A church leadership conference on instilling the biblical worldview into the society and on church leadership was held in late August in New Mexico, where Chinese church leaders from mainland China were invited and speak.
Over 500 Christian scholars and church pastors from the states, including Chinese church leaders Boli Zhang, Zhujian, Qiulin, Xiaoan Zhou, 20 others, participated in the 2010 New Mexico Biblical Worldview Conference held at the Albuquerque Convention Center on August 25.
The four keynote speakers were Chuck Colson, Michael Voak, Os Guinness, and Joseph Bottum, who gave messages surrounding the theme of the conference titled Manhattan Declaration – Biblical Worldview, On Two Wings, Impossible People, and 21st Century Catholic/Evangelicals Together.
In their speeches, the speakers all pointed out the crisis and challenges of secularization towards the church and proposed strategies on how today’s churches should deal with the threats from abortion, divorce, homosexuality, materialism, and post-modernism, urging U.S. Christians to stand and fight for the Lord.
After the keynote speeches, Zhang Boli, pastor of Harvest Chinese Christian Church in Fairfax, Virginia, were invited to comment in response. He exhorted the church leaders in America to actively build a complete biblical worldview, enabling the churches to stand firm, to not compromise, to not retreat, to persevere in the truth, to enter this world and shine for the Lord in face of the attacks of secular ideologies.
Besides this, he was pleased to know that the churches in America have seen the encouragement that the developing Chinese churches have brought towards the West. He urged for churches in the east and west to unite together in the vision of transforming China with the gospel, christening the culture, and becoming a kingdom church, together fulfilling the gospel commandment and culture mandate given by Lord Jesus to the church.
Zhang was interrupted multiple times during his 20 minute speech by the sound of hand claps. After the speech, the crowd gave him a standing ovation that lasted for a long time.
“Those hand claps from the Christians in America are not for me alone, but they are for the members of the body of Christ in China. May the glory be given to the Lord.” Zhang said.
Afterwards, the conference chairman Bill Redmond, Chuck Colson, and other keynote speakers each embraced Zhang and together prayed for China.
