China Partners: China Partners Mission Statement and Values

As a community empowered by the Holy Spirit, China Partners seeks to love God by serving the Chinese church through evangelism and discipleship.

Community

God lives in community with himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. To bear the image of God means we reflect and join in His relationship through community¹. Living in community helps us to imitate Christ’s example by growing in love, forgiveness, and service on a daily basis². Community provides frequent opportunities for resolving conflict and offering mercy³; it is a place that necessitates the practices of both encouragement and accountability⁴, which strengthens us as iron sharpens iron⁵. We live and minister in teams rather than as individuals, not
only for our sake but also for the sake of ministry⁶ as we work in our differing gifts to glorify God together⁷. Others are drawn to us by our love for one another. We seek to model our communities after those practiced in the New Testament⁸.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We believe that the Holy Spirit is present, knowable and active today, living in all believers, both individually and in the church⁹. The Holy Spirit is our assurance that we belong to Christ and is our basis for hope in Christ’s future return¹⁰. He is active in salvation and sanctification, empowering believers to live Christlike lives and minister effectively¹¹. It is through the Holy Spirit that all the gifts described in the New Testament are available; we encourage the expression of any and all such gifts as He gives them¹². We also believe that the Holy Spirit brings unity among believers of all backgrounds and reconciles divisions among them¹³.

Love God.

Our desire is to obey the greatest commandment: to love God and love others.¹⁴ Obeying this commandment to love God with our whole selves – heart, soul, body and mind – must be more important than the work that we do. We show our love for God and remain in His love through obedience.¹⁵ We want our lives of loving God to reflect our hope in the future as we prepare for the return of Jesus, our beloved Bridegroom.16 Everything comes from God, our ministry included, so we strive to have hearts full of grateful praise.¹⁷ We work in China, first and foremost, to express our love for Christ. Our work is to be done in a way
that is pleasing to God and brings him honor and glory.¹⁸ Our loyalties are to God’s Kingdom first, not to China Partners. It is important for us to have Kingdom eyes when making decisions, always asking the question, “What most benefits God’s Kingdom?” Our ministry is successful when we and the people we work with seek Him and His Kingdom first. [19]

Serve the Chinese Church.

While we share in the work of ministering in China, we non-native Chinese come not to lead the Chinese church but to serve it, following Christ’s injunction to be servants of all²⁰. We serve in partnership with each other, with Chinese believers, and with God Himself. We do this in the hope that we might not be a stumbling block²¹, and that we might rather see the Father touch and call the
Chinese as a people though their own language, culture, and heart²². We serve through evangelism, discipleship, and all the gifts the Spirit gives us²³. While we can and do make use of our identities as foreigners to draw people²⁴, as they come to know the Lord we encourage them to become an active part of the local Chinese church. In all this we pursue partnership through significant relationships with the Chinese church and its leaders. We value these friendships both for the mutual love of believers and for the guidance they can give us as we seek to serve. In these relationships, we prefer to relate to them in situations where they are the bottom line rather than us.

Evangelism

Jesus’ life was devoted to evangelism – living a life that testifies to the good news of salvation. Throughout his ministry he actively and wisely shared the good news in obedience to his father. As he was leaving earth he called his disciples to do the same. In Acts and the epistles his disciples focused on sharing their faith with others in real and relevant ways. As present day followers of Jesus we are inheritors of this call to tell others about the amazing love of God. We seek to share our lives of hope, love, meaning and purpose in a way that connects people to the Spirit of God already at work within them.

Discipleship

As disciples of Jesus we want to do as he commanded, “make disciples²⁵.” Discipleship goes beyond conversion to include teaching²⁶, encouragement²⁷, exhortation²⁸ and accountability²⁹. Our goal is reproduction: we make disciples of Christ who will go out and do the same³⁰. We encourage them to
imitate us as we imitate Christ³¹. We focus our discipleship on young adults because we believe this is a very pivotal period in their lives; furthermore, they are the next generation of leaders with great potential to exert significant influence.
We believe in leadership development. The Chinese church needs trained leaders, so as young adults encounter the gospel, we want to be faithful in helping them to become leaders of character and influence in the church³². We encourage and equip young adults to: look to the authority of Scripture; respond in faith and obedience to the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives; maintain the unity of all
believers; and discover and develop their gifts and vision to lead. In so doing, we discourage longterm dependence on outside missionaries. We also desire to train and develop ourselves as missionaries on the field and as followers of Christ. We give priority to equipping missionaries to do their job well and providing opportunities, resources and encouragement for spiritual growth and formation.