China Update: April 1, 2012 By Peter Wagner

Peter Wagner has released this AMAZING update from his recent trip to China. He has given me permission to pass it on to you.

I have just returned from a few days in China where my enthusiasm for that nation as a world leader was rekindled. Please allow me to record a few brief thoughts.

            For several years, whenever I have spoken to an Asian audience, I have shared what I perceive to be the shifting of the center of gravity of world Christianity through God's different seasons. The first center of gravity was Jerusalem, then it shifted to Antioch, then it shifted to Rome & Constantinople, then to Western Europe, and then to North America. As of the 21^st century it has now shifted to East Asia with China in the leadership. I say this to point out the great responsibility that Asian Christians now have because to whom much is given, much is required.

Up front, I would like to reiterate what I consider to be a key prophecy regarding China from Chuck Pierce. You can find this in God's Unfolding Battle Plan, pp. 211-216. Unlike some other prophets, Chuck is not unwilling to publish his prophecies, with their accompanying dates of fulfillment, in books for others to examine and evaluate. In this case, Chuck received a vision in 1986 that indicated significant future events for China in ten-year increments.

1986. The Chinese government would begin to change from its oppressive policies. [This year the student revolutions began that led to the Tiananmen Square event.]

1996. The government of the church will begin to shift toward an apostolic model. [Reportedly, the beginnings of the greatest "leadershift" in the Chinese church can be traced back to 1996.]

2006. China will come into the world picture. [This is the year when preparations began for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 which put China on virtually every TV screen in the world.]

2016. The economy of China will be second to none, and the US will become an ally of China. [According to the Wall Street Journal "MarketWatch" of April 25, 2011, the International Monetary Fund's official forecast is that China's economy will surpass America's in 2016.]

2026. "The Chinese people will be the most dominant and influential people on earth, and China will have the principal role of bringing in world harvest" (p. 212). [For more than ten years I have been prophesying that by 2025 China would be sending more foreign missionaries than any other nation.]

            This trip to China was sponsored by Full Gospel Christian Businessmen Fellowship International (FGCBMFI) through my Chinese-American friend. As an aside, I got to know International President, Richard Shakarian, quite well and I am very pleased with the work of FGCBMFI in many countries of the world. Because I was with FGCBMFI I was able to build relationships with many more Christian workplace people. Previous visits to China had been largely confined to the Religion Mountain.

            The three major branches of the church in China all seemed to be flourishing. The three Self Churches, registered with the government, reportedly are becoming more evangelical and open to the work of the Holy Spirit than previously. The days when they seemed to be religious mouthpieces for Chinese Communism are apparently over.

            The rural house church movement (unregistered) started in 1976 after the Cultural Revolution, and it reaped a greater national harvest of souls over a thirty-year period than any other Christian movement in history. One of its leaders, was recently in my home and told of some amazing works of the Holy Spirit. He was the leader of some 8 million believers in the rural house church movement. Incidentally, some of these "house churches" now have large, visible church structures seating over 1,000 people. It was the rural house church movement that first cast the vision for the "Back to Jerusalem Movement," one of the greatest missionary challenges since William Carey.

            Around ten years ago the urban house church movement (also unregistered) began among the more educated and affluent Chinese. Many leaders and members of these churches have considerable influence in the six non-Religion Mountains. They are engineers and lawyers and entrepreneurs and educators and scientists and technicians and medical personnel and the like. On my previous visit to China, I attended one of the urban house churches which numbered 3,000 in the congregation. The pastors of these churches are mostly workplace-oriented individuals who carry little or none of the traditional religious/theological baggage of the more traditional churches.

            One of the highlights of this visit was getting to know a particular Chinese leader. He has risen to a place of considerable influence in the Government Mountain as a consultant to well-placed officials. He is a committed, mature, well-informed, kingdom-minded Christian leader and was one of the speakers in the seminar in which I ministered. Along with those credentials, he is also a member of the Communist Party, a very helpful (not to say necessary) affiliation for anyone who expects to have influence in the Chinese Government Mountain.

            Previous to this visit, I had known of some lower-ranking believers who also felt called to the Government Mountain and joined the Communist Party, but my impression was that this was semi-clandestine and not to be talked about very much. This man, however, assured me that there were a strong, growing number of born-again believers within the Party, and that their faith was well-known to all concerned. This was the most encouraging new insight that I received on this trip. It bodes very well for the future expansion of God's kingdom in China.

            As a brief aside, let me point out that to many Western Christian leaders the idea of a Christian in the Communist Party sounds like an oxymoron. However, the more we come to understand the 7-Mountain template, the more we are able to not only assimilate, but also to encourage, such bold steps into the future. The fact is that each Mountain has its own culture, and only by understanding and following the cultural rule book of a given mountain can one expect to gain influence for the kingdom of God in that mountain. If this involves joining a certain party (without being forced to renounce the faith), so be it.

            In order to encourage the leaders at the seminar I brought up an interesting fact. Those of us involved in the social transformation movement agree that the ultimate test for a city or a nation to be classified as "transformed" for the kingdom of God would be the eradication of systemic poverty. Over the past 20 years or so we have witnessed the greatest example of steps toward the eradication of systemic poverty in human history. The Chinese government has succeeded in taking over 300 million individuals (about the population of USA) out of systemic poverty through their urbanization program. In this ongoing project, the Party is unwittingly serving the purposes of the kingdom of God.

            At the seminar, one Chinese leader gave an address on the "30-30 Vision." He is projecting that by 2030, no fewer than 30 percent of Chinese will be Christian. His current figure is 7 percent Christian, although I lean toward a 10 percent number. Still, a growth to 30 percent in less than 20 years is unprecedented, and his church-growth analysis of how this is possible, using a wealth of historical and sociological data, was one of the most brilliant talks I have heard. I'm not sure I know of any Western missiologist who could have approached what he did. With leadership like this, who could doubt the "30-30 Vision?"

            The persecution of Christian leaders can now be classified as tokenism. From time to time a leader is arrested for media purposes. He believes that in about two years the end of Christian persecution will be officially announced.

            He feels that by 2030 China will be known internationally as a Christian nation. When I heard that, I could only feel that I understood why God would reveal the prophecy I cited earlier back in 1986 to Chuck Pierce. He believes in the transformation of China, but he repeatedly affirmed that China's transformation will be "transformation with the Cross!"