My church is
great. Unfortunately, since it’s an international church, it is only open to
foreign (non-PRC) passport holders. Being a Christian is allowed in China, but
you can only attend government-approved Chinese services. I haven’t been to one
yet, but I’m hoping to go soon. From what I hear, they are very traditional, and
the doctrine is sometimes sketchy, likely in order to align teaching with
government ideals. I probably won’t be able to understand enough to know the
difference, but I’ll be sure to say what it’s like! Bibles can be easily acquired…just
only from Chinese churches. No distributing of Christian materials is allowed
outside of the church.
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| Chinese Church that gave me a Bible |
Additionally, Children’s Bibles are not allowed, since it is illegal to teach children (anyone under 18) about Jesus. I recently went into a Chinese church (difficult to find!) to inquire about service times. While I was there, I also said that I wanted to buy a Bible…the man who was in charge of Bible sales was not available, but they were so happy I had asked that they gave me a free (used) Bible from the church. Side note: this turned out to be better, since it has all the Chinese hymns in the back!
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| Outside SCF |
Anyways,
back to why my church is great. 1) The place is PACKED with people from over 60
countries who all come together to praise God. How great is that?? 2) There are
plenty of opportunities to get involved, including conferences and outreaches. Last
Saturday I was at a conference called “Partnering with the Holy Spirit.” It was
incredible. God is moving in Shanghai! 3) Getting connected is super easy…cell
groups are well promoted and highly encouraged. I’ve been going to one for
three weeks now, and I already feel like I belong there. In fact, I’m leading
worship this Wednesday. Pray that I can play the guitar well enough to get by.
Bonus: I met a French-speaker. So fun.
I forgot to mention, the name of the church I go to is called Shanghai Christian Fellowship, or SCF. This picture was on a rare sunny day, I think I've only seen two of them in the past month!
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what language is the international church held in? Do you do worship in other languages? The church I go to in Dakar is all in French, but we usually do at least a few songs in Wolof, and occasionally other regional languages. I now know Lord I Lift Your Name in high in three languages, which is pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome! All of the international churches here are in English, but many of the small groups are in different languages. So that's cool, especially if your first language is Russian, Spanish, Japanese, etc. and you can still meet with people in China who speak your language!
ReplyDeleteHi Matt(hew)! :) It's your cousin Renae! I am fascinated by your blog--cracked up reading it! My students at Veritas Classical Schools are studying Asia for the rest of the year and I think I am going to have them follow your blog! 2 comments and one question. First of all--you need a picture! All of my students will wonder what you look like. Also, I was disappointed I couldn't read "Let's Start at the Beginning" and "Street Food." The links are not working. And finally, What does your title mean? Thanks for all the interesting commentary. I look forward to reading it more and will pray for your safety over there!
ReplyDeletePS I just tried again about 10 minutes later and the blogs I spoke of worked! Now I know the answer to my question about the title! Talk to you soon!
ReplyDeleteI fixed the picture issue! I thought I had one, but it was only for my Google account. Glad to hear that you are enjoying the blog :)
ReplyDelete