all, being a witness in China requires learning Mandarin.
Observe All Things
Disciple-Making: As stated in Matthew 28:18-20 we want to clearly and boldly teach the gospel so they can believe the Gospel. We believe that all who respond in faith to the gospel should be baptized and become active in a local body of believers. This is the context for disciples to grow to observe all that Christ has commanded.
Gather Together
Church-Planting: Despite the growth of Christianity throughout China there remains a lack of bible believing, evangelizing churches. We want there to be gospel centered gatherings of believers within reach of all people in China. Not only does planting new churches encourage evangelism, but it also provides a platform to train leaders for ministry. We believe that Christ’s authority lies squarely behind the church and it is therefore worthy of our greatest efforts and risks in missions. The church is means and the end of missions, uniquely equipped to address the complexity of sin and brokenness in our world.
For the Harvest
Leader-Training: We intend on following the pattern of the Lord Jesus who made it His ministry to train men that would be capable to carry on the ministry when He was gone. Based on 2 Timothy 2:2, the core of our ministry and strategy is, life-on-life discipleship, to invest our lives into faithful men, who will in turn invest their lives in others. We are praying that God will raise up Chinese laborers who will be faithful shepherds of His sheep in China.
Our short term goals, extending through our first year on the field, are three fold. First and foremost, build a team of supporters. Secondly, upon returning to China our main task will be continue our Mandarin studies to fluency. This season is also giving us an opportunity to prepare through intensive theological training.
Over the long term, the specific goals we would like to reach are 1) a consistent, ongoing witness to the area that we live, 2) the establishment of healthy, self sustaining churches, 3) Pastored by thoroughly trained national leaders. Everything in our ministry will be working towards these three goals. There are many worthy causes in missions today, but we are convinced that the heart of our work must be directly related to these three goals.
Our time in China has persuaded us that the best use of foreign resources is in directly interacting with local churches in their native languages, working to plant new congregations, and training national pastors 'from scratch.'
This is the way that the Lord is leading us to make a lasting impact in the country of China. It is our desire to do everything possible to reach these lost souls with the Gospel. We would like to ask you to pray about what part God would have you to play in this plan.
The difficulties of the mission are not to be underestimated; the church is the lone institution on earth that bears the guarantee of Christ's love and power.
Our thinking about missions, ministry philosophies, and emphases have been almost entirely influenced by Project China. To read more about what the team stands for visit ProjectChina.org.