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AndrewHong.netInsights on Chinese ministry! 2/8/2010 Pietism in the Chinese church - and Eastern asceticism In a previous post we saw how there is a direct connection between Western pietism on the one hand, and those who came to embody Chinese Pietism in the East on the other. And in particular we saw that this connection came about through the missionary movement of the 19th century. But why has Chinese Pietism taken on the form that it has?As with most cases of 'influence', we can't say for sure - however there are some pretty clear indications! Confucianism Confucianism is the main philosophy that influences most of the Eastern world, with a history that stretches back over 2500 years (see previous posts). Confucianism aimed at creating virtuous men (ren) - and, as a consequence, a harmonious society - by devotion to rituals from the past (the li). However Keith Lai points out that this intense devotion on practical questions also came with an equal indifference to theoretical questions. As a result Confucius never felt there was a need to clarify the nature of heaven (tien), or the original state of humans. He writes that:
Perhaps then, when Chinese culture encountered Western Pietism, it embraced its strong focus on practical Christianity. And while it did not explicitly reject theology, it saw little use for it.
However even Confucianism's focus on the practical does not explain why selfhood (in the form of the soul) is seen as such an enemy to spiritual man. And for this we need to turn to Eastern asceticism... Eastern asceticism Eastern philosophy draws a distinction between spirit (which is good) and matter (which is bad). This can be seen in Hinduism and Buddhism where the aim is to deny bodily desires and ultimately escape from the world of matter with all its suffering and troublesome desires. All our suffering is caused by these cravings and desires. And so significantly, we make spiritual progress by effacing one's soul (atman) in order to reach this ultimate level! This happens as one applies oneself to the Four Noble Truths and follows the Noble Eight-fold Path. But you can already pick out how Chinese pietism shares striking similarities with Eastern asceticism at a number of points. Like Eastern asceticism, Chinese pietism also prizes the spirit, despising the outer man with all its troublesome carnality. And like Eastern asceticism, the spiritual man is the one who is able to put the soul to death - and live only by the spirit.
Stephen Johnson suggests that the interpretation of the Scriptures that led to Chinese Pietism may have been working off such a worldview:
Perhaps then Chinese Pietism, while using a great deal of biblical language, and despite how well it might resonate with the Chinese sense of what is deeply spiritual, is at its heart much closer to Eastern asceticism than it is to biblical Christianity!
[ PS: Roger Bray also suggests that Eastern animism/spiritism may influence the regard for omens and signs in Chinese pietism (see his comment here)... ] 2/2/2010 Pietism in the Chinese church - things to watch for Over the last few posts we've been looking at Chinese pietism. This is not actually a very big feature of second generation Chinese, but tends to be more prominent in first generation ministries. And even then the influence of pietism is not uniform: many may not even know the name Watchman Nee, and there are in fact competing influences on OBCs - such as modernism (see previous post)!Yet Chinese pietism still exerts a strong influence on some Chinese - and you can see it in the things that are said:
"They did not worry about money or resources - they simply had faith that God would provide everything they need."
Notice the rejection of the carnal and 'soulish' methods such as planning, reason, calculating resources, raising support - and in its place the more 'spiritual' dependence on God by faith. Often these carnal methods are not explicitly spoken of as bad - but implicitly understood to be inferior. Yet in practice there is a sharp division between the spiritual (which is good) - and the worldly (which is bad).
But there is more:
And here we have that theme of the denial of self / dying to self in order to become the truly spiritual man. The things that we are to learn to die to are things like our wisdom, cunning, intelligence, and talents. And underlying this is the thinking that Christian growth is not actually about putting sin to death and growing in our love for God... instead it's about breaking the outer man so that the inner life of the spirit may shine forth (see previous post).
Here are some more things to listen out for:
Notice the unqualified certainty with which people ascribe what god has been doing in recent events in history. God's supernatural and present intervention in one's ministry - and even his speaking to us in our spirit - is a valuable confirmation of one's election. Notice also that it is often associated with things which, at the time, go against the 'carnal' faculties such as reason and careful planning, and instead exhibit a life that is much more 'spiritual.'
However Chinese pietism doesn't just show itself in what people say, it can also show up in practices common in the Chinese church - practices such as faith missions, and faith promise giving. These look for God's present involvement apart from the normal means of drawing up budgets, talking to supporters, calculating resources. These are merely the workings of man. Instead, for God to work, he must do so supernaturally, through his spirit.
Be aware that, taken individually, these may all be innocuous. And of course, some of these things can also be seen in non-Chinese Christianity. But taken together, they may indicate the influence of Chinese pietism...
[ PS: how else have you seen pietism at work in the things people say and do? ] 1/31/2010 Pietism in the Chinese church - dying and being broken Watchman Nee's tripartite anthropology is the theological foundation of much of Chinese church pietism. And in the last post we saw how that works itself out in terms of how God's will is discerned, and in terms of how much spiritual authority is given to intuition. But Nee's anthropology also leads to even more implications for the Christian life...Dying to one's 'self'
If the spiritual man is someone who is controlled by the spirit, it means that the faculties of the soul must be denied, it must be put to death. Just as the body is crucified and delivered from the dominion of sin, so also are we to die to our soul.
In his exegesis of John 12, Nee says this:
A kind of life may be generated from the soulish faculties - but it should not be confused with true spiritual fruit. Instead we must die to soulish things like our talents, gifts, knowledge and wisdom if God is to work in us!
Keith Lai writes that according to Nee,
This means that planning, strategising, calculating resources and raising supporters are carnal methods for achieving God's purposes. These reveal a dependence on the faculties of the soul - and not a dependence on the spirit. A truly spiritual man denies himself - and all the things that come from the 'self' such as his intellect, wisdom, knowledge. He dies to those carnal things - and instead lives by the spirit.
 Keith Lai explains how a number of encounters early in Nee's life impressed such an approach on him:
And already you can see that in Nee's theology, the faculties of thinking, reasoning etc. themselves are seen as carnal in-and-of-themselves - not just sin, not just sin-damaged thinking. They take on an entirely subordinate role in the spiritual man - but it is so subordinate that it effectively negates those God-given faculties!
Being broken by the Spirit
Nee describes the process of the soul being put to death, and the spirit taking control as a process called being 'broken'.
In The Release of the Spirit, Nee uses the language of the 'inner man' (the spirit) and the 'outer man' (the soul, and then the body). God indwells us in our spirit - but there is a problem: the outer man traps and smothers the spirit.
How can the spirit be released, so that the inner life can shine forth? Nee's answer is that the outer man must be broken:
 This experience of being broken is crucial in Nee's understanding of the Christian life. It is a lifelong process, and many experiences of being broken may be needed for the outer man to be put to death. Keith Lai writes that,
For this breaking to occur, the Christian must first place himself willingly in the hands of God by full consecration. And then the Holy Spirit works to break the outer man using external means - circumstances and crises that force us to see our reliance on our own knowledge, intellect, wisdom - and which make us give these up in order to depend wholly on God.
Nee places a very high value on this personal and present discipline of the Holy Spirit - so high in fact, that he compares it negatively with the Word!
And so once again we see how Watchman Nee's anthropology leads to a unique vision of the Christian life - one which rejects carnal reliance on one's own abilities, and which learns this through being 'broken' again and again by the Spirit. And for many this will be a compelling vision!
But is that really what we are meant to do with our intellect? with wisdom? with knowledge? is faith really opposed to these things? Or has Nee simply assumed that these 'lesser' functions cannot be spiritual?
And could Nee's emphasis on the subjective and present work of the Spirit end up replacing the historic yet objective foundation of the gospel in the confidence of believers?
[ PS: how have you seen this in the things that Chinese Christians say and do? ... and how have you seen it in how missions work is done? ] 1/29/2010 Pietism in the Chinese church - anthropology and revelation Chinese Pietism is perhaps most embodied in the teaching of Watchman Nee (1903-1972). And most crucial for Nee's theology was his understanding of the human being - particularly his tripartite ('threefold') anthropology.Watchman Nee believed that 1 Thess 5:22-23 outlined for us three separate parts of the human being: the spirit, the soul and the body. And understanding how Nee thought these three parts related to one another is crucial in getting a handle on Chinese Pietism...
Watchman Nee's tripartite anthroplology
According to Watchman Nee, the body is that part of us that interacts with the world and has bodily desires. The spirit is that part which contains the intuition, the conscience and is capable of communion with God. And the soul is the self-conscious part of ourselves, formed by the meeting of spirit and body. It is the soul that contains the intellect, will and emotions.
 The unregenerate man is under control of their 'self' in the form of their own soul. This 'self' is governed by the passions of the body, and is dead to the spirit.
 However Nee believed that the spiritual man allows their regenerated spirit to govern their soul, which then governs the body. In his book The Spiritual Man, Nee writes that,
 But there is more. Watchman Nee also believed that since God is spirit, he must communicate to spirit. And through our regenerated spirits, God now relates to us directly. Nee writes of the spiritual person that,
 Stephen Johnson highlights the functions of the spirit in Nee's thought:
The spirit is seen as the place where God works in regenerate man. The spirit contains intuition (the sense organ which receives revelation from God). It also embraces communion, which is the activity of receiving the revelation through one's intuition. Communion is seen as the activity of knowing the mind of God. Lastly, there is conscience. Though it is operataive in both believers and unbelievers, the work of the conscience in a believer brings the possibility of true communion with God. Notice that it is through these three higher faculties of the spirit that God relates to us - intuition, communion and conscience - and not through the lesser, 'soulish' faculty of the intellect.
In the next post we will look at the implications of this for what the spiritual Christian life looks like, but for the moment we will look at what this means for how a Christian perceives the will of God.
The place of exegesis in understanding God's will
Since God only communicates with spirit, Watchman Nee's anthropology means that the 'soulish' intellect is incapable of accessing God's will. Nee writes that,
When one tries to increase his knowledge by doing mental gymnastics over books without waiting upon God and looking to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, his soul is plainly in full swing. This will deplete his spiritual life. And that is because spiritual things can only discerned by the faculties of the spirit (such as intuition) - and not by the faculties of the soul (such as intellect). Johnson writes that,
A natural man cannot understand the Bible until his spirit is enlivened. Man does not primarily understand with his mind in the area of spiritual pursuits but with the spirit. The soulish area of the mind is only secondary. That may sound good, but in practice, this means that the normal tools of exegeis that we learn at KYLC/NextGen are not spiritual, but worldly. The skills of looking out for the situational, literary and theological context, of paying attention to the meaning of words, of the structure of sentences and paragraphs, is an inferior, 'soulish' occupation that must be rejected. In her book Understanding Watchman Nee, Dana Roberts writes that,
Nee is admirable and insightful in understanding the illuminating work of divine revelation in comprehending the spiritual reality of the Bible. But he also seems un-appreciative of the Bible as God's interpretation of real events, language, culture, and people in his covenant history. In Nee's discussion of Bible study methods, comparing and compiling texts are his keys to understanding, never the historical circumstances of the passages. Like many writers who rely entirely on the devotional hermeneutic, he never subjects the biblical text to some discerning questions: Why does the author say this? How does it fit into the context of the whole book? Does the historical background of the passage relate to the circumstances of my own life or the life of my church?" It's important to note that Nee is not alone in this rejection of the intellect. Other early Chinese church leaders also showed this tendency. John Sung reacted against his liberal education from Union Theological Seminary, and in a well known incident on the voyage back to China threw overboard his diplomas and medals. John Sung once said that "one has knowledge, then he can not have love." Like Nee, Sung also believed that the intellect did not play an important role in understanding the Bible, but instead emphasised the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
Continuing revelation through the spirit
But there is more than that... Not only does Chinese Pietism downplay the intellect, it also opens the door to continuing revelation through the spirit, by our intuition. Nee writes that, Spiritual life is maintained simply by heeding the direction of the spirit's intuition. If a believer walks according to God's Spirit he will not originate or regulate anything; he will instead wait quietly for the voice of the Holy Spirit to be heard in his spirit intuitively and assume for himself the position of a subordinate. Upon hearing the inner voice he rises up to work, obeying the direction of intuition. By so walking the believer remains a steadfast follower. The Holy Spirit alone is the Originator. That is, the spiritual Christian looks for God's supernatural leading into his will by being sensitive to his intuition. In all this, Nee does have a role for the mind - but it's only to understand that will - not to test or question the intuition.
We consistently ought refuse to allow the mind to serve as the prime element for receiving God's will, yet we must not inhibit it from serving as the secondary apparatus for understanding that will. A carnal Christian mistakes the thought of the head to be the criterion for his conduct because he has not yet learned how to walk after the spirit. Stephen Johnson highlights the danger of this:
It might be said that the biggest danger in Nee's spiritual assessments is the threat of incipient gnosticism. Nee's conclusion of the subjective nature of what a 'spiritual man' is, gives rise to a form of the pneumakti or enlightened ones of the second century. From what we have seen so far of Watchman Nee's anthropology, we can already see that it leads to a very different kind of Christianity... and huge issues are actually at stake.
How does God reveal his will to us? Is it revealed in the Bible, accessed using the normal tools of exegesis? Or does God now reveal his will for us directly to our spirits, through our intuition?
And what level of authority do we ascribe to such intuition? Is God whispering directly to me today, calling me to do certain things (such as full time ministry)? would I be presumptuous to subject these feelings under the 'soulish' intellect? Or are we to exercise wisdom informed by our understanding of the Bible?
[ PS: how have you seen this showing itself in the things that Chinese Christians say or do? ] 1/28/2010 Pietism in the Chinese church - not like the West! 'Pietism' may sound like a relatively good thing to you. And for the most part it is - at least in the history of Western Christianity. But for Chinese Christianity, Pietism takes on a different form entirely...In the Western world Pietism is a movement that actually dates back to the post-Reformation period in Germany. Sure, Germany was full of life when the gospel was rediscovered in the 16th century... But by the 17th and 18th centuries German churches had become cold and analytical in their theology and practice. Pietism was a movement dedicated to changing all that. It turned the focus back onto practical Christianity (not just theology), personal conversion (not just church attendance), a focus on devotional life (not just formal observance), and the study of the Bible in home groups (not just sermons at church).
The movement quickly caught on, and its influence spread to other countries such as England and the United States. And on the whole it had a positive influence. It led to to the Great Awakenings in America. It led to modern-day evangelicalism. And in part it fuelled the modern missionary movement.
And it is partly through that missionary movement that Pietism came to influence key Chinese church leaders such as Watchman Nee, Wong Ming Dao, and John Sung - and through them, the Chinese church as a whole. However as it did so, Pietism would take on a distinctive form among the Chinese...
Over the next few posts we'll look at the key features of Chinese Pietism!
[ PS: what do you think are the signs of Chinese Pietism? ] 1/2/2010 The most (and least) 'Christian' Chinese suburbs in SydneyA few posts ago I showed you some graphs with the top 75 Sydney suburbs numbers in terms of number of Chinese people in them (see previous post). But how are we going at reaching them? and where do we need to plant Chinese churches? Today what I've done is I've worked out the proportion of Chinese in these suburbs that identified themselves as 'Christian' in some way or another and put them into a graph. Again, I've annotated every tenth suburb with a ranking. Note that this is not all Sydney suburbs - there were some with very small numbers of Chinese that would give strange results. For example, every Chinese person in Palm Beach identified themselves as 'Christian' - but that's only three people! And so this graph is only made up of the top 75 suburbs by Chinese population (the ones in the previous post). And remember that 'Christian' is the broad classification used by the ABS that also includes Roman Catholics.  Notice a number of things. Firstly, some significantly large suburbs (in terms of Chinese population) are right at the bottom of this graph (Hurstville at #61, Campsie at #69, Cabramatta at #73). And yet these suburbs are actually #1, 2 and 3 respectively in terms of size of Chinese population! Secondly, the suburbs that have the highest proportion of Christians among the Chinese tend to be in the North and East. The least reached areas in terms of the Chinese population are to the South, West and South-West. And thirdly, you can also see that areas with a higher proportion of Chinese Christians also tend to be the more affluent areas of Sydney... For the sake of the gospel, will those living in the more affluent areas be willing to move into the less affluent areas of Sydney to witness and serve and plant churches? [ PS: in relation to this graph, where have Chinese churches been planted? ] 12/31/2009 Sydney Chinese church movements - 2009 These are English ministry movements in Sydney for the year 2009:
Mr Alby Lam graduates from Moore College and will begin as English pastor at EFCA East Lindfield in 2010. He was serving there as a chatechist during 2009.
Here are some other Chinese ministry moves in Sydney for the year 2009: Mr David Truong begins part time ministry at Northern District Chinese Christian Church, Sydney (NDCCCS).
[ PS: know of some other movements? Let me know and I'll include them... thanks to Jeff Fung, Al Garlando and Alistair Chiu for additions! ] 12/30/2009 Chinese in Sydney - by suburbsThe Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) presents a lot of its information in terms of Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) - but realistically, that's a strange category for most people. Much more understandable is the suburb - and so what I have today are some graphs showing you the number of people of Chinese ancestry in suburbs. This first graph shows you the top 75 NSW suburbs with the highest number of people of Chinese ancestry. I've labelled every ten or so of them with the number, so you can work out the relative rankings. This helps you to work out that Epping (for example) is the 7th largest suburb in terms of Chinese population in NSW!  In this next graph I've worked out the proportions, and this shows the percentage of suburbs that are of Chinese ancestry, again showing the top 75 suburbs. Epping, for example, is #14 in terms of the proportion of people being of Chinese ancestry.  [ PS: were you surprised by some areas? ]
12/11/2009 Making change happen: three roads How do you get changes made, and new ideas implemented - in church as well as elsewhere? My theory is that there are three 'roads' that you need to be travelling on at the same time, in order for change to be successful. Neglect one - or more - of these roads, and you are almost guaranteed to have problems!  The high road is the road of formal approval from the 'higher ups' in your church or organisation. This might be the Board of Deacons, the English Committee, the Pastoral Team... and moving along this road might involve informal chats with chairmen and deacons to sell the idea. It might involve having coffee with pastors to keep them in the loop and getting advice. It might involve writing and presenting proposals and waiting for them to be approved, perhaps sharing it beforehand to get feedback...
But the thing is, you need to work at all three of these. If you neglect the high road, you can expect that the 'higher ups' to come down on you like a ton of bricks! And the negative taste might even lessen the chances of this initiative ever being formally approved again in the future.
Got something you want to introduce? Make sure you map out your milestones along the high, the middle, and the low road. Realise that you have your own road that you feel most comfortable travelling on, and so perhaps allocate a specific person on your team to look after each road. Look after each road: the one you miss is likely to cause you problems later on! [ PS: reflect on failed initiatives/changes in the past - can you trace it back to a particular road? can you discern a pattern? ] 12/9/2009 Indians (and other South Asians) in Sydney Okay, this post is not about Chinese ministry at all, but about another important group in Sydney. And perhaps each of us in our own way will have our own part to play... A while ago we saw how significant Indian migration has been in recent years - migration from India was actually greater than migration from China for both 2008 and 2009 (see previous post). But the problem is, while there are lots of Chinese churches, there aren't many Indian ones... so here are more stats on the South Asians in Sydney! 1. Where are they? There are 331,525 people of South-Asian ancestry in Australia, and 134,099 in Sydney. Here is a map of where they are (from the 2006 ABS census): 
So this group mostly live in the areas out West, and also Canterbury. In case you're interested, here are the figures for some of the larger areas (dark red on the map):
2. What are they like? This pie chart shows you the ancestry breakdown of the South Asian group in Sydney. 62.7% of South Asian are of Indian ancestry.  And this is the age profile of South Asians. You can see that there is a prominent peak in the 20-34 age group.  This bar graph shows you migration from South Asian countries from 2002-03 to the 2007-08 financial year. You can see how significant migration from India is! 
And this is age profile by sex. You can see that for most of the age range, and particularly for the 20-34 age range, males outnumber females.  3. How reached are they? This is the breakup of religion... as you'd expect, a high number of Hindus, followed by Muslims. 'Christianity' comes in third place at 17.9% (though this includes Roman Catholics too).  This shows you the age profile by religion. If you compare it to the age profile above, you see that Hinduism follows the general age profile quite closely (pink line). However Christianity is very weak among the 20-44 age bracket (yellow line).  There's a lot that has yet to be done in terms of Indian and South Asian ministry in Sydney... what part can you play? [ PS: how many Indians / South Asians are there in your church or uni ministry? ] |
My take on Chinese churches!
Encouragement for those who serve!
Posts on the parent-child relationship for Chinese people!
Posts on going into full time ministry!
Bible studies I've written, that you can download and try out with your group! PDF format.
Recommended reading that doesn't fit elsewhere!
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