Nine Significant Features of the Chinese House Church

God is doing something amazing in China.

With the special permission of the publisher, PneumaReview.com presents Chapter 20 from the book by Eugene Bach and Brother Zhu, The Underground Church.

“[T]he house churches of China are growing at a phenomenal rate. Never in the history of the world have so many people in such a short time left one belief system for another without a hostile revolution. Lives in China are being transformed daily by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the display of His miraculous power” (from the back cover).

 

In this book, we have explored the history of the underground House Church, surveyed the main networks within the movement, and identified various elements that have helped to propel its growth. We have read personal testimonies of Chinese believers and looked at some of their experiences and trials, all of which have helped to bring their history to life. Through these examples, we can better understand concepts and situations pertaining to the Chinese church that are otherwise completely foreign to outsiders.

As discussed in previous chapters, the last few decades of Chinese church history were directed largely by the great work of God flowing out of the Nanyang region in Henan—through the networks of Peter Xu, Tanghe, Fangcheng, and others. A foreign visitor to that area would most likely look around and immediately wonder why God would choose such a place to pour out His grace. In many ways, Nanyang is about ten years behind the rest of China. It does not contain any notable foreign communities, and any foreigner visiting there is stared at and sometimes pointed out by local children who shout, “Laowai!” (“old foreigner”). One House Church worker from the Five Brothers Network described Nanyang in this way: “There are four areas of unrest for the Chinese government: Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Nanyang.” It is hard to imagine that this county has had such an impact on the entire world.

When Christians in other nations and cultures learn the mysteries of the Chinese House Church, it can help them to reflect on their own relationships with Jesus Christ. The history and testimonies of the underground Chinese believers are encouraging, because they show us what God can do in a country that declares war on His people, as the Chinese government has done. Even though China tried to eradicate the Christians, Jesus never left them. He never abandoned the Chinese people and is actually using them today in amazing ways to fulfill the Great Commission.

Looking into the secrets of the Chinese House Church can also shock us into seeing the truths of the Bible without using the cultural spectacles that sometimes dilute and pervert the Word of God. At first glance, several elements of the Chinese church might look like the results of bad judgment, but, upon closer evaluation, many of these elements are actually closer to the Jewish culture Jesus grew up in than the Western culture that dominates most foreign churches.

Upon evaluating the Chinese House Church’s hidden treasures, we can recognize at least these nine characteristics that are unique to it and have contributed to its growth in one way or another.

 

1. The Experience of Persecution

Persecution is not unique to the Chinese underground House Church. If persecution was indeed the only requirement for a revival, then China would not be alone in seeing massive numbers of people come to the Lord. However, the Chinese persecutions have been somewhat distinct in that the government actually implemented a plan for the systematic destruction of the church among its people.

Chinese persecution was a direct assault on the Christian leadership in that country and aimed to erase the name of Jesus Christ from Chinese soil forever. Christians were not merely included in a massive, widespread effort to stamp out all political opponents of Communism but were specifically singled out for annihilation.

Many church leaders and other Christians in China initially agreed with and supported the tenets of Communism. The Communist Party had the backing of many Christians who were happy to see the tyrannical Nationalists replaced by those who claimed to support equal distribution of wealth and resources. In theory, equal distribution was already being practiced in the 1940s by indigenous Christian groups like the Jesus Family and the Back to Jerusalem Evangelistic Band. The Communist Party of China had an early ally in this regard.

It was the Party that first viewed the church as a natural enemy. Again, the persecution in China did not only inflict pain on Christians but was also an attempt to dilute, pollute, pervert, and completely destroy the church. The government persecuted the church with a rarely seen vile hatred that can be explained only as demonic in nature.

The movement of Sino-Christianity was determined by the Lord’s changeless will; the enemy saw the future and potential of the Chinese church and moved to prevent it. Yet, could the enemy have predicted that the very acts that were intended to eradicate Christianity would be instrumental in bringing about church growth that would not have been possible otherwise?

 

2. The Influence of Mao Zedong

Despite all his anti-Christian propaganda, hideous orders of destruction upon the church, and systematic attacks on Christian beliefs, Mao Zedong undeniably put into place the very factors needed to assist, nurture, and facilitate the growth of the world’s largest revival.

First, he insisted that everyone in the country become responsible for the sins of his or her neighbors. Everyone was accountable to know if the neighbors were involved in foul play—creating a very transparent society. Confession sessions were arranged for the Chinese to come forward with valuable, incriminating information about themselves or their neighbors.

According to Mao Zedong, you are your brother’s keeper. The confession sessions were implemented to create an atmosphere where no one would ever attempt to go against the Communist Party for fear of being caught by family, friends, or neighbors who, in turn, were afraid not to report an illegal activity for fear that they, too, would get into trouble. Yet this atmosphere actually created the perfect environment for healings and other miracles of God to be witnessed and shared. In such a confessional society, news spread very quickly—even the good news of Jesus.

Mao also standardized the Mandarin language for everyone in China, enabling believers to spread the gospel to many people without the need to learn other languages. This policy removed a huge barrier that hadn’t previously been possible to overcome.

Mao also connected the country with a road and railway system that allowed missionaries and evangelists to travel around quickly, preaching the Word of God to everyone who would listen. The development of the transportation system permitted the gospel to spread through, and between, provinces faster than ever before.

 

3. The Presence of Miracles

As we explored the roots of the House Church revivals, we noted that the Chinese church had a serious lack of Bibles, competent teachers, Christian materials, and other resources traditionally utilized to share the Word. One thing that was not lacking, however, was God’s presence. His fingerprints can be found all over the churches in Henan and Anhui, where many people were healed and witnessed miracles.

It is easy to deny rational teachings and moving speeches, or to respond cynically to a religious book, but it is much more difficult to deny the power of God in action. It is also much harder to deny a God who answers desperate prayers when every other option has been exhausted and there is no other hope. Those Chinese who were dying from disease and starvation had no one to turn to for help. The sick had no places to go for treatment. Many of them looked to Jesus as a last resort and found mercy, rest, and supernatural healing through God’s power.

Rumors of healings and other miracles spread like wildfire throughout the Chinese countryside. When people were healed, they couldn’t help but tell everyone what had happened to them. When other people were sick and had no hope, they looked to the same Jesus whom so many others had turned to, and found hope and relief, as well.

When believers prayed for simple things like Bibles, God would miraculously answer their prayers. When they prayed for safety, God protected them. When they asked for freedom from prison, God sometimes opened the iron gates of the correctional fortresses and let His servants walk out free. The early revivals in Henan and Anhui were fueled by the testimonies of many miracles like these.

 

4. Charismatic Faith and Worship

The early movements of the underground House Church were not propelled or supported by academia. Even today, the rough and crude farmers in China who are part of the underground House Church movement are not accepted by theological academics.

The prayers lifted up at an average House Church meeting are not read from a piece of paper prepared in advance, as in some formal Western denominations, but are marked by passionate, impromptu cries and bold proclamations. In addition, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are widely accepted and practiced, but certain activities, like speaking in tongues and prophesying, are not emphasized. Impromptu dancing and singing during prayer and worship times are encouraged and done with great joy, but these are quite natural to the culture and not at all distracting, as they would be in most Western church settings. There is nothing really formal or stuffy about worship in the underground House Church.

What makes the charismatic element unique in China is that it is not disorderly. One of the biggest accusations made by those opposed to charismatic worship is that it can create disorder and chaos, but that is not the case in the Chinese church. Even though such worship is entered into without planning or strategic leading, it is nonetheless done in unity. If one person is singing and dancing in a room full of people praying at an underground meeting, everyone is singing and dancing along with him or her. If one person is on his or her knees, crying and shouting out prayers, the entire room will begin to do the same. The charismatic activities are individual and unique to each person within the church, yet they are also somehow orderly and done as one body.

 

5. Female Leadership

One of the obvious characteristics of the Chinese House Church is the overwhelming percentage of women in the movement. The vast majority of evangelists and missionaries who are trained and sent to the field are young women. To overlook the dominant role that women have played and how much they have contributed to church growth would be deliberate ignorance.

Although none of the top leaders of the traditional networks is female, many of the movers and shakers in individual churches are. These women have made their mark on the largest revival in history, as well as the largest missionary movement ever.

The women serve in the background and do so swiftly and effectively, accomplishing more in a short period of time than many men are able to who might expect to be rewarded for their efforts. These women don’t ask for recognition—in fact, they shun it. Rather, they work as if they are working directly for the heavenly Father.

The women in the underground House Church movement will often set up for a meeting, preach the sermon, feed the attendees, and then clean up after everyone else has departed. They are self-sacrificing warriors and heroes, and, collectively, they are one of the main reasons for the rapid growth of Christianity in China.

 

6. The Absence of Foreign Denominations

Foreign missionaries need to be credited with planting the seeds of the gospel in China. Fruit is still being produced thanks to the past efforts of these missionaries, who labored to till the soil of Chinese hearts. However, the presence of these foreign missionaries, followed by their absence, had more of an impact on the Chinese church than could have been imagined. Their continued presence, coupled with stifling control measures, would undoubtedly have had a negative impact on church growth.

We can understand this issue through the illustration of child rearing. A child needs the care of parents while he or she is growing up. The parents’ love, attention, devotion, and sacrifice all contribute to the raising of that child. However, if the parents become overbearing and don’t ever teach, or allow, their child to make his or her own decisions, the consequences can be disastrous for the child’s maturation process.

Similarly, missionaries and missions organizations often have a hard time with the final phase of missions work, which is to allow the native church to take leadership and to make its own decisions. They often delay recognizing their “offspring” as an equal when it is fully grown.

In the case of the Chinese church, its umbilical cord to foreign funding was severed the hard way. The separation process was difficult for the Chinese, and it was equally challenging for the missionaries. No one would have willingly chosen the road that the underground House Church has had to travel, nor would anyone have willingly accepted the fire that the House Church has had to go through. However, out of the forced separation has come a church that is now independent, self-sustaining, and thriving in an environment that makes it possible for the Chinese and foreign churches to maintain a healthy relationship of mutual respect and support.

 

7. Paternal Leadership

Leaders in China are regarded as parental figures. Their opinions are revered and their commands are obeyed. This leadership style might not work well in Western culture, but the current church growth would never have happened without it.

Being able to give orders and know that they will be followed without question has allowed the leaders to manage an army of believers in China that is ready to march on the gates of hell. This army strongly believes in its cause and completely trusts its leaders. Naturally, there are flaws with this kind of leadership model, as with any, but it has been very advantageous for the Chinese. Whether we agree with it or not, this is the model that the Chinese use and the one that God has chosen to work through mightily.

 

8. The Back to Jerusalem Vision

The Great Commission compelled the early church to go into unknown lands to share the good news. From Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary expedition to today’s thriving missionary organizations, the Great Commission has sent missionaries into far-flung regions under less-than-desirable conditions to bring people out of darkness and despair.

As previously stated, the Back to Jerusalem vision of the underground church in China is to take the gospel into the countries between the borders of China and Jerusalem. That swath of land contains the highest level of poverty and the largest number of unreached people groups on earth today. Despite the desperate need in this area, only a small percentage of missions funding from the Western world is used to evangelize it.

This situation is changing due to the Chinese. As the Chinese House Church increases its numbers, the number of its missionaries also increases. Unlike the focus of most of the Western church, its focus is on the hardest-to-reach areas. Its missionaries are being sent to the most difficult countries, and the majority of its resources are being used for this effort.

“Back to Jerusalem” has been the heart cry of the Chinese church for several generations, but only a handful of believers carried this vision through the darkest hours of persecution. Today, the younger generation has caught the vision and is determined to carry out its mission. With a strong unifying vision, the younger generation has a direct passion to funnel its energy and efforts into this task.

In many Christian circles around the world today, the passion for the Great Commission has been lost. At the same time, we see that Western society in general is becoming more secular. The question can be asked, “Is the missions focus in the West not as strong because society has become more secular, or is society more secular because the vision for missions has been lost by the church?” It seems to be the latter. A church without vision lacks the inspiration and direction to make any real impact on society. In contrast, a new day has dawned in China, and a fresh vision has come to life. The vision lay dormant for decades, but it has awakened and is now being passed from person to person with excitement and zeal.

Even for outsiders, the Back to Jerusalem vision of the Chinese House Church is exciting because of what it represents:

• the rise and global impact of a church once thought to have been wiped out by the Chinese Communist regime
• the power of God to reach down and breathe life into absolute darkness in open defiance of what everyone thought to be reality
• a new wave that has been ordained to defy racist statements made by missiologists of past generations who thought the world could be reached by Western missionaries alone

The Back to Jerusalem vision is the unique Chinese version of the Great Commission that God is using to usher in the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

 

9. The Move of the Holy Spirit

In many ways, the Holy Spirit trumps all the other elements previously mentioned. If a sterile environment were to be created in which all the elements and characteristics listed above were added, revival still could not be created by human beings. Only the timing and movement of the Holy Spirit could have transformed the church in China in the ways we have seen. For whatever reason, the Spirit has chosen China to be used during this age. This special act of God’s sovereign will makes the underground Chinese House Church distinct.

These nine characteristics are by no means exhaustive. They are just a few elements that can help us to understand why the Chinese are experiencing the world’s largest revival and why they are focusing on the world’s largest missionary movement.

This revival will be hard to stop. In the event that they are imprisoned or killed, leaders throughout the nation have already designated their replacements, who are completely capable of maintaining the present levels of activity. These second-tier leaders are currently involved in training, administration, security, personnel logistics, fund-raising, and the distribution of materials. Generally, they operate with a great deal of autonomy in executing projects, because security issues prevent them from directly communicating with their leadership on a regular basis. They have very little autonomy when choosing direction and vision but much freedom to carry out orders once they have been given.

The underground House Church is mobile and hard for the authorities to follow and observe on a regular basis. Again, this is mainly because the networks and churches don’t have “headquarters.” There is no large facility that can be monitored, raided, attacked, or razed to the ground. Any facility used for logistical missions, such as Bible deliveries, is rented on a month-to-month basis utilizing fake identification cards and disposable phone numbers that can be quickly discarded.

 

A Work of the Sovereign Creator

After examining the underground House Church, one cannot help but be amazed at what God is doing in the world today. It is remarkable that there are no dominant personalities in the movement who lead the charge for their own personal gain. On the contrary, each leader within this movement in China is mostly guaranteed a life of persecution, hardship, imprisonment, and sometimes even martyrdom.

One of the first mysteries we uncovered about the House Church networks was that, most of the time, they were built by people who had sought relief from poverty, sickness, and/or death. They had an illness, or a dear family member was sick, and they saw Christ miraculously move in a way that changed them forever.

It is quite interesting that Chinese Christians who found Jesus in the most desperate of circumstances became passionate about following Him, even to death, despite not knowing much other than His power to save and heal. In the West, where we have access to so much information and Bible knowledge, we can easily live our entire lives absolutely passionless before Christ.

The underground church in China seems to be built on a mixture of ignorance and blind faith, but the believers’ blind faith is anchored in their Savior, Jesus Christ. In general, Western churches seem to be built on the confidence of their own understanding of the Word of God and rationalism; they rely more on tangible and reasonably attainable goals.

When the Israelites were at the banks of the Red Sea with a furious Egyptian army at their backs, God commanded Moses to take all the people across: “Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground” (Exodus 14:16). If that command were given to us today, what would be our reaction? Would we rely on our own abilities, or would we trust in the power of God? Would we put a committee together to discuss how to go about obeying the command? Would we try to find some more “practical” way to cross the sea other than by the directions already given by God?

Or would we, with total faith and complete abandonment of our own feeble wisdom, scrap the idea of a committee and any other plans and simply lift our staff and cross the sea as God had commanded, trusting in Him to perform a miracle?

The Chinese House Church didn’t have a choice; it had to accept the latter. May we all learn to trust more in the Lord than ever before by seeing what He has done and continues to do in China. May we all stop looking at the teachings of the Word of God through the limited scope of our own culture. May the mysteries that have brought the underground House Church in China through the most turbulent time in China’s history teach us to rely on God always for everything. If the sovereign Creator of the universe can use the evil schemes of man to bring about the greatest spiritual harvest in history, surely He can provide for us as we walk in obedience to Him one day at a time.

 

PR

 

Notes

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (esv^®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

 

Taken from The Underground Church by Eugene Bach and Brother Zhu. Copyright © 2012, 2014 by Back to Jerusalem, Inc. Used by permission of Whitaker House. www.whitakerhouse.com. Publisher’s product page.