Under invitation from seminary principle to go to China, Eric Burklin, the president of China Partner is now in China discussing matters of short-term training (Pastoral training seminar) in the provinces of Hongzhou, Zhejan, Jiangxi, Jiansu.
The first event that they will participate in is the dedication service of Chongyi Church that has a maximum capacity of 5000 people.
Burklin states that the church was built under the approval of the Chinese government, thus it is a sign that shows how China is experiencing relatively open religious freedom compared to several years ago when the government was closing and tearing down church.
“The fact that there is a need to build a church shows that there is an explosion of those who has become Christians,” he said, “This is not just a church, but it is a rather large church.”
In June, they will meet with local churches leaders who are starting a new bible-training center in Jiangxi. “This is a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly popular among the churches to provide bible-training program for mainly lay people,” said Burklin.
China Partner is trying to train lay Christian leaders who are leading and running their own churches, because many of them, farmers, factory workers need ministry trainings, which is one of the reason why they check them out in June.
Afterwards in Shanghai, China Partner International will host an International Council Meeting, which is made up of representative board members from branches from Germany, Canada, United States, New Zealand, and Hong Kong to discuss the future church needs or ministry needs in order to strategize the ways that these goals can be accomplished. They will brainstorm to find the ideas that will best suit their needs.
