Archive: The Cry of China

Carroll F. Hunt investigates the House Church movement in China

The taxi driver found the place without difficulty; having Cantonese-speaking people along took care of that. We clambered out of the car and stared about us at the ordinary evening sights in a south-China city. Traffic, vendors, pedestrians—some staring with curiosity as our gaggle of foreigners plunged down a dark alley. We pulled up before a door like every other door on that side of the alley where buildings share mutual walls without the grace of shrubs, paint or space. Just walls, alley and people.

“This is it!” our guide said, stuffing the directions back into his pocket.

Through the door and up steep steps we went, headed toward one of the unique experiences of our lives, for we were entering one of China’s famed house churches and would meet its pastor, veteran of 22 years in prison for his faith, and subject of surveillance and harassment because he follows the Lord Jesus Christ.

House Church? What does that term really mean?

Two kinds of Protestant churches exist in China; those registered with the Three Self Patriotic Movement, and house churches, those which are not. The Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) is a quasi-government agency which oversees and regulates the open churches where Christians are permitted to worship once again in re-opened sanctuaries. Three Self means self-government, self-support and self-propagation.

House churches, in the main, do not submit to TSPM control and gather in a variety of places across China. Both kinds are seeing crowds of Chinese worshipping, asking questions, accepting Jesus as Lord and seeking baptism.

Our little troop of foreigners climbed the narrow, steep, wooden stairs to the third floor of the brick house, entering at last the room that is home to Pastor Samuel Lamb and sanctuary for the 1,200 who gather there each week. Oh, they can’t all squeeze in. No way. They crowd in until no one else will fit, then they flood the second floor where high-decibel speakers bring them the two-hour sermons. And when the second floor is jammed to capacity, they fill those steep, narrow stairs we’d just climbed. But it still won’t hold everyone who wants to be there, so Pastor Lamb preaches in multiple Sunday services and every night but one during the week.

“I am so glad to see you,” he greeted us in flawless English. “I was going to visit someone when they came running to tell me foreigners were coming. How wonderful they caught me!” Warmed by his welcoming smile, we believed he meant it.

Then followed an hour of learning for us, learning from one shepherd of the Lord’s uncounted flock in China. He told us how in recent days government officials had detained, questioned and threatened him—not only him but some of his church people as well—and how that persecution had multiplied attendance. Hearing how Lamb brushed off their prison threats with, “I’ve been to prison twice and I am ready to go again,” left us dumbstruck.

Here, dressed in an ordinary blue jacket and smiling like a benevolent grandfather, sat a leader of the church in China, a man known around the world for courage and unswerving faith in God.

What could we learn from such a man? Are he and his church typical of the body of Christ all across that intriguing nation whose people make up a quarter of the world’s population? And is it really true, what we hear about droves of seekers after truth accepting Jesus?

As for that, consider what several evangelical agencies in Hong Kong learned when they commissioned a prominent consulting firm to do a marketing survey. “What if,” the agencies proposed, “we bought full-page space in China’s five most-read periodicals and published a five-day series about the Christian gospel, asking interested people to respond to what they read?”

“Don’t do it!” the consulting firm advised after compiling their information, “You’d receive a million letters per day and no one could handle such a deluge.”

Even knowing this, one can only guess at the kingdom-building activity going on in China. Its size mitigates against generalization. An oft-repeated statement from those involved with China is, “You can’t generalize about China. It’s too huge, too diverse. What’s true in one sector is not in another.” This makes sense when you are dealing with 1.2 billion people and 5 ethno-linguistic groups.

Another factor enters the picture: Hong Kong and Macau, long-time city colonies separated from China since the colonial era, are on the brink of re-absorption by the Beijing government. As Christian residents of those two cities gaze at the 21st century and try to imagine what changes await them (Hong Kong reverts to China in 1997, Macau in 1999), the church works at readying itself for the unknowable. Even though fore-knowledge is not possible and predictions are as varied as fruit in a street market, certain emphases do crop up and merit our consideration.

Evangelism

Neither Hong Kong nor Macau presently face any restrictions against evangelism; consequently, numerous efforts and methods come to play in both crowded cities. Materialism, however, often blocks entrance to the narrow way. Twice, while riding in Hong Kong taxis, an American missionary sought to turn conversations with the drivers to God and a life of faith. “God?” each replied. Then reaching into their change boxes and waving a piece of money under the missionary’s nose, “Here’s my god.”

In Macau where the major industry is gambling, statisticians claim there are twice as many drug addicts as Christians, making detoxification and rehabilitation efforts high priority ministries for some churches and agencies. Add to that, opposition to conversion by idol-worshipping families and one realizes evangelism in this part of China is slow and difficult.

The Hong Kong Evangelical Church, a federation of 14 congregations begun by OMS International, has set the goal of planting a new church every year up until 1997, utilizing evangelism teams. One senses that evangelism will continue after the turnover, if allowed.

In the mainland, countless evangelism efforts go on, but it is impossible to comprehensively count, catalog or even randomly report about them in depth. Much evangelism is carried out within families when one member discovers Jesus and tells about him to those closest. A visitor might hear stories of young itinerant evangelists, themselves newborn babies in Christianity, rushing about the countryside sharing their fledgling faith. But then they are told, “Oh, but you can’t publicize that!” And you know that the specter of detention, questioning and imprisonment looms over all outward expression of faith not controlled by the government

Christians do say, however, that people enjoy more freedom away from centers of government like Beijing, China’s capital, and Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton.

Persecution

Pastor Lamb (the English version of his name is his choice) told of the most recent threats by the Religious Affairs Bureau, directed both at him and the believers he shepherds. Loss of jobs, salaries, pensions or imprisonment was dangled over their heads.

“But the more they are threatened, the more they come!” he said. Before their most recent problems, attendance at the house church down the alley was about 900 on Sundays at all services; now it is up to 1200.

“Why do they come?” asked one of his visitors.

“They want Jesus,” he replied.

Unregistered house churches are not the only objects of government persecution. Catholics are special targets because the government, aware of the Catholic role in the Communist collapse in Europe, fears their influence in China. Consequently, Hong Kong Catholics are forming small cell groups within their congregations, accustoming themselves to different forms of worship should it be necessary after 1997.

In Macau and Hong Kong, churches carry on youth group activities normal to Christian fellowship, but in mainland China, students especially, are warned against practicing religion. From all one can learn, however, the churches overflow with the young

Recently The South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s largest English-language daily, carried an article by a New York Times reporter regarding Beijing’s bid to “stem the flowing religious tide.” A Protestant believer who sat in on an illegal Bible study group said, “There is an inherent conflict between Christianity and Marxism, and this will mean a confrontation sometime in the future. Christianity is a new faith, a new force in China. Now it is small, but our number will grow, and change will come from this force.”

This echoes in spirit what Dr. Gail Law, missions professor at Hong Kong’s China Graduate School of Theology, says about 1997. “I believe this is a divine strategy for mission to China.” Rather than fearing what the Communists might do to the Christians, she believes that the re-absorption of Hong Kong into China will release the power of the name of Jesus with greater force than ever before.

One wonders, listening to her expressions of bold faith and anticipation, if Daniel clambered down into the pit for his visit with the king’s pet lions with the same attitude. It worked for him, why not for China?

Training

Whenever China-focused conversations and reports turn to need in the Christian church, one word crops up without fail: Training. Evangelism bears fruit, only God knows how much. Persecution may delete some of Christ’s followers, but it seems that more pour in to take their places. But from the mainland come consistent reports that Christians lack understanding of how to live and grow in their new-found Savior. Nurturing, discipling, and Scripture-based teaching do not exist for far too many and consequently, aberrant and even bizarre behavior marks some rural groups in particular. The country’s greatest need is for new-believer training.

In Macau, Christian workers struggle against tides of social problems and indifference. In Hong Kong some pastors, not all of whom share Gail Law’s visionary attitude about Beijing’s takeover in 1997, are burned out and fearful about the future. “They need,” according to one theology professor, “seminars and retreats,” while lay leaders need to learn how to work with pastors, and the Christian public needs information on prayer and spiritual discipline.

The mainland church looks with hope to Hong Kong for training and is receiving it in a number of remarkable ways. Again, when visitors hear church leaders and educators tell of efforts to nurture mainland Christians, they are also told, “Oh, but you mustn’t publish anything about that.”

So the story is off-limits for the time being. We can’t know of the adventures of theology professors and their students who take vacation time to disciple itinerant evangelists, lay pastors and new believers. Nor will we hear much about Chinese pastors who Live outside the mainland, traveling across the vast expanse of their native land carrying Bibles and sharing their knowledge of the love of God. And within China Christians discreetly cover great distances to meet with other believers to gain understanding of their faith.

English teachers. Non-Chinese Asian Christians. People returning to their ancestral villages for holidays. Tourists. Radio broadcasters. All these and more are building faith in their spiritual brothers and sisters responding to the most crucial need of the church in China.

Our conversation with Pastor Lamb ended. We knew that two men sat on the shadowy side of the room as we clustered around the table. We walked across to greet them before heading back down the narrow stairway, for Pastor Lamb had told us they were brothers from north China who had come to learn more about life in Christ.

Their rough, leathery hands and sun-browned faces betrayed their rural origins. We all mumbled something in varied languages—English, Cantonese and Mandarin—not really communicating, but one in him whom we all seek to serve.

“Lord, protect and nurture these fellow walkers on The Way! Give them the tools they need and your Holy Flame so they can light up their corner of your world.

Carroll Ferguson Hunt is a freelance writer and author of Absolutely! and From the Claws of the Dragon. She and her husband were missionaries with OMS International in South Korea for 20 years.

 

Addendum

After our visit, Pastor Lam underwent a three-hour interrogation at the Public Security Bureau, once again suffering for his refusal to register his church with the Religious Affairs Bureau.

Following Lam’s questioning, authorities again ransacked the house in the alley which serves as pastor’s home and church sanctuary. The place remains under surveillance, according to the Chinese Around the World newsletter and various reports from acquaintances of Pastor Lam.

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