Involvement in Ministry
This Month's Story
Mary Anne Isaak
China is under construction! Apartment blocks, sky rises, roads! Seventy percent of the active cranes in the world are being used for construction in China. And in front of each construction site stands a billboard-sized image of the structure that is being erected. In China, the visual image captures the promise of the future.
I had the incredible privilege this March to participate on a team of twelve that visited the seminaries and leadership of the registered church in six cities in China. Sponsored by Fuller Theological Seminary, the theology team had intentional conversations about the Christian faith, sharing from our experiences in China and in California, learning from one another.
Our first formal theological conversation was with members of the Chinese Christian Council in Guangzhou, a city of 11 million people and ten Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM or registered) churches. After an extended time of question and answer about Christianity in China, I asked what message they would like us to take back to the churches in North America. Pastor Leung’s response both surprised and challenged me. “Trust what you see, not what you have heard.”
Taking his advice literally, I took note of the physical surrounding of the many rooms we sat in as the Fuller Theology Team engaged in two and three-hour conversations with seminary faculty and members of the Chinese Christian Council in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.
As we visited Christians in various locations, I began to notice that, among the many other photos and religious art, one image appeared repeatedly. It was sometimes woven in tapestry, sometimes embossed in metal, often framed as a reprint of a famous painting – da Vinci’s Last Supper. When I wondered aloud in conversation with one Chinese professor why this particular image was so popular, I was informed that they didn’t know that others had chosen it as well; they just liked it. Two Chinese Americans on our trip suggested that the Last Supper portrays a significant communal moment in the life of Christ—and this corresponds to the communal nature of the Chinese soul. In China, the visual image captures the promise of the future.
If I could paint a picture of my impressions of the church in China, I would start with da Vinci’s Last Supper—and trade his long rectangular table for a typical Chinese round table overlaid with a turntable in the middle, and then set the table with chopsticks. Sharing a meal with the people we met in China, Christian or not, is a large part of connecting. In Beijing we had a fascinating, formal conversation with faculty of Religion at Renmin University, which provided helpful insight into the role of Christianity from the perspective of secular society. From there we went for dinner with three of the professors. The camaraderie at the meal was where the real exchange took place, where an invitation to the Psychology of Religion conference was accepted, where Al and the professors traded invitations to make presentations.
A painting of the Last Supper portrays a scene from Scripture which reminds us that the suffering and passion of Jesus comes next in the biblical story. In the conversations on this trip, I realized that the church in China is well acquainted with suffering. On one of our last meals, we had the privilege of eating with the leader of the Christian Council of Zhejiang. He told his story of imprisonment and suffering as a pastor during the cultural revolution; his years of work in the factory and finally his invitation to return to work in the church after the governmental openness policy. Similarly, in our conversation with the Christian Council of Beijing, we heard that “the Chinese churches are like the early church in Acts. Even though we experienced hard times, like in the cultural revolution, we know God wants to grow the church. We can now give thanks for the hard time. God always, in different ways, builds up the church.”
Another area of suffering that the church wrestles with is the pain caused by the earthquake of Hanwang two years ago. For me, to see the earthquake area was an overwhelming experience. Later at the Sichuan Theological Seminary, Rev Li Dong engaged with the meditation I gave in chapel that morning that addressed the idea of God’s involvement in our pain. He spoke for 45 minutes about his understanding of the biblical text I used; he shared how he has written a poem that wrestles with God about the earthquake, and how he incorporates the book of Job into the poem.
Back to the re-imagined painting of the Last Supper—to represent my impressions of the church in China I would place a basin and towel, symbols of servanthood, in the forefront of the painting. Over and over we heard the people in the church say that “God is love” and that “the challenge of the church is to demonstrate God’s love in tangible ways.” At the Guangdong Theological Seminary, the previous week students went to plant trees on the mountain. On an ongoing basis, 60 of the 64 students serve at the nearby home for the elderly. Many of their students participate in visiting the rehab center for those dealing with drug issues, and still others go to local community events and sing hymns. Every student needs to volunteer in a church. In the church in Hangzhou, they have a saying, “Today a guest, tomorrow a servant.”
Finally, in the painting I would include women at the table. Even though the twelve disciples in the original story are men, the church in China has a lot of women leaders at the table. Many of the pastors we met are female. As one of the few female pastors in my denomination, I was incredibly inspired by the confidence and strength with which these pastors carried about their ministry.
In China, the visual image captures the promise of the future, and it translates the story of faith told in the Scriptures into a portrayal of the dynamic reality of what the Holy Spirit is doing in China right now.