An audacious goal has been set by Chinese Christian churches to send out 20,000 Chinese missionaries into the world by the year 2030.
According to ChinaSource, a September 2015 event in Hong Kong set the goal of sending out 20,000 Chinese missions workers to other parts of the goal before 2030. The number is significant as China Source also indicates that an estimated total of 20,000 missionaries have also been sent to China in the past 200 years. "We owe a 'gospel debt' to the world. Only when our missions sending surpasses what we have received can China be considered truly a mission-sending country," Beijing Pastor Daniel Jin said.
However, this goal is not without opposition as the Chinese government has been also on the move to prohibit the sending out of Chinese missionaries. According to Shanghaiist, 200 Chinese Christians, who were to leave the country to serve as missionaries elsewhere, were detained back in 2010 before they could get on their respective flights.
"China's church has unique strength in evangelism, especially in the Middle East," director of Columbia International University's Chinese program Zhiqiu Xu said. "To begin with, China doesn't engender the same antagonism there that Western countries do."
The goal was set during the Mission China 2030 event in Hong Kong where 900 house church pastors and leaders from all around China gathered to set strategies and goals to plant more churches in China, reach more minority groups and send out more Chinese missionaries. The event was headed by Brent Fulton, the president of China Source.
"This bold vision to mobilize, equip and send 20,000 missionaries in the next fifteen years will only be achieved by a work of God's Spirit that unites the church to accomplish this God-sized dream together." visionSynergy CEO Kärin Butler Primuth said on the goal.
According to Business Insider, Chinese people who profess to the Christian faith have been estimated to be around 70 million in number as of Sep. 2015.
