China Outreach Ministries

China Outreach Ministries

China Outreach Ministries was founded in the 1950s as the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission (COCM) to finance Christian radio broadcasts into China. When Chinese graduate students began to arrive on US college campuses in the late 1980s, COCM USA changed its name to China Outreach Ministries and shifted its focus to evangelizing the Chinese students in USA.

China Outreach Ministries reported that in 2016 its 80 staff and 932 volunteers at 45 US college campuses shared the Gospel with 8,019 Chinese students, 81 of whom returned to China as Christians "committed to making an impact for Christ." In 2021, China Outreach Ministries had chapters at 58 US college campuses, representing a 29% rise in 5 years. Corresponding 29% rises would imply 103 staff and 1,202 volunteers sharing the Gospel with 10,344 Chinese students, and 105 returning to China as Christians in 2021.

China Outreach Ministries reported 2016 revenues of $3.4 million, 76%, 16% and 6% of which were spent on campus, administration, and fundraising, respectively, and 2019 revenues of $4.1 million, 68%, 12% and 5% of which were spent on campus, administration, and fundraising, respectively. In 2019, CEO Daniel Su's compensation was reported as $130,766.

Strengths

To share the Gospel with the Chinese in China, missionaries must move to China, learn Chinese, deal with cultural barriers, ingest polluted air, water, food, and evade the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance and prohibition against proselytizing.

To share the Gospel with the Chinese in America, China Outreach Ministries' volunteers can live at home, ingest clean air, food, water, and drive to a nearby college campus to speak freely and in English. This is a far more efficient model that enables any American Christian living near college campuses to have the impact of a missionary without having to become one.

Weaknesses

1.  China Outreach Ministries' penetration remains woefully low.

China Outreach Ministries currently has chapters in less than 4% (58) of the approximately 1,500 major US college campuses, and the estimated (see above) 10,344 Chinese students with whom its volunteers shared the Gospel in 2021 represent 2.7% of the 370,000 Chinese students in USA in 2021, as well as 8.6 Chinese students who heard the Gospel per volunteer per year. In 27 US states, there is not even one China Outreach Ministries campus chapter.

2.  China Outreach Ministries' growth remain woefully slow.

Fifty-eight campus chapters in 2021, up from 45 campus chapters in 2016 means fewer than 3 new campus chapters are being added per year.

3.  Hell is missing from the "Gospel" of China Outreach Ministries.

China Outreach Ministries' statement of faith declares, "We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of separation from God." Hell entails not just "separation from God" but also everlasting damnation and agony: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched" (Mark 9:43).

4.  College and graduate students from other nations also need to be reached.

While the 370,000 Chinese students represent the single largest foreign contingent at US college campuses, the 700,000 college and graduate students in USA from the other 219 countries represent an even larger target for evangelization. Presently, 90% of them are returning to their countries, a quarter of which forbid Christian missionaries, without having heard the Gospel.

5.  Chinese students at US high schools also need to be reached.

The number of Chinese students at US middle and high schools has risen from 1,200 to over 50,000 in just 10 years and many of them, including over half of those sent by Chinese parents who remain in China, attend private Christian schools because public schools typically don't accept international students and most private high schools in USA are Christian. These 50,000 plus Chinese middle and high school students in USA, as well as their counterparts in other countries around the world, comprise a mission field with arguably even softer soil than the older students in college.

Solutions

1.  China Outreach Ministries' volunteers should be more bold. The 8.6 Chinese who hear the Gospel per volunteer per (9 month academic) year currently equates to about one Chinese hearing the Gospel per volunteer per month. If each volunteer were to share the Gospel with one Chinese per week instead of per month, the number of Chinese reached per year would rise by a factor of 4.33 to about 45,000 per year.

2.  If the numbers of China Outreach Ministries volunteers and staff were to double to 2,404 volunteers being led by a staff of 206, China Outreach Ministries will be able to share the Gospel with about 90,000 Chinese college students and scholars per year, in which case almost all 370,000 Chinese college students and scholars in America will hear the Gospel before they return to China, assuming an average stay of 4 years.

3.  All Christians living in or around any college campus in the world should share the Gospel with Chinese and all other international students, with or without joining China Outreach Ministries. Pray, take your Bible, and share the Gospel as Jesus commanded.

4.  Christian middle and high schools must prioritize evangelizing their Chinese students more than protecting the revenues from them. The same applies to the American Christian families who host the students sent by Chinese parents in China.

5.  Share the true Gospel, including the reality of hell, excluding which robs Jesus' cross of its full value.

Also see Confucius Institute and CSSA.