China (MNN)—On May 1, China put into effect new religious restrictions on foreign missionaries. Organizations like China Partner, which provides biblical and leadership development training, have already felt the fall out.
“How it relates to us is that any foreigner or any foreign Christian organization, pastor, or church ministry group that wants to do any kind of direct ministry inside China has to get a permission ahead of time from their religious affairs bureau,” explains Erik Burklin of China Partner. “For this year, we did not receive permission by the religious affairs bureau to be hosted by a local church or a seminary. We were scheduled to do trainings in four different cities in May this year—two of them were Bible training centers, and then the other two were actually Bible schools or seminaries that officially run. And since they did not receive permission to host us as a foreign organizations to run our training seminars, we could not do them.”
Despite the restrictions, Burklin says Partner China is relatively optimistic: “We can’t do as much as we have done in the past, but we are thinking that in the future, we might be able to start our training seminars again. But right now, we just have to respect what the government is saying and not push against it so hard, but kind of go along with it, be patient, and wait our turn. And you know, by next year, things might have changed again. Who knows?”
According to Burklin, church leaders within China are even more positive.
“I think they are actually less concerned about some of these new restrictions being passed down than we are from the outside, and that always encourages me. I’m blown away with their positivity. They never mention anything about politics, about the party, or about what Beijing is deciding or not deciding. They’re just faithful to Christ. They’re so strong. They have an eternal perspective, literally. They know that this is not ideal. This is a system that’s very suppressive and oppressive and limiting, and they wish they had more freedoms, of course. But in the midst of all that, they are still staying faithful. They’re still spreading the gospel. They’re preaching God’s Word on a faithful basis every Sunday or during Bible studies or wherever they meet. And that’s very inspiring to me, and I want your listeners to be inspired by that as well.”
Burklin asks for prayers that God would help the Chinese church leaders to continue being faithful through the adversities they face, as well as for patience and wisdom for everyone at China Partner.
Header photo courtesy of China Partner.
