In case you're wondering why I'm into all this stuff about Confucianism, it's mostly for a Master of Arts in Theology subject I was doing earlier this year. It's about Leadership Development in a Cross-Cultural Context - and one of our deacons suggested I do my essay on traditional Chinese leadership styles - and Confucianism does in fact has a very distinctive take on leadership...

1. Confucianism and leadership

The Confucian style of leadership involves the ruler remaining in the palace and observing the rites of his office. By applying himself to these rites, virtue would emanate from the palace and out into the rest of the country, as the influence of virtue spreads.

The Master said, 'If a man is able to govern a state by observing the rites and showing deference, what difficulties will he have in public life? If he is unable to govern a state by observing the rites and showing deference, what good are the rites to him?'

Analects IV, 13

In fact Confucius envisaged that you don't necessarily even need to have a ruler - as people see the value of observing their obligations in the li relationships, virtue will surely take over.

The Master said, 'Barbarian tribes with their rulers are inferior to Chinese states without them.'

Analects III, 5

The Master wanted to settle amongst the Nine Barbarian Tribes of the east. Someone said, 'But could you put up with their uncouth ways?' The Master said, 'Once a gentleman settles amongst them, what uncouthness will there be?'

Analects IX, 14

The reason government is not so central is because the government shouldn't need to create and enforce external rules, because it is better anyway for people to be kept in check by an internalised sense of shame when they do not observe what is required in the li relationships.

The Master said, 'Guide them by edicts, keep them in line with punishments, and the common people will stay out of trouble but will have no sense of shame. Guide them by virtue, keep them in line with the rites, and they will, besides having a sense of shame, reform themselves.'

Analects II, 3

In reality, no ruler ever embodied the Confucian ideal of rule by virtue and observance of rites alone. The Qin dynasty rejected Confucianism and adopted Legalism as its policy. But even when they were overthrown by the Han who adopted Confucianism as the state orthodoxy, Han rulers (and those of subsequent dynasties) still relied on punishment and reward to keep the empire in check!

And today, people don't really follow Confucian ideals when it comes to exercising leadership in business say, or in a church setting. However, Confucianism does strongly influence other aspects of the leadership task...

2. Confucianism and relationships

Three of the five key li relationships are: the ruler-subject relationship, the parent-child relationship, and the older-younger relationship. These are significant because they govern how people relate to one another (or expect people to relate to them). In a leadership situation then, the older will expect the younger to defer to them. The parent will expect reverence from their children, and rulers obedience from their subjects.

However in these li roles, the rule of the ruler over the subject is absolute, as is that of the parents over their children, and older over younger. In practice then, Confucianism can lead to an abuse of position because there is no higher authority outside of the li relationship. Not only that, there is also nothing to protect the son from sinful demands made by a father, let alone a subject from the ruler.

Because in many instances the function of leadership involves taking on the acknowledged role of a leader, we must be aware of the tendency for those influenced by Confucianism to insist that others to relate to them in a Confucian manner, and to see their decisions and wishes as being beyond challenge.

And in Australia, this can be particularly troublesome because of the history of Chinese migration. Because the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 was only repealed in 1973, Chinese churches have only a short history in Australia (see post on the age profile of Chinese migrants). This means that for that vast majority of Chinese churches, the OBC congregations are the older and more dominant congregations, while the ABC congregations are younger and generally contain the children of those in the OBC congregations.

Consequently, church leaders tend to come from the older OBC congregations, and tend to relate to the younger ABC congregation as a parent does to their son - because some of them are in fact their children! This therefore means that Chinese church leaders expect their direction to be obeyed and for them to be shown reverence, in much the same way as in the li of ruler-subject, elder-younger, and even father-son.

Theologically this is dangerous as it does not account for sin! Theologically driven leadership will always be glad of checks and balances to prevent sin in the leader from damaging gospel ministry (see SCCCA discussion paper).

3. Confucianism and the past

In terms of the broad drama of history, Confucius looked to China's past and revived the rituals of the ancestors. And in terms of the individual stories of family households, Confucius directed that sons should always care for, obey, and show reverence to their parents - even after they had died, and even if they were doing wrong (see post on filial piety).

And so in both the broad and the narrow of human history, Confucius elevated the past. This brought stability to a turbulent time - but it also means that change is difficult, new ideas are seen with suspicion, and decisions made in the past are never open to question. This is well illustrated in the following from the Analects:

Duke Ai asked Tsai Wo about the altar to the god of earth. Tsai Wo replied, 'The Hsia used the pine, the Yin used the cedar, and the men of Chou used the chestnut, saying that it made the common people tremble.'
The Master, on hearing of this reply, commented, 'One does not explain away what is already done, one does not argue against what is already accomplished, and one does not condemn what has already gone by.'

Analects III, 21

When the gospel comes to any human culture, that culture will need to be critiqued and tested as people grow in their understanding of God's revelation. Even the Reformers reminded themselves of this with the saying, Ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei ("the church reformed, always being reformed according to the Word of God"). And so Christian leadership will necessarily require an openness to test and review their past with the word of God.

This is particularly important in Chinese churches, which are increasingly bi-cultural (with both OBCs and ABCs together). This is because what is merely a cultural expression of one group's love for God may be demanded of another group as tests of spiritual maturity. Christian leaders therefore need to be particularly careful to not allow elements of one culture to become elevated to the level of gospel, and to have only biblical requirements for unity (Eph 4:1-6). And the past-revering aspect of Confucianism makes the task of the Christian leader in leading a re-evaluation of their culture particularly challenging.

4. Confucianism and conflict

Confucius sought to restore order and harmony to a divided China - and as a result social harmony is highly prized in Confucianism. However the pursuit for social harmony also meant that conflict was not appropriate for the virtuous man. The nearest thing to conflict that should be, Confucius taught, was an archery contest!

Master said, 'There is no contention between gentlemen. The nearest to it is, perhaps, archery. In archery they bow and make way for one another as they go up and on coming down they drink together. Even the way they contend is gentlemanly.'

Analects III, 7

However as people grow as Christians at different paces and are therefore at different levels of Christian maturity, conflict is inevitable. Not only that, in bi-cultural Chinese churches with some people adopting a Confucian, and others a Western paradigm of conflict, conflict situations can be explosive! Those influenced by Western conflict styles can be very outspoken in their opposition to ideas and ready to challenge leaders. And leaders influenced by Confucianism may react by demanding submission, and challenging opponents with threatening the unity of the church. This can be oppressive, and so leaders must be equipped to handle conflict well with those used to a more Western style of interaction.

The high premium placed on Western education (even in Asian countries) can mean that a lot of prominence is given to Western philosophical approaches. By contrast, Confucianism is neglected and its powerful influence not challenged. However it does influence the Chinese strongly - and if we are not careful, shape our approach to Christian leadership.

[ PS: how then do you think this influences the training of new and current leaders? ]

From the previous post you can already see that university students make up a significant part of the Chinese migrant population.

Information on international students is tracked by Australian Education International (AEI). Here are figures for enrollments from some Asian countries in all sectors of education (data from here).

Country	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Change from 2002 to 2007
China	48,236	60,301	70,741	81,843	90,048	107,071	122.0%
Hong Kong	21,984	23,765	22,816	21,266	20,424	19,742	-10.2%
Taiwan	10,006	10,607	10,151	9,584	9,889	9,646	-3.6%
Malaysia	17,540	19,827	19,994	19,336	19,118	19,874	13.3%
Singapore	12,074	11,852	10,860	9,898	9,229	8,853	-26.7%

This is summarised in the following graph:


As you can see, China is sending a lot of students to Australia compared to other countries - and over five years the numbers have more than doubled!

However not all of these students are actually university students. This next table shows only the figures for the higher education sector alone (eg. universities).

Country	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Change from 2002 to 2007
China	16,311	22,394	30,203	40,054	45,873	48,695	198.5%
Hong Kong	8,376	10,182	10,974	10,703	9,895	9,180	9.6%
Taiwan	3,883	4,113	4,165	3,964	3,814	3,706	-4.6%
Malaysia	13,595	15,426	15,895	15,375	14,897	15,200	11.8%
Singapore	10,442	10,186	9,229	8,349	7,855	7,516	-28.0%

This is summarised in the following graph:


Again, a huge increase in students from China - the figures have almost tripled over a five year period! China is the largest sending nation of students - and accounts for 22% of overseas students.

But overseas students tend to head to certain universities over others. This graph shows the top ten universities that overseas students attended in 2006, by number of students. As you can see, in NSW Macquarie University actually had 9.7 thousand overseas students.


If you're wanting to do ministry to overseas students, this shows you strategic unis. But from the previous post, you can see that many of these university students don't actually stay in Australia long-term. This means they are generally only here in Australia for a short while, before returning to their home countries.

[ PS: I'll be flying off to Melbourne on Tuesday for the ANZCCCOE conference! ]

Here is information about the age profile of the migrant population from Hong Kong and China in particular, and North-East Asia in general.

1. Age profile of Hong Kong migrant population

First off, those migrants who originally came from Hong Kong. Note that these graph shows the age profile of the population for several years, given in different colours. The most recent one is the bright blue one (2007p).

In this graph you see two distinct bumps - one in the 15-29 age bracket, and another in the 40-55 age bracket. This corresponds to parents and their children who migrated to Australia after Tiananmen Square and before the handover of Hong Kong to China.

You can see that after 1996, the 40-55 age bracket bump hasn't increased very much - it's just shifted to the right as that age group grows older. Hardly any of that age group have migrated since then - in fact numbers even seem to have dropped a little! However the 15-29 age bracket has increased quite significantly - particularly the 20-24 age bracket. It looks like students and young workers have continued to migrate to Australia from Hong Kong.

Note that these graphs only cover migrants, and doesn't include those born in Australia to migrant families - the second generation! Stay tuned however, those graphs are for another day.

But already you can see that this next generation is a significantly growing area in the Chinese community. Not only is it important to pour resources into them to raise the next generation of church leaders - we also need to pour more resources into them for the simple fact that there is increasingly more of them!

2. Age profile of China migrant population

Next we have those migrants who originally came from China.

This graph also shows two bumps - but I think you'll find that unlike the previous graph for Hong Kong, these two sets of migrants are unrelated. The first spike at the 20-24 year age group is university students and young workers (more on them in a future post). The next bump is the 40-44 year age group. This group is also growing, though not in the same dramatic way as those university students. But who are they? These 40-44 year olds aren't actually the parents of the university students - they're not old enough - they are unrelated young families who have migrated to Australia.

And so if you want to reach Chinese migrants, these are two distinct groups you need to be reaching out to. Just reaching out to university students is not going to reach all those young families. You need to have strategies to reach students as well as young families!

Pay attention also to the scale of the two graphs above (with peaks of 15,000 and 45,000 people respectively). The increase in Hong Kong uni students/young workers looks significant - but it is well and truly dwarfed by the increase in the number of students from China!

3. Age profile of North-East Asian migrant population

This last graph shows you migration from the North-East Asian region as a whole, which includes China and Hong Kong, but also Macau, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia.

Again, we see a big spike in the 20-24 year age group, and a bump at the 40-44 year age group. However you can see that this parent age group is not as sharp as the China graph - it's much more rounded, reflecting the fact that other nationalities have migrated to Australia as whole families.

If you go back to the second graph, you can see that over this 10-year period, China increased it's share of the 20-24 year olds by 40,000 people. This means that about four-fifths of the increase of 20-24 year olds in this graph is actually due to China alone!

[ PS: anything else you can say from these graphs? ]

So. How are we going at reaching the Chinese in Australia?

Earlier this year the ABS released Perspectives on Migrants 2007, and part of it contains information that correlates birthplace and religion. It's based on the 2006 ABS census, and you can find it on this page at the ABS website. This reveals the religion of those living in Australia who were born in China, and Hong Kong.

First off, a pie chart of the religious belief of Australian residents born in China.

And here is a pie chart showing the religious belief of Australian residents born in Hong Kong.

Because the Chinese aren't culturally predisposed to identify themselves as Christians (compared to Anglo Aussies, say) these figures for Christianity are a lot more believable than the Christianity figures for the general population.

And so it's quite encouraging to see how many people born in Hong Kong call themselves Christians - 38.6% of the whole! But by comparison we still have a long way to go with people born in China - only 15.1% identify themselves as Christians. And of course, these figures don't include the second-generation Chinese - those who are ethnically Chinese, but who were born here in Australia.

The ABS' Census Ethnic Media Package provides even greater detail, and from that we can see the following:

Country of birth	Religion	Percentage	Persons
China	No religion	58.1%	119,501
	Buddhism	17.6%	36,278
	Christianity	15.1%	31,111
	Hinduism	0.0%	14
	Islam	0.3%	522
	Judaism	0.1%	262
	Other religions	0.2%	379
	Not stated	8.6%	17,709
	Total		205,857
Hong Kong	No religion	43.3%	30,997
	Buddhism	10.6%	7,579
	Christianity	38.6%	27,635
	Hinduism	0.2%	121
	Islam	0.2%	119
	Judaism	0.1%	47
	Other religions	0.3%	213
	Not stated	6.8%	4,846
	Total		71,557

What's also interesting to observe from this is that the primary worldview that we are dealing with, for both people born in China and Hong Kong, is 'no religion' (58.1% of residents born in China, and 43.3% of residents born in Hong Kong). Buddhism, by comparison, only accounts for 17.6% and 10.6% of residents born in China and Hong Kong respectively.

[ PS: it's also interesting to see the figures for the other countries... ]

Over the past year or so I've published some statistical information here and there on this blog about the Chinese population in Sydney.

What I've now done is pulled together the most useful graphs and statistical data from all of that, and put them into one PDF document. It contains information about ancestry, language, immigration, and where the large, and fast-growing Chinese populations are in Sydney. This means it's ten pages long, but having it all in one document means it's much easier to share that information with others.

You can download a copy of the PDF file from the SCCCA English website here (you download by clicking on the blue arrow).


A lot of the information has already appeared on this blog, but some are new. Statistical data has been drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Immigration.

Feel free to share with your church leaders - your church may find it useful to discuss and contribute to the planning of future gospel ministry. And hopefully it'll help us all to reach the Chinese in Sydney with the gospel!

[ PS: if you're going to print it out, I recommend printing it in colour... ]

At the last ABS census (held in August 2006) there were just over 4 million people living in Sydney. But what kind of things did they believe? This pie graph shows you the proportion of different religions in Sydney from the 2006 ABS census.

Of course, the ABS classification for 'Christian' also includes Roman Catholics, and groups such as the Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses - plus heaps of people who are only nominally Christian!

But how have things changed over the past twenty years? This table shows you the changing numbers for the 'religion' question for the past four ABS census (spaced 5 years apart).

	1991	1996	2001	2006
Buddhism	54,129	76,077	135,971	153,259
Christianity	2,623,825	2,645,486	2,680,679	2,626,705
Hinduism	20,186	32,691	48,462	70,121
Islam	73,162	96,792	134,366	161,159
Judaism	28,137	31,450	32,941	34,612
Other religions	9,161	15,547	22,166	27,560
No religion	379,290	503,131	469,449	580,025
Other religious affiliation	9,250	11,979	62,389	23,005
Not stated	321,633	292,381	361,592	425,599
Total	3,518,773	3,705,534	3,948,015	4,102,045

If you turn that into an area graph, you can (kind of) see how things change for the number of adherents for the different religions at the 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 census.


It may be hard to see what's actually going on, so this next graph shows you the change in the numbers of religious adherents from one census to the next (eg. between the 1991 and 1996 census).


Over the last four census periods taken all together then, how has Sydney changed in terms of its religious break up? This next bar graph shows you the cumulative increase for the different religions from the 1991 to the 2006 census. Over this period Sydney as a whole grew by 396,511 people.


And this bar graph shows you the growth for the different religious groups, expressed as a percentage since their 1991 figures. Over this period Sydney as a whole grew by 10.7%.

What can we say from all this? Here are a few things.

Firstly, you pretty much need to discount the 'Christianity' figures. Because there are so many non Christians counted in that figure it makes it practically meaningless. When someone becomes a real Christian, and they used to tick 'Christian' before anyway, nothing seems to have changed from the perspective of the ABS - but in reality they have actually become a true Christian. The same goes for a Roman Catholic who becomes a Christian. The actual amount of growth of real Christians is practically impossible to discern from this data!

Secondly, Buddhism is (on the face of it) the fastest growing religion in Sydney by numbers, and both Buddhism and Hinduism have grown by over 100% since 1991. However in both cases this growth is from a very small base, as can be seen from the area graph above.

Thirdly if you believe the media, Islam seems to have become a huge force in Sydney. However these figures, on the face of it, don't really show this to be the case - their numbers have been close to Buddhism over the past four census counts. But when we look at the age profile of the different religions (in a future post) we'll see a slightly different picture!

[ PS: what else can you say from this data? ]

Over the past ten or so years since leaving IBM and going into Bible college and then full time ministry, I have realised just how important certain things are - and just how easy it is to replace them with inferior substitutes in the hectic bustle of church ministry.

What I have done today is put together a list of these often hard-won realisations. Most of these things have already made it onto the blog in one form or another - but here I'm pulling them all together!

1. Grace, not rules

In comparison with the others, I realised this pretty early on - in fact while I was still at Bible college.

I would often be asked to be a guest speaker here or there, and as I went I would often pull out one of my favourite talks. While it's been given different titles over the years, it's on Colossians 2, and you may have heard it before! What I particularly like about this talk is that it reassures us that God looks on us by grace alone.

Not rocket science I know - but trust me. There are many people out there for whom the focus is on obeying rules. What made me realise this is a trap is that when I went to speak at other churches, the preaching of grace was often like an exhilarating breath of fresh air in a stale room. What I came to realise was that many Christians receive a steady diet of rules, rules and more rules - and are worn down by this. Even leaders fall into this trap - maybe especially leaders. And so we end up thinking we need to read our Bible diligently, and serve a lot, and have a big ministry resume for God to be happy with us - and we forget about grace.

But when people are refreshed by God's grace, it's interesting that they actually become eager to do those very things the rules tried to do. They become eager to pray, eager to serve, eager to read the Bible for themselves. Those things are no longer chores for them!

This is what God's people need to hear again and again: grace, not rules!

2. Human sin and church structures

This one came as a result of social ethics lectures in fourth year of Bible college. That subject got me thinking about the implications of theology for social groups - and particularly for church structures. And I was particularly prompted along by conversations with a number of people who were frustrated with their church leadership and wanted to change things. "We should just have pastors," they would say.

But I realised that theologically, we have to account for sin in our friends and in ourselves - not just those who 'oppose' us. As Luther said, Christians are simul Justus et Peccator. We think we can do no wrong because we are Justus! But because we are et Peccator, it is right to have checks and balances against us. That is only wise, if we believe we are still capable of sin.

Because one day, we might be the ones who threaten gospel ministry - and other people will need a way to prevent us from harming the church.

I ended up writing a paper on this for SCCCA - you can download it  from the SCCCA website here.

3. Persuasion, not coercion

This next one came in the course of ministry, as people talk about how to get things done. If there is a problem, I realised that there was sometimes an automatic reaction of making a rule about it. And for some people, this is their normal way of handling problems.

Now, this is not to say that rules are always bad! But when we come to the New Testament, the way things are done is through persuasion, not coercion. The apostles taught people, reasoned with people, sought to persuade people. Because what's important isn't merely constraining behaviour, but growing people in Christian character!

The path of persuasion may seem weaker in comparison with the administrative path of creating rules. The path of administration may also seem an easier way of dealing with problems! But by itself, it doesn't help to grow Christians.

4. Love God, not just obey God

For quite a long while I had interpreted "loving God", as "obeying God". And that was what the Christian life was really all about - obeying God. And so a Christian is someone who now lives under God's rule, Christians grow by learning God's word and living it out, etc. It was all about obedience and sacrifice.

And I think I wasn't alone in this, many evangelicals instinctively talk about obedience as the test of godliness - and shy away from talking about love. I suppose in some way this has been in reaction to the charismatic movement. We don't want to seem to be about emotions, so let's talk about obeying God's word instead.

But love isn't synonymous with obedience or sacrifice - and you can see this in 1 Corinthians 13. In that passage, someone can give their body to the flames ... and yet not have love! Not only that, in the Old Testament God condemns Israel for giving him mere obedience and sacrifices - but not loving him! Instead, they had attached their affections to other things. And today many Christians think they are pleasing God when they obey him outwardly, but give their affections to their careers, their pleasure - maybe even to ministry!

What God demands of us is not merely obedience - but our love. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus replied that it was to love God! And we don't need to be afraid of this being an emotion - because it's an affection. For more information read the talks from our 2008 Leaders' Retreat here.

A Christian is not just someone who tries to obeys God, or who makes great sacrifices for God - a Christian is primarily someone who loves him!

5. Apprehending glory, not trying harder

How do you deal with sin? For most people, the answer is simple: you just have to try harder. You just need to be self controlled, and just ... don't do it!

I realised recently that's not the whole answer. Because the problem isn't merely in the doing of the sin, it's primarily in our affection for the sin. That is, people don't just choose to gossip - they love what gossiping does for them. And so a person might control their actions for a short while - but all along they still really love that sin - and at the earliest opportunity they'll snap back to it, like a rubber band coming back to rest.

The answer is not to focus your attention on trying harder - but instead to look at the glory of God. To apprehend him more clearly in all his awesome holiness, and his astounding grace. As we do that, we grow in our love for God and find ourselves satisfied in knowing him, and being known by him. But not only that, you will also find that that sin that once had such a wretched hold on you ... it simply no longer attracts you! It just can't compare.

This is how you beat sin: by apprehending God in all his glory, not by trying harder!

[ PS: what are the big things you have learnt in your ministry? ]

[ PS: this dinner, hosted by SCCCA, is free for theological students and final year apprentices... but you must RSVP! ]

Chinese churches tend to be regional churches - not really local churches. That means, people tend to be happy to drive for a bit before going to a church that they like. This means that in planning a new ministry, you should consider regions, not just individual suburbs. What then is happening at a regional level? And if you're wanting to reach new migrants, whether from China or Hong Kong, what areas are they moving into once they arrive in Australia?

The ABS census data can also tell you the country of birth of people, broken up into the year of their arrival into Australia. Combine that by statistical regions, and you can find out where people move to, once they migrate to Australia from, say, China or Hong Kong. The following set of graphs use a geographic region used by the ABS, called Statistical Subdivisions. This is one step larger than Statistical Local Areas - I've used this because there's less data to manage, and produces less cluttered graphs.

The first lot of four pie graphs tell you where people who were born in China live, according to their year of arrival in Australia (here I'm only showing the years from 2003 to 2006). The labels tell you the number of migrants, as well as the percentage of the whole this represents. Note that the 2006 figures are smaller than the others - that's because the census was held in August 2006.

Then you'll see a key telling you what Statistical Subdivisions these coloured segments represent (this key works for all the pie charts in this post).

And at the bottom you'll find another set of four pie graphs telling you the same kind of information, but this time for recent migrants who were born in Hong Kong.
If you want to reach new migrants, this information is very helpful. It tells you at a glance that migrants from China have been moving into areas that are sometimes quite distinct from areas that migrants from Hong Kong are moving into.

Recent migrants from China tend to favour St George-Sutherland, Lower Northern Sydney, Inner Western Sydney and also Inner Sydney. And generally, there are quite a lot of these new migrants moving in each year!

However, recent migrants from Hong Kong tend to favour the Eastern Suburbs, Lower Northern Sydney, Central Northern Sydney and recently Inner Sydney. Although if you take note of the actual numbers involved, you'll see there aren't actually very many of them...

[ PS: in case you're wondering, ND is in the Central Northern Sydney statistical subdivision (the yellow segment). ]

The classic text for this is of course Romans 5:12-19. On the face of it, it's quite clear: one man sinned, and so sin entered the world. But there has been a bit of debate about how exactly to understand this passage over the years...

Historically, there have been three main views on this: the first arguing that we fall by imitation (example), the second that we inherit sin by virtue of being in Adam's 'loins' or body (seminalist), and the third that Adam's sin is imputed to us, just as Christ's righteousness is also imputed to us (federalist).

When you're at Bible college, one of the ways people study is you get together in a study group. Then you divide up a subject, and each person writes a study paper on a separate area, and shares it with others in the group. And in second year for Doctrine, I was allocated the topic of "sin". And to escape the stress of study, I put together this quick comic for my study paper, illustrating the three historic views of how Adam's sin affects all of humanity...

It just goes to show. When you've got lots of study to do, you are never too busy to procrastinate... even at Bible college!

[ PS: most evangelicals would argue for either the seminalist or federalist position on this! ]

How do Chinese churches grow? Primarily through relationships. From my observation of Chinese churches, there are three main modes of growth, each of which makes use of a different sort of relationship. And as a Chinese church matures, you will see it taking on more of these modes of growth.

Chinese churches usually start off with a core group of families who are passionate about growing their church. Usually these are young families with young children, and they naturally reach out best to other young families in their own circle of contacts. And as they share the gospel with other parents, naturally they will also reach that entire family, and that family will also join the church. This is the first mode of growth - and this is why Chinese churches grow very fast in their early years. It's because whole families are being added to their numbers by a core group of families passionate for evangelism. This kind of growth tapers off after a while as passionate families exhaust their circle of family contacts.

As the children of the families get older, there opens up a new mode of growth. In high school or university these children begin to 'own' their own faith, instead of just being brought along to church by their parents. They learn about evangelism, and begin to share the gospel with their own friends. While this second mode of growth usually begins in high school or university, it continues on as these children go through each successive phase of life. So when they leave high school to join university they meet a whole new lot of friends they can start sharing the gospel to. When they start work, again, a new set of friends. When they marry and have children, again, a new set of friends through their playgroup. This adds individual friends one by one, so growth by this mode is slower.

While the second mode of growth adds individuals from new families, it struggles at reaching the rest of those families, particularly non Christian fathers and mothers. This is because Chinese parents generally aren't very receptive to being told by their children that their religious convictions for their whole lives have been wrong! This is when the third mode of growth becomes important. Because while non Christian parents are not receptive to hearing the gospel from their kids, they are much more receptive to hearing it from people their own age, and of their own culture. In this third mode of growth, parents who are passionate about evangelism need to be connected up with non Christian parents of church kids. This kind of growth is much harder to achieve, as it takes some communication and understanding between age groups - all the other kinds of growth can just happen by the 'oldies' doing their thing, or the 'young people' doing their thing!

Now, there is a fourth mode of growth, which is biological growth. This is when young people marry and begin having children of their own... But that'll just make my diagrams far too complicated. Stick with these three for now.

Bear in mind that these are modes, and not stages. You don't leave one stage behind and move on to another - you add new modes of growth to your church. While the youth in your church kicks off the second mode of growth, the first mode should still keep on happening to some extent, although practically speaking, people will exhaust their circle of relationships after a while. This is why Chinese churches need to become proficient at the third mode of growth - to make use of the new family contacts that your church has made over the years!

[ PS: what modes are your church operating on at the moment? ]