Chongwenmen Christian Church...

This morning COGS had a visiting Baptist church choir from Alabama performing for the service. Since I will only be in China a short time and can hear a Baptist choir whenever the urge hits in the U.S. (as you know it often does), I decided to take this chance to worship with the Chinese. The following is a church visit report in the style of The Mystery Worshipper from http://www.ship-of-fools.com/

Church Exterior

Church Interior

The Church: Chongwenmen is the oldest Protestant church in Beijing originally founded as Asbury Methodist Church. Like most religious sites in Beijing, it was once active, then destroyed, then rebuilt, then destroyed again. Worship in the present structure resumed in 1982. One of their claims to fame is that they hosted former President Bill Clinton during a state visit back during his administration.

Denomination: China Christian Council, the official governing body of Protestant churches in China

The Cast: A young man the service sheet listed as Pastor Li Hua led the service and a young lady listed as Pastor Zhen Cuihua was the preacher.

Date And Time: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 10:30 AM

Name of Service: 10:30 Service

How many in attendance: The church claims to be able to hold 2000 and my guess would be that it was full to bursting including the outside overflow area where people watched on tv.

Did anyone welcome you? I received a very warm welcome from Daphne, a translator. She gave me books, an English service sheet, and a headset for the tranlsation service and helped me find a seat in the foreign translation section.

What about the pew? Wooden pew with a thin worn piece of padding. It was not very comfortable. That could have been because I sat on it so long due to getting there an hour early. I arrived shortly after 9 and had to join a line to get in. At around 9:15 the 8 am service let out and we were allowed in. I know from experience that if you don't get to church early in Beijing you don't get a seat.

Pre Service Atmosphere- Extremely quiet. One of the pastors came out and led the congregation in some prayers as well as practice in an unfamiliar hymn.

Exact opening words: The words of Exodus 15:11-18

Books? I was given "The New Hymnal" bilingual edition, a Revised Standard Version Bible, and an English service sheet. I was glad to have these due to later technical difficulities so at least I could sing the songs and follow the scripture readings.

Musical Instruments? piano

Any distractions? Yes, the headset I was given was supposed to tune me in to an English translation of the service. I hate to be pessimistic, but as soon as I was given it the first thought that ran through my mind was "I bet this won't work." (it comes with living in China) and it didn't. The three laowai sitting behind me seemed to be enjoying the service through their headphones but mine wouldn't work! On the plus side, it really made me think hard about the day's Old Testament reading from Genesis when God scrambled all the languages. Maybe there is something in there I am supposed to learn!

Worship Style? The church seems to have retained its Methodist roots. There was an excellent choir, several scripture readings, and traditional hymns.

Sermon Length: 40 minutes

Sermon Topic: The topic was peace and used verses from John 14 and 16 as the text. She seemed to be an engaging speaker, I just wished my headset had been working.

What was like being in heaven? As with my previous visit to a Chinese church, it was great to see Chinese Christians worshipping openly and freely after so many years of being unable to do so.

Anything you didn't like? The non working headphones.

Anyone speak afterwards? No, but during the peace people were very cordial. At the end you have to make a mad dash to the door to avoid being trampled.

Would you make this your church home? If I lived closer and thought I could get to know people, probably. The Chinese churches are so few so therefore they are so large. The only weakness I can see in churches like this is there isn't much time for one on one attention so there probably isn't much fellowship time.

Did this service make you glad to be a Christian? Absolutely, worshipping in such an historic and beautiful church was great.

What will you remember most? HEADPHONES! At the end of the service when I returned them I told the usher that I could not hear the translations. He sincerely said he was sorry and that if I come back to please let him know if I had the problem again. I will probably visit again so I can hear a sermon and will make sure to do this.