SBC Executive Director Brian Autry joined a portion of the meeting, and expressed his gratitude for the ministry of the pastors.
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“We are excited to see how the Lord is building a sense of fellowship among Chinese churches and pastors, as well as seeing an expanding level of partnership with these churches and the SBCV family of churches,” Autry told Baptist Press.
“We are seeing churches recognize they are not alone and seize the opportunity to advance the Gospel together to reach neighbors, the nations, and the nations that are our neighbors.”
In the meeting the pastors shared their struggles, and times of encouragement and prayer. The gathering, just as with the monthly zoom meetings, took place mostly in their heart-language of Mandarin.
The group decided to try to hold three in-person gatherings a year at different Chinese churches, in addition to the monthly zoom meetings. They’re also planning to host a break-out session during this year’s SBCV Annual Homecoming.
Two of the pastors who met during the July meeting decided they would like to try to plant a church together in the near future. One will be the church planter, while the other and his church will serve as the sending church.
“In our next zoom meeting during the first week of August, it felt like a different vibe because we got to meet in-person and we knew each other a lot better,” Wu said. “It was like we picked up right where we left off in July.
“It is very encouraging to me personally that we have this time where we can help each other. It’s really helpful that this group is an outlet to talk about our difficulties and understand each other.”
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Gregory said helping different churches and pastors connect is one of the main goals of cooperation within the SBC.
“I think this sort of is the role that the Southern Baptist Convention, both nationally at the state level, can have,” Gregory said. “We can’t replace the work of local churches, but we can help connect them together and aid in partnership. I think that’s what we saw happen here. It did my heart good to just watch this.
“The challenge I see among different ethnic groups in the SBC is how great the need is, and that’s just from me looking at the SBCV perspective. One of the things I am praying and thinking about is how to reach these different people groups, and part of it may be empowering the people within these ethnic groups to do just that.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
