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The pageantry and spectacle of the 2008 Olympics reveal more about a "coming out" party for a mighty nation than serving as a performance stage for the world's mighty athletes. Oh, the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will be played, and the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat will be experienced by competitors and spectators alike, but headlines on the front-page will most likely hail the magnificent new and improved <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Peoples Republic of China, groomed and prepped for her debut as the next great Superpower.
We're going to learn soon how little we know about this bashful land halfway around the world, long cloaked in silence and mystery. The Asian dragon has awakened, and in the summer of '08 it will rumble from its cave breathing fire and demanding attention.
Suspecting this day loomed on the horizon, we've been scrambling to assemble a fact sheet. Google explains that one out of four people occupying space on the planet call China home, somewhere around half of them imitating a third-world lifestyle, few of whom will be on display for Western tourists this summer. Instead, 400 million former peasants, reclaimed from poverty in the last twenty-five years, will be serving tea and bright fortune cookies.
We understand Mao finally and thankfully exited stage left, and The People's Revolution has mellowed, and the handful of elite plutocrats disguised in fine Italian suits remain New Age Communists, most likely dictatorial when no one is looking. We sense the oppression executed in Tiananmen Square might be repeated in places beyond the spotlight of international scrutiny. But for right now, Beijing is Happy Face Central for the new China.
American consumers know their economy is booming because they are currently financing the federal bailout of our sub-prime debacle and because every trip to the store nets a bag of stuff with a "Made in China" sticker (How do they manufacture, package, ship, stock, and retail six toothbrushes for a dollar?). Ships loaded with containers from China wait in line in the Long Beach Harbor for two weeks while Wall-Mart warehouses make room.
Every painful fifty-dollar fill-up at QuikTrip reminds us that part of the blame for three-dollar gas lies with China's insatiable appetite for more fuel. "Feed me, Seymore!" is their Song of the Republic. Public Works projects beyond Beijing make rebuilding The New Orleans levies look like an after Christmas Lego affair.
China is something like Texas–except on steroids. We're beginning to wonder if Yao-Ming and his glandular issues actually misrepresent the average container size, or if he might be the norm! It's bigger than we can imagine.
Unlike America's mixed-up, hodge-podge demographic, everyone in China is Chinese.  Immigration is not a hot-button issue. Racially segregated churches don't haunt the national conscience. Phone answering devices never ask callers to "press one" for Mandarin. Political campaigns and pundits don't monopolize cable television. Take-out Chinese food is available 24/7.
 
What a country!
Beyond the geographical, political, and economic data, there exists a long, complex, and identifiable culture currently in an accelerated state of flux. China's latest revolution is a transition from the old world to the new, and the relentless prodding of folks forward while dragging thousands of years of honored tradition and respected cultural baggage impresses even the most pessimistic critic.
Obviously, twenty years or so ago, some forward-thinking folks deep in the heart of China displayed extra-ordinary insight and courage when they risked opening the big shy country to the world by filing papers to host the 2008 Olympics in their capital city.
Request granted, and China secured the event it needed to launch an intentional reinvention of itself. Left to natural forces, the China we will see in the next few months would simply not exist.
Cultures, systems, institutions, and long-standing organizations of every sort simply do not change without the intentional actions of visionary agents. Across decades and centuries, cultural preferences crystallize into codes not easily altered. It's tough to abandon perspectives and practices handed down by the Fathers. We are wired to cling to things proven and comfortable. Few of us can cut and run from the Ancient Paths sincerely believing new is better. It's hard to cooperate when one feels to do so would violate one's conscience or compromise one's integrity.
I'm sure historians for years to come will marvel at China's meteoric explosion on to the world scene. From the dark and primitive days illustrated by the Forbidden City, to the grand architectural wonders of the 2008 Olympics, to the unique clout extended a contemporary international powerhouse, China's new personality shocks our senses, and no doubt threatens our position in an insecure world.
On the other hand, China's enormous progress must encourage those of us intimately involved in cultures and sub-cultures heretofore resistant to change. If they can do it, why can't we?
Just as China is proving it's possible to adapt to contemporary culture without surrendering core beliefs or compromising the ties that bind, so the Christian Church, with a history as long and varied as the Chinese Culture (think back to Noah), has the potential to recreate itself into an image more in line with its unique calling. Think of the possibilities!
"Behold, I make all things new," has been God's slogan from the beginning.  God is the ultimate change agent. He expects us to be ever flexible, adapting to the changing times. His true remnant in all ages is those who cling tenaciously to the core truths but demonstrate unusual willingness and creativity in engaging the surrounding culture, whatever it may be. Christians are a missional people by design and desire. China is not the first culture to go on the offensive.
We engage the culture–everywhere, anyhow. How can the contemporary church, by definition relevant and impactful, not appreciate what is happening in China and try to learn from their remarkable efforts?
Isn't it time the church of Jesus Christ had its own "coming out" party? What might happen if we abandoned our fortress mentalities and isolationist preferences and showcased ("let your light shine") the "Good News" to the dominant culture, which in our particular instance appears corrupt, empty, aimless, dark, and frighteningly vulnerable? How might the great Christian graces featuring faith, hope, forgiveness, acceptance, genuine community, and authentic love play among the unchurched. I submit they will stand, and kneel, impressed.
The only hindrance to the conquering power of the gospel is us, mired in sectarian and petty skirmishes, afraid to surrender to the ways of the Spirit, protective of a church sub-culture that ignorantly separates us from "them"-- often for many of the wrong reasons (pride, comfortability, style choices, false self-righteousness, and fear of change), unfriendly and unaccepting of those poor, broken, dirty folks that need us most, rebellious against our assignment to reconcile and make disciples–even at great personal cost, and generally impervious to the power a genuine faith culture, properly demonstrated, could exert on a sin-sick, holistically dysfunctional, mainstream materialistic culture such as ours.
 
A true love cult would bring our competitors to their knees. The Good News breaks forth on many fronts, but today, none more importantly than in the life-changing prospects of a  changed church culture radically imposing grace on a spiritually desperate clientele. Let the Games begin!
We'll talk more about crafting a missional church culture in the weeks ahead.