October 20, 2009

The president of the China Christian Council (CCC), the Rev. Gao Feng, has told World Council of Churches (WCC) representatives visiting Beijing that the churches in China face several significant challenges in the future, including the strengthening of theological education, reaching out to youth and social work.

Gao Feng met with the Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, WCC general secretary, on Friday 16 October en route to North Korea for a pastoral visit with the churches there.

Kobia told Gao that because of the current rise of China on the world scene, not only will China continue to grow in importance politically and economically, but the Chinese churches will have an important role to play in the WCC fellowship of 349 churches around the world.

Gao, who is 47 years old, is the youngest president in the history of the China Christian Council. He assumed office in early 2008.

"One of the challenges is that we need to train more pastors," he said. Gao described how in his home province there is a community with only one trained pastor for 40,000 Christians.

To meet this challenge the churches have had to rely on lay leaders throughout China, Gao said. There are nearly 150,000 lay leaders who work as pastors in local churches, but for the most part "they do not have formal theological training." The growth of the church is quite rapid in China, he added, and that is why "we have so many lay leaders."

As a result of uneducated leadership, some serious problems have arisen for local churches and councils. He described one situation in a province where it was proclaimed that Jesus had already returned to the earth as a young woman.

The China Christian Council is also encouraging local churches and councils to become more involved in community and social work as this is a "good way to proclaim the gospel," Gao said.

According to the 2005 statistics of the CCC there are roughly 16 to 20 million Protestants in China. However, there are various other groups claiming this number is between 40 and 100 million.

Gao, whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were Christians, said in response to a question that while the national government policies allow for religious freedom, quite often local churches struggle with how to respond to challenges of discrimination by local leaders. Taking these concerns to the national government is something the CCC does, he said.

"It is clear that the local churches and councils would like to do something," Gao added.

The CCC's president sees a challenge for the church in outreach to young people who are coming to the church with great interest in Christianity. "For us the challenge is how to minister to them," he said, noting that there appears to be a pattern of young people coming to the church several times yet not returning if the teachings do not seem compelling enough.

"In the big cities the thinking style of the young is they are open to Christianity, many want to know more," he said. "As an example, more young people want church weddings, even if they are not Christians."

After meeting with the Rev. Gao Feng, Dr Kobia continued his travel to North Korea on Saturday 17 October. He is being accompanied by WCC staff members Mathews George Chunakara, Christina Papazoglou, Mark Beach and Peter Williams, as well as the general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia, Dr Prawate Khid-arn.

"WCC delegation to visit North Korea": http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-delegation-to-visit-n.html.

China Christian Council: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/asia/china/china-christian-council.html.

WCC member churches in China: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/asia/china.html.

World Council of Churches