Happy Chinese New Year! The International Churches of Christ in China ^Featured

In 1987 a somewhat unlikely group of disciples—17 in all—sent out from the Boston Church of Christ, arrived in Hong Kong. One of the peculiarities of the mission team was that, although many were ethnically Chinese, very few spoke any Chinese at all, much less the notoriously difficult-to-learn Cantonese of Hong Kong. Nevertheless, by faith the team began building a church and learning Cantonese. Within a year there were over 50 disciples. From the start, the Hong Kong church cultivated a strong sense of mission—to preach the gospel throughout China—with lead evangelist Scott Green personally taking recently-baptized campus disciples to spend a month in mainland China, building their vision for future plantings.

The Hong Kong church baptized hundreds in its first few years and by the end of 1991 had not only sent out its first mission team, to Taipei, but also became financially self-supporting. Since this time, the vast majority of mission work funding for greater China has come from Chinese Christians themselves. Not only have the Chinese churches been self-supporting for over 20 years now, they have given generously to help other churches in need, HOPE worldwide, and Disciples Today.

The first planting of the Hong Kong church, in Taipei, Taiwan, itself started fruitful campus ministries and began planting new churches. Today there are five churches throughout Taiwan that are direct plants of the Taipei church, which has also planted numerous churches in mainland China and provides substantial financial and leadership support for the China mission.

Details of the number and scope of church planting in mainland China will have to wait for a later article, but in broad strokes we can describe a hopeful picture: several churches are now self-supporting and have sent out their own mission teams. Young men and women, themselves baptized in China, lead churches and are raising up a strong next generation of church planters and leaders.

In 2013, disciples from throughout greater China gathered in Hong Kong for the 25^th anniversary celebration of the planting here. Looking back, we are filled with thanks for what God has done—but even more determined to keep looking forward to making more history to God’s glory in China!

Next in this series: Is the Year of the Horse Your Time to Take the One-Year Challenge?