In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, more and more Chinese have gotten onto the Net. The Chinese Internet using Chinese language started within the group of overseas Chinese students, intellectuals and professionals, and has become widely used in Chinese-populated areas all over the world, including Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, etc. The Chinese Internet is especially popular among young students and scholars. While commercial and journalist websites in Chinese flourish, Chinese Internet all over the world is also teeming with interactive, discussion-oriented e-forums, BBS?(Bulletin Board Services) and newsgroups, etc. that are closely related to the Chinese intellectuals of culture and thoughts. The interactive discussions on the Net provide a novel way for the communication of thoughts and the spreading of beliefs. The Chinese Internet has its special attractive characteristics to Chinese netters because of the affinity of the mother tongue and higher extent of freedom of speech. In this virtual space of Chinese language, the thirst and seeking of eternal Truth and the concerns about ultimate value of human hearts are also demonstrated clearly. Topics about religion and faith are very often hot ones, and those about Christianity and the Gospel are probably "the hottest among the hot". In a few years?time, Internet evangelism targeting at overseas Chinese from the Mainland as well as young intellectuals in China has grown drastically from small voices to big fortitude. As one of the "on-line Christians", the author has been involved in discussions and debates about Christianity for a few years. I have personally experienced the growth of evangelism on the Chinese Internet both overseas (for netters from the Mainland) and in China personally.

In the middle of the 1990’s, soon after the Internet was born, Chinese Internet rose to the forefront among the overseas Chinese intellectuals. The early-day Chinese Internet did not have forums with as fancy interfaces and as user-friendly functions as today’s web-based forums. It began with usernet newsgroups, and people posted messages through emails, similar to mailing lists. One of the most famous newsgroups in the old days was called ACT (for "alt.chinese.txt"). The postings on ACT used to be extremely diversified. The content ranged from political commentaries to scientific developments, from literature to history, from cuisine to Chinese riddles?The newsgroup’s all-inclusiveness, diversity and interaction provided much attractive opportunity for the overseas Chinese students and intellectuals to communicate their thoughts, release their emotions and express themselves in their native language. Many "high-hands" and "celebrities" emerged on the Net during this "ACT era". Even in this early period of time, the debates about Christianity became a hot topic. There used to be a bunch of "on-line celebrities" who took a lot of their time on ACT specifically to criticize and attack the Christian Faith. Among those was the famous/infamous Chinese netter "celebrity" Fang, Zhouzi (net-name), who became well-known for his attacks agianst Christianity to defend his evolutionist belief, and his "lower critics" of what he called "the errors-everywhere book of Bible". At the same time, with the increase of the number of Christians among overseas Chinese intellectuals from the Mainland, Christian netters started to appear on ACT to proclaim the Good News positively. "Debates of Faith" soon became inevitable on the Internet that possesses almost absolute freedom of speech. The silent clashing of thoughts and the conflict of fundamental worldviews and values view between the Christian Faith and the atheist faith as well as other non-Christian faiths or religions quickly showed themselves in the "war of letters" (with keyboards replacing pens in this case). At that time there used to be a half-joking saying that each and every year, around Christmas season, there would for sure be a big "battle of faith" on ACT, and it was repeatedly shown to be quite true. Christian netters were definitely the minority on ACT, and the apologetic postings were quite immature and unrefined. Nonetheless, a number of Christians, led by God, gradually came onto ACT with a heart for the Gospel, knowledge of the Truth and gifts to fit into the chatting-like style of posting on the Net. They became good testimonies of the Gospel on the Net. I got on the Internet by joining in the discussions on ACT in 1996 at the last part of the "ACT era" myself, and I was inspired and encouraged by a few Christian netters (such as "Elim" and "Yile") who were posting apologetic and evangelical messages on ACT. At that time I had just became a Christian, and was quite young in my spiritual life and immature in my knowledge. I had no theological training, and was not good at writing the Net postings. I got involved in the discussion, even heated debates, just by the inspiration "when we first believed" and the impulse to share my faith with others. However, the God in whom we believe is a true and faithful God, and a God of miracles. Little by little I was led on the path. I got to know other "on-line" Christian netters and became friends with them. We shared the same background, and the same vision and burden, and we started to have fellowship in which we encouraged and helped each other through prayer and sharing. I was helped in many ways myself, and grew in the practice on the Net with God’s guidance. I have to acknowledge that it is all God’s grace that even to this day I am still on the Net and have my part in Chinese Internet evangelism. I now receive emails from Christian brothers and sisters as well as seeking friends from all over the world quite oftenw, especially those from the cities and towns inside my motherland of China. A lot of them share the same vision of Internet evangelism, and give me a lot of exhortion and encouragement with their loving hearts. A lot of times I have been deeply touched and inspired in my heart.

While small groups of "on-line Christians" started to appear on the Chinese Internet and Chinese Christian netters were no longer a scarce species, the Internet was developed also in Mainland China. After the ACT era, some of the universities in China began to have BBS opened. Although accessed via telnet and not much more advanced than the early newsgroups, BBS had the function of categorizing the topics, thus separating the different interests and specializing the topics. In the early days (1996-1997) of the development of the Internet in China, there were not many netters on the Net. However, on one of the earliest university BBS? there was miraculously a very special "Bible Board" among dozens of diversified Boards. It did not take long before Chinese Christian netters from the Mainland showed up on the Bible Board from overseas. And Chinese Christian netters from Taiwan and Hong Kong, etc. also gathered there. The Gospel was spread with the discussions and question-answering, and the influence started to grow. That Bible Board became so well known that it even attracted the "Christianity-bashers" such as Fang, Zhouzi. The BBS Board inside China soon became a significant "battlefield" for the "War of Faith" across the ocean, as well as an excellent "mission field" for those oversea Chinese Christian netters who had "virtual homeland-coming" via the Internet. Amazingly there was quite some freedom, and Christians were able to have free discussion with the college students netters in China (with "sensitive political content" being probably the only forbidden area), and the Gospel of Christ and the Christian Faith could be positively introduced to young intellectuals in China. The two sides of the debate were both overseas rather than in China, but it was such a significant and meaningful thing that the "battle" happened on a BBS inside China, thanks to the Internet technology. It clearly showed how the new technology was capable of breaking through the geographic limitations. The news of "two famous netter celebrities were converted to Christ and the debate on God became heated on ACT" made it to the "Top 10 News of Chinese Internet" in 1996. In 1997, "War of Faith" between Christian netters and Fang, etc. "extended to the Internet inside China" became one of the "Top 10’s" elected by XinYuSi (New Thread) website again. During this period of time, Mainland Chinese "on-line Christians" in North America also started to know and fellowship with Christian netters in Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc., via the Net, and support for each other began to form. Writings by some famous Christian Net writers, such as Chen, Yunlin (net-name "gospel") and Su, Yourui (net-name "psycho") (ref. Life Net), were widely distributed on the Net in China and among Mainland Chinese overseas. Their mostly pre-evangelist works were very helpful for Internet evangelism. The mutual involvement in Internet evangelism also wonderfully helped a brother from the Mainland in North America and a sister in Taiwan to know each other, to fall in love, and eventually to get blissfully married. Their romance became a well-known, classic, beautiful legend among Chinese Christian netters.

The technology of the Internet kept being improved. In 1997, web-based (WWW) Chinese websites and interactive forums started to appear. The latter half of the 90’s happened to be also the hottest years of the "Heat of Conversion (to Christianity)" for overseas Mainland Chinese intellectuals. In very short time, Chinese Christian netters embarked on the earliest web-based forums. A Christian netter was even invited to be the Board-master for one of the most famous forums on culture and society. The apologetic postings by the Christian netters became mature. Christian netters gradually established very good dialog relationship and even friendship with young intellectual seeking friends, some of whom later on became Christians with commitment as well as "Internet celebrities" themselves. Webpages dedicated to the collections of Christian netters?postings began to evolve. Some of the most well known secular websites started to open forums for religion and faith, with Christian netters' quick and active involvement on them. Christian netters?involvement was even extended to some non-religious humanist forums.

When we entered the last couple of years in the 20^th century, the Internet technology was greatly developed inside China. According to the statistical data by CNNIC, from July 1997 to January 2001, inside Mainland China, the number of on-line users has increased sharply from 620,000 to 22,500,000, and number of website domains from 4,000 to 120,000. The increase has been exponential. With the rapid development of the Internet in China, and as the fruit and witness of the miracle that God has done in China for the Gospel in the second half of the 20^th century, Christianity and Gospel related websites emerged onto the Internet in China very rampantly. They seemed to mushroom overnight, and the number is still increasing rapidly. While feeling overwhelmed and unable to be present on so many websites, "on-line Christians" can not but marvel and be thankful for what God did on the Chinese Internet.

From the early-day newsgroups to today’s widely distributed Christian/evangelical websites, the Chinese Internet evangelism has gone through a long and winding but guided and blessed path. Many changes occurred silently. The major opponents that Christians had to face in the early days were the scientific and humanistic anti-Christian thoughts such as Fang’s. Then there were those "culturists", who think they are defending the traditional Chinese cultures (such as Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism) and who take it as their mission to attack Christianity in order to make way for the spreading of their beliefs. There seemed to be a lot of these "Christianity-bashing" people on the Chinese Internet, and there was definitely not a lack of religious enthusiasm. Anti-Christianity postings such as Fang’s seemed to be quite influential and were copied-and-pasted all over the Net, including forums and websites inside China. However, in terms of historical status, their anti-Christianity thoughts never exceeded those of the older generations of "patriot" Chinese intellectuals since the May 4 Movement in 1919. The same old approaches to attack Christianity did not have any high scholarship and the thoughts were lacking profound insight even just from an academic point of view. In the eyes of Christians, they did nothing but to help make contributions to the spread of Gospel on the Chinese Internet (ref. Refuting Fang Collections).

In the most recent couple of years, big changes took place for the Christianity related contents on the Chinese Internet. They might not be noticed by many, yet they did happen silently and surely. Although there are still some anti-Christianity "fighters" on overseas forums who persist in often ill-communicated debates with evangelical on-line Christians based on their beliefs in scientism, humanism and rationalism, the situation is totally different on the websites inside China. In China, with the mushrooming of evangelical and Christianity related websites, more and more Christians get involved in the spreading of the Gospel and the communication of faith. Most of those Christians are also young intellectuals. Diverse theological standings quickly become apparent as well as various sects. "Internal" and theological tension and disagreement among Christians gradually become more visible. Evangelical Christians also have to start facing the impact of many extreme thoughts, heresies and cults, which totally changed the priority of the apologetics to defense for the fundamental Christian believes. The "wars" with traditional humanist anti-Christian thoughts have become secondary, and those thoughts no longer have as significant an influence as they used to have. Anti-Christian materials such as Fang’s postings not only are just making contributions to Christians? database (such as the Refuting Fang Collections), but also got criticized and refuted even by many non-Christian netters. It seems that anti-Christian figures like Fang have accomplished their historical "missions". The debates of "orthodox" and "heresy" have become the new hot spot. God’s leading on the websites inside China is so miraculous and exciting. Today the evangelical and Christianity related websites inside China have such diversity that they include Christianity forums on secular websites (e.g. St. Paul’s at Xici), large-sized websites dedicated to Christianity (e.g. Christian China) and websites especially targeting young intellectuals in the cultural and academic circles (e. g. God’s Door).

Another group of young Chinese intellectuals silently came onto the stage of the Chinese Internet at around the year 2000. They are the ones I called "Christianized Scholars", who embrace and agree with Christianity and at the same time are in-depth thinkers in the cultural and academic fields. Their postings on the Internet have been very widely distributed, and their active involvement on the Net certainly adds a new dimension to the ever "hot" Christianity-related contents on the Chinese Internet. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, a school of Chinese "Cultural Christians" (a possible misnomer) had very deep influence in the cultural and academic circles through publications of numerous series of academic books and writings on magazines such as the "Readings". "Cultural Christians" became known as a unique school and "Cultural Christianity" a unique phenomenon. The "Christianized Scholars" on the Chinese Internet may very well be, and probably have already been, another new "sharp troop". Their influence is mainly exerted by distribution through the Internet, which provides a new media with relatively more freedom, on the young students, intellectuals and scholars. As they indicated themselves, their "school" is still in development and growing. Personally, I believe that this Internet phenomenon is worthy of much attention from Christians who are not giving up our cultural mission and the Gospel mission in the cultural fields (ref. the "Cultural Christian" webpage and BuMei Faith Forum).

While evangelical websites and forums thrive in China, more and more overseas Chinese Christians started to realize the advantages and importance of Internet evangelism. Many Chinese churches and para-church organizations began to establish their own websites. Besides evangelical websites and comprehensive websites for believers, there are more and more websites in great diversity in areas of theology, devotion, radio broadcasting, Christian music, magazines, books and audio/video resources. In fall of 2000, shortly after the "Shen Zhou" /"God’s Land" TV series was produced, Brother Yuan, Zhiming was invited to make an appearance on a secular forum to meet with netters, introduce "Shen Zhou" and dialog with netters about Christianity. Recently, while paying close attention to the "Christianized Scholar" phenomenon in China with introspection about Christians "cultural commission", the author has noticed that some of the Christian scholars, writers and "culturists" have joined the cyber world and have started to get involved in Internet posting. Examples include writer/novelist Xia, Weidong (whose articles appeared regularly on "Overseas Campus") and free-lance writer/scholar Xie, Xuanjun (who, like Yuan, Zhiming, was one of the authors of the famous "He Shang"/"Laments of the River" TV series).

With the rapid increase of Chinese Christians who have access to the Internet, more and more people ask for help with spirituality and resources through the Internet. It is especially so for those netters in China, where resources for Christianity are scarce, but the Internet is becoming faster and more convenient. Internet can easily break through the limitations and restraints of time and space, and has quickly become an important tool to seek help and fellowship with other Christians all over the world. Nowadays Christian netters such as the author frequently receive emails from China’s cities and towns in their publicized e-mail boxes. Many evangelical organization and magazines, etc., also help and care for those Christian brothers and sisters in China via the Internet very often. The influential Life Quarterly magazine has published an evangelical version (Life and Faith).

The Christian Internet ministry is comprised of not only the evangelical and apologetic content, but also service type works in caring, following-up, sharing and training, etc. These ministries are in greater and greater need and becoming a wider and wider field. What should make Christians thankful is the fact that even since the early days of Chinese Internet evangelism, there have been groups of Christians and organizations that have the vision and burden for such ministries, and have worked faithfully, although probably not too much noticed, in these areas. One of the organizations in such ministries that has been led and blessed by God is CCIM, i.e. Chinese Christian Internet Mission, with which the author is familiar.

CCIM, formerly Chinese Christian Resource Center, was founded in 1994 and changed its name to CCIM in 1996. It is an on-line organization that targets at young Chinese intellectual netters in China and overseas and serves them by providing on-line resources and ministries. CCIM has a few dozen coworkers, almost all of whom are volunteers, all over the world, including inside Mainland China. They work together via the Internet and make use of their professional expertise and skills in computer and the Internet, and committing themselves in this special serving ministry. CCIM has not only websites with abundant content, but also has undertaken development work in various areas such as electronic database, information and resource integration for Chinese churches, Bible study groups and evangelical organizations, electronic forums, on-line training and long-distance learning, etc. A number of years?diligent work has resulted in valuable accomplishment. Through all these years CCIM has established a sizable database of ""Chines Christian On-line Library". Inside the "library" is the marvelous "Archives of Christian Netter Postings", which has collected a large number of postings by Christian netters and debates and discussions about Christianity from the ACT days to the most recent date. The "Archives" is abundant in content and clear in classification, and possesses excellent searching functions. It has been used widely on the Internet and helped seeking friends to obtain related materials and to get answers for their questions, as well as Christians who have a burden for Internet evangelism for good support of resources. CCIM has helped the most influential Chinese evangelical and Christian magazines such as Overseas Campus and Chinese Christian Life Quarterly to put their magazines on the Internet. Today Chinese from every corner of the earth can get access to the e-versions of these magazines, thanks to CCIM’s technical support. CCIM has also supported technically evangelical organizations such as China Horizon, Stephen Tong Evangelical Mission International and Reformed Institute for Christianity and 21^st Century. The Seeking-the-Truth Forum built and opened by CCIM has attracted many Chinese Christians and seeking friends all over the world (including Mainland China) to discuss, communicate, share and give testimonies on it for the past few years. In 2000, CCIM set up a trial theology "on-line" class, which was taught by Dr. Sam Ling of China Horizon. Lectures were given through emails and teleconferences, and homework was submitted through emails. CCIM is close to the completion of the development of long-distance learning tools, which are expected to be in use and serving the Chinese Christian community in the near future. Also in 2000, CCIM was joined by Red Bean Music Ministry (for Chinese Christian music) to integrate the resources and strength and continue to serve for the sake of the Gospel on the Chinese Internet. I believe that CCIM will be even more blessed and led by God in the future, and become a key player among the Christian resource websites in North American and even globally. It will continue to make significant contributions to the evangelism, mission, training, equipment and education for Chinese Christian individuals, churches and organizations.

How to Support CCIM

The development of technology has made it possible for us to distribute information all over the world very quickly and conveniently. The Internet has provided evangelical Christians with a new tool to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handywork... Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." (Psalms 19:1, 4). In this crooked and perverse age, the Internet is being used by Satan to capture people’s hearts and spread thoughts, cultures, philosophies and religions that are against God. Many times the Christian faith is harshly attacked. However, as a tool, the technology itself is not necessarily evil. Christians with commission should be able to utilize the technology to spread the Gospel and have our testimony in front of the unbelieving world. The Chinese intellectuals are a group of people who have not been won into the Kingdom of God by the Gospel yet. On today’s Internet, Chinese intellectuals are talking about virtually everything. There is no forbidden topic, and there is heated communication and clash of thoughts and beliefs, just as in Areopagus and Tyrannus in the Apostle Paul’s days (Acts 17 and 19). If those of us Christians who have evangelical and cultural missions want to have real influence on the trend of thought of modern Chinese intellectuals, we will have to enter the speech forum in the free cyber space. We need to use the eternal Word of God to cast down the strongholds in culture and thoughts and "every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God", and bring the heart and mind of Chinese intellectuals "to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). The Chinese intellectuals are manifesting clearly on the Internet that they are seeking the Truth and crying out of their hearts and souls for salvation. We Christians should be ready to "give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15), and to bring the holy Love of God and the real Hope to people in spiritual need. The history ("His Story") has entered a new millennium, and the development of the Internet in Mainland China will for sure further quicken its steps. All universities will be linked up to the Web, and the Internet will be popularized with unprecedented, amazing acceleration. China will soon become the largest Internet-using country in the world, and Chinese the most-used language on the Internet. The capability of the Internet to break through limitations and restraints of time and space will be a big advantage for the purpose of evangelism. The evangelism and Christian ministries on the Chinese Internet will definitely continue to grow with the guidance of God. At the same time, there will also be many challenges on the road ahead. We "on-line Christians" need to pray harder for the leading and Grace of God than ever before.

The Internet ministry is a very unique ministry. Those of us who are involved in the Internet apologetics and evangelism are standing on the very front of the spiritual war. We need a lot of patience and endurance to defend the Truth and bring the Love of God and spiritual caring to people in a very harsh and hostile environment on the Net. Most of us "on-line Christians" are graduate students or professionals in science and engineering, who do not have any formal theological training. Moreover, many of us are first generation Christians who have just believed for a relatively short time, and we are still in the process of growth into maturity spiritually. Those brothers and sisters who are involved with technical support and spiritual caring are sacrificing even more time and effort (with much less "visibility"). At the same time, all of us "on-line" Christians in the Internet ministries also have our own families, careers, studies and services in local churches to take care of. It is extremely difficult to have a good balance, and we very often feel overwhelmed by the lack of time. We have to deal with a lot of difficulties and our own weakness on a daily basis. The rapid growth of the Internet ministries also demand more and more committed co-workers, and "on-line Christians" are in serious shortage. The Chinese Internet evangelism and ministries need more prayers and support from Christian brothers and sisters now than ever before. We urgently need more brothers and sisters who share the vision and the calling by God and who have the burden, gift, equipment and, most importantly, commitment, to join in the team of co-workers. "Caring for souls" should be the incentive for every child of God. The evangelical and cultural missions should be every Christian’s calling and "vocation". The harvest is so ripe, and the fields are so wide, but workers who harvest are still few. I pray that more brothers and sisters will pray for the ministry or join the special service.

May the Lord bless the Internet ministry, and keep the "on-line Christians" involved in it.

http://jidian.ccim.org