Becoming a Christian when nobody else in your family is a Christian can be difficult whatever your culture, but for Chinese believers there is an additional hurdle.
Chinese communities have a strong tradition of ancestor worship, under which the living are responsible for caring for their relatives after death. Parents whose children become Christians often worry that their son or daughter who no longer accepts their beliefs won’t look after them in the afterlife. If families of Christian converts are to embrace the change in their loved one, Chinese pastors and evangelists need to be equipped to handle this issue with sensitivity.
Dr Hann Tzuu Joey Tan, a Langham Scholar and Director of the Research Centre at Malaysia Bible Seminary, is preparing to publish the fruits of a seven-year research project into contextualised preaching for the Chinese community. Focused on the major Chinese festivals, the research asks how those preaching in Chinese contexts can draw on the beliefs behind Chinese festivals to illustrate Christian faith in a way that will resonate with their congregations.
Each year Tan visits Tyndale House in Cambridge for a time of concentrated research. He also pastors a church of Chinese believers and is passionate about using his research to equip church leaders. ‘I am always thinking about how I can apply my research to help me and others become better preachers.’ For this project he interviewed six Bible teachers whom he considered to be the best at using Chinese festivals to talk about Christian faith.
Bridge to Christ
Using the Chinese festivals as a bridge to understanding Christian faith is a delicate balance. ‘The job of the Christian preacher is to confront beliefs as well as connect with them,’ says Tan. ‘The Chinese preachers I interviewed all affirmed some aspects of Chinese culture. For example, they agreed the virtue of filial piety (honouring parents and elders) is compatible with biblical teaching. They also agreed that the concept of renewal of life during the Chinese New Year is a helpful contact point for preaching.
‘As evangelists we want to communicate the gospel in ways that people understand, while being absolutely faithful to the Bible’s teaching about God, people and sin.’
The idea that souls in the afterlife have the same need for food as the living, but no way of finding it, is a common one in Chinese culture. The Hungry Ghost Festival is based on a belief that, for one month a year, the dead can leave hell and return to the earth to be fed by the living. But if you are convinced you will be dependent on your children for food in the afterlife then their rejection of traditional beliefs can be frightening.’
‘When a Chinese person accepts Christ, the first question their families want to ask is about worshipping ancestors,’ says Tan. ‘Can they continue to do that? Will they still love their parents or will church be all that matters to them? In China, ignoring filial piety is one of the biggest sins, so we need to help Chinese people understand that filial piety is biblical, as the Bible encourages us to love and honour our parents. The difference is that in Chinese belief you put your parents in God’s position, whereas Christians have to honour God first.’
God revealed
During his time as an undergraduate Tan started to ask questions about who created the universe and whether there is a God. He eventually prayed that God, whoever He was, would reveal Himself, and a few days later he unexpectedly found a Bible in his room. His girlfriend (now his wife) had been given the Bible in the street, and seeing no use for it had left it in Tan’s room.
‘I started reading that Bible and one day I read Matthew 6, which said that I have a heavenly father to care for me.’ It was only a short time before Tan and his girlfriend became Christians.
Tan hosts a show about Christianity that is produced in Hong Kong and reaches thousands of young people there and in the region.
‘Our culture should never be a barrier to hearing the gospel,’ he says, ‘whether that’s our youth culture, or the national culture we were born into. The message of the Bible is for everyone, whenever and wherever they are born. If Bible scholarship really is going to help us become better church leaders, then we need to take seriously this whole idea of confronting culture but also connecting with it.’
