RCMI E-newsletter Jan 2019

Personal word from Pastor Dennis Balcombe

In October 2019 our church, Revival Christian Church, will be celebrating our 50th anniversary, and in addition to our Hong Kong believers, many friends will be coming from China, the USA and other nations to participate in the anniversary services. Our Hong Kong church is now one of the larger ones with several branches here, in China and overseas. It will also be the 40th year of our China ministry which began in1979 when an American pastor gave me US $700 designated for Bibles for China.

During the past forty years countless thousands of Bible couriers from many nations have participated in our “Donkey’s for Jesus” ministry. Perhaps you were one of them. Not only were millions of Bibles distributed to house church believers, not a few of the Bible couriers received a missionary call, and many are now working in ministry among the Chinese or people in other nations. Through this Bible ministry, the doors were opened to me and many others to train leaders all throughout China. We have thus been privileged to witness one of the greatest revivals resulting in the largest church growth in history.

The previous paramount leader of China was Hu Jintao (leader from 2002-2012), who pursued a relatively lax open-door policy of “Harmonious Society”. This was a time of relative freedom for Christians in a communist nation. It was also a time of revival in the church in which thousands of churches were established, large church buildings sprung up all over China, millions of Bibles were distributed, and tens of thousands of Chinese Christians traveled overseas to attend conferences, receive training and do missionary work.

After that in November 2012, President Xi Jinping became the 7th president of the PRC, and in 2016 the CPC officially gave him the title of ‘core leader’. Unlike President Hu, President Xi has pursued a policy of reverting to traditional Marxist-Communist ideology, while proclaiming the ‘Reform and Opening’ policy will continue. In February 2018 new regulations governing all religion in China were published, and in the Fall of 2018 these restrictive policies were implemented in many parts of China.

In certain parts of China this has resulted in some house churches closing, as they have not been allowed to register. A couple thousand official churches, both Protestant and Catholic, have seen the large crosses on the buildings removed and a few church buildings have been demolished. Some churches have seen arrests of their leaders, confiscation of Bibles and Christian books, and in some churches young people and children have been prevented from attending church or Sunday School. Not a few missionaries have been forced to leave China.

We are saddened to know of the sufferings of our mainland brethren and pray much for them and pray these restrictions on Christians by the government will soon be lifted. But many other mainland Christian leaders have told us this is a ‘blessing in disguise’. They say during the past several years, the excess of the teaching of the “Prosperity Gospel” and “Hyper-Grace” has had a devastating effect in the spiritual life of ‘believers’. This is not to mention the many cults that have been spreading in China.

This new wave of persecution has had the effect of separating the true from the false. It has resulted in Christians rejecting these new religious teachings and fads, mostly from the West, and true Christians have returned to solid Evangelical, Pentecostal theology. It has resulted in more unity among believers, more praying saints, more people seeking the Holy Spirit and His gifts, and a greater vision for evangelism. While the numbers of professing believers may decline, the spiritual level of believers have made quantum leaps.

This year is also a major anniversary of the 70th year of the founding of the PRC. During this time, the nation has gone through many political movements resulting in more opening or closing policies. I strongly believe this is just one of them, and perhaps soon we will see a China that is more open than any time in the past. China cannot afford to go back to the dark days of radical Maoism and the Cultural Revolution. Millions of Christians in China and around the world are praying for the leadership of China.

While we may temporarily see some ‘closed doors’ to some types of ministry to the Chinese, generally their hearts are more opened to Christ than any time during their long 5,000-year history. We are totally committed to our ministry to those in China, Hong Kong, Macau and all throughout Asia. We will not stop, slow down or consider leaving, and will continue until the return of Christ.

Thank you so very much for your prayers for and support of all of us and this ministry for the past 50 years. We would be very honoured to see you at our 50thAnniversary services in Hong Kong, October 12-16, 2019