A Bird's Eye View of Evangelism among Overseas Chinese Scholars (Part II)

Rev. Edwin Su

In the first issue of Behold, I gave a general introduction to evangelism among overseas Chinese scholars in countries outside the United States. In this issue, I will focus on the historical development and current situation of evangelism in different areas in the United States.

I Historical development

In the light of social environment and institutional responsiveness, evangelism among Chinese scholars in the United States can be divided into three stages:

1. Initial exposure (1978-1989): During China's reforms in 1978, those who came to the United States were mainly middle-aged, government-sponsored Chinese scholars. Starting from the mid-eighties, there was then a significant shift toward younger scholars, both government-sponsored and self-sponsored. Most of them, though, came to Chinese churches or campus Bible study groups with a visitor's mindset. They generally maintained an attitude of skepticism and rejection. At that time, most Chinese churches had yet to start taking these scholars into serious consideration, although some American churches or institutions and individual believers were pro-active in providing services, care and help to them, sowing good seeds for the Gospel.

2. The Christian mania (1989-1993): The June 4^th Movement of 1989 became the turning point for evangelism among Chinese scholars in America as well as in other countries. On the one hand, Chinese scholars began to express a strong interest in Christian belief due to the impact of the June 4^th tragedy. They showed an unprecedented openness and eagerness, exploring the Christian faith by active participation in Chinese and American churches, fellowships and Bible study groups. In addition, the June 4^th movement also caused the Chinese churches in America and Chinese Christians to shorten their psychological distance from those with Mainland background.They began to pay closer attention to the situation in China and they proactively responded to the evangelical needs of the Chinese scholars. Numerous fellowships and evangelic institutions such as Overseas Campus designed specifically for Chinese scholars were established. We also witnessed a lot of evangelic activities, seminars, family gatherings and camps. At the same time, Chinese and American churches began to inject a large amount of human resource and material resource into this group of people in an organized and strategic way. The Lord opened the most effective door for evangelism. The Christian mania swept through North America and thousands of Chinese scholars accepted the Lord.

3. The years of diversity (1993-current): Beginning from July of 1993, about 80,000 Chinese people from the Mainland obtained permanent residency in the United States thanks to Proposition S1216, also known as the June 4^th Proposition. This brought about a practical and obvious impact on evangelic activities among Chinese scholars. They became less worried about any negative consequences of their belief. Never before did they become so courageous to accept the Lord, to be baptized or to devote their lives to the Lord. As their spouses, children and parents came to visit or settle down, more and more people from the Mainland were exposed to the Gospel. And as they began to settle down in the United States, many of them joined local Chinese churches or fellowships to become members, coworkers or even ministers. During the same period of time, a lot of training camps, training materials and periodicals came into existence. Examples are the First Training Camp of Chinese Scholars in 1996, Seminar of Spirituality and Missions for the Mainland Chinese Christians, Life Quarterly and Special Edition of Overseas Campus in 1997, and the publication of Training Materials for Chinese Scholars in 1998. The Good News also traveled into China when many a scholar went back to China either to visit or to lecture and they took the opportunity to spread the Gospel among their families, relatives, friends and neighbors. Today, evangelism among Chinese scholars in the United States has transformed from primarily targeting students or scholars in the early days toward diversification with multiple dimensions and multiple backgrounds. The most striking phenomena include the fact that a great number of professionals with the Mainland background have penetrated into America's mainstream society and the middle class of the Chinese community. Overseas students become younger than before. The number of people who come from China with various visas including new immigrants and illegal immigrants have exceeded the number of scholars. Based on these new phenomena, evangelic activities and strategies need to be adjusted accordingly.

II Distribution of Fellowships and Churches

Rev. Luke Zhang submitted a survey at the Conference of Strategy for Evangelic Work among Overseas Chinese Scholars in November 2000. In the survey, Rev. Zhang collected general information about Chinese Scholars' fellowships and churches in major cities of 30 states of America, based on his extensive interviews with Chinese scholars in the four annual training camps for Chinese scholars dated back to 1996 and on-line information about Chinese churches and phone interviews conducted by Chinese Christian Internet Mission. Based on Zhang's survey, there are at least 216 fellowships and churches in the United States that are specially designed for Chinese Scholars up to August of 2000. Counting American churches and English Bible study groups, the total number exceeds 300.

Of these fellowships and churches, 80% are fellowships within Chinese-speaking or American churches; 9% are independent Bible study groups and another 9% are independent Chinese-speaking fellowships and churches. Average attendance of these gatherings is 37.5 and average age of these groups is 3.3 years. About 40% of the leaders come from Taiwan or Hong Kong and 60% come from Mainland China.

III Information about coworkers with Mainland background

In July of 2000, Rev. Luke Zhang conducted another survey with 45 coworkers from about a dozen states in the Mainland Coworkers' Retreat held in the State of New Mexico. Among these 45 coworkers with Mainland background, most were between the ages of 25 and 45; the number of male coworkers roughly equaled to the number of females; 90% accepted the Lord after they came to America; most accepted the Lord within 4 years of time; most attended two weekly church activities (Sunday worship and fellowship). Most of the coworkers received training from special seminars or camps, and few received systematic theological training. Most of their understanding of being a coworker was participation and service, but 84% said they would like to serve but they didn't know how to do it. Only 50% of them did personal devotion or prayer on the daily basis. They often had difficulty in the areas of social interactions, domestic relationships, monetary offerings and leading a scriptural life. Their biggest needs were church-level training, Gospel evangelism, short-term missionary teams, special training seminars and availability of on-line information. About 32% of them had plans to go back to China to serve the Lord, either short-term or long-term.[1]

In addition to the coworker survey mentioned above, I personally also collected some information as follows: of the two million Chinese people in the United States, 300,000 have at least a college degree; about 10% have accepted the Lord; about 500 have received theological training to become theological students or ministers. Among them about 50 are leading Chinese churches and most others serve in evangelic institutions or Chinese or American churches. Some have gone back to China permanently and some have been lost from their services.

IV Statistics

Below are some general numbers. The number of Chinese scholars stands at 300,000 in the United States, 100,000 in Canada, 80,000 in Australia and New Zealand, 60,000 in Japan, 20,000 in Singapore, 10,000 in Hong Kong, 100,000 in Europe, 30,000 in the former Soviet Union and 10,000 in other countries combined, including Israel, South Africa, Thailand and Korea. Total number of overseas Chinese scholars exceeds 700,000.[2]

---