In this session, we will summarize Chinese house church history and from there look into the future of the Chinese house church. According to your understanding of the history of the Chinese house church, how would you summarize the Chinese house church tradition in one sentence or one statement? What kind of tradition is it? What are its characteristics? Can some of you try? I want responses from two or three of you, okay?
Try it, Xiao Zheng. Okay, that’s good. Of course it is right. No problem at all. But try to put it in a more theoretical way, in one declarative sentence rather than a few words. Anybody? Or you can describe what it embodies. Anyone who wants to try? According to your understanding of the Chinese house church and its spiritual traditions, what kind of church is it? What are its spiritual traditions? What is its core? Try to summarize it. Anyone want to try?
Try it sister Daozhi. I’m calling names now. The fundamentalist tradition. Good, you got to a very important point. In the distinction between the fundamentalists and liberals within the Chinese church, the house church holds to the fundamentalist tradition. This is very good.
Okay, one more please. Anyone else? Hold on to the Bible and take the way of the cross. Two points: hold on to the Bible, take the way of the cross. Praise the Lord. Brother Cui Yuanmin was a house church preacher and therefore knows these two very important characteristics of the house church. First, believe in the Bible because the house church is built on the foundation of the Bible. While the house church is may not be healthy in every aspect, it is very healthy in this aspect. Therefore, one of the nine marks of a healthy house church is that it is built on the foundation of the Bible, it believes firmly in the Bible, it exalts the Bible, it protects the Bible. I once read the testimony of a sister in Shanxi. During the Cultural Revolution, this elderly sister told her children: “It’s okay if you lose your lives, but you must keep this Bible at home”. Who of the parents among us would say to your children: “It’s okay if you lose it. We can always buy another one”? During times like the Cultural Revolution, you cannot buy a Bible even if you had money for one.
In the Roman Empire, there were ten large-scale waves of persecution against Christians. One token used during the persecution was the Bible. Of course at that time the believers did not have well-printed Bibles, but rather individual books of the Bible. One believer might happen to have one or two scriptures, which might not even have been complete copies. The believers were ordered to hand over their Bibles as a token of their loyalty to Caesar. Those who did so were known as the Traditors.
Therefore, during the Cultural Revolution, there was a believer in Xiamen who refused to hand over his Bible and was imprisoned for his action. The reason for his imprisonment was that the Bible in his possession was the last Bible in the whole city of Xiamen. So, you should know that including the Cultural Revolution, Chinese house churches had the tradition of copying the Bible by hand. Brothers and sisters, I want to ask you, have you ever copied the Bible by hand? Have you ever copied the Bible at home chapter by chapter, or paragraph by paragraph? Those who have done that, please raise your hand. Some brothers and sisters have done that. Praise the Lord. I encourage brothers and sisters to do this as a method of spiritual formation rather than as an exercise in calligraphy. Of course, the more you copy the Bible by hand, the better your handwriting will be, but that is not the ultimate purpose. You can try copying the Bible by hand as a method of spiritual formation, as a method of trial, as a method of drawing near to God, and as a way to experience and live out the tradition of the Chinese house church of a love for the Bible and a thirst for the Word of God. You should try copying the Bible by hand as a method of spiritual formation.
Now, we have mentioned some of the fundamentalist traditions, holding fast to the Bible, believing in the Bible, and taking the way of the cross. Anyone else? Can we have one or two more people speak up and offer an answer? Let me see, who has been a believer for a while? Who has attended these lectures or served in ministry before? Anyone else? Do not bow your heads. Who can be proactive and share a part of your summary? Can anyone do that? Let me look at this side. Anyone who wants to say something?
Firmly believe that Christ is Lord. Praise the Lord. Thank you. When I became a believer, a brother told me that house church belief could be summarized in a few words, Jesus is Christ. “Jesus is Christ” is the core belief of the house church, that Christ is the Lord, Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God, which initially was Peter’s confession. This is the core of the gospel faith.
Let’s summarize the traditions of the house church. There is a house church pastor in Henan, Zhang Yinan (b. 1957), who wrote a book about the history of the previous decades of the Henan house churches. You might have heard last week that pastor Zhang Yinan was placed under criminal detention for fifteen days and he should have not been released by now. In his book, he listed three spiritual traditions of the Chinese house church. Of course they were mainly fundamentalist traditions. The first spiritual tradition was that of the pre-1949 fundamentalists, or the fundamentalist tradition that we previously emphasized which began of 1927 until 1949.
He then said that the second spiritual tradition of the house church was the group of preachers in the 1950s and the 1960s, including Wang Mingdao, Samuel Lamb, and Allen Yuan, who were imprisoned and suffered because of their resistance to joining the TSPM and their holding to the house church position. Of course, they inherited the pre-1949 fundamentalist tradition while also having a relationship with the post-1980s house church. This is the second spiritual tradition of the house church.
The third spiritual tradition was the revival of house churches in the villages of Henan and Anhui in the 1970s and the 1980s. Why does Pastor Zhang name that as the third tradition? Because although this revival was related to the tradition of Wang Mingdao and his peers, this relationship was not always direct or deep. While the third tradition shared some characteristics with the second tradition, for example, holding to the way of the house church, believing in the Bible, taking the way of the cross, it was still distinct from the second tradition of Wang Mingdao’s generation.
So how does one distinguish between these two, one which inherited the other? We mentioned before that the geographical focus of the Chinese church in the years prior to 1949 and with Wang Mingdao and his peers in the 1950s and 60s was always in urban centers. Those pastors all served in urban centers, including Shanghai, Beijing, cities in Shandong, Taiyuan, and Xiamen. Yet the new spiritual tradition of the house church in the 1970s existed mainly in rural areas. Therefore, while there was an inheritance from the second tradition, it is fair to say that there was not much connection in the 1980s between the house churches in Henan and Anhui and some of the old urban house church forerunners. Therefore, those rural churches serve as the third spiritual tradition.
So if the third tradition was distinct from the second tradition, did it develop any from the second tradition? The most important position of Wang Mingdao’s generation in the 1950s and the 1960s was the firm resistance to joining the TSPM and holding to the fundamentalist faith. This was their core belief. One can’t say there was much gospel development, a gospel movement, or church advancement, but only holding to the bottom line of the church under government persecution. Without holding to that bottom line, a believer was considered to have betrayed the Lord, or to have entirely lost his or her faith. Therefore, it is fair to say that the second spiritual tradition of Wang Mingdao’s generation laid a foundation for the house church, a basic foundation, a final bottom line, and a belief that held to that bottom line.
Therefore, from the 1980s to the 1990s and especially after 2000, when the new generation of the house church gradually rose up, someone commented that the mission of the previous generation of the house church was to die for the Lord, and our mission in this new generation is to live for the Lord. What differences can you see? In that previous age, holding to the fundamentalist faith could lead a believer to death, and so only a believer willing to die could hold to that bottom line.
In church history there was also a saying, “from red martyrdom to white martyrdom.” The previous generation of the house church was bestowed the title of red martyrdom, which means the shedding of blood and even death. The true meaning of martyrdom is death.
In the new age, white martyrdom is required. What is white martyrdom? Is there anyone among us who has lost a job because of his faith? Who has been visited by the government at home? Who has had to move because the landlord broke the lease contract? This is white martyrdom. Do you understand? It means to suffer setbacks and losses for the Lord in one’s daily life, but definitely without having to worry about losing one’s life.
Do you worry for your life right now? Is there a price on your head? None one? There is no price on my head yet. Therefore, none of you have to worry about your life, right? Therefore, red martyrdom has little relationship with the Christians of this age. For us, the meaning of martyrdom is losing one’s job, losing a residence, to lose something physical.
In fact, in the new age, the spirit of martyrdom has transformed into dying for the Lord in daily life, which actually means living for the Lord in daily life, living with the willingness to die for the Lord. This is white martyrdom. Therefore, when you suffer loss in your daily life for the sake of the Lord, we often say that you were martyred for your faith. This does mean that you die, but rather that you suffered some setback for your faith.
Therefore, in the 1970s and 1980s and even into the 1990s, house church believers faced the danger of imprisonment. We mentioned that in the 1980s there was a movement of heresy within the house church. Then, from the end of the 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s the Public Security Bureau (PSB) released a list of over twenty cults and organizations that fell under subsequent government attack. One of the most important cults was Eastern Lightning, which was later called The Church of Almighty God. Looking back, there were actually listed some of the cults that came onto the scene during the third spiritual tradition as summarized by Zhang Yinan.
The third spiritual tradition was raised up by God from the rural house churches, but the heresy movement also came out of this third spiritual tradition. Why? Because although some believers loved the Bible, they did not understand it well. As Acts 8:31 says, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” During the heresy movement of the third spiritual tradition from the 1980s to the 1990s, many churches deviated from the true gospel. However, it is hard for us today to look back, evaluate them, and conclude whether they had deviated from the truth so far as to be classified a heresy. Today research on this issue cannot continue because many of these cults have been eliminated. However, there are two that are still active. One is Eastern Lightning. The other, commonly found in Sichuan, is called Erliangliang, or The Third Redemption of Jesus, or the Disciples’ Church, one cult with three names.
Over the past five to ten years, there has been a wave of severe strikes by the CCP against the Disciples’ Church or The Third Redemption of Jesus. If you look at the list of imprisoned Chinese Christians released by overseas organizations, you will find a great number of followers of The Third Redemption of Jesus or the Disciples’ Church. In fact, it is the cult with the most imprisoned followers. Other cults do not have as many imprisoned followers. However, over the previous five years, the government began to attack another cult, the Local Churches. Consequently, there have been increasing number of followers of the Local Churches among the imprisoned Christians.
But we are certain that the Third Redemption by Jesus is a heresy, because it is wrong in its Christology. If someone has claimed him or herself to be Christ, he or she is an absolute heretic. Therefore, just as with Eastern Lightning, the Third Redemption by Jesus without a doubt a clear-cut heretical cult.
However, while many of the churches that were attacked as cults by the government in the 1980s and 1990s—the Local Churches, the Shouters, Three Grades of Servant Church that evolved from the Shouters, the All Range Church led by Xu Yongze out of the Shouters, and the South China Church coming from the All Range Church for example—had more-or-less strayed in their teaching, it is hard to determine whether or not they were heretical. There is not enough related research today to help determine whether they were listed as cults because of the CCP’s internal guidelines or because they were really heretical. It is likely that their deviations could have been corrected if the church were in a normal setting rather than the abnormal context in which they had to exist.
But no matter what, the aforementioned third spiritual tradition was distinct from the second spiritual tradition of Wang Mingdao’s generation in that they made advancements as they spread the gospel and established churches. The revival of the church in the 1980s was not primarily rooted in the inheritance of the spiritual tradition of the pre-1949 fundamentalist urban churches. That older tradition did not account for a large percentage of the Chinese house churches at the time, nor did it account for the biggest percentage of growth and revival among rising urban churches that led to a Christian population of fifty to eighty million.
The third tradition accounted for the largest percentage of this growth and grew the fastest as it prompted preachers to preach as they traveled, to spread the gospel, and to establish churches. Since they visited several counties in a few months, they could establish over one hundred churches. Things like this happened in the 1980s and the 1990s. This was the third spiritual tradition.
To be honest, within the second spiritual tradition, there was no such advancement. Wang Mingdao did not continue establishing churches in the 1980s, and both Allen Yuan and Samuel Lamb maintained their own congregations. Basically, their bottom line was maintaining their own places of worship as lighthouses. These conservative churches did not have much of a ministry in spreading the gospel or establishing new churches. Some had those kinds of ministry, for example, in Xiamen, but the scale of those ministries was limited.
The large-scale ministries that swept across the country like storms and waves came from the third tradition of the churches in Henan, Anhui, and Wenzhou. Therefore, this is another very strong tradition of the Chinese house church, being proactive, passionate, and risking one’s life in the spread of the gospel and the establishing of churches. This is a very important tradition in the past forty years of the house church. We pray that the Lord will enable us to inherit this tradition, so that if you are persecuted in this city, you might flee to another city and establish a church there. That way churches can be established everywhere.
There is another thing that was not very apparent in the second spiritual tradition, but was very distinct in the third spiritual tradition, and also influenced the motive for the life-risking spread of the gospel and establishment of churches: a strong eschatology. The Chinese house church is a church with a tradition of a strong and urgent eschatology. That is to say, the great development of the Chinese house church over the past forty years is related to its key eschatological position. That position is that Jesus is coming soon and that this age is so corrupt that it will soon pass away. Of course, we all know that this age will pass away, we all know that Jesus will come again, and we all know that no one knows when Jesus will come again, so as to keep us awake and urgent in our calling. But sometimes, even when we treat things as urgent in our minds, we do not act urgently. However, in the 1970s and the 1980s, churches in Henan, Anhui, and Wenzhou had an extremely strong eschatology, the strongest being in Henan and Anhui.
If you sing the hymns written by Xiaomin, you will see these characteristics. If you compare her Canaan Hymns with other hymnals in church history, you will find a theme that is not as distinct in western hymnals, the popular overseas Chinese church hymnal Hymns of Life, or many other hymnals. While there are a few songs for every theological theme in every hymnal, there are usually not many songs that carry an eschatological theme with any sorty of urgency. Yet, in Xiaomin’s Canaan Hymns, this eschatological theme permeates each of the over one thousand songs, describing the imminent coming of the Lord, the coming death and destruction of an unbelievably corrupt world, and the last days.
Therefore, I love singing Xiaomin’s hymns. Do you like them? What is the name of the song that has the words like “walking the last few miles”? “Give me strength so that I would not slip and walk the last few miles”. Can you sing that song? Brother Enguang, you probably sung that song in your childhood. That song should be in our hymnal. Can you sing it? You cannot? Oh you have forgotten how to sing it. If the Chinese house church were to go a long time without singing Xiaomin’s hymns, then it would leave one of its most important characteristics, that being a strong eschatology.
However, what we emphasize is a healthy and strong eschatology. We previously mentioned that the heresies that arose from out of the third spiritual tradition of the Chinese house church, actually all of the indigenous heresies in the cult movement of the Chinese house church, were basically all eschatological heresies. Therefore, an excessively strong eschatology can lead to heresy. But, on the other hand,an excessively complaceny can lead to loss of passion.
Have you found the song? Do you know which song I was talking about?
It should be in the Hymns of Revival. In These Last Few Years is another song. Let’s sing this one, number 382 in the hymnal. Do you know why the house church is hated by the government? Because when China was rising up after the 1980s, the whole country was singing: “let us meet again in twenty years; at that time, how beautiful our motherland will be!” Meanwhile, the house church was singing: “In these last few years”. Do you see the contrast? This is the contrast between the church and the world. Therefore, without a strong eschatology, the church would sing the same songs as the world sings.
Let’s sing this song, In These Last Few Years.
How will you be in these last few years?
Will you be awake, asleep, or adrift without directions?
Will you stand beside the world, or stand beside the Lord?
Will you love the Lord wholeheartedly or idle away your time?
Lord, grant us wisdom and courage,
So that we will follow you and fight the good fight.
Amen!
I was talking about another song. Have you found it? Anyone found it?
Did anyone find it? Brother Xueyao, do you know which one I was talking about?
Where is it? On which page? We should have this song in our hymnal.
Okay, we will just sing one.
Yes, this is it. I gave the song sheet to brother Enguang who lost it. He forgot this song and did not put it into the hymnal. It’s okay.
Let me summarize some of the characteristics of the Chinese house church movement.
From the perspective of church-state relationships, the house church movement is a Nonconformist, Puritan movement. Like the Puritans in church history, a feature of the house church movement is nonconformism, demonstrated by its resistance to joining the TSPM and holding to the house church position under an atheist regime.
You have probably noticed that in two thousand years of church history, the church has been through a great number of persecutions under all kinds of regimes as ferocious as Hitler and the Roman Caesars. However, in two thousand years of church history, the church has seldom survived under an atheist regime. Were any of the ancient emperors who persecuted the church atheists? None of them, right? None of them was an atheist. You may call those emperors tyrants, but they also worshipped false gods, right? They were not atheists.
Therefore, before the 20th century, the church had never been persecuted by an atheist regime and had never survived under an openly atheist regime. In the 20th century, there was suspense in church history: could a Christian church that believed in Jesus survive under an atheist regime? Through the Chinese house church movement, God proved that a Christian church could survive under an atheist regime. This is significant not only for the Chinese church but also for the history of the global church.
Of course, in the 20th century, there have been other churches that have survived an atheist regime. Specifically, today the church in North Korea is still alive. It is reported that there are one hundred thousand Christians in North Korea concentration camps.
Therefore, in two thousand years of church history, the Chinese house church is unique because of its large size and its influence in the whole world. It has been under an atheist regime for over sixty years and has testified that the church of the Lord can overcome the persecution of an atheist regime and cannot be eliminated by an atheist regime. How can you avoid eradication by an atheist regime? How do you survive? You must have one basic characteristic, which is nonconformism.
Nonconformism has two layers of meaning. First, it means not conforming to Marxism or Communism, or not surrendering to the atheism of the country, which is a religion in-and-of itself. Second, this atheism controls a part of the church, which is the official church. Therefore, in essence, the official church conforms to Marxism or Communism. Consequently, our nonconformism is demonstrated in our resistance to joining the official church. This resistance resembles the Puritans who were nonconforming and left the Church of England. However, the difference is that in their age, the Church of England was still a church and the king of England was a true Christian. Whether he was a good or a bad Christian, he was still a Christian. Yet in our circumstances, the atheist Marxism or Communism behind the TSPM is another religion, a paganism, an atheist paganism.
Therefore, the first characteristic of the house church and its first position in church history is that of a nonconformist, Puritan movement, which has witnessed to the way for the church to survive under an atheist regime and to the power of the gospel under such a regime. This is the first important place I hold for the house church’s legacy.
Second, the Chinese house church is a fundamentalist church. Of course, the fundamentalists are currently transitioning toward the evangelicalism. From the perspective of the fundamental truth, the evangelicals and the fundamentalists are on the same page. But the fundamentalists have their own issues, particularly in the moralism unique to China. As preacher Yingqiang mentioned today, there is a very strong tradition of moralism within traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, within the Chinese church, on one hand, the fundamentalists hold to the fundamental truth, yet on the other hand it is easy for them to attach themselves to the moralism within Chinese culture, which can lead to a strong legalism and a strong sacred-secular divide. After 2000, the transition of the fundamentalists to evangelicalism has been one of the major trends in the development of the Chinese house church.
However, if we compare the fundamentalists and the evangelicals to the liberals, it is fair to say—since sometimes the term “fundamentalist” can include evangelicals and since the characteristics and spiritual traditions of the Chinese house church are all fundamentalist traditions that hold to the old gospel and to the fundamental beliefs—that today’s Chinese house church has become the most prominent and the largest fundamentalist church in the world.
Today the church in the United States as a whole is no longer a fundamentalist church, but a liberal church, or a so-called neo-evangelical church. If we count the number of evangelicals who hold to the old gospel and fundamental beliefs, rather than the neo-evangelicals who have abandoned the authority of the Bible, the number of members of American churches would be between thirty and fifty million. However, while I am not sure of the exact number, I think the number of believers within today’s Chinese house church is beyond thirty to fifty million.
We mentioned that Africa experienced great revival, a Pentecostal revival. Of course, the Pentecostal churches could also be divided into two types. Some Pentecostal churches are built on the foundation of the fundamentalists and can therefore be counted as fundamentalist. But some Pentecostal churches have become increasingly Pentecostal and have increasingly leaned toward the prosperity gospel and in effect have turned into liberals. Therefore, while the total number of Christians in Africa and South America surpass the number in China, and while they have an even deeper spiritual tradition, they are not fundamentalist bases.
Therefore, it is interesting that today, the global headquarters for the fundamentalists in the universal church is located in East Asia and is led by the Chinese church. And this is the second characteristics of the Chinese house church.
I just said that the first and second characteristics are meaningful not only for China but also for the global church. The Chinese house church is the largest fundamentalist church in the world, and its main tradition is the fundamentalist tradition. And what are the characteristics of the fundamentalist tradition? You mentioned a few them. For example, the Bible: a thirst for the Bible, a firm belief in the Bible, a love for the Bible, a foundation built upon the Bible, and a focus on the Bible and the Word of God. So, there are others who are also related to the fundamentalist tradition. I do feel that today we are gradually departing from these traditions. However, this year we have also witnessed a revival that God has stirred up among us, particularly in the tradition of prayer.
One of the characteristics of the Chinese house church is their love for prayer. What kind of church is the Chinese house church? You could say that the Chinese house church is a church that loves the Bible, you could say that the Chinese house church is a church that likes to pray, a church that loves to pray, a church that kneels down to pray, a church that prays at 5 o’clock in the morning. However, this tradition is in fact slowly disappearing in today’s Chinese house churches, especially in rising urban churches like ours. The tradition of prayer is preserved much better within the Korean churches.
I have never been to Korea. Some of our staff have been to Korea and attended the morning prayer meetings at a few churches there. Do you know that their morning prayer meetings end at six thirty in the morning as the believers leave for work? Not only one, but many churches end their second prayer meetings of the morning at six thirty as the believers leave for work. And there are hundreds of people who attend these morning prayer meetings at big churches like the Onnuri Community Church, which is one of the so-called Pentecostal Reformed churches. It is one of the largest churches in Korea, with over a thousand members attending the morning prayer meetings that start at five o’clock before they leave for work at six thirty.
In today’s Chinese church you do not find these kinds of morning prayer meetings that begin at five o’clock. I am not saying that they cannot be found in any of the churches, but it is not common. Therefore, I pray that the Lord will stir us up.
Last week, we saw that Dali Church in Zhengzhou, which arose from the second spiritual tradition in Zhengzhou, Henan, held on as the government tried to shut it down. I am not sure how their Sunday worship will end up. Maybe later we will hear something about them. The government is shutting them down, but they have held on for two Sundays.
How did they hold on the first Sunday? Four hundred brothers and sisters stayed in the church around the clock day and night and prayed in the church overnight. They waited for the police to leave. The police had to leave work, but the brothers and sisers would not. When the government employees left work, the believers did not leave off worshipping God.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we encounter this kind of pressure, are there four hundred brothers and sisters in our church who will stay here and pray overnight without ceasing? Are there that many brothers and sisters? Yes there are! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Then how did they hold on for a second week last Sunday? Last Sunday, by seven thirty, brothers and sisters had filled up the sanctuary and locked the door. The police had not been on duty as joint law enforcement operations usually start late. By seven thirty, the sanctuary was packed, and some brothers and sister who arrived afterwards were locked outside of the sanctuary. Then they sang hymns to the policemen and their task turned into sharing the gospel with the policemen.
Therefore, we encourage you to arrive a little earlier these days. Will you do that? You see how early the street vendors get up. If they were to get up later than the policemen, could they still make a living? If you are a street vendor and you get up at the same time as the policemen do, how could you make a living? The street vendors have to get up earlier than the policemen. Consequently, if you are persecuted and you get up later than the policemen, who, exactly, is the one who being persecuted?
Therefore, may the Lord help us keep the tradition of steadfast prayer, which is one of the inheritances from the fundamentalist house churches that love the Bible and prayer.
The third very important characteristic of the Chinese house church, as I just mentioned, is a very strong eschatology. But this has to be paired with the truth of the Bible and the complete truth of the gospel. None of us are perfect. I believe I had taken the wrong way, and so did some other rising Chinese urban churches, even some Reformed churches.
Between 2003 and 2007, a great number of rising urban churches claimed to not be house churches. Do you know why they denied being house churches? Because house churches were likely to be attacked by the government. They wanted to tell the government that they were neither TSPM nor house churches, that they were of their own category, that they were the rising urban churches, as if they were unique. In fact, they wanted to be identified by the government as a third category, right? They did not want to be completely controlled by the government like the TSPM, and they did not want to join the TSPM, but neither did they want to be house churches. Therefore, they hoped the government would not shift its struggle with the house churches over to them. In previous generations, the house churches had feuded with the government, but the rising urban churches did not want to carry that burden. Therefore, they wanted the government to know that they were different from the previous churches, that they were made of honorable members of society, and that their churches were filled with well-educated Christians with well paid jobs. Thus, they were not house churches.
Therefore, from 2003 to 2007, it is shameful that within the urban churches there was this voice of a so-called “third way”, “third force”, or “third church” apart from the house church and the TSPM. They held to all sorts of self-identified positions except for a knowledge of who they really were. But you know what? The government knew clearly who they were. I have found that in the struggles between the house church and the government, it has often been the case that the church did not know their own identity, but the government clearly knew. These churches changed their appearance and came out with something different from the house church, but with a single glance, the government knew that they were still the house church and subject to persecution. Then they complained that they were not the house church because of their new look, but the government was able to see through this.
From 2008 up to the Lausanne Incident in 2010, this issue disappeared. Chinese urban churches began to completely identify themselves with the house church. There are only two churches in China. One is the TSPM, which is not a church of the Lord, but a church that has betrayed the Lord. The other is the real church in China, the house church. There is no third way. As long as the CCP is here and the atheist regime continues to persecute the church, there is no third way. Therefore, this self-identification with the house church gradually became clear.
There were still some Reformed churches who would claim that they were not house churches but Reformed churches. Their claim was strange, as though the Reformed churches came directly from heaven. They claimed that they were neither house churches nor Three-Self churches, but rather that they were Reformed churches. This was nonsense. They had an excessively high self-opinion without the humble heart and eyes to see their historic inheritance.
Last class, I mentioned that there are many different types of Reformed churches. There are fundamentalist Reformed churches and evangelical Reformed churches. There is one very important way to measure whether you belonged to the fundamentalist Reformed churches or whether you were part of those extreme Reformed churches. Did you recognize yourself to be the house church? To identify oneself with the house church, one must take himself to be a member of the house church. Second, do you recognize yourself as an evangelical church? Some Reformed churches would say: “We are not evangelicals. They are evangelicals and we are Reformed churches. None of the evangelicals will have salvation.”
We must first recognize that we are of the house church and that we are evangelical, and only then should we emphasize the Reformed faith and the complete gospel. We should see the beauty and goodness of the house church’s tradition of their love for the Bible. While your theology may be sounder than that of the traditional house churches, do you love the Bible more than they do? Do the believers of the Chinese Reformed churches today love the Bible more than the brothers and sisters of the traditional Chinese house churches? I don’t think so. Most likely not. Is your love for prayer to God more than theirs? No. Do you long for the glory of the last days and despise everything on this earth more than they do? Do you have their strong, passionate eschatology? No. Therefore, do not be conceited just because we may have studied a little more Bible and theology.
Of course, we hope to use the Reformed faith to reform the church, first, by inheriting house church traditions and second, by applying those traditions in the context of a Reformed gospel in order that, in the case of eschatology for example, as we understand the Bible at a deeper level, we do not induce heresy from an extreme eschatology.
But we shall will recognize that there is a special distinctive that God has granted to the Chinese house church. And you will not see this distinctive in churches of other countries. The American church definitely has no such characteristic. In fact, the American church has an opposite characteristic, not to mention the churches in Europe. No church in other countries has such a distinctive. The only possible exception might be the church in North Korea.
This quality is a strong eschatology, a strong longing for eternal life rather than for this life. A suffering church is usually a church that has strong eschatology, since for them there is no joy in this world. A suffering church longs to see the Lord, while a rich church doesn’t usually share in this longing. A church in an easy environment doesn’t usually long to see the Lord, while a church in crisis longs to see the Lord. Therefore, C. S. Lewis once said, “Those who passionately and earnestly work for the Lord in this life are those who hold the strongest hope for eternal life”. May it be God’s will that we inherit this quality.
The fourth and final very important characteristic of the house church spiritual tradition or of this movement, as I’ve mentioned before, we’ll call it a layperson’s movement. Though not always the case the Chinese house church movement is certainly to a large extent a lay-person’s movement. What is a laity movement? During the Cultural Revolution, there were no pastors, no elders. Those clergy who were still alive fell under persecution at the struggle sessions.
In the work by pastor Zhang Yinan about Henan house churches, he says that the generation of preachers who rose up in Henan at the end of the 1970s were all converted when they listened to the testimonies given during the struggle sessions as the preachers were persecuted on-stage and questioned as to whether they still believed in Jesus, whether they were still counter-revolutionary, and why they believed in Jesus. These events turned into testimony sharing sessions. The preacher would say that he still believed in Jesus because belief in Jesus would bring eternal life, or that he had been sick and upon believing in Jesus he was healed, and therefore, he still believed in Jesus. Then the insurrectionists would beat him. Later when the preacher was questioned again, he would say that he still believed in Jesus. Then many in the audience believed in the Lord. Therefore, it was said that the early evangelical gatherings in Henan in the 1970s all started with struggle sessions.
Praise the Lord. While preachers were all imprisoned or under persecution, this movement of the third spiritual tradition of spreading the gospel and establishing churches, this tradition of churches in Henan and Anhui in the 1970s and the 1980s, was basically a laity movement. That is to say, these leaders who later became preachers were initially lay people who received God’s internal calling although the external confirmation was not as distinct.
Today we say that both an internal calling and an external confirmation are required for one to be called to be a preacher or an elder of the church. He cannot come to the church and simply say that he was called to do so, something that has in fact happened frequently in the church over the past ten years. One brother was stirred up in his prayer, so he came to the preacher and said: “I am so stirred up that I wanted to preach next Sunday”. The church replied: “So you wanted to preach next week?” He said: “I have been moved so that next week I want to preach”. Wow! If God wanted him to preach, who would dare to stop him from doing so? The church had to have him preach next week, right?
Therefore, we say that if you have an internal calling and a burden, you still need an external confirmation, meaning that God’s calling has to be confirmed through the external call of the church. You can be moved, and others can be moved as well, right? If one claims that he is burdened to preach, but the congregation prays and concludes that they are not burdened to listen to his preaching, then there is no confirmation. If one claims to be called to be an elder for the congregation, but the congregation’s vote turns out against him, this proves that there is no such confirmation.
Therefore, the vote we just mentioned is not an election in the secular sense. It is not a competition by head count that shows who is more favored by the people, but it is rather a demonstration of God’s calling through the calling of the people of the church that the candidate is going to shepherd. Therefore, a calling has to be confirmed by the congregation who agrees with God’s calling on the person.
However, during the revival of the Chinese church in the 1970s and onward, there was no church, no church spiritual tradition, no clergy, and no training system for the preachers. Therefore, at that time it is fair to say that the Chinese house church was a laity movement in which God internally called a generation of preachers from the laity. Those who were burdened would stand up and preach. Those who were moved would travel to all the villages and every corner of the city to share the gospel, or to the streets to be so bold as to baptize new believers. Two weeks later, they would be so bold as to establish churches. And through this, the movement spread.
Today there are some people from the extreme Reformed churches who have visited other churches and said, “Your gathering cannot be called a church. You do not have ordination. You are not qualified to baptize new believers or to have communion. You are not even qualified as a church. You should dissolve. You even allow sisters to preach. You are not a church”. When you say things like this, you are denouncing the work of the Holy Spirit within the Chinese house church over the past decades.
Friends, how were you born? How did these people of the extreme Reformed churches believe in the Lord? You were born from your mother, and your mother was born from her mother, right? Then if you claim that it was illegal for your grandmother to give birth to your mother because it was out of wedlock or without a permit, then you claim that your birth was also out of wedlock and illegitimate. So, are you going to denounce your own legitimacy?
The Chinese house church has to advance, but it also has to inherit and recognize God’s past leading. One of the characteristics of the Chinese house church is the laity movement without ordination or external confirmation. God called the person and he came to serve the Lord.
One might ask, how can I know that a candidate is really called by God? What if something goes wrong? There is one thing that could be used as a more reliable confirmation than the votes of the brothers and sisters. Trial. Government persecution is confirmation. Do you know? These preachers were raised up by God, not by the votes of the congregation, but by the decision of the government. When the government decided to arrest one, he became ordained. If the government found out that he was not qualified as a preacher, it would let him go. So the government could identify whether or not a person should be arrested, or who was a preacher and who was just an onlooker. The government saw very clearly, right?
Brothers and sisters did not vote for these preachers, but they were confirmed by government persecution and God’s trial. That is to say, when you began preaching, what would you face? You would have no salary. Furthermore, you would have to support yourself. And what would you end up with? Imprisonment. If under such circumstances, one was still willing to preach, then he certainly had to have been called by God. Brothers and sisters would say that he had to be the one who God called to serve. When everyone else stepped back, the ones who were willing to step forward were the ones called by God.
But during that process, was there anyone who was not called by God but rather preached according his own will? Of course there was. Was there anyone bold enough to not follow God’s instructions? Sure there was. Therefore, there will always be chaos within a laity movement. Some people might feel the internal calling from God without God’s confirmation. Was there anyone who had neither an internal calling from God nor an external confirmation through the congregation and preached according to his own will? Was it possible that some preached out of their own passion, and although used by God for a couple of years, they eventually found out that they in fact never had God’s calling and that God eventually destroyed what He allowed to be built up? In fact, such things happened frequently in Chinese house church history. Of course, we cannot measure this by proportions. For example, we cannot determine that there were three or four out of ten preachers who were not called by God. At its worst, I think half of the preachers were not called by God. But so what? God raised up the Chinese house church in this way. So, the fourth characteristics is the laity movement.
Therefore, today on one hand, we no longer continue the laity movement because we want to establish the church according to God’s calling and according to the order of the church as we advance from the previous phase to an even better phase. On the other hand, dear brothers and sisters, I long for the house church to maintain one feature of that laity movement. Our street evangelism that we did today was an example of this laity movement. It is possible that with all of our efforts today, very few of the people who we shared the gospel with today will believe in God. However, there may be quite a few of us who become preachers. This is the laity movement, which reflects the priesthood of the believers.
Therefore, we hope, and the church has been promoting the idea that many of the church’s ministries, apart from the fundamental ministries, are not decided and promoted by church elders or have to be performed some specific person, but rather are movements initiated by lay people. The anti-abortion ministry was initiated by lay people. The ministry of caring for families of prisoners of conscience was initiated by lay people. The Petitioners Gospel Fellowship was initiated by lay people. Street evangelism was initiated by lay people. These are all laity movements.
Therefore, may the Lord raise you up to share the gospel to this city and to this age. In order to lead groups at this church and to teach brothers and sisters at this church, you will have to be confirmed at the church. But to share the gospel in the street, to your neighbors and your friends, you do not need confirmation. Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival and many of you may be with your family. I hope there will be a laity gospel movement. Amen. Do you really agree with that? When you get together with your family, no one, not even the Holy Spirit is going to stop you from sharing the gospel with them. Amen.
Let us bow our heads and pray together:
Lord, we thank you and we praise you. We commit the house church into your hands. All its goodness, grace, and victories come from you. They are your victories, not the victories of men. Yet in the failures of men, O Lord, in your discipline of the church, you still let your church experience victory. We commit the house church today into your hands, as we need to have a deeper and more complete understanding of the gospel, the teachings of the whole Bible, and even a more complete understanding of the relationship between church and state, between the church and society, between the church and culture.
Yet in this process, we ask you, Lord, to keep for the Chinese house church the characteristic of the laity movement, to keep that strong eschatological hope for the benefits of eternal life, to keep a nonconforming conscience.
Lord, may the house church keep the tradition of being godly, loving God and the fundamental truth, the tradition of passionate prayer before you, and the tradition of love for the Bible. May you renew all of these, and after the renewal of the complete gospel, still grant these wonderful traditions to the Chinese church of today and of tomorrow. We thank you and we praise you for listening to our prayer. We pray in the precious and holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
