Introduction

On November 25, 1942, Vice-Principal Mark Ma of the Northeast Bible College was praying and reading his Bible when he heard an audible voice telling him to set up an evangelistic band to take the Gospel back to Jerusalem. Since he was not a Pentecostal, he kept the encounter to himself for six months.

On the next Easter Sunday, April 25, 1943, Pastor Ma delivered a sermon about taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem. After the service, Miss Ho En Cheng, shared that she had received a similar call 10 years earlier.

Meanwhile, on the campus of Northeast Bible College, students gathered at the court yard that same morning to pray together. Each of these students heard a call to also take the Gospel back to Jerusalem. After praying, the students realized that they had each heard the same message from God.

Pastor Ma returned to the campus after his preaching to hear the students' exciting news. In consultation with the principal and staff of the college, the "Back to Jerusalem Gospel Band" was established.

God was also speaking to others around the nation. By 1948, a movement to take the Gospel "Back to Jerusalem" became the passionate cry of the Chinese Church. It is recorded that as many as 5,000 of these individuals with the same call from God walked from Northeastern China all the way to the Western China border. They were prepared to cross into the Islamic world. However, they were stopped at the border by the communist revolution. Most of the 5,000 were shot and killed, but those who survived were sentenced to 45 years imprisonment.₂

Dr. Peter Wagner, former professor of Fuller Theological Seminary, spoke these words a number of years ago: "By the year 2025, the Chinese Church will take the Gospel back to Jerusalem." When I first heard these words, I thought Dr. Wagner might be patronizing the Chinese Church, but during our first term in Asia, we did see the beginning of this new wave of the future. Others also saw this mission. Dr Larry Keyes of Overseas Crusade predicted this new wave of workers in his book in 1985.₃ Although Dr. Keyes did not specifically point to the Chinese Church as the leader of this mission, he did forecast it would be the Two-Thirds World Missionaries who would complete the task of bringing the Gospel back to Jerusalem.

As you can tell, hearing the above story filled my heart with excitement. Is it true that the Chinese Church will take the Gospel all the way back to Jerusalem and reach people who have been unreached along the way? What and where is the evidence of Dr. Wagner's foresight?

First, we must examine the missionary zeal of the church in Asia. Second, we must study the potential of the American Chinese Church to fulfill this mandate. Finally, we will make logical implications from these discoveries.

Number of Cross-Culture Misisonaries

Missionary Zeal of the Church in Asia

According to Operation World, the number of cross-cultural missionaries from East Asian countries totaled almost 18,000 in the year 2000.₄ The conservative estimate for 2002 increased this number to approximately 25,000. Note that these figures do not include workers from China since we have no way of knowing how many more we can count on.

The conclusion is quite clear. The churches in East Asia are beginning to assume the missionary responsibility that our Western brothers predicted. The following are missionary mottos of the churches in East Asia. The Mongolian church missionary motto is "Taking the Gospel to the places that the Great Khan devastated."

The missionary motto of the church in China is "Taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem along the Silk Route."

In order to fulfill these two mottos the Gospel will need to reach the four resistance blocks of unreached people groups: Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and atheist.

Potential of the American Born Chinese Church

In the last few months American Demographics Magazine released an analysis of the Chinese population from the 2000 national population census. According to these reports, 3.6% or 10,242,998 of the US population is Asian.₅ While the national population grew only 6% from 1990 to 2000, the Asian population grew 107%. In the next five years the Asian segment will grow another 27% to 13,957,310.

We all know that the term Asian American can mean different things. The report provides a detailed break down of those who call themselves Asian into more than 20 subgroups. The Chinese form the largest subgroup with 2,734,841 individuals. To this figure we must add 144,795 from Taiwan, 18,566 from Malaysia, 2,394 from Singapore, and199 from Indonesia for a total of 2,900,795.₆

"Crowning Cash Flow" and "Superlative Segment" are two terms used to describe the economic wealth of the Asian American. American Demographics also reports that a disproportionate 21.9% of Asian Americans earn $100,000 and above annually.₇ The San Jose Mercury reports that the average annual income of Chinese citizens is $36,000 which is higher than the general population.

"Education-Asian American Excellence" is the subtitle for another major segment of the American Demographics report. 44.4% Asian Americans hold an under-graduate or higher degree as compared to 34.4% of the general population.₈

How does this information apply to missions and the American Born Chinese church? It applies in many ways.

According to George Barna's analysis of the same 2000 population data, there was no significant growth among ethnic churches in the last decade. The only exception is the 27% growth of the Asian American Churches.₉ When we combine the economic purchasing power and the educational excellence of the Asian Americans in general and the Chinese Church in particular, we are talking about a great potential missionary force. At the last Urbana 2000 over 5,000 Asian Americans attended the missions conference. This was 27% of those attending. Over 1,000 Chinese Americans met during the conference while others had to be turned away for lack of space.

Implications

"By the year 2025, the Chinese Church will take the Gospel back to Jerusalem." This prediction is unfolding before our eyes.

Those volunteers who survived the 1948 massacre when they first tried to cross the border of Western China prayed each night with their face to Jerusalem, that the Lord would preserve and keep the vision alive. One Sunday morning in 1998, after imprisonment for 40 years, Simeon Chiu was sitting in church service. That morning a young preacher led the congregation to sing a hymn he had written 40 years ago for the Back to Jerusalem Gospel Band. The message challenged the members to take the baton and complete the race by taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem. Now an old man, Simeon could not help but weep throughout the worship service. The young preacher noticed his strange behavior and immediately after the service approached Simeon. Hardly able to speak, Simeon told the young preacher he wrote the hymn 40 years ago.

Today, there are a number of initiations to complete this vision of the Chinese Church. In fact, there are thousands who are ready and willing to go. God in His wisdom has allowed the responsibility of carrying the Gospel to the ends of the world to fall into the lap of Christians from a particular nation. In the first era of modern missions from 1792-1910 the European Christians dominated. America has taken the lead in the second era from 1865-1980.₁₀ Missiologists believe that the Chinese Church will complete the race and finish the task.

In a team rally race, medals are won or lost during the transition. The most critical part of the race is during each transition when one runner hands the baton to the next. Dropping the baton or failing to hand it to the next runner within the prescribed distance will disqualify the whole team. The European and American churches have each paid the price and completed their part of the race. Will the Chinese Church drop the baton? I am glad to report that the baton is safe. Chinese churches in East Asia as well as the Mainland are now busy dreaming, recruiting, training, preparing and engaging in the task.

One question remains: "Will our brothers and sisters in the American Born Chinese church jump onto the train and join the rest of our team to complete this task?"

Some professional "headhunters" for mission agencies are worried and concerned about a trend they've observed. While there has been much talk and many activities and mission conferences organized by the Chinese American Church, we have yet to see the first wave of volunteers. Brian Leong of ESI reports that each year he recruits and trains over 100 volunteers for short-term ministry, but only half a dozen are Chinese or Asian. I spoke to over 20 interested individuals at a huge conference but found that only our Western brothers and sisters are ready to go. A year later only Western believers are on the field as career cross-cultural workers. Our Chinese believers are still home scouting the options. This is not to invalidate short-term missions or the efforts of churches; however, the overall picture is not encouraging. With so much "purchasing power" and "educational excellence," we need to see the first wave of pioneers from the American Born Chinese Church.

We read in Acts that "during the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us'" (16:9). Throughout the past year, the Lord has laid the same invitation upon my heart-"Come over to Asia and help us." Won't you come and answer the invitation?

Footnotes:
1 American Born Chinese.
2 Chinese Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band, News Letter No. 13, 1951.
3 Larry Keyes, Two-Thirds World Mission and World Evangelization, William Carey Library, 1985.
4 Patrick Johnston, Operation World, Paternoster Publishing.
5 Diversity in America, Supplement to American Demographics, November 2002, pp. S2 to S20.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 George Barna, State of the American Church 2000 Report, Barna Research Group.
10 Ralph Winter, Three Eras; Four Men, Perspective, William Carey Library, 2000.

(Dr. David Tan serves as a "headhunter" recruiting Asian missionaries for the needs within the 1040 window.)