Faith in Practice
Not playing games
ROGER* was once a Methodist Minister but now works for Open Doors, a charity that serves persecuted Christians worldwide, including those in China, whom he has visited several times.
I have always been against the Olympic Games being held in China because of its human rights record. In fact in the lead up to the Games we have become aware of more activity by the state: people being watched, people being forced out of the country. I'm concerned to see what will happen in September, once the eyes of the world have drifted away again.
The treatment of Christians in China is different depending on who you are and where you are. In the universities, students are quite open about their faith; often more so than here. I met a man sharing a dormitory with seven others who would openly read his Bible and pray without any trouble. He even started a discipleship group.
There is a legal church in China called the Three-Self Church. This is named for its self-governance, its self-support - financially - and its self-propagation - only indigenous Chinese members can evangelise to non-members. One Three-Self Church in Beijing is huge, holding 2-3,000 worshippers. It began in the 1870s as an American Methodist church but is now known as the Chongwenmen Christian Church, regulated by the state.
The state regulations extend to the teaching of the church, which is as much defined by what they don't believe as what they do: they don't believe in miracles, the Holy Spirit or the idea of Jesus' return. If you want to be a legal Christian in China, you must follow the state-regulated theology. It is the people in the underground churches that are persecuted.
We are campaigning at the moment for the release of a man called Shi Weihan who was arrested in March. He owns a bookstore in Beijing, which operated legally and sold only books for which he had obtained government permission. His printing press, however, printed Bibles and Christian literature without authorisation for distribution to local house churches. Last January, Shi was concerned about publishing the unauthorised books but because the churches needed them, he felt the risk was worth taking. He has a wife and two children, but he also has diabetes and his wife is not allowed to bring him medication. Public Security Bureau officials have been known to use deprivation and torture to force detainees to reveal information about others.
The last time I was in China I was invited to preach at an underground church, a house church that met in a couple's apartment. The first thing I was shown was the escape route: out the balcony and over the roof.
The leader of this group was a fourth generation Chinese Christian. He and his wife had chosen not to have a family, but to dedicate their life to their church. Their small apartment had almost no furniture, except the 25 folding chairs in each room. They also rented the apartment below.
Before I began to preach I was led out of the apartment past the toilet to a hole in the wall, where there was a hidden camera; my sermon was relayed by closed circuit television to the 150 people in all six rooms!
It has been estimated that there are 35,000 new Christians a week in China. One of the biggest problems is a lack of Bibles. At the Three-Self service you are allowed only one. If you want to buy more they ask who for, how many, and in what church? I met a young leader of a house church who had only been a Christian for two years. I was able to give him a study Bible. He was able to teach about faith in ways he had never had understood before.
I think it's wonderful that more Bibles are being printed and will be allowed to be given out at the Olympics, but with 1.3 billion people in China there needs to be more; people there are hungry for them.
I became a Christian through my wife. When we married I would sometimes go with her to church, just for moral support. It didn't mean anything to me. After about 18 months, the vicar put me down for a confirmation course. I didn't have the guts to turn him down so I went along. There were ten sessions, all pointless and not relevant to me, until the ninth. God hit me. I had the realisation that Jesus was real. I got back late that night and my wife met me at the top of the stairs, saying 'There must be something wrong, you don't normally get out of the car singing!' To this day I don't know what I was singing.
At the time I was in insurance. I would go into work early to do my devotions and one morning - a few months into a lay reader course I was doing - I opened my Bible, and the whole page was blurry except for one verse: 'Don't be afraid, from now on you will be a fisher of men.' It was a day of signs. Eventually I took the hint and became a Methodist minister.
It was while I was on a sabbatical that I came across Open Doors. I joined them on a trip to Colombia, to see more of what they do. I thought I would be a blessing to the people I met, but they were a blessing to me. I realised that much of my existing work was irrelevant compared to the pressures on Christians overseas.
Everyone in churches and house groups across the UK should know about the needs and situation of Christians persecuted abroad. The Christians we meet overseas always ask: 'Please pray for us.'
Roger was talking to Hannah Kowszun
*Full name withheld for security reasons
Post a comment