Recently, Rev. Wen Xingui, the chairman of Kunshan TSPM, shares how to develop the local church in the city under the current circumstances with the graduates with bachelor's degree from Fujian Theological Seminary.
Kunshan, located between Shanghai and Suzhou, has been ranked the first among the "Top 100 Best Developed County-Level Economies in China" and it is the cradle of Kunqu opera, an old Chinese opera.
The city has a water township named Zhouzhuang where the Holy Grace Church, the newest water-town styled church, is located and completed this June.
On church ministry, the pastor said that the church varies in places and the nurturing ministry needs a team to work instead of a single man. First of all, a team is needed; therefore, team building matters.
The church workers can ponder over the peculiarities of a local church, including the traits of the local believers, social and economic development and the cultural customs since they all play a role in church development.
Thinking about what your vision is should be based on the specific situation.
It requires both political and cultural identity.
To gain political identity, he stresses that the Christians should be aware of their political environment and the Communist Party, who believes in atheism takes office in China and believe in God in such an atheistic world.
Then, with regards to cultural identity, Fujian has a different culture from that of Jiangsu.
From the perspective of paintings, Fujian is regarded as the "Lingnan School of Paintings"("Lingnan" refers to the south of the Five Ridges which are Tayu, Qitian, Dupang, Mengzhu, Yuecheng) that often adopts colors like green and blue; while the painters in Suzhou, the Wu School, prefer exquisite and light colors. In contrast, a painting made in Kaifeng, Henan appears more rougher than the other two.
They are related to the regional culture, which may influence how local evangelism works.
For example,there are a few Christians in Kunshan yet many locals worship Buddha and follow folk religions. The local believers are more likely to be influenced by the other religions and superstition, as well as prosperity theology.
As a result, some of the previous followers claim that everything will be fine if you seek Jesus.
When it comes to church management, the church in Kunshan adopts unification in the management of its personnel, finance and capital construction. The Revenue and expenditure of all sections are supervised by their committees respectively.
