Why the Cities?

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY In the past 50 years, China has seen the fastest growth of the Christian church in history, with tens of millions of people coming to Christ. Yet the overwhelming majority of Christians live in the countryside. Right now the country is going through the fastest and largest urbanization in history, with hundreds of millions moving to cities. They are experiencing rapid economic growth and rapid social liberalization. By 2030 they will surpass the US as the largest economy in the world. Will they be an authoritarian superpower? Could they become a Christian superpower? Who will reach the growing and influential urban middle class that will shape their national identity (80 million college graduates by 2015) and are not being reached by the more rural existing churches?

A PLACE FOR MENTORING The growing urban middle class is looking for models of business and personal success. They have great aspirations for more in life. They are eager for entrepreneurial and management expertise (the private sector is the growing edge of the economy and everyone wants to get rich), and needy in marriage and family relationships and models of integrity and benevolence. Can we develop business training models that will meet their felt needs and reach their spiritual needs? Many of tomorrow's Chinese church leaders are business people who are not Christians yet! They can have a profound impact on their peers and their country if they follow Christ and start discipling others!

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW MODELS China's leaders are trying to formalize and standardize laws, eliminate corruption, and stimulate charity and volunteerism. They are increasingly pragmatic more than idealogical. They want to be responsible leaders in the eyes of the world community, with WTO entrance last year and the Olympics in 2008. Christians can be seen as model citizens who are honest, work hard, live healthy lifestyles, and are good neighbors, and not as secret groups who threaten the government's power. There will be increasing opportunity for public expression of religion. New public churches that are more contemporary in worship, intellectual in teaching the Bible, holistic in care and outreach, will be attractive and accessible to growingly sophisticated urban people.

A CRITICAL JUNCTURE This is an exciting time for development of the Church in China, and an opportunity to shape the country's values and sense of identity. God has placed the overseas Chinese church in a strategic position, with a valuable blend of leadership development experiences in the church and the Chinese world. Can the church mobilize the necessary resources to build a new generation of Christian leaders in China and reach the opinion shapers of their emerging society?

Could you have a part in shaping the future social landscape of the largest country on earth?