Resources from 2015
The Resource Library is where you will find the latest resources from across our publications.
“Builders of the Chinese Church”
A Book Recommendation
If you haven’t done so already, I highly recommend reading Builders of the Chinese Church: Pioneer Protestant Missionaries and Chinese Church Leaders, edited by Wright Doyle and Carol Hamrin.
One Tip for Effective Communication in China
The Rule of Three
Effective communication requires engagement from both ends of the communication cycle—both the ability to send a message and receive feedback from your audience. Using this cycle to reach a common understanding is more of an art than a science—even when we communicate with others from our home culture. However, it is even more challenging when communicating cross-culturally in China.
ZGBriefs | September 10, 2015
Driven to Kill: Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit. (September 4, 2015, Slate)
Most people agree that the hit-to-kill phenomenon stems at least in part from perverse laws on victim compensation. In China the compensation for killing a victim in a traffic accident is relatively small—amounts typically range from $30,000 to $50,000—and once payment is made, the matter is over. By contrast, paying for lifetime care for a disabled survivor can run into the millions.
Chinese Supply Chains and the Gospel
Tainted milk, diseased pigs sold on the market, 40-year-old meat discovered in a warehouse in Hunan, and lead-contaminated water in a newly built Hong Kong housing estate—these are just a few examples of the food scare nightmares that have come to light in China in recent years. More such stories continue to surface, seemingly on a weekly basis.
The Last China Inland Mission Pastor
It is easy to think of the China Inland Mission era as being in the distant past. This article, translated from the mainland site Christian Times reminds us that it is not as far away as we thought.
I Love a Parade
It’s not entirely true that I love parades in general, but I must admit to having a strange fascination with Chinese military parades. I’m not sure why, but perhaps it’s because they are multi-layered and there are interesting things going on at every level.
ZGBriefs | September 3, 2015
For China, a Plunge and a Reckoning (August 28, 2015, The Wall Street Journal)
Anyone trying to design an event to bring Xi Jinping ’s China back to Earth couldn’t have engineered something much more elegant than the turmoil in China’s financial markets and the resulting global aftershocks. The upheaval is traumatic for China’s leaders but not life-threatening to China’s system. Yet the jolt may have been just large enough to change the country’s underlying bargain between ruler and ruled—and by doing so, to temper Beijing’s current tendency toward arrogance, rigidity, belligerence and diplomatic hectoring.
Working out a Chinese Public Theology
Three Preliminary Guidelines, Part 2
The first of two blogs that suggest and discuss three guidelines for developing a public theology for China today.
A Church for Lepers
Sometimes in the wave of negative reports coming out of China the stories of local believers living out the gospel in daily life get buried. This Gospel Times article shares the work of three churches who are actively seeking to serve a portion of society that continues to deal with intense rejection in this day and age—victims of leprosy.
9 Take-aways from a Conversation about Coaching in China
Earlier this month, ChinaSource launched a new podcast titled ChinaSource Conversations. The aim of the podcast is to bring together those with Chinese expertise and experience to discuss timely topics impacting China’s church. We hope that it will be a useful resource for those serving in China.