{"id":43323,"date":"2019-09-27T14:15:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T18:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=43323"},"modified":"2022-09-30T10:08:45","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T14:08:45","slug":"distinguished-service-award-wu-wei-mdiv-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/distinguished-service-award-wu-wei-mdiv-06\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguished Service Award: Wu Wei MDiv &#8217;06"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>EMU&#8217;s alumni award winners will be honored during the Oct. 11-13 <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emu.edu\/homecoming\"><strong><em>Homecoming and Family Weekend<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>. Read more about Young Alum <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/meet-emus-young-alum-of-the-year-liza-heavener-07\/\"><strong><em>Liza Heavener<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em> and Alum of the Year <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/alum-of-the-year-mlb-catcher-erik-kratz-02\/\">Erik Kratz<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Wu Wei<\/strong> <strong>MDiv &#8217;06<\/strong>, president of the largest organization of Christian churches and believers in China, is Eastern Mennonite University&#8217;s Distinguished Service Award honoree for 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was named to the presidency of the China Christian Council in November 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The CCC provides theological training through a network of seminaries and Bible schools and provides Bibles and materials for churches. The organization also oversees pastoral development and has formulated an ecclesiological order for local churches. As the voice of the registered Chinese churches to church bodies overseas and a member of the World Council of Churches, the CCC connects to provincial and municipal church councils across China and hosts numerous delegations from churches all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a June 2019 address to the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission, Wu offered the following information about the work of his organization:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>.<em>.. there are  over  38  million  Protestants with  an  increase of  400,000  every year. There are about 60,000 congregations, 14,000 ordained clergies (including pastors,  associate pastors,  elders),  22,000  full-time preachers, 200,000 lay leaders. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>In order to satisfy needs of Christians, China  Christian  Council  has published  84 million copies  of  the Bible.  In addition  to  the  Mandarin  Bible,  the  Bible  has  also  been  translated into another 13 ethnic minority languages. The media department of CCC&amp;TSPM has  as  well  published  a  great  number  of  books  and journals through various channels.  In  order  to  reach  more  young adults, attempts have been taken to make avail of Internet and social networks. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>With  the intention to  train more qualified ministers, we have set up 22  seminaries  across  China  with  a  total  number  of  over  3,700 enrolled  students.  In  the  past  five  years,  6,300  students  graduated from  those  seminaries.  Besides, local  churches  have  set  up  training centers and classes of different types. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/02\/seminary-graduate-appointed-president-of-the-china-christian-council\/wu-wei-china-christian-council-2-1000\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/02\/Wu-Wei-China-Christian-Council-2-1000-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/02\/Wu-Wei-China-Christian-Council-2-1000-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/02\/Wu-Wei-China-Christian-Council-2-1000-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/02\/Wu-Wei-China-Christian-Council-2-1000.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Pastor Wu Wei, back left, visits with Eastern Mennonite University students during their China cross-cultural semester in fall 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A native of Beijing, Wu grew up in a Christian home and graduated from the national seminary in Nanjing. As senior pastor of the largest church in Beijing, he met teachers serving with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mcccanada.ca\/get-involved\/serve\/volunteer\/mennonite-partners-china-mpc#:~:text=MCC%20regularly%20places%20long%2Dterm,government%20organizations%20and%20Protestant%20churches\">Mennonite Partners in China<\/a>\u00a0who encouraged him to pursue his dream of studying overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Supported by Mennonite Partners in China and the seminary, Wu studied in Harrisonburg, Virginia for four years. He and his wife, Wu Jinzhen, then spent five years pastoring a small Chinese-language congregation in Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in China in 2011, Wu asked to return to the pastorate, but church leaders and the Beijing government asked him to serve in an administrative capacity, overseeing churches and pastors in the city. During these years in Beijing, Wu often talked about the challenge of working with government policies and officials while promoting the mission of the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During his time at EMS, Wu attended a number of church events, including several Mennonite Church USA Assemblies. He did an internship at the Parkview Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg. In a church presentation, Wu spoke about how \u201cthe political environment and social context may often change, but God\u2019s grace and Jesus\u2019 commission for the church will never change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also stressed that Christians serve as a small minority in China and the importance of believers \u201cneeding to strengthen Christian witness to society by uniting all Christians so that others can know Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Wu supports the post-denominational status of the Chinese church, he often refers to the ways in which his seminary professors and his reading of Anabaptist writers helped shape his theology. \u201cThe social ethic of Jesus was not to withdraw from society or the world, but to assume a life style that could be kept with integrity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When asked what Christians outside of China can do to assist the church, Wu always answers, \u201cYou need to pray for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Portions of this article appeared in a <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/seminary-graduate-appointed-president-of-the-china-christian-council\/\">Feb. 5, 2019, EMU news article about his new role.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EMU&#8217;s alumni award winners will be honored during the Oct. 11-13 Homecoming and Family Weekend. Read more about Young Alum Liza Heavener and Alum of the Year Erik Kratz. Wu <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/distinguished-service-award-wu-wei-mdiv-06\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Distinguished Service Award: Wu Wei MDiv &#8217;06<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,5589,17562,8845,5593,265],"tags":[],"feature":[17425],"class_list":["post-43323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-bible-and-religion","category-digest","category-emu-at-lancaster","category-intercultural","category-seminary","feature-featured-seminary"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Distinguished Service Award: Wu Wei MDiv &#039;06 - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/distinguished-service-award-wu-wei-mdiv-06\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Distinguished Service Award: Wu Wei MDiv &#039;06 - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMU&#8217;s alumni award winners will be honored during the Oct. 11-13 Homecoming and Family Weekend. 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