Located in the middle of Shandong Province, Boshan is a municipal district of Zibo City with a population of about 450,000 people.
There are only one church and sixteen registered gatherings serving around 4000 to 5000 believers. The local church is struggling with the biggest challenge: lacing pastoral workers. The urgent need for the church is to have more pastors and elders, according to the introduction by Zibo CCC launched at the end of 2016. Only four seminary graduates who received a one-year theological training are hired, moreover, two of them were trained before the year 2005.
The official church in the district was founded in 1980 and baptizes seekers every year. People pack the church every Easter and Christmas.
The estimated average age of the local believers is quite high, with a large percentage in their fifties and many above 70. There is no young seminary graduate or theological student who is educated in a college. As a result, the church grows slowly with a sluggish increase in believers' number and few young people.
Translated by Karen Luo
