Theological Education (Protestant) in China

Friends of the Church in China Theological Education (Protestant) in China

The church in China is growing very fast, and many are coming to faith in Christ. Unfortunately, the Chinese church is also finding it very hard to provide enough theologically-trained pastors and ministers to help shepherd this rapidly growing flock. While Christians may number in their millions, theologically-trained church workers amount to only a few thousand, and many churches and congregations are led by lay leaders with little or no education, theological or otherwise.

This is especially the case in the countryside where the majority of Chinese people, and therefore Chinese Christians, reside. When people come to faith in China, many have little knowledge about Christianity and need solid and systematic teaching to help them develop in their spiritual lives. Often, through no fault of their own, lay church leaders end up preaching and interpreting the Bible in whichever way seems best to them, and this can often give rise to false teachings, unorthodox practices, and even heresies. In such an environment, it is relatively easy for members of heretical cults to come in to an area and persuade congregations to follow them, or for congregations to mix up Christian teachings with questionable local folk religious practices or superstitions. In some places, church leaders adopt a very literal approach to interpreting the bible, advocating dangerous practices like the handling of snakes or the drinking of poison as a true test of faith, just because Jesus appeared to require this in Mark 16:17-18.

Christians in China need better teaching and information if they are to grow in their spiritual lives in a healthy way. Without a better understanding of their faith, many Chinese Christians also find it hard to articulate their beliefs in a way that makes sense to those around them who do not believe. They may sometimes come across to non-Christians as members of some crazy superstitious clique.

During the years of political upheaval in the 1960s and 70s churches and seminaries in China were closed, as were all religious places of worship and study. Christian worship was done privately and in secret. When the policy of religious freedom was reinstated in the early 1980s and churches re-opened again, the gap meant the church had lost the opportunity to train an entire generation of ministers. The few who were theologically qualified had been trained decades earlier and were rapidly aging. Many were out of touch with recent theological developments in the wider world. At that time, churches also had to concentrate on getting the “hardware” up and running again, reclaiming church property from the state, repairing or rebuilding church buildings, starting services, printing Bibles, etc. All these took priority over the “software” of theological education.

Now that the hardware is more or less in place in China, Christians are focussing their attention on theological training. At present, there are 19 Protestant seminaries and bible schools. Of these, 13 are provincial-level, 5 are regional and 1 is national The biggest and most important Protestant theological seminary in China is the Jinling Union Theological Seminary in Nanjing, the national seminary located in Nanjing’s Friends of the Church in China

Jiangning university district. Prospective seminary students need to be put forward and sponsored by their home churches and also submit their applications to their provincial China Christian Council where they also take an entrance examination. Candidates for undergraduate programmes must be between 25-30 years old and have at least twelve months of church service under their belts before they can apply. Since churches re-opened in the 1980s, around 9,000 theology students have graduated from China’s Protestant seminaries and bible schools, with some 2,700 of these going on to become ordained ministers. Apart from undergraduate degrees, seminaries also offer short-term basic theology courses to help train lay leaders, as well as correspondence and vacation courses to those who cannot attend seminary on a full-time basis. Nanjing Seminary also offers a limited number of Masters degree programmes.

In recent years, Chinese church leaders have called upon the church in China to develop its own uniquely Chinese understanding and interpretation of the Christian faith which might be better suited to the context, environment and culture in which the Chinese church finds itself. Up until recent years the theology learned and taught in China’s seminaries and churches came from overseas sources and did not always fit the Chinese context. In 1998, church leaders called for a re-construction of Chinese theological thinking in an attempt to take the Christian message and present it in ways ordinary Chinese can understand and accept, without in any way altering core Christian doctrines or teachings.

Most of China’s seminaries and bible schools are very small and, although individual institutes have received some outside assistance in the past to help improve resources, most still have too few books, equipment or qualified teachers and need more help. Training programmes in seminaries tend to concentrate on the practical, equipping future pastors to preach, lead worship, conduct hymn singing and organise a congregation. Many are not places of higher level academic research as yet. Even amongst seminary staff, few have post-graduate degrees and only a handful have PhDs. The Chinese church simply does not have enough sufficiently trained theologians to attempt such a monumental task, and it is currently sending some of its most promising candidates abroad to complete doctoral programmes, hoping they will return equipped with the tools to train and to lead others to work out what is truly unique about the Chinese Christian experience. This process, however takes time, and churches in China may not see results from this for many years. As one of the world’s fastest-growing church communities churches and, by sheer numbers possibly one of the world’s largest, Chinese Christians have many unique perspectives to offer the worldwide Christian community but first they need help to be able to articulate these insights.

www.thefcc.org Friends of the Church in China

11.2009