I met a young Christian woman named Maple in my travels in China. She has a common story in China – went to college, heard about Christianity, started attending church, and was eventually baptized. Her life now centers on the church. She is involved in church-related activities five days/nights a week – Bible study, book study, actual worship services, etc. (Burnout among new Christians in China is a real issue but not something I know much about, I’m afraid.)

Maple was baptized by an American pastor. Let’s call him Pastor Tim. He’s from Tennessee. In the U.S., Tim was not ordained in any denomination. But a few years ago, he felt the call to preach in China, sold all his belongings, and moved his wife to China and set up shop as a teacher and preacher, which is how he ran into Maple. I don’t know Pastor Tim but I’m going to guess based on what Maple told me about him that his theology is probably a little different than mine. It’s easy to type-cast him as, say, a southern fundamentalist.

I went to a church service in Beijing that would not have been out of place in a suburban evangelical American mega-church. The half-hour of praise and worship music at the beginning was led by a young American who treated us all to a “praise sermon,” the liturgical act in which the guy playing the guitar decides that since he has the microphone, he can comment on, expand upon, and amplify the sermon. In the course of his discourse, he said a number of things that were awkward and embarrassing. More importantly, the content of his sermon emphasized, I thought, all the wrong parts of the Gospel, emphasizing, for instance, the importance of a one-off decision to follow Christ rather than the importance of a life-long pattern of obedience. During the service, my group of Yale students from mainline American denominations snickered at what the worship leader had to say and afterwards mocked him outright.

In Yunnan Province, there are scores and scores and scores of missionaries from conservative American denominations – Southern Baptist, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, etc.. There is one Episcopal mission family.

The church in China is in real need of education and teaching as it grows and expands. Naturally, the bulk of this teaching will come from the Chinese themselves as they work out a Christian theology most appropriate to their context. But there is a role for western missionaries, I am convinced, and I think the theology preached by mainline denominations in the U.S. has something of substance to offer. For instance, in a culture that is driven by the obsessive need for more and more economic growth, a theology that stresses the abundance of God could be helpful. Yet these same denominations are ceding the playing field and leaving it to others.

There’s lots of hand-wringing among liberals in the western church about the conservative church in the non-western world. I don’t actually believe that the non-western church is especially conservative. In my conversations with Christians from a huge variety of backgrounds around the world, I’ve noticed that they are as open to conversation, discussion, and changing than minds as anyone. I think what the conservatism of the non-western church mostly reflects is who has influenced its views. Seen in this light, mainline Christians’ retreat from global mission is a real loss.

Is a praise sermon in a Beijing church a cause for our mirth? Or is it a call to action?

We spent the last few days in Nanjing – visited a church way out in the country-side, the memorial to the Nanjing Massacre, and the Amity Foundation, among much else.

One moment that stuck in my mind was a conversation with our tour guide around Nanjing today, a young woman who was baptized about three years ago. I asked her about the kind of preparation she had been through before she was baptized and she told a fascinating and involved story about what a big decision it was for her. One of her fears before being baptized was that she didn’t know what it would feel like and she didn’t quite understand what this “new life” would be like. Would she actually die? She said it took her an agonizing few months to decide. But she eventually did and said the feeling she had when she emerged from the water was inexplicably terrific and that she now considers that day her true birthday.

Wow.

When I wasn’t getting caught up in her story, I thought about how in the early church non-Christians didn’t understand what it meant to eat the body of Christ in a “love feast.” But there’s other Christian lingo that is hard to understand as well. It confirmed for me how the church in China is a lot like the early church. More on that in another post.

We took the high-speed train from Nanjing to Shanghai this evening. This is a distance about as far as Boston is from New York (a little shorter). We did it in 80 minutes (with one stop), hitting speeds of over 200 miles an hour. In June, they’re opening a new line on the Beijing to Nanjing line, a trip that is over 1000km. That trip took us 8 hours. Next month, it’ll be 3. Speed isn’t everything, but still…

Shanghai is a major international city with huge amounts of neon and tall buildings (and according to the tour book a quarter of the world’s construction towers – a significant percentage are elsewhere in China, I am sure). This article from Nicholas Kristof recently has given me some good context for thinking about Shanghai.

I’m not finding enough time to write down the lengthier thoughts I’m having while in China but here are a few more vignettes to keep you in the loop. There are also pictures on the Yale Divinity School Facebook page – you can probably find the link via the YDS web site if you’re not already on Facebook.

We spent several days in Inner Mongolia, a province (actually autonomous region) of China that is large, resource-rich, and (for China) sparsely-populated. Think Wyoming. (Or Idaho. Inner Mongolia is apparently known for potatoes.) We visited with churches – Catholic and Protestant – checked out the impressive museum of Mongolian culture, and spent lots of time stuck in traffic in Hoh Hot, the capital. (As a provincial backwater, it is home to a mere 1.5 to 2 million people.)

One highlight was a visit to the Inner Mongolia Bible College – 125 students in a two-year program. With the church growing so quickly, there is a shortage of trained lay people and clergy to help structure the church’s growth, teach new Christians, and generally prevent the rise of syncretistic faith. The entire student body met with our group and we had a nice back-and-forth for several hours, though there was much that was missed on either side, I think.

One student asked if any of us were Episcopalian and if so what we thought of gay people. Here – in a post-denominational, proudly nationalist church – was someone who wanted to know about the Anglican Communion. It was nothing short of stunning. I was designated to answer and did so. Afterwards, I talked with him some more. He self-identified as a peasant from a small village in Inner Mongolia. But he and his friends at school read about the Anglican Communion online and follow what is going on. I asked him what students at the school thought about gay people and he said many people had many different opinions. “The same is true at my school!” I said.

On one day, we visited a satellite site of the Bible school in town for the more mature (“second-career,” we would call them) students. They were playing ping-pong and I joined in. There’s a reason they win all those medals at the Olympics.

Our transport to and from Inner Mongolia was overnight train on “hard-sleepers” – three-high bunks, six to a berth. Good group bonding experience. You learn who snores the worst.

At the museums we’ve visited, I’ve found myself really interested in the “meta-narrative,” i.e. what the presentation has to say about what the Chinese think about themselves. This was particularly true at the brand-new Chinese National Museum (that’s not quite the right name but I can’t think of what it is at the moment) on Tiananmen Square – kind of life the Smithsonian on the Washington Mall. I want to think about this some more but suffice to say that how Chinese see themselves is now how Americans see Chinese.

Now we are on our way to Nanjing and then Shanghai. Time flies.

So I’m in China. I have neither great Internet access, nor much time to write, nor the necessary cable to transfer pictures to my laptop so I’m afraid my posting will be a bit sparse on this trip. Here are some quick highlights.

Visited with the entire student body of a Bible college in Inner Mongolia today. They were very interested in denominations in the U.S., since in China there is one Protestant denomination, overseen by the government.

One student wanted to know what I thought about gay people, given that I was Episcopalian. I was flabbergasted that a student from a rural and remote part of a vast province would be so interested in an issue that doesn’t touch China directly. But he reads about it on the Internet and said many of the students follow the travails of the Anglican Communion closely. I asked him what students at the Bible college think about homosexuality and he said many people have different opinions. “Just like at my school!” I said.

On Monday, there was a visit to a seminary in Beijing. It is interesting to listen to the students talk about the challenges they face when they return home – uneducated congregants, syncretism,and so on. The church is growing so quickly that it has outstripped its supply of educated clergy.

In general, it has just been fascinating to be in China and see just how vibrant and overwhelming (in a good way) this place is. There is so much to learn about a place that is clearly so very important not only to the church but also to the world.

The Beijing subway system is amazing and puts London, New York, etc. to shame!

More to follow as I am able.