A Parable from the Past: Preparing for Persecution, Part One

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p.MsoFootnoteText, li.MsoFootnoteText, div.MsoFootnoteText {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-link:"Footnote Text Char"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} span.MsoFootnoteReference {mso-style-noshow:yes; vertical-align:super;} span.FootnoteTextChar {mso-style-name:"Footnote Text Char"; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-locked:yes; mso-style-link:"Footnote Text";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> --> <div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qW_68rM9_ME..." imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qW_68rM9_ME..." height="200" width="133" /></a>I’m often asked if I feel that our organic church movement has accomplished all that I had hoped. The answer is no. We are not the movement that I hoped for…<i>yet</i>. But that is partly because I have always felt that what we were doing was preparing the church for what is coming: persecution. Because it has not come yet the movement has not fully realized all that it was meant to. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I see our work as sowing seeds for a future harvest, and I believe that future is getting closer every day.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>One of the heroes of my faith is Watchman Nee. God used him (and his contemporaries) to prepare the church in China before the Communist revolution took over. He launched the “Little Flock” movement, which was a radical departure from the Western church model that had been planted in China prior. It was smaller, simpler in structure, less expensive and more indigenous. The churches met in smaller gatherings in homes led by ordinary people with real jobs. <br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">When the communists took over the nation they arrested the church leaders (like Nee) and seized all church property. The indigenous expressions of simple churches meeting in homes not only survived…they thrived. The Cultural Revolution of Mao Tse-Tung sought to eliminate all religion from society in China but instead mobilized the church and it grew from about 2 million Christians in 1949 to over 60 million.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blo..." name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a></span>It is estimated today that there may be upwards of 80 million Christians in China.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blo..." name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Contrast this with the church of Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church was dependent upon three things: holy buildings, holy men in robes, and holy services performed by those men in those buildings. When the communists took over in Russia they seized all the buildings and arrested or compromised all the leaders of the church. The church was devastated.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I carry deep inside a feeling that everything I have been about for the past 20 years is just preparing the bride of Christ for what is to come. Like Nee, I have been striving to bring health and simplicity back to the church, and with that an ability to ride out any storm that may come. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">But there is another movement in America that looks far closer to the Russian church than the Chinese. Just as it was easy to decimate the church in Russia the church in the US may be equally weak and not surprising it is the same three areas that will be the downfall.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">In the next week I will post a few ideas on this blog about how vulnerable our churches are to persecution and what I think may take place in the next couple years to expose those vulnerabilities. </div><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><br clear="all" /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blo..." name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a> Alan Hirsch, <i>The Forgotten Ways</i>, Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2006, p. 19</span></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><br /><div id="ftn" style="mso-element: footnote;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blo..." name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a> Philip Yancey, “Discreet and Dynamic: Why, with No Apparent Resources, Chinese Churches Thrive,” <i>Christianity Today,</i>July 2004, p. 72</span></div></div></div>