My Chinese Church Away from Home

In some previous posts I described the circumstances under which I found myself with the opportunity to travel to Beijing, China on business on several occasions. See When do You Leave a Good Job? and Leaving the Comfort Zone to Experience God's Provision. I've also commented on my experiences attending Beijing Haidian Christian Church and some good news about the freedom of our Chinese brothers and sisters to worship openly and read the Bible. See China, Christianity, and the Bible.

I have enjoyed my worship experience at Haidian so much, I now think of it as my church away from home. (I'm not done yet with my travels to China.) Here's a picture of me and my new acquaintance and Christian brother Chuck who went with me last Sunday. (The English language service is now at 11 am in the basement. Enter from the rear of the building at ground level.) Haidian just moved in a wonderful new building which was dedicated on June 3, 2007.


One of the things which is so exciting to me is to see so many college age worshipers. Haidian has the lucky location to be a next door neighbor to two of the most prestigious universities in all of China, Beijing University which I've heard compared to Harvard in the US and Tsinghua University which I've heard called their "MIT." Note the young and standing-room-only crowd at the English language service below.



As you can see, they didn't start an English language service to reach out to Westerners like me, they started an English language service to reach out to the college students. If you are a bright, ambitious college student in China you want to go to graduate school in an English speaking country. All the top jobs and careers in the new China require regular contact with Westerners and good English language skills are a plus. The result, probably 250-300 Chinese college students worship in English in Beijing each Sunday morning.

See also the China Daily article Modern church, more religious freedom for more information and quotes from Pastor Wu Weiqing saying that over 70% of those attending the church are young people.

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

China, Christianity, and the Bible

My hotel in Beijing provides me with an English language newspaper, the China Daily. I don't know how the content differs form what is in a typical Chinese language newspaper in Beijing, but right on the front page was a small story Call it a sign, word is out on the Bible. The story has some encouraging statements.

• China has printed more than 43 million copies of the Bible in the past three decades, and the number of Protestants in the country now exceeds 16 million.
• The free expression of Christianity in China is ensured and the Bible is widely available, said Rev Cao Shengjie, president of the China Christian Council, at the "Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Church in China", which concluded in Germany yesterday.
• There are some 55,000 places of worship and 18 divinity and Bible schools
• According to the Rev Yu Xinli, president of the Christian Council in Beijing, the number of Protestants is fast increasing in the capital with about 5,000 being baptised annually, he said.
  

When I visited the Beijing Haidian Christian Church on June 3, 2007 I was simply amazed hear a moving sermon (English translation received in real-time by a small FM radio receiver) on "taking up your cross" to follow Jesus and then to witness the baptism of 41 believers. There was a twenty foot long counter outside the sanctuary containing many Chinese Bibles for sale. Someone who spoke English told me some of the books where "how to be a Christian" books. Incidentally, I believe this church is the closest government-registered Protestant church to the Olympic Village.

I have had a few English-speaking Chinese tell me that some Chinese polititicans now openly talk about religion in China helping to create a "harmonious society". See the March 7, 2007 article Religion Can Contribute to Building a Harmonious Society. The story says that on March 4, 2007 "China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin called on religious groups to give full play to the positive role of religion to boost social harmony at a panel discussion with the country's political advisors from religious community. Jia also called for frequent exchanges between different religions and between religious believers and non-religious people to promote social stability and unity, and happiness of the people."

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Beijing International Christian Fellowship

In a post back in January My Glimpse at What Heaven Must Be Like I described how moving it was to see so many nationalities worship at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship. On my last visit back in March, they said that 70 nationalities now worship there. The man who sat down next to me told me he was from Uganda and that he worked for the United Nations. On two different visits in March 2007 I had the good fortune to hear Christian singing groups from both Indonesia and Hong Kong in the English language service. The Beijing International Christian Fellowship meets in a large auditorium it is allowed rent from the 21st Century Hotel. The building is shown below.


Only foreign passport holders are allowed to attend BICF, but Chinese Christians do have places of worship and are even being allowed to build new ones. See Beijing Haidian Christian Church.

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Beijing Haidian Christian Church

This picture exposes how poor the zoom lens is on my camera but I think you'll get the idea. On a recent trip to China I snapped this picture on Palm Sunday 2007 of the brand new Beijing Haidian Christian Church which appears to almost be completed. The Haidian neighborhood is in nortwestern Beijing, not too far from the Summer Palace. How wonderful that my Christian brothers and sisters in China can obtain property, get all the necessary government approvals, hire building contractors, and build such a bold and beautiful place of worship.

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

My Glimpse at What Heaven Must Be Like

I had an absolutely wonderful Sunday morning. A friend-of-a-friend had recommended a church in town so I got up at a normal time for a Sunday morning and took a 100 Yuan taxis ride down to the Beijing Christian International Fellowship to attend church. This is a church which serves Beijing’s international community and it meets in the auditorium at the 21st Century Hotel. Church services are only open to foreign passport holders, however.

I struck up a conversation with the lady next to me. She made a comment that “this is what heaven will be like.” I immediately found myself in total agreement with her. Here were many people with many skin colors, many foreign accents, many native tougnes (though this was an English language service), and they all forgot their differences to come and worship.

Then the beautiful singing started. I looked around the auditorium again and as I listened I was reminded of Don Piper’s description of the music in heaven in his moving book 90 Minutes in Heaven . There were no clashing sounds. Each sound blended together in joyous praise despite all the differences in the singers. Students. kids, teenagers, Moms, construction workers, factory owners, secretaries, bankers, and goverment officials were all united in praise.

I felt like I’d been given a precious gift. A glimpse into what heaven must be like.

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

I Made it to China

I left for China from Nashville yesterday and blew to Detroit and then to Tokyo and then to Beijin. Below is a shot of the Loong Palace Hotel where I'm staying. Its nice to have a client that picks such nice hotels!

Copyright © 2006 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved

Leaving the Comfort Zone to Experience God's Provision

Back in October I had a post Could This Be God's Provision? in which I described a quandary related to how I support my family. I was good at my work as a consultant designing software. Unlike most of my consultant co-workers, I actually had a local client and did not have to travel on business very much.

Then it happened. My boss' boss told me she wanted me to sell more consulting services vs. actually be the one to do the work. This began a couple of months of introspection about my career and God's provision. I was comfortable where I was and what I was doing. But was I too comfortable? In the last few years I have been trying to be alert to the leading of the Holy Spirit and I really wondered "Was I supposed to say 'yes' to this career change? Was there a reason this opportunity presented itself? Was this an accident? Is this a door of opportunity that has opened for a short time and I'm supposed to walk thru the door... without having to know the final outcome?"

In the previous post I told of several friends from church who found themselves no longer being able to remain employees and actually had to take a financial risk and make a leap of faith to buy out the boss and become business owners. I had every reason to believe they became closer to God and God's will in the process. I began comparing my situation to theirs and wondering if this was my time in life that God wanted me to get out of my comfort zone and take a leap of faith and trust in His provision.

Well... guess what happened?

Since October I talked to many different people. I made a point to talk to some self employed Christian men who had taken some risk in their work lives. I talked to trusted co-workers. I would say about 90% of the advise I got was to "go for it" (the change to marketing that is). I prayed for wisdom and discernment. I asked God to help me honor Him in whatever I was supposed to do as His provision for my family.

I work in a very matrixed organization so I have a lot of different managers and told them all I thought I wanted to make a switch to do more selling even if that meant I had to leave my comfortable, no-travel technical position. All were supportive. I had only one final phone call with the "big boss" who started the whole process by telling me to worry more about selling and less about delivery (doing it myself). I scheduled the call about two weeks in advance where I expected to give her my "Yes I'd like to do this. I'd like to change my job title. I'm willing to take on a sales quota."

Two days before my call, everything changed. I found out the very same boss who had told me to sell more only two months earlier had suggested my name to take a technical leadership role on a project with a major electronics company. I must admit my first reaction was that this was a very bad sign. She must have reconsidered and decided I couldn't sell.

Then I started to get more information. She didn't suggest my name to keep me from changing to a marketing post. She suggested my name to take a leadership position at one of her most important accounts. It turns out this client was not just any client but a client doing a huge amount of business with my employer. I wouldn't just be consulting. I would be working directly for an influential technology executive at this firm. I wouldn't just be working a couple of hours away from home. There was a very real possibility of a trip to China and Toronto, Canada. This "delivery" position had a huge amount of impact and visibility.

So now you know. I sought counsel from many Christian men I trusted. I prayed for discernment. I prayed for God to show me His will. I didn't switch job titles to go into marketing. I am genuinely excited about my new challenge and the many different people I will meet from many different cultures. I now look at the whole exercise about going into marketing to have been more about "am I willing to leave what is comfortable if that is what God wants me to do?" And.. I now leave Sunday morning for China. Ain't God good!

Copyright © 2007 by Philip Hartman - All Rights Reserved