Gao Zhigang is a Christian from a small town in Hulun Buir League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Four years ago, after being recommended by a local church, Gao took the entrance examination for Beijing’s Yanjing Theological Seminary and was recruited by the top theological institution in north China. Now he is a fourth year student in the seminary and chairman of the student union.
　　“My impetus for entering the seminary came from my beliefs. My parents and younger sister are all pious Christians and regularly pray at church,” the 29-year-old former coalminer told Beijing Review.
　　Gao is one of a small number of Chinese men and women studying at Protestant educational institutions such as the Yanjing seminary. Shut during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, those seminaries reopened after the church was restored in 1979.
　　However, religious education in China is still hindered by problems such as a lack of funds and an insufficient number of teachers and students.
　　The town where Gao lives, called Dayan Town, lies in the coalmining area in northeast Inner Mongolia. Most of the local people are coalminers. More than a decade ago, Gao’s parents became acquainted with Christians in their neighborhood and, introduced to the faith by them, visited a local church and later became Christians themselves.
　　
　　“The development of Christianity in China is currently at its best stage.”--Pastor Qi Tieying
　　
　　With a population of less than 100,000, Dayan has more than 5,000 Christians. In the past seven years, five people from the town have been admitted to various seminaries, with one graduating and four still in school.
　　Locals in Dayan have convenient access to church, as one stands at the center of town. Previously, the church was only a very small house and could not hold many people. It had to conduct three congregations every Sunday.
　　However, three years ago, with donations by parishioners, a new church capable of holding 1,000 people was established.
　　“To local believers, the number of missionaries is quite small,” Gao said.
　　
　　Humble start
　　
　　The Yanjing seminary is located in Qinghe Town, a northern suburb of Beijing.
　　It covers an area of 1.2 hectares and possesses the largest church among all of China’s seminaries. The church is also China’s first one established with the approval from the government after China initiated the reform and opening up drive in the late 1970s.
　　“Compared with the early stage of China’s reform and opening up, when China resumed theological education, the current study environment is very relaxed,” said Pastor Qi Tieying, also Vice President of the Yanjing seminary.
　　In 1983, a group of Christians in Beijing created the Beijing Theological Seminary, the predecessor of the Yanjing seminary, and seven students enrolled. Qi was one of them.
　　“We did not have fixed classrooms and could only hold a small piece of blackboard and go to different places to have classes,” he recalled with emotion.
　　Later, with the help of the Chongwenmen Christian Church in central Beijing, the seminary finally found a home, though it wasn’t fancy. Students studied in a small room in the basement of the Chongwenmen church and slept upstairs.
　　In 1984, the Tianjin Theological Seminary was founded. Two years later, local committees of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant churches in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, and Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Xinjiang autonomous regions jointly established the Yanjing seminary.
　　The Three-Self Patriotic Movement, initiated in the 1950s after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, stands for “self-governance, self-support and self-propagation” to “guard against harmful foreign influences.”
　　After the establishment of the Yanjing seminary, the Beijing Theological Seminary and Tianjin Theological Seminary joined, making it the most important Protestant educational institution in the northern part of China.
　　The Yanjing seminary was originally located at 43 Dongdan Beidajie in central Beijing and moved to the current site in September 1997 with the help of the government.
　　It currently has 87 students, all hailing from the abovementioned 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Of these students, 20 are from Hebei and Inner Mongolia, making the two areas the main source of students. Most students are from Christian families.
　　“At the current stage in China, it is very hard for non-Christian families to send their children to study in a seminary. Meanwhile, only a very small number of students are from urban areas, accounting for 3 percent,” Pastor Qi said with concern.
　　Because most of the students at the Yanjing seminary are from poor rural families, tuition fees become the largest burden on them.
　　“To some rural families, the tuition of 2,000 yuan a year almost equals their total income. However, this amount of money accounts for only one 10th of our average annual expenditures on a student. Our teaching expenditures for each student exceed 20,000 a year,” Qi explained.
　　Taking all these factors into consideration, the seminary decided, starting last year, to exempt all the students’ tuition fees and only collect food expenses of five yuan a day. This cost is much lower than Beijing’s average and the seminary has to subsidize its school cafeteria every year.
　　
　　Financial help
　　
　　If not from tuition fees, then how is the seminary funded?
　　“The money is mainly from donations by churches in the 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. To some extent, Beijing church donations afford the Yanjing seminary’s main expenditures,” Qi said.
　　Donations from Beijing churches amount to 400,000 to 500,000 yuan a year, sometimes reaching 700,000 yuan. Meanwhile, the government gives the seminary about 100,000 yuan each year.
　　Last year, the Chinese Government increased its financial support to religious organizations in China and the Yanjing seminary received 750,000 yuan. “Because we got that money, we decided to exempt students’ tuition fees,” Qi added.
　　Meanwhile, the seminary makes efforts to cut unnecessary expenditures. During Qi’s interview with Beijing Review, he presented his name card printed on a small piece of paper. On the back of the paper, he had already printed something else.
　　The Yanjing seminary also receives donations from overseas and the general public. The church in the seminary is the major place of worship for nearby Christians and can hold 500 people.
　　The church was completed in July 2004, using $500,000 donated by Paul P. K. Huang, a Chinese American. It is modeled on the Dengshikou Congregationalist Church in Beijing’s Dongcheng District, which was originally built in 1904 and demolished during the Cultural Revolution.
　　The seminary’s dormitory building was donated by Zhao Zhanyue, a private entrepreneur who offered 3 million yuan. Zhao’s wife is a Christian. The building was completed in August 2002 and came into service in September. Meanwhile, the seminary’s library was built with donations from overseas churches and foreign foundations.
　　
　　Academic shortcomings
　　
　　Despite the support from the government and other churches, Pastor Qi still frets about the lack of capable faculty. The seminary has registered more than 10 teachers, but only five are at the seminary. Some are studying abroad. These teachers graduated from a range of seminaries, though most came from the Jinling Union Theological Seminary in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, the sole national-level seminary in China.
　　In light of current faculty numbers, the Yanjing Theological Seminary can only graduate about 20 students every year. Meanwhile, the quality of these students varies.
　　According to Qi, the Yanjing seminary’s goal of serving the 10 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions is far from being reached. Based on the number of graduates from the seminary every year, it is a heavy task to reach the simple goal of supplying one clergy member for each church in the region.
　　On average, the 10 areas each have at least 30 churches, but the seminary has only supplied 500 church workers since its inauguration. Currently, China has only several thousand pastors and can’t meet the demands of 16 million Christians. According to Qi, the most lopsided ratio of pastors to parishioners in other countries is about one to 50. But in China, the proportion is much higher.
　　At the same time, the quality of theology teachers urgently needs improving. Every year a symposium on Christianity in China is hosted by the Institute of World Religions of the China Academy of Social Sciences, with participants including researchers from various religious circles.
　　“Common sense is that teachers from the Yanjing seminary, an educational institution specializing in Christianity, should have a loud voice at the academic event. However, because of our poor research level, we cannot even participate in the symposium, let alone have any voice,” Qi said.
　　He believes fostering high-quality theological talent is the key to changing the embarrassing situation.
　　
　　A diverse program
　　
　　In order to widen students’ horizons and improve their adaptability in modern society after graduation, the Yanjing seminary also offers non-religious courses such as English, advanced Chinese, philosophy, Chinese history, world history and calligraphy. In recent years, the seminary has also offered advanced programs including design of religious buildings, economic studies and computer training.
　　“We invite professors from other universities to teach them. These curricula are part of our quality-based education. We don’t want our students to know nothing but religion after graduation,” Qi said proudly.
　　Gao, the coalminer-turned-seminarian, said that the Yanjing seminary’s recreational facilities are also important to his studies.
　　“We have an excellent study environment here. Meanwhile, we also have physical education class and swimming class. You know, studying is not easy work and four years of hard study may cause problems to students’ necks. But physical education class and swimming class can totally relax us,” he said with a smile.
　　Gao said he believes that contemporary church workers should know not only religion but also other things.
　　“I really appreciate the seminary for giving me the opportunity to study here. In the seminary, we can not only learn the Bible better, but also gain knowledge in other realms. When we go back to our hometown after graduation, what we learn will be a great treasure for local development,” Gao said.
　　According to Gao, students in the seminary have a colorful life after class. They can watch TV and log onto the Internet at the dormitories. The reading room has more than 20 newspapers for students. Meanwhile, the seminary’s basketball team often competes with counterparts from other educational institutions.
　　“I used to be a coalminer and then God gave me the opportunity to continue my studies. I treasure the opportunity very much. I hope I can go back to my hometown to serve local Christians after graduation,” he said.
　　Organizing exchanges with overseas seminaries is another important part of Qi’s work. Currently, the Yanjing seminary maintains close contact with U.S. religious organizations including the Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas and the Fuller Theological Seminary in Los Angeles.
　　Last year, Qi led a delegation to visit the Dallas Theological Seminary and later this year representatives of that seminary will come to Beijing for a return visit.
　　“We would like to deepen exchanges with religious organizations around the world as long as they can look at China’s theological education objectively and be friendly to China,” he said.
　　On May 31, a delegation from the U.S. Pittsburgh Theological Seminary came to Beijing and visited the Yanjing seminary. Meanwhile, the U.S. Plowshares Institute will soon visit the seminary and discuss with teachers and students the role of churches in Chinese society.
　　“Historically, the development of Christianity in China is currently at its best stage,” Qi said.
　　

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