What is Church? Part One
In the past, the typical way of missionaries was to come into a country, begin to witness to people and as they turned to Christ, the missionaries would create church for them. They’d build a building, they’d be the pastors, they hired workers, etc. and all would be great until the missionaries went home on furlough. Then the church would cease to meet. Why? Did they really have church while the missionary was there? What is church?
The definition of church is controversial but if you don’t know what it is, how do you know when you have one? We tend to think of church as including a building but for persecuted Christians, this can be problematic.
Compare persecution under Communism in the Soviet Union with that in China. Through the entire course of the Soviet Union, there was no growth in number of Christians or churches whereas in China, when Communism and persecution arrived, the number of Christians exploded and continues to do so. Why?
In the Soviet Union, churches, their buildings and pastors were initially allowed to continue but they had a government “handler”. At the beginning, the handlers told the pastors to give a report each week. Pastors saw no problem with this so they complied. Six years later, the handlers told the pastors that they had to check with them first before deciding who could sing or preach on Sunday. The pastors complied. Six years after that, the handlers said, “Don’t you dare have anyone sing or preach outside the church.” The pastors complied. Piece by piece, inch by inch, the Church was swallowed. They had buildings and denominations they were trying to protect and so their focus was there and on preserving themselves, rather than on evangelism.
In China, persecution arrived in one fell-swoop and so the Chinese Christians weren’t tricked into thinking that the government might be on their side. Right from the start they had to find ways to deal with persecution. Rather than being led by clergy, the churches were led by lay people; the churches were secret—they had no buildings to hold on to and in fact, whenever they reached 30, the congregation split in two; they had no denominations but were purely Chinese and they focused on evangelism rather than on themselves.
The definition of church is controversial but if you don’t know what it is, how do you know when you have one? We tend to think of church as including a building but for persecuted Christians, this can be problematic.
Compare persecution under Communism in the Soviet Union with that in China. Through the entire course of the Soviet Union, there was no growth in number of Christians or churches whereas in China, when Communism and persecution arrived, the number of Christians exploded and continues to do so. Why?
In the Soviet Union, churches, their buildings and pastors were initially allowed to continue but they had a government “handler”. At the beginning, the handlers told the pastors to give a report each week. Pastors saw no problem with this so they complied. Six years later, the handlers told the pastors that they had to check with them first before deciding who could sing or preach on Sunday. The pastors complied. Six years after that, the handlers said, “Don’t you dare have anyone sing or preach outside the church.” The pastors complied. Piece by piece, inch by inch, the Church was swallowed. They had buildings and denominations they were trying to protect and so their focus was there and on preserving themselves, rather than on evangelism.
In China, persecution arrived in one fell-swoop and so the Chinese Christians weren’t tricked into thinking that the government might be on their side. Right from the start they had to find ways to deal with persecution. Rather than being led by clergy, the churches were led by lay people; the churches were secret—they had no buildings to hold on to and in fact, whenever they reached 30, the congregation split in two; they had no denominations but were purely Chinese and they focused on evangelism rather than on themselves.
posted by Magdaleine at 12:54 AM
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