The Development of Beiguan Church (瀋陽北關基督復臨安息日會)
The “Reform and Opening Up” policy of the People's Republic of China opened the door of Christianity to us again. In 1986 we had nearly 50 Seventh-day Adventists in Shenyang. The government stipulated that we the Adventists were required to attend joint and non-denominational religious services conducted by non-SDA preachers, with the result that Adventist programs and activities were very constrained and restricted. In order to maintain the purity of our beliefs, the church members decided to discontinue the use of the non-denominational church building for worship services. We started the home church worship model. By 1989, the number of followers had increased to nearly 200 and there were 120 baptisms in the same year.
On June 8, 1991, the Adventist believers, uniting as one, gathered for a session of prayer. We thanked God for His loving care and blessings that we were able to have our own services. Our membership had grown to 600 by then. We requested to return to the non-denominational church building for church services, and the relevant religious affairs department, not only approved our request but also permitted Adventist ministers conduct the services. Thus the gospel work began a new phase of God’s special blessing. During the year we witnessed a blessed period of church advancement with a large number of people accepting the Lord through baptism. By 1996, the number of Seventh-Day Adventists had soared to more than 5,000.
The soaring membership was a mixed blessing to us; along with the increase in the number of followers, we had physically outgrown even the relatively large non-denominational church building in which we were worshipping. This was especially so when we observed the ordnance of humility (foot washing) immediately preceding the Lord’s Supper. Every corridor, lobby, and the courtyard was fully occupied. Obviously this crowded condition created challenges and inconveniences to us during Sabbath services.
However, just as the Chinese idiom says, “while the tree wishes to be still, the wind continues to blow (樹欲靜而風不止).” It seemed this was a peaceful and revival period. However, the devil was making every effort to destroy the Lord's work. On a certain day in the year of 2000, we were denied the use of the non-denominational church building. Thus we became the homeless people once again. We began renting places for worship and to live the wandering religious life. In order to save funds to build our church building, members would meet in non-heated simple buildings where winter temperature dropped to 30o C below freezing. Every Sabbath, over a thousand Adventist believers would spend the whole day for services and Bible study. We continued in this way to spread the gospel for more than two years. We thank God for making all things work together for good to those who love Him, and the devil's tricks actually achieved the will of God. The Spirit of God deeply moved the brothers and sisters so that we had one common goal and one strong conviction. With great determination we decided to build our own Seventh-day Adventist Church. To all of us, building our own church building became a top priority. Time and again, God's mighty power was demonstrated in resolving the many difficulties related to the purchase of land and the construction of the church.
From the laying of the building foundation on July 15, 2001 to the completion of the building on October 25, 2003, the brothers and sisters deeply felt and experienced like Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt in ancient times, when the Lord's miracles were accompanying them daily. During this period and in countless instances it could be silently recorded that many brothers and sisters had spent many days and nights praying and witnessing in tears for the Lord's work in the form of private quiet dedication and self sacrifices. As examples, it is worth mentioning that the majority of Adventist believers in Shenyang were common people, mostly women (only one out of seven members were men) with junior high education, limited income and a significant number of us were either unemployed or retired. Despite this, we saved what we could in food and clothing so we could donate to the church building funds. Some of us would donate the proceeds from the sale of our house, our children's school fees, and others would take out personal loans (some are still making loan payment today) to donate. Some of the elderly believers would walk to church so they could save their bus fares and donate the money to the church building funds. There are many more touching stories of dedication and sacrifices which we shall not be able to list them all here As a result of these sacrifices and generous acts we were able to complete this church building costing over 10,000,000 yuan.
In the construction process, there were times of extreme difficulty, but the Lord resolved them in the end. When we felt discouraged the Lord comforted us. Our building experience reminded us of the challenges that Nehemiah faced when he rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem. The builders had to do their work with one hand and hold a weapon in the other hand. As we review the long and arduous path of building the Beiguan church, from the time of the laying of the foundation, through the construction process, to the completion of the physical building, the challenges, difficulties and obstacles that we faced, we realized that neither pen nor thousands or ten thousands of words can explain the miraculous accomplishment, for it is beyond description, but we can only attribute the birth of the Beiguan Church to God's great love and His mighty and wondrous power.
Today we are worshipping God in our main sanctuary that can accommodate 3,500 people. With the three ancillary halls and the meeting rooms the church can accommodate a total of more than 6,000 people. The Shenyang Church has 80 affiliated assembly points (聚會點)in the vicinity of the Church today, with a combined membership of over 7,000. Since 1994, in Shenyang and its neighboring cities and counties, we had bought and built a total of 44 church buildings. Within the three months, between June and September, of 2005, we added four more church buildings. The total cost of these church buildings was over 4 million yuan.
We want to thank our God again for His amazing power to move the gospel work forward, and Jesus, whose Hands had calmed the wind and the sea, for the many miracles that we witnessed, from scratch to realization, from weak to strong. As a group of fellow believers we share our common experience of God's constant presence with the greatest evidence. May the Beiguan Church live up to its expectations as the brightest beacon illuminating this part of the world, glorifying God and benefiting other people. May she be led by the Holy Spirit of God into ever magnificent spiritual glory!
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A Brief Description of the Shenyang Beiguan Church
The Shenyang Beiguan Seventh-day Adventist Church is located at the eastern side of Shenyang City, by the bank of the North Canal (北運河), and on the east side of Shenyang's largest square, Dadong Square (大東廣場). It is within the Dadong District and near the Shenyang North Station, a transportation hub with convenient and easily accessibility as a number of bus lines passing through the church. The Beiguan Church is situated on open terrain and surrounded by beautiful scenery. God has prepared a piece of beautiful site for this church indeed.
The church measures 68 meters in length and 43 meters wide. The main sanctuary is a four-story structure and 17.8 meters in height. The clock tower is as tall as eight-story building and 37.4 meters in height. The total constructed and covered area is 6,200 square meters. The total seating capacity, including the main sanctuary and ancillary meeting rooms is about 7,000. The total project cost was 15,890,000 yuan.
The Church complex faces east and is constructed in an east-west orientation according to biblical structure guideline. The essence of the church design used the frequent structural variation techniques to elicit and create an uplifting mental and sacred feeling. The church's internal structure adheres to the form of the Latin cross of basilica, and is subdivided into four major groups. At the center of which is the large four-story high sanctuary; the sanctuary background decoration is symbolic in presentation technique, as it is divided into two parts, the lower half is of khaki-color background whereas the upper half is clear sky with clouds. At the mid section of the lower half is a 3 meters high by 5 meters wide color mural of Jesus and the sheep, symbolizing Jesus shepherding people on yellow earthly ground; the blue sky with white clouds decorate the upper half of the pulpit background, at the middle of it is hung the painting of three angels flying in the sky with their warning messages to all mankind.
Surrounding the sanctuary on four sides are: offices and working area on the south, choir rooms and other auxiliary buildings on the west, the entrances, hallways, nooks, and meeting rooms lined the east side. The hallway floor tile pattern symbolizes the new Holy City of Jerusalem; from the second floor to the fourth the columns of the iron railing are heart-shaped in design symbolizing believers linking hands and hearts with the hands and heart of Jesus Christ. The church has a total of seven entries, including the main East Entrance, which opens into a two-story high Entrance Hall, which is a crowd-flow transition point. That serves to quickly and efficiently channel and scatter worshipers to various meeting halls in the church building. Recognizing the needs of staff members for short stay consultation and communication in the Entrance Hall, two large and aesthetic stairs, one on each side, are constructed to relieve hallway congestion and serve as quick access to the second- and third- floor's extended sanctuary seating areas and lecture halls. On the upstairs and around the outer edge of the extended sanctuary seating areas and lecture halls is a circuitous passageway that runs the length of the sanctuary with a large lounge at each of the north and south ends. To meet fire safety requirements, the North Lounge has three large exit doors that can be opened to large crowds of people and inside the sanctuary there are four stairs linking the upper and lower floors. The four-story main sanctuary building, a modified version of the Latin Basilica, is the soul of the whole building complex, over it is the cross-shaped glass skylights and arched concrete doom structure.
The church's external shape, appearance and building design follows the pre-fabricated construction methodology where the amount of construction is generally broken down into smaller body mass, mainly wall and column based, the replication of which gives a sense of rhythm. The vertical blue-green glass curtain wall, the red brick wall tile, white European-style window cover, white tile separator, and the Hawaiian blue roof color plate, integrated as a whole serving to illustrate the architectural crystallization of a contemporary modern Sino-western church.
The clock tower is the climax of the entire church complex design; and it plays a commanding role in the total structure. As a whole, the tower and the sanctuary building help to create a sense of overall shape. The introduction of the clock tower also breaks the monotonous facade of the church building complex in that variation of height and structural dominance is clearly distinguishable and discernable. The clock tower’s four-sided time display is constantly reminding people of the importance of time, the shortness of life, and the value of eternity. The eye-catching tall cross with its light radiating from the church and shining brightly through the night wakes up the inner soul of people and gives them the opportunity to know God, so they will want to have eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died on the cross.