By Amy Shelton* & Erik Alsgaard
A typical Sunday for the Rev. Wang Xuan includes preaching to more than 10,000 people, leading a choir practice, visiting home-bound parishioners, handling administrative tasks, and preparing for her next sermon. She is one of six pastors serving this church and they hold multiple worship services every Sunday, with an attendance of 3,000-4,000 every service.
Xuan is one of the leading Christian pastors in Beijing, China, and she’s spending the semester at Wesley Theological Seminary to complete an intensive study – the first of its kind in the United States. Recently, she and her classmates shared details of their ministries and their lives in the People’s Republic of China.
“I hope to gain more knowledge and spiritually and to improve my pastoral skills this semester at Wesley,” said Xuan.
“It is an unusual decision for the Beijing Christian Council to send five top pastors to us for such a long time because there is such a significant lack of pastors throughout China,” says Wesley President David McAllister-Wilson. “The absence of these pastors will be felt greatly in their home churches.”
