Xiamen: Sharing the Gospel with Pragmatic People
Editor’s note: It’s hard to share the gospel in Xiamen these days for many reasons: lack of interest, people who are too stressed about their finances to think about their souls, persecution, cultural differences between native Xiamenese and newcomers, and the need to build gospel conversations on strong relational connections. But despite these difficulties, people are still coming to faith. When this happens, it is clearly the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.
As we continue to pray for the city of Xiamen this month, four local pastors shared the challenges and struggles they face as they minister to their city.
China Partnership: As you minister to people in your city, what are the common challenges, fears, and struggles you encounter?
How Will Faith Benefit Me?
Preacher Yang: This is a second-tier city with a population of 5 million. The city has beautiful scenery and relatively excellent urban hygiene and order. Because it is a tourist city, it is also a relatively comfortable and unenterprising. Xiamen people have a strong sense of island consciousness, feel good about themselves, and money and comfort are more obvious idols. This has also affected the culture of the church Xiamen. Xiamen Christians are more focused on pursuing comfort and being satisfied with the status quo. Their enthusiasm for evangelism and church building is relatively low.Jin Dajun: People are increasingly apathetic towards faith. They don’t care about what is true or right. They’re numb. They’re more concerned with money – the less they have, the more they fixate on it.
People also prioritize pleasure and instant gratification. If you talk about faith, people will want to know what they’ll get out of it immediately. If someone is struggling with debt, they might ask, “Will believing in Jesus solve my financial problems? Will it give me money right away?”
That’s the general attitude, especially among working people, who are under immense pressure. Many people rely on excessive overtime just to keep their jobs.
People are increasingly apathetic towards faith. They don’t care about what is true or right. They’re numb. They’re more concerned with money – the less they have, the more they fixate on it.
Huang Minzhu: When ministering to non-believers, the indoctrination of China’s educational system is quite powerful. Many seekers are deeply influenced by materialism. Concepts like “the law of the jungle” and “survival of the fittest” are ingrained in them. They feel they need to be better than others to prove their worth. When people face economic hardships or can’t even support their own families, external things lose meaning.
People are very pragmatic. They want to know how faith will benefit them: “What will I get out of it?” If the benefits don’t live up to their expectations, they aren’t interested.
In the current situation in China, many people want to “lie flat,”[1] but can’t. Many people want to “let it rot” but can’t[2]; many people want to get ahead, but fall short. People are deeply confused about their own identity. Faith seems distant, unattainable, or insignificant. Because of this,cspreading the gospel is very challenging. It is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. We do our part, but I see conversions and awakenings as miraculous. Every year, our church sees a few such miracles. This encourages us. But the difficulty in evangelism hinders outreach. We need to reflect inwardly.
As pastors caring for the flock, we should help people worship with the right heart. The purpose of hearing the Word is to do it; the purpose of knowing is, with God’s grace, to act. By God’s grace, we need to guide our brothers and sisters through their struggles.
A City of Transplants
Wei Yan: More than half of Xiamen’s population come from elsewhere. I myself am not local, although I’ve been here a decade and a half. Our church has very few true locals, people who were born and raised here and speak the dialect, not just people who moved here later. Only about 10 percent of our church are from Xiamen. We want to reach locals, but there are not many opportunities. People in our church don’t have many local friends.My wife is local. I’ve interacted with her friends, but I’ve noticed that young locals seem to look down on – or even exclude – outsiders. When I’m talking with people from Xiamen, sometimes I feel like I’m at a disadvantage. It can be hard to share the gospel with them, because it feels like you need a certain social standing to have an equal conversation. To me, it’s challenging to share the gospel with young Xiamenese. Even churches with local members seem to have mostly older people.
Spreading the gospel is very challenging. It is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. We do our part, but I see conversions and awakenings as miraculous.
Five years ago, our church held evangelistic events, like book studies or lectures. Back then, many were interested. But in the past few years, we’ve noticed that people are more interested in building relationships than receiving information.
There’s a contradiction: people crave love, but are hesitant to open up; people are slow to trust, yet deeply desire connection. As Christians, this can be challenging, because a lot of us are more comfortable sharing information, especially during Sunday services. But people are longing for slow, relational connection.
Evangelism Built on Relationships
Zu Dong: For myself as a preacher, I think I need to repent. There are many reasons, including the persecution our church faced a few years ago. Before persecution, things seemed easier. Back then the environment allowed us to be bolder in doing outreach events at church, where we would invite seekers to come participate.M
People crave love, but are hesitant to open up; people are slow to trust, yet deeply desire connection.
