The following is an excerpt from Brother Ah Mi, a pastor serving in an urban city in China. His love for migrant workers compelled him to also love the city that they live in, which in turn taught him to reflect more deeply on God’s mercy and justice. In light of October being World Mission Month, we hope you can keep our brothers and sisters in China in prayer and for the gospel to continue to spread throughout the nations.
Twenty years ago, I had the opportunity to visit a large factory in a Chinese megacity built by a businessman from Hong Kong and that employed seven to eight thousand workers. When I toured the facility, I was struck by how few Christians were among the workforce. During that brief visit, I felt a persistent calling and told God: “I am willing to come to this place in the future to preach the gospel to these people and to establish a church.”
However, I genuinely disliked city life at that time, having grown up in the countryside. My father was a rural preacher from the older generation. But following my factory visit, God continually placed this calling within my heart over the years. So less than five years later, I brought my wife to the city, where we have remained ever since. This was during China’s period of rapid industrialization from the 1990s to 2000s, when countless rural people were migrating to urban areas.
Because I have always been ministering in rural areas, when I first came to the city, I felt a particular burden for the migrant workers. They were my primary target audience for evangelism in the city. I shared the gospel with them and planted churches near industrial areas to reach them. I had no particular interest in loving and caring for the city itself. If not for the purpose of saving souls, I would never have stayed in the city. Moreover, the brothers and sisters I served also viewed the city as a temporary stop—as migrant workers, they would work there for a few years and then return home.
It wasn’t until five years into my ministry that I first began to repent of my disdain for the city. As I encountered materials from Timothy Keller1, I came to the profound realization that I had never viewed cities from a biblical-theological perspective in order to understand how deeply God loves them. From Cain’s first city to the Tower of Babel and Babylon, my attitude toward cities had always been negative. But after studying some of Keller’s material, I slowly began to develop new capacities for thinking, new spiritual vitality, and practical action. Once I grasped these truths, I began putting them into concrete practice.
To begin with, prayer walking had a particularly significant impact on me. For the first time, I began to share the Father’s heart and see my city through the lens of the gospel. In those years, we could still evangelize quite openly, so I encouraged the brothers and sisters in our church to start with their own workplaces, viewing their companies and communities through gospel eyes. I would guide them: “In our workplaces and neighborhoods, where do we see people bound by idolatry? What gospel opportunities exist for us to reach out and care for people?” Rather than sitting down to preach didactically, we sought to genuinely care for people.
We have also begun to deepen our theology. Through studying the Westminster Shorter Catechism, we have come to recognize that Jesus Christ is our Prophet, King, and Priest.2 These three offices are not merely for the internal edification of the church, but also for the church’s mission in the world. At first, we only focused on making disciples of all nations and preaching the gospel, so we only paid attention to the prophetic office.We were unaware of our cultural mandate, and even had a somewhat anti-cultural mandate mindset, believing that it was not our responsibility.3 We have now come to a more full understanding that Christ’s three offices also confer upon the church our mission on earth.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question No. 24: How doth Christ execute the office of a Prophet?
Answer: Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.
Question No. 25: How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
Answer: Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.
Question No. 26: How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
Answer: Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
These doctrines laid the foundation for our entire church’s understanding of the Great Commission. We have discovered that we are not merely called to fulfill the prophetic office of proclaiming the gospel to the world; we also need to fulfill the priestly office of living out the love of the gospel to the world. We do not merely live out a loving presence, but we also need to govern the whole earth according to God’s will.
As a result, this became our vision for the city: We have a duty to love, to accompany and empathize, to understand this city’s idols and sufferings, all of which are ultimately affected by the Fall. We don’t stand on a moral high ground to judge our neighbors; rather, we first seek to understand them, then pray for them, and use every available opportunity to connect with them.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt has been published with the permission of The Center for House Church Theology. It is based on a personal account given in 2024, which has been edited. This English edition is copyright © 2025 by the Center for House Church Theology. All rights reserved. You can hear more stories about Chinese Christians practicing mercy ministry on The House Church in China Podcast. In the third season, which just released, they journey across China and speak to faithful believers showing love and care to the marginalized…even though they are often marginalized themselves.
- Timothy Keller (1950-2023) was an influential American pastor and author who founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Redeemer City to City, which he helped establish, promotes gospel-centered ministry with particular emphasis on urban church planting and cultural engagement. Their materials have been influential in some Chinese house church circles.
- These categories, taken from the Westminster Shorter Catechism (questions 23-26), are commonly applied in Presbyterian churches to the office of a pastor.
- The cultural mandate, taken from Genesis 1:26-28, refers to God’s charge to mankind to “fill the earth and subdue it,” which has been interpreted by Reformed thinkers such as Abraham Kuyper as encompassing all of culture including vocation, as well as the natural world.