Tag: Church Leaders
Perspectives from China’s Christian Leaders and Those Who Serve with Them
For the past two years ChinaSource has been part of a research initiative aimed at better understanding how Chinese believers view their current situation and their relationship to the global church. We are pleased to present some of the findings in the latest issue of ChinaSource Quarterly.
Church Staff Salary—How Much Is Enough?
Chinese Christians have traditionally expected their pastors to live frugally and to receive little to no compensation for their pastoral duties. It was expected that those in the ministry would endure much suffering as a result of their call to ministry. As a result, some pastors and ministry staff live on quite meager means and many are bi-vocational in order to make ends meet.
As China modernizes, many congregations, particularly urban churches, recognize a need to better financially care for their pastors, as well as to invest in the well-being of the congregation as a whole. Congregations are starting to see the health of a church improve when the entire body is spiritually and financially committed to compensating their ministry staff. So, how much should a pastor in China make?
An Anti-Management Management Book
The Choice—A short and straightforward read with one profound insight at its core. . .
Why Don’t Chinese Pastors Write Books?
Theological books and resources from the West are widely available in China today and have become increasingly popular. What the Chinese church lacks, however, are books written by Chinese pastors and theologians. In the article below, originally published in Gospel Times, a pastor gives his thoughts on why Chinese pastors don’t write books.
Changing Ministry in the New Normal
It had been an engaging but exhausting two days. Pastors and ministry leaders from all across China had gathered with a smaller number of expatriate China workers to reflect together on some of the key trends in the mainland Chinese church. The meeting was conducted almost entirely in Chinese, and the range of topics addressed was dizzying, but also encouraging: indigenous mission and sending agencies, social engagement, theological education, Christian schooling, global partnership—in all these areas interest is high and progress encouraging.
What Does It Mean to Be a Pastor?
An article from the Gospel Times in which a pastor reflects on what it means to be a pastor, particularly in a society that knows and understands little about the profession.
A Conversation with a Rural Preacher (Part 2)
About the Need for Innovative Training
Last week we posted the first part of an interview with a rural pastor that was published on the mainland site Christian Times. The topic of the conversation was models for training in rural churches. This week we post the rest of the interview.
A Conversation with a Rural Preacher (Part 1)
About the Need for Innovative Training
An editor from Christian Times recently had an extended conversation with a rural pastor (born in the 1980s) about his thoughts regarding the current situation of China’s rural church. They talked about the problems and potential, particularly as they relate to the need for training. What follows is a translation of the article. Due to the length of the article, we will publish it in two parts. This is part one.
Financial Management in Chinese Churches
An Interview
In March China Christian Daily published an interview with a pastor from Dalian about the importance of properly managing church finances in Chinese churches. He highlights some of the difficulties that churches in China have in this area and some suggestions for improvement.
3 Observations from Teaching Biblical Interpretation
For many international organizations working in China, the transition to local leadership can be a challenging one. In particular, it is not always easy to achieve high levels of spiritual formation when many local leaders are either first generation believers or fairly recent converts.