Cool. They will want to evanglize us.Can you live with that?
The Chinese plan to send missionaries here. We could use it; when foreign church leaders come here with tales of miracles and great conversions, it reminds us of what we lack in our church. We understand giving and serving, but our faith is weak.
I believe that we have at least two major problems in the church in America: we are comfortable and undemanding of ourselves, and we have confused vigor in conservative politics for moral living... as if we're really fooling anyone. The world calls us hypocrites, and they are dead on. Why should gays listen to our moralizing about defending marriage? They know we divorce at the same rate as the general population. Hotel operators report that at pastors' conventions, subscriptions to the porn channels goes up.
We've lost much of our witness, and that's just a sad fact.
Their dedication, example, fiery-furnace tested faith and love have been evangelizing me for decades.
There was a little book 30 years or longer ago:
THE JESUS FAMILY IN COMMUNIST CHINA.
In it was the story of a commune which had become essentially totally Christian. There was a Communist Party boss in the area that was very hostile to the Christian commune and harrassed them relentlessly.
One time, they were having a meeting. In the midst of their meeting, a chicken walked into the middle of the circle and laid an egg. The members of the Christian commune dutifully tied the price of the egg to the chicken's leg and released it to return to the Communist Party boss. The Party boss was so moved, he became a Christian.
There are impressive Christians there who are more wary of the pollutions of the West into their Christian culture than they are the persecutions of the Party Bosses in the government.