The events in the following report took place a long time ago--in August of 2001. We break our own rules to get it out here, in the belief that it contains much that will encourage and challenge our readers.--Editors

N MANY WAYS GOD surprised us. He demonstrated that public evangelism still works among urbanite Chinese in the heart of Hong Kong island, a prototype of the urban challenge to public evangelism in "the 10/40 window."* Hong Kong is a giant mall, with a population of about 7 million, of which 95 percent are Chinese. Only 10 percent of the population is Christian.

Hong Kong came under British influence after the Western powers humiliated the Chinese emperor, who didn't want China to be the producer of opium for the West. As a punishment, the British crown took over the island. Until today the Chinese of mainland China have not forgotten or forgiven that humiliation. China leased the New Territories to the British in 1898 for 99 years. In 1997 Hong Kong was returned to China, but maintains its capitalistic initiatives under the "one country, two systems" approach.

The Adventist Church has not made many advances in Hong Kong during the past 50 years. At the end of World War II there were 1,500 members. Today there are about 3,900 on the books, with maybe half of them attending church on a regular basis. There are 17 church pastors taking care of 18 churches and companies. The Hong Kong-Macao Conference staff is larger than the number of pastors. Public evangelism virtually died out after the Detamore era of the 1950s. The average pastor baptizes three to five people a year.

In Hong Kong there are two major Adventist hospitals with hundreds of workers, of which 95 percent are not only non-Adventist but also non-Christian. The church runs five academies and one college. Most of the baptisms of the conference come from these educational institutions, where teenagers are exposed to Christianity.

The problem, though, is that as soon as these teenagers graduate, they find that the traditional Chinese churches, mostly composed of conservative elderly people, do not welcome them. The prevailing Confucianist culture enforces the idea that seniority rules; therefore, those young people are made to sit in the back pew until they become mature enough to have some participation in the life of the church. Many do not have the patience to wait, so they disappear from the church. However, I have witnessed in recent times new initiatives aimed at channeling youthful energy into positive action.

It's Catching
I went to Hong Kong to teach my first mission class in 1994. There I met Terry Tsui, a young pastor who took several other classes with me in the Master of Pastoral Ministry program. While I was teaching in Taiwan during 1998, he was "converted" to the principles of effective evangelism. In 1999 I went to his church to model public evangelism and to teach a class of field evangelism to 13 college students. Since then Terry has conducted eight evangelistic series (five in 2001 alone). I think he's the only Chinese pastor in the world doing public evangelism, and with a high degree of success. In fact, the baptisms at his church are five to six times higher than the average.

His wife, Linda (who herself studied theology and graduated from the Master of Pastoral Ministry program), is also a pastor of two congregations in Hong Kong, leading about three to four people a year to baptism. Having also been "converted," she decided to try public evangelism in her churches. But she faced resistance. "Public evangelism does not work anymore in Hong Kong," she kept hearing. After appealing to the local conference and union for financial and moral support, the Tsuis organized a Field School of Evangelism for all pastors and some of our theology students, with me as presenter. About 30 people regularly attended the four-hour-a-day classes. They included six pastors, six theology students, and members of the conference staff (including the president, the treasurer, and some laypeople).

I'd shared with Linda a rule of thumb that during an evangelistic series there'll be a number of new decisions for baptism, which will be more or less the same number as were already ready for baptism before the series. (My experience in past years had confirmed this hypothesis. In 1996, for example, a church in Japan had eight people ready for baptism before my arrival. We baptized 16. In another Japanese church the pastor had one person ready for baptism. We baptized three persons. In the Philippines a pastor had 120 ready. We baptized 302. In 1999 in Hong Kong, Terry Tsui had prepared 12 persons; we baptized 25.)

For her series Linda had 10 people ready for baptism in her two churches of 40 and 25 members, respectively. We could expect about 20 baptisms, but I told the class that I was praying for 30. However, the Lord was about to surprise us with more than we expected.

It may sound strange to many ears, but standard Adventist churches are not the ideal place for evangelism. Our places of worship are threatening for those who are not of our faith. People don't want to be converted, so they stay away from religious places. Furthermore, urban people in cities such as Hong Kong are used to "window shopping." They want to see without making a commitment. The ideal places for evangelism are "neutral territories" where nonbelievers can go without feeling that they are committing too much to a religious meeting. Gymnasiums, hospitals, social centers, restaurants, convention centers, theaters, and the like will appeal to a secular person more than a church will. In this case, Linda conducted the series at a social center for the elderly, operated by the Hong Kong-Macao Conference in one of the new estates of Hong Kong. (An "estate" consists of several tall structures of 35 or more stories high, with about 250 families each.) About 30,000 people live in the Siu Sai Wan Estate. One of Linda's two congregations is located at the center.

The size of the auditorium meant that the series had to run in two sessions (one at 4:30 p.m. and the other at 7:30 p.m.). The first session was mostly attended by the residents of the center, with an average of about 100 visitors in attendance. The audience at the second session was more varied, with an average attendance of about 40 guests.

Members of the church's dynamic 15-strong Pathfinder Club distributed some 30,000 invitations, and advertisements announcing the meetings were placed in strategic areas of the estate. Every single day of the meetings Pathfinders took their places at the door, greeting visitors and serving as ushers for both services.

All Hands on Board
The program was enhanced by health lectures offered by four medical doctors and the Chinese Union president, Pastor James Wu. Each evening saw a dynamic song service with excellent music, some by the Pioneer Memorial church members sharing their musical talents. Some members of the churches pastored by Linda even requested vacations from work in order to devote their time completely to the series. most of her church members attended both evening sessions. And most participated actively in some way: preparing food for the evangelistic team of about 40 volunteers; providing impromptu special music; walking among the audience during altar calls and pleading with their friends to accept Jesus; greeting people; doing house-to-house visitation; and so on. It was a close-to-perfect application of the concept of the "ministry of all believers." What would happen if this could be repeated in every Adventist church?

Two computers and projectors allowed me to use simultaneous and coordinated PowerPoint presentations. In addition to using Chinese characters, I incorporated Chinese stories and other aspects of the local Chinese scene: Chinese faces, foods, cemeteries, churches, etc., my oral presentations being translated into Cantonese. Pastor Terry Tsui, who did the translating, also brought the message one evening in Cantonese.

How It Went
Even though this series was planned as harvest evangelism, it also attracted many new people, with attendance throughout the 10 days averaging about 130 visitors in both sessions. In order to help these seekers who had a background of ancestor worship, Taoism, and Buddhism, the first presentation dealt with the issue of monotheism and the character of God. The second day offered a sympathetic comparison between Buddhism and Christianity, between Buddha and Jesus, between the sacred books of Buddhism and the Sacred Book of Christianity. The audience was invited to continue to explore the Bible teachings.

The third day we discussed the second coming of Jesus and the beauties of heaven, the Christian "Nirvana." The Christian understanding of the origin and end of suffering, a crucial issue for the Buddhist mind, was presented on the fourth day. On the fifth day I contrasted the "law of karma" with the Christian understanding of forgiveness and grace. With this formal exposure to the plan of salvation, the audience was invited to accept Jesus as Savior. On the sixth day we studied about God's moral law, but I also invited members of the audience to offer a brief and oral confession of their acceptance of Jesus as Savior (see Rom. 10:9). It was thrilling to see dozens of youth and elderly people stand up one by one and testify with their mouth what they believed about Jesus.

Coming Clean
By then I'd already shown video clips of baptisms, and every day new names were added to the original 10 who wanted to be baptized. Every day we prayed for those who were struggling. It was impressive to see people decide to get rid of their idols, incense burners, and other pagan paraphernalia. In Jesus' name idols were shattered in pieces, and in each case we replaced them with an inscription in Chinese characters, "Jesus Christ is the Lord of this house."

In subsequent meetings we studied about the Sabbath, the true church, baptism, the state of the dead, health, and stewardship. Daily appeals helped many to decide for Jesus and His truth.

On Sabbath morning, August 11, 2001, 25 were baptized, and 10 more were added on Sunday, for a total of 35! On Sunday night the baptismal service began at 10:00 p.m. and ended with a joyful celebration close to midnight. The candidates included eight Pathfinders, a whole family of five, and seven elderly people (including two in their 90s). Three parents of Pathfinders were also baptized.

Every decision was celebrated with joy-both in the church and in heaven. God surprised us in urban Hong Kong.

Lord, do it again and again and again!

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* The 10/40 window refers to the region of the world between 10 and 40 degrees latitude in the Northern Hemisphere, an area with the smallest Christian penetration on the planet.

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Carlos G. Martin is a professor of religion at Southern Adventist University, in Collegedale, Tennessee.