I’m reading a thought-provoking book by Alan Hirsch. I have been very encouraged by this book, because, to be honest, I continue to judge our church's effectiveness against a theological understanding of church I am in tension with. He shares many prophetic insights within this book. There will be more, but here’s a tid-bit.

“To illustrate this with a bit of living irony, a friend of mine, Michael Frost, was, in 2005, privy to a meeting with three Chinese leaders from the underground church who were smuggled out to a group of Western leaders. When they were asked what they wanted people to pray for they asked for three things: While acknowledging that the government has become more lenient, they were still not allowed to gather in groups of more that fifteen people, and when they grew beyond that they had to split and start a new church. The second issue they addressed was that they were not allowed to have church buildings and were thus forced to meet in homes, cafes, karaoke bars, and social clubs. The third thing they felt they needed a breakthrough with was that they were forbidden to develop separate organizations where they could collectively train leaders; they were forced to train leaders in the local church. Michael, himself a vice president of a seminary, has often said that in all good conscience he simply could not pray for them in this way, because he and the group gathered there realized that in many ways the Communist state was forcing the church to remain more true to itself. Philip Yancey likewise reports on his life-changing trip to China. He says, “Before going to China I met with on of the missionaries we left behind, ‘he said. ‘They had no one to teach them, no printing presses, no seminaries, no one to run their clinics & orphanages. No resources, really, except the Holy Spirit.’” Yancey concludes, “It appears the Holy Spirit is doing just fine.”

This quote got me thinking. I am amazed that although we are looking to China to see what they are doing right, they continue to want to do church as has been done in the Western world; which, ironically, is working in a few isolated situations, but overall, is failing. It’s also remarkable to see how we have filled the Chinese with our cultural concepts concerning church: Buildings, Large churches, and Para-church organizations, including seminaries. Not leaving the Chinese (or anyone we evangelized for that matter: see colonialism) content to walk out life together as believers who then discover what it means to do & be the church in & to their culture, we have also imported the “how to” along with the “because of whom.” Therefore, Chinese believers are still waiting to do church like us & we, some of us at least, pray for Communism.

Check out the website Here.