On Oct 20-21, 2016 the North-West Chinese Christian Theological Building Seminar was held in Gansu Lanzhou. Nearly 100 people attended this meeting including the leaders of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, persons in charge of the National CCC&TSPM, and the preaching group of the theological building from 18 provinces. There were also pastoral workers from Gansu, Shanxi, Qinghai, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. At Lanzhou Shanzishi Church, over 2500 local believers listened to the Word of God from the Preaching Group.
The theme of this seminar was "Preaching and Service." Through which they hope to preach according to the Word of God, maintain the purity of faith, resist heretical beliefs, improve the pastoral level, enrich the fellowship life, enhance the cohesion of the church, expand the solidarity, advocate the unity of the church, develop harmonious church construction, advocate building a healthy development of the church according to the three principles, carry out the unconditional love of Christ, love brothers and others, pay attention to the vulnerable groups in the society, serve the people in need, devote to charity work, and promote the church ministry of social care.
On the morning of the 20th, Pastor Kou Xiaodong, chairman of Gansu Christian TSPM preached "Quality of the Servants of God." He also presided over the service before the opening of the seminar. He advised and encouraged the fellow workers to examine their own faults, reject the dark things, not be deceitful, show the truth, and have a wonderful quality to testify for God.
The Opening Ceremony was presided over by Pastor Kan Baoping, deputy chairman and general secretary of China Christian Council. Guo Qi, vice consultant of the second division of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, gave a speech on how to better carry out the preaching communication and activities and put forward a few suggestions such as to always adhere to the direction of China, enhance the theological thinking and theory study in churches, develop talents through seminars, focus on achieving transformation, and enrich the gospel supply.
On the following day, 23 members of the preaching group preached in Lanzhou Shanzishi Church. This year the number of members of the group increased from 78 to 119, and the members are younger. The number of lecturers is the most of all times. With the spiritual guidance, the members deeply explained the theme of "Preaching and Service" from different angles and directions.
During the seminar people discussed in groups on how to further promote the theological building preaching ministry. The fellow workers actively offered advice and suggestions, such as the pastoral workers should strengthen their personal building and improve their qualities to better serve the churches. In the case of preaching, adjacent provinces can cooperate for more preaching activities. Moreover, they suggested the content of this preaching should be published to benefit more believers.
The Closing Ceremony on the afternoon of the 21st was presided over by Pastor Xu Xiaohong, deputy chairman and acting secretary general of the National TSPM.
On Sunday the 23rd, the members of the Preaching Group went to the surrounding churches of Lanzhou and Qinghai Xining Church to preach. The lecturers used the simplest language to bring the results of the theological building to the basic churches. They kept their feet on the ground and were very popular among the believers, and also showed the believers how to testify for God in lives and society to glorify God and benefit man.
