Bibles for China’s Kurt Rovenstine attended the YouVersion celebration Monday in Oklahoma City. He says, “It was a reminder to us — as a ministry that works in Bible distribution — of the importance of Bible distribution.

“It celebrated the growing desire for people to find truth and that people are searching for truth – and the Bible is a place where they’re going to find that.”

(Photo courtesy of Brooke Cagle/Unsplash)

The ceremony highlighted testimonies of individuals coming to faith through Scripture accessed digitally.

Yet, Rovenstine also underscores the reality that not everyone has access to the Bible. In China where his ministry serves, Bible apps can be controlled.

“The digital piece is a challenge, and YouVersion in most parts of China is probably not available,” says Rovenstine.

“So part of that encouragement at that celebration was also a reminder that online and digital is great, but it also can be restricted. If you don’t have it physically, it may not be available. So we’re reminded that whereas the Bible is very accessible and desired by many, it’s still a challenge.”

Pray that the one billion YouVersion downloads will result in one billion transformed lives. Pray also that more people in China and around the world get their hands on God’s Word.

Header photo: YouVersion Bible app (Photo courtesy of Priscilla du Preez/Unsplash)

New restrictions from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claim greater authority over religious expression, this time in the digital sphere. 

Just eighteen short paragraphs make up “Regulations on the Online Behavior of Religious Clergy,” published September 15. But together, the articles state that online preaching and teaching can be shared only through government-licensed platforms. Teaching children, raising funds, and using AI in evangelism online are also prohibited, along with much more. (Read the full English translation of the articles here.) 

(Courtesy of Bibles for China)

“The internet is a wonderful thing. But it’s also the renegade information stream in the world. There is very little accountability,” says Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China.

He says the new regulations are a natural progression of where the CCP is taking the nation. 

“[In] the last year, there’s been restrictions on gatherings — who can gather where, and with what kind of supervision, the restriction of any kind of foreign influence on in-person meetings,” Rovenstine notes. “That has continued to progress in a way that gives China much more control in the ‘Sinicization’ of all things religious and Chinese.”

He says while the September 15 restrictions are not surprising, they are disappointing, “because the regulations not only affect the churches in China, but it is targeting a lot of people who are working outside of China and trying to get content into China.” 

Think of Christian leaders in China who have been walking the line between government regulations and following Christ. The new rules will require creativity from them and from believers outside of China in order to disciple others and share the gospel. It will call for risk. 

“It’s a ‘wait and see’ [situation]. I do think there will be a lot of people from outside of China [who] will challenge this. It will be a game of chess on the internet,” says Rovenstine.

Let this news help you pray more strategically for fellow Christians in China. A brother who works in China told Rovenstine, “Our response [to Chinese Christian leaders who feel trapped] is to feel their frustration and pray for the courage and tenacity in the midst of new challenges every day.”

Rovenstine adds, “[Pray] that God would give them creativity and courage to know [what] He’s leading them to do, to continue to be the spiritual leaders within China and be obedient to the Word of God and not the mandates of man.”

Header photo courtesy of Karwin Luo/Unsplash.

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China explains, “Proselytizing kids in China is against regulations and policies, and it’s pretty closely monitored.” 

Whether you’re a Christian or a Chinese Communist Party member, it’s clear why kids are so important: “You affect kids, you change a generation,” says Rovenstine. 

Christians want the next generation to know Jesus personally. The Chinese government has different goals. This summer, officials in Shanghai trained kids to reject the religious groups the government has deemed illegal or xie jiao (“evil cults”).

(Photo courtesy of Jerry Wang via Unsplash)

Bibles for China works legally in China, without opposing the government. But Rovenstine says the situation calls for prayer and action. 

“Anytime there’s a challenge, God equips His people with creativity, opens doors and creates avenues for the gospel to move forward in spite of what is inhibiting it,” Rovenstine says. 

Today, Bibles for China is printing children’s Bibles in Mandarin outside the country, plus other resources. These can be carried into China by hand.

“I had an email [recently] from the gentleman that took some of our children’s Bibles. He’s been sharing them with people that are headed back to China, and they’re taking them back two and three at a time,” Rovenstine says. This method isn’t a problem because the Chinese government “is just trying to make sure they’re not being printed and distributed in mass.”

Pray that every Bible and resource reaches the right family and child at the right time with the good news of Christ!

Pray that God will open the eyes of kids being taught false things about God. Pray that they will look for truth and find it in Scripture. 

Header photo is a representative stock image courtesy of Note Thanun/Unsplash. 

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China said the report is sobering but no reason for Christians to slow down.

“I’m not here to debate the data or even to analyze it as much as to say how easy it is to get caught up in what we feel and what we hope, rather than what may actually be the reality,” he says. 

The new report is a shift away from the narrative circulated in the 2010s. The story then was that China would soon be the nation with the most Christians in the world. With Pew’s adjusted data, it estimates that in 2010 China’s Christian population was 2.3 percent. Its original 2012 report put China’s 2010 Christian population at 5.1 percent (or 70.9 million).

To learn more about Pew’s revised approach, read pages 120-22 of its report How the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020.

(Photo courtesy Bibles For China)

Discipleship needed

Rovenstine says he’s reminded that life is challenging and ministry is hard. “There may be a re-analysis of the re-analysis moving forward, but we have to keep doing the work.”

Gospel ministry in China is still a mix of growth and challenge, such as reaching young people. 

“When we go to rural China, we see a lot of older Christians. The younger Christians are a little harder to find,” Rovenstine says. “That informs us a little bit as to [deciding] ‘Where do we work? Who do we partner with?’ so that we can maybe help reach another generation.” 

Since it is illegal in China to evangelize children, Bibles for China is limited in what it can do. But among the Chinese diaspora, they distribute a special storybook Bible for kids. Learn more about that in this 2024 report. 

In the meantime, pray for the gospel to advance in China! 

“That definitely is a prayer for the Christians in China: ‘How can we creatively reach [the] next generation when that’s technically, in many ways, illegal?’” Rovenstine says. 

Header photo: Bibles for China provides people in rural China access to the Bible. (Image courtesy of DEZALB via Pixabay.)

Sinicization, the assimilation of religion with Chinese culture, came to Chinese Christianity this year, forcing and regulating the encouragement of communism as a Christian value.

Despite setbacks, Bibles for China is finding ways to expand its ministry and communicate the gospel while maintaining an openness and legality with the Chinese government.

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China says that of the 15 projects they had planned for the year, they are all still in play, just moving slower than in the past.

“The door has not been closed,” says Rovenstine. “It’s just a lot more boxes to check, and maybe a few more steps to take to get the work done.”

The need for Bibles in China is still strong. Many people would like Bibles and struggle to get access to them, which is the goal the ministry seeks to fulfill.

Rovenstine says, “We work legally and openly through the registered church to supply Bibles to areas where they would not easily be obtained otherwise.”

Bibles for China has had a more hands-off approach the last few years after COVID, but still has nationals acting on behalf of the organization in China.

Because of the challenges that have developed, the organization wondered if there was another way to reach Chinese seekers and believers.

The ministry that’s beginning to develop is working to help those in the Chinese diaspora who may be leaving for a variety of reasons, whether it’s religious, economic, or educational, and trying to reach those people with the gospel.

Their work has been to try to find places where Christians are already reaching out to these Chinese communities and help supply them with Bibles for their outreach, particularly Children’s Bibles and a bilingual New Testament Bible targeted for Chinese seafarers.

Rovenstine says, “The church in China is still vibrant and active, and they are doing their best to live in the world in which God has placed them.”

Pray for Christians in China and their struggles and that the church would continue to thrive in China. Pray for ministries that God would grant wisdom and open and close the doors for decision making. 

Header Image coutesy of Bibles for China

“And all things as they change proclaim

The Lord eternally the same.”¹

China (MNN) – Music blossoming from the ground of God’s Word not only reflects theology, it reinforces and shapes it. Yet in China, the government is swapping out the soil of Scripture for the soil of Sinicization, a national push to blur the lines between religion and Chinese patriotism. 

“It does reflect a trend that we’ve seen for quite some time within China: the struggle of the church to freely express, preach, teach, sing, worship as they see fit according to Scriptures,” says Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China. 

According to reports from associations in Beijing, the CCP continues to entwine itself into church leadership and practice, most recently through its guidelines for sacred music. They include the following points, as outlined in an article by China Aid: 

1. the formation of official sacred music teams,
2. the development of an original song library with “Chinese characteristics,”
3. the hosting of concerts with a “Sinicization” theme,
4. the integration of government-controlled sacred music modules into church apps, and
5. the training of core volunteers for Sinicization.

“It’s a sense of some control and direction that is coming from outside the church, which historically has not been a good thing,” Rovenstine says. 

The latest squeeze on Chinese believers has the team at Bibles for China asking, “Is the Bible enough?” Rovenstine answers with a resounding yes.

“The Bible is central to the practice of faith,” he says. 

It is on this unchanging rock that believers can stand against the swells of political and cultural tides. For the CCP, that’s the rub. 

“Sacred music is sacred not because it is from a particular culture or from the Middle East or from great writers of the West,” Rovenstine says. “It’s sacred because it expresses the truth of Scripture.”

In terms of religious freedom, the news is concerning for brothers and sisters in China. 

“But in another sense, it affirms the work we do as being very, very important: that we’re able to distribute unaltered, unchanged, unfiltered Scriptures to people who will have the opportunity to read it,” says Rovenstine. 

After all, music is an easier target than Scripture. 

“You start with a song or two, and you add a cultural or patriotic element to it – a Chinese value alongside a Christian value – and people go, ‘Well that’s not so bad,’” he says. 

Please pray for Christian leaders facing attacks on the music of their faith. 

Pray that Chinese Christians would have Gospel-focused clarity and discernment as they prayerfully consider how to incorporate music into their worship services. 

Pray that they would stand on the firm foundation of Scriptural truth when faced with pressure to deviate from God’s Word. 

And consider singing over them words from the modern hymn “Christ is Mine Forevermore,” by CityAlight: 

Mine are days here as a stranger
Pilgrim on a narrow way
One with Christ I will encounter
Harm and hatred for His Name

But mine is armor for this battle
Strong enough to last the war
And He has said He will deliver
Safely to the golden shore

And mine are keys to Zion city
Where beside the King I’ll walk
For there my heart has found its treasure;
Christ is mine forevermore

¹Charles Wesley (2014). “Wesley’s Hymns and the Methodist Sunday-School Hymn-Book”, p.237, Ravenio Books

Featured image courtesy of Huynh Van via Pexels; article image courtesy of Zack Smith via Unsplash

“It doesn’t slam the door closed; it just makes it a whole lot more difficult to keep open. There’s more steps in the process, more scrutiny in the process,” he says. 

New restrictions are part of the administration’s strategy to maintain sole influence on the Chinese people, as they deal solely with foreigners.

 “It doesn’t talk about what a Chinese church can do in relation to their Chinese neighbors,” Rovenstine says. 

Expats could also be affected. 

“Their own ministry in and amongst themselves is even potentially highly scrutinized.” 

Perhaps ironically to Western nations, Chinese officials are proud of religious freedom in their country. 

“They say, ‘We’ll allow it but within this context,’ and the net effect is that the religious freedom they tout is not much of a freedom at all,” Rovenstine says. 

Rather than an overt push to remove foreigners, Rovenstine sees this as a quieter closing of heavy doors resulting from anti-foreigner sentiment. 

“Restrictions are such that the result will be, ‘It’s just too hard.’ There’s no way to get past all the things you have to go through,” he says. 

BFC already works in the country and has a strong relationship with the local church. Because of this, the new regulations won’t immediately impede their work. 

“And I praise God for that,” Rovenstine says. 

What will suffer is Americans’ ability to visit, meet with pastors, and take an active role on the ground in China. Foreign funding may also present challenges, with much yet to play out as the restrictions are interpreted and applied. 

Please pray for missionaries to China facing new hurdles with this legislation. Pray that God would continue to open doors for ministry, and pray that the Holy Spirit would help believers discern appropriate actions in the midst of sweeping changes. 

Images in this article courtesy of Bibles for China

“Every year, we have requests and projects that are no smaller than the year before, and this year is no exception. So we’re excited about as much opportunity as we’ve ever had,” he says.

Rather than the need lessening, Rovenstine says it has simply changed. 

“The need in certain places does not exist because of the ease of access to those certain provinces and locations. At the provincial level, at the government level, we’ve been able to work there. But there are a lot of places that are a little more difficult.” 

BFC partners are starting to explore those areas. He says the road to Scripture access often winds through the registered church. 

“If you have access to a registered church, there’s a good chance you can get a Bible in many of the provinces. But not every province takes advantage of that opportunity. They don’t have large supplies because they can’t afford them or they choose not to get them.”

Sometimes rural areas face unique changes. 

“Someone just lives way too far away from the place where they need to go – a central church in a larger city – that would have a supply of Bibles,” Rovenstine says. 

Please pray that BFC would find open doors for its Bible distribution projects. 

Rovenstine is encouraged about the state of the church in China despite heavy regulation by the government and lack of freedom to evangelize. 

Please pray for the situation in China and for the believers there. 

Pray that Chinese followers of Jesus would be obedient to His call, whether He leads them to the registered church or underground church. Pray that these congregations would not be divided, and pray that lost people would be drawn to the pleasing aroma of Christ’s church in China. 

Images used in this article courtesy of Bibles for China

Despite ongoing government efforts to “Sinicize” Christianity, the Chinese Church continues to hold fast to its identity. However, this resilience requires intentional effort. One crucial way to sustain and strengthen the Church is by equipping local leaders through training centers. These centers serve as hubs where ministers can teach, preach, and disciple — ensuring that sound Biblical teaching continues to spread. One such center is currently being built in the northern hills of China.

However, establishing a Christian training center in this region is no small task. Local believers must navigate three major challenges. Kurt Rovenstine from Bibles for China explains: “They do face a lot of obstacles in trying to share the Gospel in a place that, number one, is communist, number two, is very Muslim and very traditional, and number three is resource challenged.”

These three challenges — communism, Islam, and poverty — create a difficult environment for ministry. Each presents unique obstacles and misunderstandings about God, making the need for solid Biblical training all the more urgent.

Woman sitting behind the desk (Photo courtesy of Unsplash)

Despite these difficulties, local workers are pressing forward. They are constructing the center as part of a registered church in northern China, with a clear mission: to equip and empower local leaders for effective ministry. This is where Bibles for China plays a crucial role, supplying much-needed materials to support their training. So far, the ministry has helped fund the education of lay ministers who will return to rural areas to guide believers in their home churches.

“We really love the opportunity that the Lord has opened to us to support them in providing some study Bibles and things like that, to the students that come to this Training Center,” says Kurt.

However, the challenges extend beyond equipping adults. A key struggle for trained believers is raising their children with Biblical knowledge. State restrictions prohibit bringing children to church, holding Sunday school, or organizing structured faith programs.

“You can’t bring them in,” Kurt explains. “You can’t have Sunday school, you can’t have intentional programs. So it has to be informal and just part of relationships.” That’s why Christians are encouraged to nurture their faith within their families, passing down Biblical stories through parents, grandparents, and uncles. This way, children grow up grounded in the Word and ready to join the Church with spiritual maturity.

Pray for the smooth construction of the training center and for wisdom in preparing the training programs. Visit Bibles for China’s website to learn more about the training centers and how you can support their mission!

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.

Days before the January 20 inauguration, Trump connected with China’s president, Xi Jinping, reportedly having a constructive phone call. But the two nations are still poised for further tension.

Kurt Rovenstine with Bibles for China shares what their partners in the Chinese registered Church are expressing.

“From a concerned standpoint, you’ve got two very strong leaders now in place in both countries that have strong opinions and want to be in control,” he says.

(Photo courtesy of Bibles for China via Facebook)

“If our new [U.S.] president does what he says he would do, that’s going to make life difficult for them politically. That affects what we do, just from a ministry standpoint, because we’re from the West [and] that [U.S.-China] relationship is declining.”

Economic and ministry impacts aren’t the only thing. In response to any perceived U.S. threats, China might enact stricter internal policies.

“The policies that have been put in place over the last few years continue to be held to pretty strongly, and so that creates frustration on their part (the registered Church) towards the work that they want to do, because they don’t have the freedom to be evangelistic, to do a lot of the things they would like to do,” says Rovenstine.

How you can pray

As U.S. and Chinese leaders enter an unpredictable future, pray for God to work. 

“Pray for the leadership in China, not just the church leadership, but the politicians who Scripture tells us their authority comes from God. Pray for the church leaders as whatever comes down the pike that they have the grace and the fortitude to handle it,” Rovenstine says. 

“Pray for the Chinese people. I think there are just so many that are looking for something significant and eternal, and not just the hope that their country [or] their parents give them, [or the hope of] their education, or whatever the case may be. Pray for an openness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Toward that goal, Bibles for China is making the best use of the time they have. Rovenstine says their partners are planning Bible distribution, leadership training and other outreach as they have opportunity.

“We’re going to assume that we can do exactly what we did last year and maybe a little bit more — and again, hoping that the uncertainty of circumstances causes there to be an interest in things of eternal value,” he says.  “We know that this is a crucial time for us to trust in the sovereignty of God and to continue to do the work that He’s given us to do.”

Header image: U.S. President Donald J. Trump joins Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and President of China, at the start of their bilateral meeting Saturday, June 29, 2019, at the G20 Japan Summit in Osaka, Japan. ( Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80070156)