Vanguard Global Network - Where We Work

CHINA

INDIA

NEPAL

RWANDA

The People's Republic of China is the largest country in the world by population and the third largest by area. It is a major power in the world both politically and economically.

The Church of Jesus Christ is exploding in China! Every day there are 10,000 new Christians there, and the government receives 6 new church applications a day. As Werner Burklin has said, "The Book of Acts is being fulfilled today in China". Both scientific surveys recently conducted in China showed about 49 million Christians there.

While this church growth in China has been phenomenal, yet the body of believers there is growing so fast that there are not enough leaders to keep up with them.

"There are so many more believers coming to faith on a yearly basis than can be shepherded by ordained, trained pastors," says Erik Burklin, Vanguard Advisory Council Member.

Not only are there simply not enough trained pastors for all of the believers, but Erik says there are not enough young people in training to become pastors. Having untrained leaders can lead to misinterpretations of Scripture and similar problems, which could hamper proper church growth. Vanguard and our partner mission, China Partner recognize this serious need for trained leaders, and are focused on helping to meet this great need. We are training leaders throughout China well enough to effectively lead a group of believers.

After our training in Dazhou, their pastor said: "I don't even know how I should express in words my deep appreciation. In the training concluding session today, I heard the harvest and joy of all of the people. Every coworker was fighting for the opportunity to share with gratitude. Everyone feels Rev. Gross's teaching was with depth but in a way easy to understand and was in a detailed form. Those who did not know how to evangelize before know now. Two of the workers shared that they had started to implement what Rev. Gross had taught. All hope that I can be in more communication with you and hope to receive more training from you. Sincerely, Rev. Tao Duan"

Vanguard works in China through strategic partnerships with other Chinese-government-approved agencies, such as China Partner, Grace for Asia and HuaMei, and with China Christian Council (CCC). In YiBin, Sichuan, our Vanguard/China Partner team were the first non-Chinese Christian workers to serve in the city since 1949. There, we trained over 50 lay pastors who likely would never have had the opportunity for training otherwise. We have worked in Discipleship, Pastoral Care and Leadership Training in several cities in Sichuan, Manchuria and Guangxi, and will soon be working in Hubei and other places.