A Visit to China
John Stott led a delegation of 6 representatives from Langham Partnership International on a official visit to China and Hong Kong from 5 to 14 January 2006. The delegation consisted of Chris Wright, David Cansdale, Mark Hunt, Philemon Choi, Abigail Lim and Victor Sun. The purpose of the visit was to build upon the working relationship established during John Stott’s previous visits in 1996 and 1999. As a renowned and respected international Christian leader, John Stott is well-respected by the Chinese churches. Cooperation with the church leaders in China has resulted in at least four of his books, including three commentaries in the Bible Speaks Today series, have been translated,and published by the Chinese Christian Council and are currently distributed through the official church network.
This visit demonstrated John Stott’s continuing love and concern for the church in China. Apart from a much cherished time of fellowship with the church leaders in the national as well as the municipal level Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council, John Stott introduced Chris Wright as his successor and explained the three-pronged ministries of Langham Partnership International. John Stott’s wish to explore further cooperation with the Chinese churches was well-received.
On Sunday 8th of January, we attended Grace Church, a local Chinese church in Shanghai for morning service. John Stott was invited to bring a five-minute greetings and encouragement to the congregation. In the afternoon, both John Stott and Chris Wright preached in the foreign community church at the 2pm and 4pm services. It was surprising to see more than 1,000 expatriate Christians joining the three English language services in Shanghai today. Victor Sun who was a resident in Shanghai for five years between 1992 to 1997 remembered that there were only 40 foreigners worshipping in a hotel room 15 years ago.
The next stop for our visit was the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, Amity Press and Amity Foundation. The delegation learned much about the needs of the seminary and was impressed by the dedication of the students in pursuing their theological studies. Amity Press is a joint venture between United Bible Society and the Amity Foundation. Since inception, the printing house has produced more than 37 million copies of Chinese Bibles besides other theological books. It is a successful enterprise serving the churches in China and in good relationship with the government authorities.
On 11th January, the delegation flew down to Hong Kong. Chris Wright was the main speaker at a lecture organized jointly by Lawyers Christian Fellowship and Langham Foundation East Asia (LFEA). More than 100 legal professionals turned up for the two-hour lecture entitled “What has Old Testament Law to say in today’s Society.” As a reflection of their appreciation of Chris Wright’s Biblical insight, his 500-page Old Testament Ethics for the People of God was sold out that evening.
As can be expected for visitors from afar, LFEA organized a reception on 12th January for 180 supporters and donors at the YMCA. John Stott spoke that evening on “A Call to Christian Maturity”, expounding from Colossians 1:28-29, addressing the meaning of Christian maturity and how to obtain it. He emphasized in the end that Christian maturity is meant for all Christians. After sharing the message, Chris Wright followed through with an introduction of the Langham Partnership International’s ministries. The rationale for a PhD degree was explained by way of real-life examples. A number of Langham scholars who have become respective Christian leaders in their own countries after receiving their doctorate degrees in Theology were mentioned. The evening ended with Dr Choi, the Chairman of LFEA making an appeal for support as well as successfully launching the Langham Partners’ program in Hong Kong.
The high point of John Stott’s visit to Hong Kong took place on 13th January at the Wing Kwong Pentecostal Holiness Church in Lok Fu. More than 1,500 attendees turned out for an evening of thanksgiving to God and honouring John Stott for his 60 years of faithful service. We began by singing John Stott’s favourite hymn, ‘Jesus, The Name High over All’. A number of community leaders representing the Anglican Church (Archbishop Kwong), the China Graduate School of Theology (Dr Wilson Chow),
Student work (Rev Chan Hay Him), Academics (Dr Lee Kam-hon and Dr Choong Chee Pang), Missions (Dr Patrick Fung) and the Langham scholars (Dr Kwan Kai Man) paid tribute to John Stott as a Bible expositor, Christian leader and evangelical statesman. This was followed by John Stott’s special message on “A Call to Radical Discipleship” – how a Christian should respond to the three major challenges of pluralism, materialism and ethical relativism. A special Chinese calligraphy scroll containing the words from Philippians 2:9 – 11 was presented to John Stott as a token of our appreciation amidst thunderous applause from the congregation. At the end, Dr Choi gave the final appeal to the Hong Kong churches to support the Langham ministries. Many responded to the call by a becoming Langham Partners that evening.
On the whole, we were overwhelmed by the warmth and enthusiasm wherever we went. Throughout the trip, John Stott was accompanied by his medical advisor and we are indeed thankful to God that He has enabled John Stott to cope with the rigours of the journey and to stay healthy and strong for all the meetings and speaking engagements. We rejoiced to see the evident popularity of his books in both English and the Chinese language, as well as the high esteem and personal honour in which he is held in East Asia. We believe God is opening a door for Langham Partnership to find ways of sharing in what He is so marvelously doing in China through offering the resources entrusted to us. During the course of the visit, it was evident to us that John Stott’s vision and inspiration for equipping Christian leaders in the Majority World and the objectives of the three Langham programmes of scholarship, preaching and literature, are well-suited to the needs of the Chinese churches which are experiencing an unprecedented growth in numbers at the moment. Langham Foundation East Asia will follow-up with the visit by continuing our discussions with the Chinese Christian leaders on how best to cooperate in the delivery of the programmes for the churches in China.