ChinaSource

08/28/2026

A young Filipino-Chinese woman came to Arise Asia only two days after first hearing about it.

By the end of the gathering, she was ready to say, “God, use my life.”

But she was also honest: she still had no idea what that would look like.

That stayed with Andrea Lee after Arise Asia 2026.

We often talk about “mobilizing the next generation.” But what happens after someone says yes?

How do younger Christians learn to carry real responsibility if they are only entrusted with it once someone older decides they are fully ready?

And for those with more experience, perhaps the question is not simply when to step aside, but how to remain present without taking over.

Andrea reflects on generations, responsibility, and what it means to make room for others without disappearing from the story.

Read “Apparently, I’m Already the ‘Older Generation’”:

English:
https://www.chinasource.org/articles/apparently-im-already-the-older-generation/

繁體中文:
https://www.chinasource.org/articles/apparently-im-already-the-older-generation/zh-hant/

08/25/2026

“We say we want to pass the baton, but our hands are still gripping it tightly.”

When churches talk about the “next generation,” the conversation often focuses on giving young people opportunities, developing leaders, and preparing for generational transition.

But reflecting on the 10th Chinese Congress on World Evangelization, Jerry Chang asks a harder question:

Are we really giving them opportunities?

Sometimes we hand the microphone to the next generation while still deciding what success should look like. We ask them to take responsibility, but do not always give them enough room to experiment, fail, learn, and try again.

For those in the “bridge generation,” there is another question as well: when we are no longer the youngest or the ones leading from the front, are we willing to rethink our own role?

In this latest reflection from our "CCOWE 2026 in Kuching" series, Jerry considers generational transition through the youth forum, his own ministry journey, and one group that received far less attention at the congress: children.

Perhaps passing the baton is not simply about stepping aside. It is about learning when to lead, when to accompany, and how to make room for those whose voices have not yet been heard.

Read “After Passing the Microphone: Reflecting on the Bridge Generation at CCOWE” (Link in Comment)

08/25/2026

How many kinds of “Chinese” do you speak?

For some, the answer may be Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Shanghainese, or another Sinitic language. For others, it may include a mix of English, Chinese, family memories, inherited words, and languages shaped by migration.

In this first article from our new series, "Polycentric Christianities in a Diverse Sinophone World", Easten Law asks what happens when “Chinese” is no longer treated as one thing.

Drawing from his own experience as a second-generation Chinese American Christian, Law introduces "Sinophone Theologies (华语神学)" as a way of taking seriously the many places, languages, histories, and communities that shape Chinese Christian thought.

The article begins with four questions:

1. How many kinds of “Chinese” do you speak?
2. What place(s) give you a feeling of “home”?
3. As a Christian, what do you stand against?
4. As a Christian, what do you stand for?

These questions are not only academic. They matter for anyone seeking to understand Chinese Christianity beyond a single center, whether that center is mainland China, Mandarin, ethnicity, migration history, or inherited ideas of culture.

Read Easten Law’s “When ‘Chinese’ Is Not One Thing: A Proposal for Doing Theology in a Diverse World.”

Link in Commet.

08/24/2026

If you know me, you know I love talking about China. This is why I invited Joann Pittman at ChinaSource to join me for an important conversation about China's Church.

With all the sensationalized reports coming from both Christian and Secular media/content creators, I wanted to bring you someone who is sound, realistic and has her head on straight when she talks about China's Church.

I have a high level of respect for Joann because she has always been truthfully levelheaded.

You do not want to miss this episode given all that is happening in China toward pastors, churches and the global missionaries they send out.

You will be able to find it tomorrow on YouTube, YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple and other podcast platforms.

08/21/2026

Fifty years is long enough for a movement to have a history. But is it ready for a future?
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At the 10th CCOWE in Kuching, the global Chinese church gathered to honor a remarkable legacy and to ask where Chinese mission might go next.
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For ChinaSource founder Brent Fulton, attending his third CCOWE in 25 years, some of the most important questions emerged not only from what was said, but also from who was present, who was missing, and whose voices remained largely unheard.
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Why do younger Chinese Christians continue to drift away from traditional Chinese churches? What might change if we stopped seeing their movement into multicultural churches simply as a loss, and instead recognized it as another way the Chinese church’s witness is extending beyond its traditional boundaries?
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And what does it mean that Christians from Mainland China, who make up such a significant part of the global Chinese church, were largely absent from the platform?
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These are not easy questions. But perhaps they point toward an even deeper one.
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If unity really matters for world evangelization, are we willing to pay the price of reconciliation, including the difficult work of loosening old structures, crossing generational and theological divides, and intentionally making room for those who will come after us?
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In the latest reflection from our 𝗖𝗖𝗢𝗪𝗘 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 series, Brent looks back at fifty years of CCCOWE while asking what it may take to faithfully chart the path forward.

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱: 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗖𝗢𝗪𝗘: https://www.chinasource.org/articles/charting-a-path-forward/

08/20/2026

Every year, when students in Li Nuo’s class were asked about their religious beliefs, he was the only one who stood up and said he was a Christian.
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He was attending a strict boarding school in China. Students were allowed only one phone call home each week. Bibles were not permitted on campus, so Li Nuo brought Scripture cards instead, quietly reading them at school.
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His classmates knew about his faith. Some began asking him questions—about the ten plagues, Jesus before the crucifixion, and the differences between Christianity and Islam.
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Then one classmate asked him to bring him a Bible.
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Li Nuo’s story is also the story of a family making difficult educational choices. While some Christian families in China pursue alternative schooling or education abroad, his parents did not have unlimited options. Financial necessity played a significant role in their decision to keep him within China’s educational system.
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In “𝗚𝗼𝗱’𝘀 𝗪𝗮𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗪𝗮𝘆,” Ruth Huang reflects on what happened when a decision made with considerable concern became, over time, a story her family understood differently.
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As another school year begins, her story raises questions that reach beyond one family: What does it look like to nurture faith when we cannot control the environment our children enter? And what might children themselves discover as they learn to live out that faith among their peers?
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Read Ruth Huang’s story (in comments)
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Ours is just one story among millions in China facing similar challenges. Due to the rigorous demands of the college entrance exams and pervasive competitive pressures in education…

08/19/2026

ChinaSource is publishing a 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗖𝗢𝗪𝗘 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗶𝗻 𝗞𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, bringing together voices from different generations, regions, and areas of ministry. Rather than offering a single assessment of the gathering, we hope these reflections will allow readers to hear how different participants understood what they saw, heard, and experienced—and what the gathering may reveal about the Chinese church today.
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In this reflection, missiologist 𝗝𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗪𝘂 organizes her observations around three Chinese words that all contain 全: 整全 (𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰), 成全 (𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴), 𝗮𝗻𝗱 完全 (𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲).
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She reflects on the place of holistic mission in Chinese churches, the very practical question of whether older leaders are willing to make room for younger ones, and a realization that surprised her during the gathering: 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘌𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮 is not incidental to CCOWE’s name—it is part of its original purpose.
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That leads to one of her sharper questions: If Chinese churches spend less energy looking inward and more energy participating in God’s mission beyond themselves, might that outward movement actually help bring greater unity among them?
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Wu does not present CCOWE 2026 as “perfect.” Writing as both a participant and a missiologist, she names tensions and shortcomings while also asking what was genuinely good—and worth carrying forward.
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Read 𝗔 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗛𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰, 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲. (link in the comments)

08/18/2026

One child loves music. Another devours books and writes stories. And one, who is blind, recently stood at the bottom of a rock-climbing wall—scared, uncertain, but determined to keep climbing.

His family and the other homeschool families stood below, looking up and cheering him on.

For Kelly Carlson, homeschooling has never been about creating a perfect educational system. Her own children have taken different paths through Christian school, public school, and homeschooling, shaped in part by their individual needs and circumstances.

What began during the disruptions of 2020 gradually became something more: slower mornings, more meals together, room to travel and explore, and more time to notice what each child loves and where each one needs support.

In “From a Full House to a Full Heart,” Kelly reflects on what her family has learned along the way—including the importance of flexibility, community, and seeing each child as someone to know and guide, rather than fitting every child into the same educational mold.

Read the full reflection and join the conversation: What has shaped the educational choices your family has made?

https://www.chinasource.org/articles/from-a-full-house-to-a-full-heart/

Homeschooling is a privilege. To have the time and insight to lead and shepherd our children’s hearts is invaluable.

08/14/2026

One hand on the steering wheel, the other raised in prayer.

During CCOWE 2026 in Kuching, Rex K. H. Chang expected to attend a global Chinese church congress. He did not expect some of his most memorable lessons to come through Grab rides, breakfast tables, and conversations with local pastors.

A driver offered to take Rex and his companions to church free of charge—and then continued driving them to the congress each morning, praying a blessing over them before they stepped out of the car.

Along the way, other encounters revealed something more complicated: believers moving between churches in different seasons of life, unspoken denominational tensions, and the challenge of receiving one another across differences in worship, tradition, and ministry approach.

As Rex reflects, it is one thing to sing about unity at a congress. Living that unity in the realities of local church life is much harder.

His reflections from Kuching raise a question worth sitting with: What would it look like for churches to move beyond comparison and division—and begin to recognize one another as kingdom partners?

Read “Rides, Tables, and Tensions: Lessons on Church Unity from Kuching.”

https://www.chinasource.org/articles/rides-tables-and-tensions/

08/13/2026

What do we miss when we talk about “China” as though it were one cultural world?
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In one of Hugh Battye’s encounters in Gansu, an elderly Tibetan woman remembered an American Christian worker from her childhood. Her recollection was strikingly clear: she respected the man—but not his Christianity.
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That small distinction opens a much larger question.
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For those of us who care about China, Chinese Christianity, or cross-cultural ministry, it is easy to build our picture around the parts we know best: major cities, Han Chinese experience, familiar church networks, political developments, or the stories most often told outside China.
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But China is also home to communities shaped by very different languages, religions, histories, landscapes, and relationships to the state—and those differences matter.
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In our three-part series adapted from Hugh Battye’s 𝘈 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘊ℎ𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘴, Hugh draws on fifteen years of life and ethnographic research in mainland China. He takes us from questions about how outsiders perceive China, to fieldwork among the Bonan in Gansu, and finally into Tibetan grasslands, family homes, monasteries, and local memories of an earlier Christian presence.
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These are not simply colorful details from places far from China’s major cities. They challenge us to ask whose experiences are included when we say “China”—and whose are easily left out.
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For Christians seeking to understand China or serve across cultures, that question is not secondary. Culture, ethnicity, religion, geography, and historical memory all shape how people understand community, hospitality, authority—and Christianity itself.
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Read the three-part series, 𝘈 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘸𝘰 𝘊ℎ𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘴, and consider: 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗮?
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https://www.chinasource.org/series/a-tale-of-two-chinas/