8 Lessons We Can Learn from the Church in China
7th Lesson: Seriousness in Carrying out the Great Commission
Tract by Asia Outreach
We all talk about the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ. But in China’s Church there is a seriousness about carrying out the Great Commission in day-to-day life.
Recently my co-workers told me this somewhat funny testimony. A western missionary went to China for one of his many survey trips. He was heading their mission’s China work and he speaks the Chinese language fluently. On his journey he was riding in a train. After the train stopped over in a small town, a young hawker came into the carriage carrying candies and cakes and the like in a rattan basket. He went around selling his merchandise, then settled himself near the missionary. In his very broken English, he tried to strike up a conversation with the foreigner.
When the young hawker noticed that the passengers around them were gone, he pointed to himself and to the missionary, and said, “I am Christian. You Christian?”
The missionary could have easily switched the conversation into Chinese and made life for this young fellow a lot easier. But he was in a game mood. So he just coolly replied in English. “Yes, I am a Christian.”
The young man was not totally satisfied with the answer. Perhaps he had learned that all westerners think of themselves as Christians. So he pressed on, “Are you two-time born Christian?” Of course the missionary knew what he was trying to say. But he wanted to find out what this young man was trying to get at, and he wanted to find out more about his theology. So he asked the poor fellow to explain.
That hawker tried so hard in English to make this white fellow understand the importance of being ‘born again’ that he himself was turning red with excitement!
Finally the missionary took pity on his predicament and told him that he spoke Chinese. The young man was then very happy that he could now explain more clearly that everyone must be a born again Christian! The missionary was amazed both at his enthusiasm and his sense of urgency: “You must become two-time born Christian!”
At last wishing to somehow end the conversation, he told the hawker that he was a born again Christian and furthermore, a missionary. That didn’t seem enough. The young man persisted, “Good! And how many people did you bring to Christ last month?” It seemed that nothing could stop the young man from talking about Jesus!
Later the missionary learned that this young man was formerly a soldier in the People’s Liberation Army. He had to leave that privileged class because he became a Christian. He was booted out by the People’s Army, but was accepted into the Lord’s Army.
After returning to his village, the young man joined a rapidly growing Christian fellowship. The other believers discovered that he had the gift of evangelism and personal witnessing, so they helped him to obtain a license to sell on the trains.
“They did this so I could meet strangers and tell them about Jesus,” he told the missionary. “I love to tell everyone about Jesus. And we must work while we still have the opportunity, because Jesus is coming back soon!”
Often our evangelism is so program-oriented. We depend on an Evangelism Explosion Seminar to get us going for a while, and then wait for the next specialist to come around with another program. Evangelism has become so structured! If we are serious about the Commission of our Lord, even when we are peddling goods on the streets, selling insurance, or directing a company, we will grab every opportunity to talk about Jesus Christ!
“Just a while longer… and the Lord is coming back.” (Heb. 10:37) This for a long time has been a comfort and a sustaining power for Christ’s suffering Church. She has gone through fire. But now with a somewhat more liberal mood taking hold in China, the Christians are taking that truth – the Lord is coming back soon – as a warning to get on with the job of evangelism. That young man typifies many new Christians I’ve met in China. They just cannot stop talking about their Lord!
