Disciple New Church Pastors travel to China

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Global Ministries Weekly News Update: October 11, 2006

Global Ministries and New Church Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) worked together to organize an immersion trip to China August 30 to September 15, 2006. The purpose of the trip was to expose new church pastors to Global Ministries’ partners in China and experience firsthand the vibrant Chinese church. Each participant was encouraged to consider how this exposure to the global church could have an impact on their new church starts back in the U.S. and Canada.

Global Ministries Weekly News Update: October 11, 2006

{mosimage}The trip participants were chosen by Rick Morse, Vice President of New Church & Mission Initiatives. The 17 day trip itinerary was planned by Xiaoling Zhu, Global Ministries Area Executive for East Asia and the Pacific. Together, Rick and Xiaoling led the following new church pastors on the trip: Andrea Foster, James Gordan, Rosaura and Francisco Hernandez, Lian Jiang, Rosalyn Nichols, Jean Albert ReJouis, Jae Young Rhee, Idia Rodriguez, David Shirey. The group was also accompanied by DisciplesWorld Managing Editor, Sherri Wood Emmons.

Their whirlwind experience took them first to Shanghai where they met with leaders of the China Christian Council and Heading Seminary. Then it was on to Nanjing where they attended worship at Mochou Road Church and visited the Nanjing Seminary, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital and the Bible Printing Press. After taking a bus ride to Hefei to visit Anhui Seminary, the group flew to Chengdu where they visited Guangahn Church and the Sichuan Radio and TV University. From Chengdu the next destination was Xi’an where a visit to Shanxi Bible School and a rural church were organized. After a short stop in Dalian to visit church leaders, it was on to Beijing for the last stop where the group spent time with church leaders and had conversations with government officials.

During the experience, the new church pastors also had the opportunity to meet with Global Ministries’ personnel who serve in China. Michael and Doreen McFarlane serve as professors at Nanjing Seminary. Doreen is professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages and Michael teaches Church music. Doug and Elizabeth Searles both teach English at Sichuan TV and Radio University.

Each new church start pastor came away from the exposure trip with memories they will never forget. Jim Gordon, who serves at Crossbridge Christian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, writes the following in his reflections: “I will never forget the commitment of those faithful souls who attended the Sunday worship service in Nanjing (some of whom had been there since 5:30 a.m.). The extreme heat and humidity could not keep them away. Nor could the lack of seating space keep them away. They were determined to worship God, even if they had to stand outside under the open windows or gather around a closed-circuit TV in the building next door in order to participate. I found this to be in stark contrast to the apathy that so often characterizes the church in America.”

For Rosalyn Nichols, who serves at Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee, the memory that she will never forget is meeting with members of a rural church in Xi’an. She writes: “In we walked and in the middle of the room was a long table, a welcome table, if you will, filled with so many wonderful fruits and refreshing tea. The people ushered and encouraged us to have a seat. They sang and we sang, we prayed, we cried. It was amazing, awesomely amazing. As we were leaving, they would not let us leave empty handed. They gave us the fruit, the leftover, the remnant to take with us. These people, who had so little for themselves, gave us what they had left over. They thrust it in our hands with joyful, tearful, happy faces. As we left, we had been shaking hands, but this time we hugged one another. We could not speak the language, but the language of the love of the Lord knows no boundaries. It is like Pentecost, it was communicated so that we all heard it in our own languages…I will never forget.”

Perhaps David Shirey, pastor of Coolwater Christian Church in Cave Creek, Arizona, captures best the impact of this experience on each participant in the closing lines of his September 17th sermon entitled “Back from the Future.” He shares: “I’ve come this morning to tell you I’ve come back from the future. I’ve been to tomorrow and I’ve seen a church burgeoning with growth and vitality and energy, a church marked by a hunger for God’s Word, a church willing to sacrifice for Christ’s sake, a church soaked in the joy of the Holy Spirit. I’ve come back from the future to tell you that we can be that kind of church tomorrow too, if today we give ourselves again to the One whose kingdom is without end.”

Global Ministries, in partnership with New Church Ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), is committed to exploring how the life and witness of global partner churches can impact new church development in the US. To this end, an exposure trip, like this one to China, is organized on a yearly basis. If you are a new church pastor and would like to be a part of such a trip, please contact Rick Morse at rmorse@churchextension.org or Bob Shebeck at bshebeck@dom.disciples.org

To read the three reflections cited above in their entirety, click here.