A Research On The Self-reliant History Of The Lutheran Church In Central Hunan

In modern times,Christianity in China has experienced a process of depending on missionary societies to gradual self-reliance,and the self-reliance movement under the system of the cooperation between China and the West is an important aspect of the Chinese Christians’history.Due to the differences between the geographies and the sects,the self-reliance of Chinese Christian presents a diversity of characteristics.As a relatively conservative church in the inland areas,the self-reliance of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan has theological emphasis on promoting self-reliance through gospel,economically diminishing church spending,and organizationally focus on church management.The self-reliance movement of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan has experienced has gone through a tortuous process which from the beginning to the rising and then to the setbacks as the time gone on.In the start-up phase,It is to promote joint movement of the Chinese churches,and implement initial self-reliance measures.In the 1920s and 1930s,the self-reliance movement was developed by proposing self-reliance,focusing on the believers’ self-reliance on the basis of gospel and adjusting management of the churches.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War,the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan implement Chinese Lutheran Church’s policy of focusing on the work of young people,And vigorously promote the youth ministry,as an opportunity to promote the church’s self-spread,since the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan was in a war environment,coupled with the impact of inflation and other factors,there was a recession of it’s self-support at this stage.The self-reliance movement of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan was carried out under the guidance of self-support program of the Norwegian Missionary Society,which promoted the self-reliance of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan to a certain extent.However,the self-support program,which is based on Chinese and Western cooperation,contains itself a contradiction between Chinese Christians and missionaries.According to the self-support program,the boundaries between the missionary church and synod are not very clear,which can lead to contradictions and tensions between staff of missionary church and that of synod.With the implementation of the self-support program,there must be a structure which reject the leadership of the missionary church,which is contrary to the program design system.These contradictions also hindered the realization of self-reliance of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan.In general,the self-reliance movement of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan is deeply influenced by the inner influence of it’s sectarian doctrine and by the socio-economic situation of the local community.It is gradual carried on by the Chinese church leaders and ordinary Christians under the guidance of the missionary church.Seeing the results of the self-reliance movement,in this period,the self-govern of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan has been achieved,and self-spread is also smoothly carried out with the help of the missionary church.And self-support which is the core of"three-self’ of the church,despite the self-support of its education and medical care has been basically realized,but the self-support of church has been in low degree,its self-support had been not achieved.After the founding of The People’s Republic of China,Missionaries have been evacuated from Chinese Mainland,Lutheran Church in Central Hunan cut off contact with the Norwegian church,and carried out the "three-self’ innovation movement.In the historical memory of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan,the Chinese Christians have reconstructed the process of the self-reliance movement of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan.This reconstruction is carried out under the realistic framework provided by the "three-self" innovation movement.It is a reconstruction and filtering of self-reliance history of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan in the "anti-imperialist"context,which denied its self-reliance process to a large extent.In fact it is another exposition of the self-reliance movement of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan under the new historical conditions,which reflecting the strong characteristics of the times.It also provided conditions for people to understand the self-reliance movement of the Lutheran Church in Central Hunan from another point of view.