2016 華福大會，聚焦華人普世宣教
2014-03-20 | 《基督教論壇報》記者蔡明憲報導
http://www.ct.org.tw/news/detail/2014-00771
第九屆世界華人福音會議（華福大會）舉辦日期敲定，將於 2016 年 8 月 22-26 日（周一至五）在台灣舉行，主題為「異象 2020─門徒導向的跨文化宣教」。華福總幹事陳世欽牧師表示，異象 2020 是希望在 2020 年結束時，全球華人教會能宣教服事與認領 2020 個「福音未得群族」。
異象 2020 認領未得群族
「普世華人宣教異象暨 2016 年華福大會說明會」，3 月 18 日在台北浸信會懷恩堂舉行，陳世欽牧師來台分享，希望這次華福大會有別於過去以講道培靈為主，能轉型聚焦在華人參與跨文化宣教的具體實踐方案，帶動華人教會更多參與普世宣教。
陳世欽表示，現有數據顯示﹐全球海外華人人口（除中國大陸外）為 7,300 萬人，但他從歐洲、泰國、印尼等國的華人實際人口來看，整個海外華人人口應有 9,000 萬至1億人，而現有的海外華人教會數已超過9,751間。
「華人教會在普世宣教上仍有很長的路要走！」陳世欽指出，不少人說，21世紀是華人教會參與普世宣教的世紀，他從過去30年的服事經歷，以及近來走遍30多個國家來看，華人教會參與普世宣教的行動是有改善的，但仍差得很遠，華人參與跨文化宣教的宣教士普遍還沒預備好。
他強調，全球人口已達 70 億，其中有超過 6,800 個「福音未得群族」（unreached people groups），主要位在「10/40 宣教之窗」。
陳世欽舉印尼、巴西、台灣的例子說，印尼華人教會具有向穆斯林宣教的優勢；巴西華人教會擁有葡萄牙語與西班牙語的語言優勢，亦想栽培更多巴西人向外宣教；台灣則是在華人世界具有特別的位置，包括北美、南美、日本......甚至是中國大陸，都有許多台灣背景的華人在當中，若能有效連結，將是跨文化宣教的重要力量。
神多給誰，就向誰多要
陳世欽表示，2015 年是台灣宣教 150 周年，2017 年是宗教改革 500 周年，因此 2016 年的華福大會在台灣舉行，一來希望連結世界各地的華人教會，共同努力服事福音未得族群，二來也期盼讓台灣教會與世界各地教會有更多互動，激盪更多跨文化宣教的可能。
會議設計上，希望減少講道與培靈，而是更加強互動性，透過華福平台探討出未來5-10年華人教會的具體策略與行動方案。另外，也看重年輕一代興起，能成為普世宣教生力軍。
「神確實很祝福華人教會，但神多給誰，就向誰多要。」陳世欽邀請華人教會，能先從主日崇拜開始，帶領弟兄姊妹認識「福音未得群族」，並為這些族群代禱，讓更多華人基督徒產生跨文化宣教負擔。
華福台灣區主席夏忠堅牧師表示，華福大會在台灣舉行，提醒台灣教會的眼光不應再以自我為中心，只看到自己教會或機構發展的需要，忽略台灣教會在普世宣教的責任。
他指出，台灣教會過去被藍綠政治立場所影響，在雙語人才上的栽培也很弱，是我們需要突破的部分。藉由華福大會與其他海外華人教會連結，希望也帶給台灣教會新的刺激與更多參與普世宣教的可能。
唐崇榮：佈道神學在神對救贖啟示中顯明出來
2014-04-22 | 《基督教論壇報》記者夏俊明報導
http://www.ct.org.tw/news/detail/2014-01100
唐崇榮國際佈道團於四月在台北連續舉辦四場佈道神學講座，聽道者坐滿會場。
集佈道家與神學家於一身的唐崇榮牧師在講座中提到，整個佈道神學是明白神藉著福音要讓人知道的心意。整本聖經的啟示裡看見福音，啟示是神自己的作為，上帝樂意把自己啟示給人。藉著啟示中間的救贖，人明白什麼是福音。
謹慎自己所傳的道
唐牧師論到「佈道」與「神學」不可分開的重要性，強調有如一棟房子若沒有地基，建築不會長久；又若只有地基卻沒有建築，依舊發揮不了作用。當佈道家重視神學、神學家不斷佈道，當代教會就有盼望了！反之，教會只會向下沉淪。
唐崇榮牧師呼籲，佈道的人要明白所講的是什麼，如果不知道所講的是什麼，不深信所講的是真理，就無法作上帝的僕人，無法傳講有力量的道。他說，每位基督徒都應如此，所講的話也是所信的道，傳給別人的是自己深深知道的。這是每一位基督徒、福音佈道者、傳道人要學習的，「只講自己所信的事情，不講不信的事情」，否則是害己害人。
佈道神學核心：啟示性與救贖性
唐牧師引用保羅對提摩太所說來勸戒眾人，要謹慎自己和自己所傳的「教訓」，因為這樣做不但能救自己，也能救別人。
他提到，佈道神學要了解的中心點是上帝在福音中間最重要的核心本質：「啟示性」又是「救贖性」，真正的基督教是有基督的救贖、神的啟示、道成肉身的福音、回到上帝面前經歷又新又活的道路。
在人第一次犯罪，佈道神學就啟示出來：上帝預告，有一個救主要來。上帝預言，救主是透過童貞女所生。上帝預表，救主透過「死」使人得著生命。整篇佈道的信息可以簡而有力，人因一人違背神而入了罪，因一人順服神而勝過罪；因一人的死而使眾人都進入死，因一人勝過死而使眾人得以因著信而勝過死。
唐牧師提到，在復活節期間，基督徒要好好思想耶穌的死，好好思想耶穌的犧牲。一個人對主的愛有多少，決定於一個人對基督的受苦了解多少；一個人對主的愛有多少，決定於一個人對基督的犧牲感恩多少。
本刊編輯部整理
編者按: 比較有諷刺意味的是，當《外交家》，英國《電訊報》等鼓噪中國將超越美國成為 "第一基督徒人口大國" 之時﹐中國浙江省的基督徒們卻正在提心吊膽，徹夜守護在自己的教堂，準備面對當地政府的大力度強拆行動！http://t.cn/8s8ZCp3
基督教的中國時代即將到來？
美國之音
http://www.voachinese.com/content/china-christrinitiy-era-2040424/1900212.html
最近有報道說，中國基督教人口大幅上升，2030 年有望達到或者超過美國，成為全球最大基督教國家。中國官方教會人士認為，基督教在中國的大發展得益於基督精神和中國國家目前的發展路線不謀而合。不過，有中國民間教會人士認為，中國基督教正在離經叛道，世俗化和庸俗化傾向嚴重，中國的基督教時代遠沒有到來。
展望：中國 2030 年可望成為基督教第一大國
美國皮尤研究所的數字說，2010 年中國有基督徒約六千八百萬，佔中國人口約百分之五，名列全球第七大基督教國家。報道援引普渡大學社會學系教授楊鳳崗（音）的話說，到 2025 年，中國基督教人口可望達到一億六千萬，2030 年達到兩億四千七百萬，而美國的基督教人口則將可能萎縮。美國有報紙近日以此為題，稱 2025 年中國有望取代美國，成為全球最大的基督教國家。
劉柏年：基督教趕上中國好時光
談到基督教在中國目前的發展勢頭，前中國天主教愛國會副主席劉柏年對美國之音說："傳揚基督福音，是我們中國天主教每一個神職人員和教友的神聖使命。我們的目的就是在中華大地上，實現這個夢想。也就是人人都享受到基督的愛。當前中國所走走的社會主義道路，大家都在奮斗實現中國夢，提出的一些措施'以人為本'，正是符合了基督的精神，因此是我們傳福音的大好時機。"
這位已經退休的前中國官方教會負責人敦促中國教會人士，以自己的善言善行，充分利用眼前的難得的歷史機遇和大好時機，擴大耶穌基督福音在中國城鄉的傳播。
國外教會的幫助功不可沒
張勝其是中國基督徒志願者團契難民救助項目克欽聯絡處負責人，他對美國之音說，基督教會在中國城鄉的發展是不爭的事實，其中，美國等國派出的福音牧師，對中國基督教發展起了不少積極作用。他說："中國基督教會一直在膨脹，發展非常快。在這方面，美國教會對中國教會發展貢獻比較大。他們一直在神學、訓練等方面幫助中國教會的成長，培養了很多中國教會領袖，並且在很多地方建立教會，開始傳道。推動中國教會成長還是離不開美國教會歷史上的貢獻。"
民間牧師：上帝眷顧世間所有兒女
不過，報道援引皮尤研究所的話，中國的基督教人口趕上美國還有很長的路要走。美國目前三億一千八百萬人口中，百分之七十八的人稱自己是基督教徒。報道說，制約中國基督教發展眾所周知的原因是共產黨對宗教、尤其是家庭教會的發展，並非完全撒手不管。英國每日電訊報說，在全球迫害基督徒最殘酷的國家名單中，中國排在第三十七位。
石家庄地區一位不願透露姓名的牧師對美國之音說，他對國外有關基督教在中國大發展的樂觀預測不以為然:"預測歸預測，發展歸發展。我既然相信上帝的存在，那就看上帝是怎麼安排吧。神不僅眷顧中國大地，而且眷顧全世界。世界各國的人民都是他的兒女。神哪個也不願放棄，都是一律相待。"
發家致富與信仰缺失
這位家庭教會牧師說，在他所在地方，教會發展並不興旺。他談到了其中的原因:"我們這邊不是很樂觀，因為中國經濟現在發展特別迅速，特別快，人們都在掙錢，發家致富。對於靈魂，對於天主，以及對於神的崇敬比較淡漠，現在是有點日趨下滑。"
中國基督教會的世俗化傾向
那麼，如何看待中國城鄉不斷出現的大批基督教信眾，大批嶄新教堂，翻新改建傳教場所，方興未艾的家庭教會現狀？中國基督徒志願者團契難民救助項目的張勝其對美國之音說，世俗化是當前教會信眾中一個普遍現象。以教會音樂為例，他說："比如教會音樂，現在已經放棄了傳統教會音樂，現在使用了很多電聲樂隊和搖滾樂，所以現在教會裡面，看起來非常沸騰，非常火熱，但是他們不是追求聖經，而是追求個人的感覺。"
談到中國教會目前整體狀況時，張勝其說："現在中國的教會，雖然在成長，但是成長的是數量，其整體質量一直在下降。對於基督教教義的持守，道德操守的操練，這方面追求越來越少。中國基督教人數雖然越來越眾多，但是對於教會本身來說，真是不見得是一件好事。"
教會成休閑場所
因此有輿論認為，中國的教會正在世俗化，正在變味，成為許多人退休后的聚樂和休閑場所，而基督教的教義強調的是個人犧牲精神等價值觀。評論認為，也許正是中國基督教的世俗化、群眾化、娛樂化傾向，緩解了中國政府的壓力和恐懼感，使基督教得以暫時生存和發展，中國的基督教時代遠沒有到來。
不過，參加溫州地區最近反政府強拆教會資產行動的抗議人士金育福（音）堅持認為，教會是一塊聖土，教會內大家都是弟兄姐妹，因此大家才有團結和勇氣，共同面對挑戰。他說，基督教在許多方面對中國社會有巨大貢獻。
China on Course to Become "'World's Most Christian Nation" within 15 Years
By Jeremy Reynalds/ Assist News On April 30, 2014
http://crossmap.christianpost.com/news/china-on-course-to-become-worlds-most-christian-nation-within-15-years-10142
It is said to be China's biggest church and on Easter Sunday thousands of worshipers will flock to this Asian mega-temple to pledge their allegiance - not to the Communist Party, but to the Cross.
According to a story by Tom Phillips of Britain's Telegraph newspaper, the 5,000-capacity Liushi church, which boasts more than twice as many seats as Westminster Abbey and a 206 ft crucifix that can be seen for miles around, opened last year with one theologian declaring it a "miracle that such a small town was able to build such a grand church."
The £8 million building is also one of the most visible symbols of Communist China's breakneck conversion as it evolves into one of the largest Christian congregations on earth.
"It is a wonderful thing to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It gives us great confidence," said Jin Hongxin, a 40-year-old visitor who was admiring the golden cross above Liushi's altar in the lead up to Holy Week.
"If everyone in China believed in Jesus then we would have no more need for police stations. There would be no more bad people and therefore no more crime," The Telegraph said she added.
Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signaled the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.
"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
The Telegraph said he added, "It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."
China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom.
In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.
By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.
"Mao thought he could eliminate religion. He thought he had accomplished this," The Telegraph reported Yang said. "It's ironic - they didn't. They actually failed completely."
Like many Chinese churches, the church in the town of Liushi, 200 miles south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, has had a turbulent history.
It was founded in 1886 after William Edward Soothill, a Yorkshire-born missionary and future Oxford University professor, began evangelizing local communities.
But by the late 1950s, as the region was engulfed by Mao's violent anti-Christian campaigns, it was forced to close.
According to The Telegraph, Liushi remained shut throughout the decade of the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966, as places of worship were destroyed across the country.
Since it reopened in 1978 its congregation has increased dramatically s part of China's officially sanctioned Christian church - along with thousands of others that have accepted Communist Party oversight in return for being allowed to worship.
Today it has 2,600 regular churchgoers and holds up to 70 baptisms each year, according to Shi Xiaoli, its 27-year-old preacher. The church's revival reached a crescendo last year with the opening of its new 1,500ft mega-church, reportedly the biggest in mainland China.
"Our old church was small and hard to find," said Shi. "There wasn't room in the old building for all the followers, especially at Christmas and at Easter. The new one is big and eye-catching."
The Liushi church is not alone. From Yunnan province in China's southwest to Liaoning in its industrial northeast, congregations are booming and more Chinese are thought to attend Sunday services each week than do Christians across the whole of Europe.
A recent study found that online searches for the words "Christian Congregation" and "Jesus" far outnumbered those for "The Communist Party" and "Xi Jinping," China's president.
The Telegraph said that also among China's Protestants are also many millions who worship at illegal underground "house churches," which hold unsupervised services - often in people's homes - in an attempt to evade the "prying eyes" of the Communist Party.
Such churches are mostly behind China's embryonic missionary movement - a reversal of roles after the country was for centuries the target of foreign missionaries. Now it is starting to send its own missionaries abroad, notably into North Korea, in search of souls.
"We want to help and it is easier for us than for British, South Korean or American missionaries," said one underground church leader in north China speaking on condition of anonymity.
The new spread of Christianity has the Communist Party perplexed.
"The child suddenly grew up and the parents don't know how to deal with the adult," said the underground church leader, who is from China's illegal house-church movement.
Some officials argue that religious groups can provide social services the government cannot, while simultaneously helping reverse a growing moral crisis in a land where cash, not Communism, has now become king.
They appear to agree with David Cameron, the British prime minister, who said last week that Christianity could help boost Britain's "spiritual, physical and moral" state.
Shi, Liushi's preacher, who is careful to describe her church as "patriotic," said "We have two motivations: one is our gospel mission and the other is serving society. Christianity can also play a role in maintaining peace and stability in society. Without God, people can do as they please."
Yet others within China's leadership worry about how the religious landscape might shape its political future, and its possible impact on the Communist Party's grip on power, despite the clause in the country's 1982 constitution that guarantees citizens the right to engage in "normal religious activities."
As a result, The Telegraph said, a close watch is still kept on churchgoers, and preachers are routinely monitored to ensure their sermons do not diverge from what the Party considers acceptable.
In Liushi church a closed circuit television camera hangs from the ceiling, directly in front of the lectern.
"They want the pastor to preach in a Communist way. They want to train people to practice in a Communist way," said the house-church preacher, who said state sanctioned churches often shun parts of the Bible considered potentially subversive.
The Old Testament book in which the exiled Daniel refuses to obey orders to worship the king rather than his own god is seen as "very dangerous," the preacher added.
The Telegraph said there may some grounds for the concern. Christians' growing power was on show earlier this month when thousands flocked to defend a church in Wenzhou, a city known as the "Jerusalem of the East," after government threats to demolish it.
Faced with the congregation's very public show of resistance, officials appear to have backed away from their plans, negotiating a compromise with church leaders.
"They do not trust the church, but they have to tolerate or accept it because the growth is there," The Telegraph reported the church leader said. "The number of Christians is growing - they cannot fight it. They do not want the 70 million Christians to be their enemy."
The underground leader church leader said many government officials view religion as "a sickness" that needs curing, and Yang agrees there is a potential threat.
The Communist Party is "still not sure if Christianity would become an opposition political force" and fears it could be used by "Western forces to overthrow the Communist political system," he said.
Churches are likely to face an increasingly "intense" struggle over coming decade as the Communist Party tries to muzzle Christianity's rise, he predicted.
"There are people in the government who are trying to control the church. I think they are making the last attempt to do that."
Is Communist China Christianity's Future?
New estimates predict China will soon be home to the world's largest Christian community.
By Zachary Keck
April 26, 2014
http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/is-communist-china-christianitys-future/
China will soon be home to the largest Christian population of any country on earth, according to a leading expert on religion in China.
The London Telegraph reports that Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and expert on religion in China, predicts that China's Christian population will become the largest of any country by 2030.
Already, China is home to some 58 million Protestants — more than leading Protestant nations like Brazil and South Africa — and 67 million total Christians, according to Pew Research. To put this in perspective, in 1949 China's Protestants numbered just 1 million persons and its entire Christian community was believed to be about 3 million strong.
Yang, however, believes that China's Protestant population will swell over the next 11 years to reach 160 million in 2025. Furthermore, Yang forecasts that China's overall Christian population could reach 247 million people by 2030.
If these forecasts are correct, this would almost certainly put China above the United States in terms of the size of their respective Christian communities. In 2010, the U.S. boasted roughly 159 million Protestants and just under 247 million Christians overall, making it home to the largest Christian population in the world.
However, religion has been on a gradual but consistent long-term decline in the United States and thus by 2030 America is likely to have a smaller Christian community than it did in 2010.
The Chinese government and academics in state-run institutions are disputing Yang's figures. For example, an unnamed government official was quoted by the Global Times as saying: "The estimate is unscientific and obviously an exaggeration. China advocates religious freedom and we are not against people's right to believe in any religion. In this respect, an estimate of the number of Christians makes little sense."
However, official estimates from the Chinese government on the size of the country's Christian population are universally considered to greatly underestimate the number. Part of the discrepancy comes from the accounting method. Some believe the Chinese government's figures only include citizens who worship at one of the state-sanctioned Christian organizations, and thus miss the substantial underground church community that has swelled in China in recent decades.
Yang, on the other hand, explained the logic behind his forecasts in an email to Chinese state-owned media outlets. "Based on the Pew Research Center's Report of Global Christianity, the Christian population in China took up some 5 percent of total population in 2010 [67 million], while it is widely recognized that there were 3 million Catholics and 3 million Protestants around 1980, which would make an annual growth rate of around 10 percent," he wrote.
There would be a good deal of irony in China becoming the largest Christian nation in the world. To begin with, China is officially an atheist nation, and Mao Zedong was often harshly critical of religion during his time in power. More importantly, the Chinese Communist Party has traditionally been hostile to religion in general, and Christianity in particular. This was especially true during the Cultural Revolution, when believers were often persecuted, imprisoned and tortured.
Even in the post-Mao era, the CCP has periodically targeted Chinese Christians, particularly those who belong to the underground churches rather than the officially sanctioned (and heavily regulated) official Christian organizations in China. The CCP also tries to limit the influence of the Catholic Church and the Pope in various ways, such as appointing China's bishops in the government-sanctioned Catholic organization.
The degree of tolerance of Christianity is also generally believed to differ greatly across different regions in China. According to the BBC, however, the official line in China is that the government pledges "to protect and respect religion until such time as religion itself will disappear." It doesn't seem like this time will come anytime soon. Indeed, as Bethany Allen notes over at Tea Leaf Nation, Jesus is more popular (and tolerated) than Mao Zedong or Xi Jinping on Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform.