Not long ago I was an outside believer who dwelled in the city and belonged to a group which the church paid special care to. Not only did people in the group leave their hometown and do hard work, they were often neglected and looked down upon, even marginalized. As a matter of fact, thinking back, the local believers were the people the church should pay special attention to. In modern urban churches, especially those with higher outsider populations and higher degrees of openness, the ratio of the born and bred believers compared to outside believers has become less and less. The number of local believers was negligible and they have gradually been marginalized.
In a county-level city in southern Jiangsu, called "Jianghai," the resident population is close to one million with local people and outside workers accounting for half each. Generally speaking, the local and outsider believers should be on par with each other. However, the truth is far from it. The local believers who go to church regularly in Jianghai are less than half of the congregants, even negligible. There are several churches with hundreds of people, but the local congregants only count in single digits. Therefore, it is very difficult to find local believers in the churches in Jianghai, and the few you see are mostly women or seniors.
In fact, the situation of the churches in Jianghai reflects the regional distribution of the churches of Jiangsu. Jiangsu is a large Christian province with more than one million believers. However, it is not evenly distributed. Believers are mainly concentrated in Northern Jiangsu, while the south of Jiangsu has very few. The division chief of Jiangsu Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs talked about the number and distribution of Christians in Jiangsu in his The Situation and Development Trend of Christianity in Jiangsu. "So far (2012), there are over 1.5 million believers in Jiangsu, and the Christians in Jiangsu are great in number and widely spread. Believers are mainly concentrated in five cities in Northern Jiangsu with a relatively underdeveloped economy, like Xuzhou, Huai'an, Yancheng, Lianyungang, and Suqian. There are over one million believers in northern Jiangsu, about 80% of the total number of believers in the province."
Based on that, there are both historical and realistic reasons why the churches in Jianghai are filling with mostly outside believers but very few local believers. It is not a single case, but a universal situation of the churches in southern Jiangsu. It can happen in any other urban church with a higher outside population and a degree of openness. A large population of outside believers pouring in causes urban churches to be dominated by mainly outside believers, and the churches of southern Jiangsu have become vibrant. It obviously changed the original status with no vitality, and effectively changed the "North More and South Less" distribution of believers in Jiangsu. Because of this, the ratio between believers in the North and South is more balanced, or at least it wouldn't be as dramatic as the difference between the base and spire of the Pyramid.
The prosperity in the churches in Southern Jiangsu because of the outside believers is false prosperity in the eyes of the locals since it has nothing to do with them. They realized the transferred prosperity by moving the believers from Northern Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, and other places. The reason we call it "transferred prosperity" is because of the uncertainty of the members. They came from the underdeveloped regions with reviving churches, but when the outside believers leave, the local churches will return to their original state with no vitality. We can tell from this that behind the prosperity is a crisis. The scene of prosperity can also be a flash in the pan. Therefore, promoting the localization of the Gospel is rather important and urgent. Only with the gospel rooted here can we sustain the prosperity. We can learn from the Nestorianism in the Yuan Dynasty.
Nestorianism (Christianity) in Yuan Dynasty came to the hinterland of China with the Mongolians entering Dadu. It only existed in China for a little more than 100 years (1271-1368). When the Shun Emperor fled to Mobei, the Nestorianism which was popular for a while in Yuan Dynasty disappeared in China too. Why did the Nestorianism disappear in the land of China after existing for over 100 years? Later generations summarized three reasons. First, the believers were all Mongolians and Semu people, with no southern or Han people. Second, there were cultural differences. Nestorianism was never rooted in Chinese society, but only among Mongolians and Semu people. Third, there was internecine strife between different denominations.
Nestorianism as an outside religion in China went from prosperity to decline and eventually disappeared. It rings a bell for the churches in southern Jiangsu. So, while pasturing the outside believers, churches in southern Jiangsu should also pay attention to the born and bred locals. They should find ways to increase and improve the number and quality of local believers to seek a quality and quantity balance between local and outside believers. Moreover, they need to work hard on the combination between gospel and local cultures. The point is for Christianity take roots locally, in the soil of local culture. So not only will the locals take kindly to Christianity and believers, they will also feel sympathetically and favorably toward Christianity and believers.
(The author is a preacher in Anhui.)
