“By experiencing so many difficult times in the past, the churches in China are becoming mature in the spiritual ways and have already started to take the responsibility of preaching the gospel and also to the minority groups. The vision is even clearer to join world missions. In fact some of the house churches have already sent missionaries to other countries. Therefore, we are really expecting that there could be the Chinese churches and the international churches joining together to win the lost peoples in the near future.” – Pastor Zhang

Imagine what will happen when the largest national church is mobilized to reach the world? Behind the scenes of everything else we do, World Compassion continues to train the Chinese church to do just that.

In cities throughout China, bold Christians have acted on their faith by funding the construction of church buildings as a public declaration of their belief. And they have built many. But the Chinese government has responded with a punishing blow, bulldozing churches and removing Christian crosses and other signage (just as other oppressive regimes like the Nazis have done in the promotion of nationalism). This past April, thousands of believers formed a human shield around a church the government said was “not in code” and planned to destroy. It’s a spiritual battle that gets little coverage in Western media.

Opposition like this has not stopped the Church in China. They have a vision, and they are taking very risky steps to challenge the government policies while building the underground church and training believers. We’re thankful for the Chinese brothers and sisters who have stood firm in their faith and for the pastors who lead these churches and prepare their people to reach the world.

Many leaders in the Chinese Church have a passion to train missionaries. They have shown great faith by creating underground training centers to disciple and send missionaries throughout China and beyond. But what they were lacking was a core ingredient – comprehensive training materials. One of the leaders told us:

“Many people want to be missionaries, but they cannot access training materials to prepare them.”
Another told us, “We couldn’t find materials we could use to train missionaries. This was a big problem for us.”

We have heard again and again how they don’t just want training materials; they want the right training materials. They need materials that have spiritual depth and practical insight so that graduates will be well-prepared for the complexity of missions and pastoral work.

This is where your partnership with World Compassion comes in. Several years ago we made the investment to develop the China Mission School (CMS) training materials. This material is different from our ABC discipleship program you may have heard so much about.

CMS provides complete training for missionaries, not just providing doctrinal instruction, but also the practical examples, core fundamentals, and key steps people need to take to become effective missionaries in such a challenging environment. It trains the Chinese church not only to be missionaries to other countries but better equip them to reach their own people and the 456 various ethnic groups in China who still do not have a self-sustaining population of Christians.

CMS runs as a one-year, full-time program in multiple cities throughout China, training believers who want to work in full-time ministry, plant churches, and grow the kingdom.

We’ve enrolled nearly 1,000 students and have graduated 428 students to date. Right now, we have access to 500 students who want to go through the CMS training to be equipped to reach their nation and beyond.

Pastor Zhang, who leads and represents 1.5 million believers in China, made a powerful statement, “We are really expecting that there could be the Chinese churches and the international churches joining together to win the lost peoples in the near future.” You have an opportunity today to partner directly with the Chinese church, equipping them to reach lost people by providing training to the next 500 students who are waiting to be sent.

Let’s help mobilize the largest church in the world. We need your help today to do this. It costs $141 (£98) per student to send them through this one-year missions training. This includes all the materials and the oversight of our staff on the ground to manage the program. The total cost to prepare these 500 full-time ministry workers is $70,500 (£49,000).

The Chinese church is under an increasing level of pressure by the government so we want to move quickly to get these materials in their hands before it becomes even more difficult to distribute them.

We believe training the indigenous church to reach their people and plant churches is the most important and effective mission work you can give to.

Let’s partner with our church family in China, turn them loose and watch how God can use them to change the world.

Please pray and consider how many students you can sponsor this month and help get these 500 students started soon.