In the March edition of Tian Feng, the magazine of the China Christian Council and National TSPM, Rev. Gao Ying reports on the situation of women believers in the Chinese church. A graduate from China's first batch of theology students after the reopening of churches in the 1980s, she is now senior pastor of Chongwenmen church in Beijing. The following is a summary of her article.

"While the number of Christians has increased in unprecedented ways over the past few years, the number of women believers rose faster that the number of men. causing a huge gender imbalance. Today, 70% of believers are women.  Experts believe that women, being often marginalized as a result of  political or economic circumstances, are particularly receptive to the comfort and  help they receive through the church.

 

As a result of the growing number of women believers, the ratio of female applicants for seminaries and Bible schools has increased, and more than half of the students enrolled are female.

 

According to incomplete statistics, there are 378 women pastors in China today, 370 of whom were ordained after the Cultural Revolution. These 378 pastors represent 24% of pastors. Moreover, there are 415 ordained women elders, who were mostly  ordained during the past twenty years. Of China's 18 seminaries, two are headed by women, and one third of the teachers are female.

 

Women are the backbone of church life at the grassroots, both as ordinary participants and helpers. 70 to 75 percent of lay workers are women. They spread the Gospel, receive visitors, prepare communion, visit believers, lead the choir and much more."

 

This report comes from the registered church organization and does not reflect the huge number of women involved in the house church movement. The Chinese church has always given women a very prominent place in leadership and trained them as Bible Women. Today, more and more women are taking places of leadership in unprecedented numbers as the church struggles to cope with the huge shortage of trained leaders and pastors. Let us pray that through them the people will be grounded in God's Word and strengthened to spread the gospel worldwide.