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 PrintableVersion Stories from ChinaFried rice for the soulSTORIES FROM CHINA Luke Wesley is the pen-name of a Western Christian who has lived in China for most of the past decade, and has ministered in both the house churches and the government-registered ‘Three Self’ churches. The book consists of 52 Scripture readings followed by short meditations generally two pages long, drawn from the author’s experience in China. Each meditation concludes with a prayer. This book in general presents a fair and balanced picture of the amazing growth and vitality of the modern, post-Mao Chinese church. The author has hiked to remote mountainous areas and tribal villages and everywhere come across evidence of God’s working. There is a freshness and zeal in the accounts which reflects the dynamism of the Chinese Christian experience. If this reviewer has one criticism, it is the impression given that virtually all the Christians in China are Pentecostal in their experience. While this is true of some large, mainly rural groups, the present reviewer’s experience of 25 years’ visiting Chinese churches is that the majority of churches, both house church and ‘Three Self’, are conservative evangelical in doctrine and practice, especially in the cities. Tongues-speaking and exuberant manifestations are the exception rather than the rule in public worship. With this caveat, the book may nevertheless be recommended as a useful addition to the growing literature on the current church-growth in China — a country where, it should never be forgotten, only 30 years ago all churches were still closed and the gospel supposedly eradicated. Today there may be 50-70 million Protestant believers in China — compared to only one million in 1949 when the Communists took control. Tony Lambert© Evangelicals Now - June 2006 |
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