China's Church sees a Crisis of “Cliff-like Drop” in Post-90s Generation Numbers

Youth Fellowship
Youth Fellowship (photo: Crystal Cathedral)
By Issachar LiApril 1st, 2016

Sharply decreased post-90s population adds woe to China’s aging society, says scholars. There is also a "a cliff-like drop" in the church’s post-90s generation number, in comparison with previous generations.

211 Million Chinese post-90s make up 15.4% of the total population, according to National Bureau of Statistics in 2015. 

For the Christians, the sharply decreased post-90s will surly affect the future of our church, as it will affect the future of our society, to which should church pay attention to.

As the population scholar says, church should also see a crisis similar to that in Japan during 1992 if the country can’t deal with the dropping rate between labor force numbers and aged people, projected to be 4.2 percent in 2021.

The phenomenon of "a cliff-like drop" in the post-90s generation number will result in less pastoral staff in China. No only so, a lack of a generation will bring dramatic influence to Church, just think about what happened to the church after the Cultural Revolution.

Yet a lack of a generation in church seems not so serious, when compared with another phenomenon: many posterity of Christians are not Christians anymore. They abandoned the belief. Even some posterity of pastors are not believing God.

This kind of “cliff-like drop” is even more worrying. The reason could be with the currently social background, secularization is entering and growing in the church. 

Besides, many Christians’ life failed to bring effective and positive influence to the unbelievers, to which should the church pastoral staff and this generation pay more attention.

The past has past, we can do nothing to change it. However, we can make a difference now, for the future generations.

How to see power of change in our belief, and pass it on to the next generation? This concern should be thought, which is more serious than the “cliff-like drop” in post-90s generation number.

Translated by: Elianna

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