Dear brothers and sisters who “have this treasure in jars of clay,” peace be with you!
Most of this month, our family has been on the road. We first visited my hometown to see my parents and then embarked on a church visitation journey from Beijing to Xuzhou to Guangzhou. Along the way, we visited many churches and pastors, sharing with them the “grace journey” our church has experienced over the past few years. One pastor asked me, “Are you preparing for a possible major crackdown in the future?” I replied, yes.
I am dull in spirit and do not know what the future holds, but it boils down to two possibilities: first, our church will face greater, sustained persecution, leading to my and some coworkers’ arrest and imprisonment; second, after a tough struggle, I might continue to serve outside, and the church might maintain some kind of “balance” in the relationship between church and state (although this “balance” can be broken at any time, and persecution can happen again).
If it’s the former, I am very grateful to experience this grace-filled journey with my family; if it’s the latter, may the Lord strengthen me through this trip to see further and endure longer in the ministry for the kingdom.
The longer we are on the road, the more I miss you and realize how blessed it is to be chosen by the Lord to serve His church, for to serve means to give and receive in a network of love. Xin Yue said to me, “I find that not only do brothers and sisters need pastors, but we need them.” I said: Amen, Amen! Dear brothers and sisters, we will soon end this long “Tour of Pergamum” and return to you. May the Lord keep us safe on our journey home.
During this journey, while sharing and communicating with pastors and coworkers, I deeply reflected on two questions, which I also share with you: First, has the publicization of house churches reached its end? Second, where is the “growth point” of the gospel in today’s church?
The publicization of house churches has been a clear, common vision in the history of the Chinese house church from the 1970s to the 2010s. Representative churches include Jin Dengtang Church in Linfen, Shanxi, Shouwang Church in Beijing, and Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu. The authorities’ response has been continuous persecution and suppression of these churches, starting in 2009 and still ongoing.
Pastor Wang Xiaoguang and Preacher Yang Rongli of Jin Dengtang Church have been imprisoned for 6 and 9 years respectively (their suffering is far from over), Pastor Jin Tianming of Shouwang Church has been under house arrest for nearly 10 years (he resigned from Shouwang 4 years ago to start a missionary service), and Pastor Wang Yi of our church has been sentenced to 9 years in prison (with 4 years and 7 months left). Has the vision of publicization reached its end?
No, it has not! On the contrary, the vision of publicization has reached a climax through these years of persecution, which is open persecution. The Scripture says, we have become a spectacle to angels and humans alike. What are we performing? It’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Not the historical Jesus, but the church as the body of Christ, suffering on earth.
“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”
This passage is not a script, but the director’s “narrative.” The great God is the playwright and the director. We perform according to His script and His will.
Without the continuous “ecclesiological persecution” of the past decade, another kingdom could not have been revealed in Chinese society. “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The servants of the devil also have spiritual sensitivity. They no longer launch “soteriological persecution” because, in this age deeply ingrained with humanism, they do not care if Christianity becomes one of the pluralistic values, providing answers to life’s meaning for a small group. What they care about is that you cannot openly declare allegiance to another kingdom, and you cannot exist as a group openly.
Why? Because the rise of urban house churches in the past 20 years has made the church a “city on a hill.” The gospel preached by the church provides a complete worldview, answering the universe, history, and the human heart. This is what scares those who have provided another “heaven on earth” plan through copying, imitating, and counterfeiting. Their “Truman Show,” maintained by lies and violence, is full of loopholes and on the brink of collapse.
So, they are not afraid of you claiming to be a Christian because the Chinese culture’s “Bone-Melting Soft Palm” (also known as “Sauce Jar Technique”) does not fear a Christian without a church, a “lonely ghost.” Haven’t you seen that the “Sinicization of Christianity” since the Republic of China era has achieved great success in both temples and rivers? Many Chinese Christians have spent their lives being “dressed in Western clothes, but with a heart that is still Chinese.”
Before 2012, even in some places before 2018, the publicization of the church continuously showed the fruit of “wholesale gospel proclamation.” Most urban house churches only needed to open their doors to welcome new friends and would experience continuous growth. One pastor even said: The bigger the church you rent, the more people will come to fill it!
This is why this round of persecution aims to make the church underground, small group-based, and atomized. Why have they formulated Internet religious regulations but delayed their full implementation? At this stage, they wish the church would retreat online—because this net is also a “fishing” tool they have long prepared.
Dear brothers and sisters, have you noticed that this round of persecution is very different from the era of Wang Mingdao, Lin Xiangao, and Yang Xingfei? Back then, persecution revealed “heroes of faith,” but this round of persecution has revealed “confessing churches.” So far, “wholesale gospel proclamation” has only encountered channel disruption, not substantial destruction.
In a sense, this can be seen as “hunger marketing” implemented by God. When our Lord removes all obstacles in the channels and brings a group of souls hungering and thirsting for righteousness into the church, will we be the good servants, the wise stewards, ready to welcome the harvest and revival?
The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. Let us awaken to the gospel, for the time is now!
With you, living for the “incomparable and eternal glory,” Brother Yingqiang Written in Guangzhou on a journey, April 30, 2023
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