Church leaders must always be setting the church back 2000 years to its missional DNA.
In 100 AD, there were approximately 25,000 followers of Jesus Christ. Over the next 200 years, in the context of intense persecution, the number of people who were following Christ, even though it put them in peril of losing everything including their lives, grew to 20 million (with no institutions, big buildings, focus on 'style' and 'performance'...without worship bands, cool student ministries, seminaries, or commentaries).
- AD 100 circa 25,000 believers
- AD 310 circa 20,000,000 believers (in the context of intense persecution)
Can it happen today? It IS happening today! It is not happening where faith is couched in comfort and performance-oriented. (America/Europe).
China has experienced a numerical explosion of Christ-followers in the past century. This movement was fueled in the context of intense persecution under Mao Tse-tung. It's estimated that at the beginning of the 'purging' of Christianity from China there were around 2 million professed believers. All foreign missionaries were banned from the county. All senior leaders of churches were summarily executed. All second and third level leaders were imprisoned. All public meetings of Christians were banned with threat of torture and death.
The Mao 'purging' ended in the 1970's. In the early eighties, some missionaries were allowed back into the country, albeit under intense scrutiny and government control. They expected to find the church decimated and a few weak and battered disciples. On the contrary, they found an exponential, Spirit-empowered, gospel movement of 'underground' house church networks numbering more than 60 million! In 2004, Time magazine reported that there were at least 80 million Christians in China. In Christianity Today magazine, Philip Yancy wrote about the movement in an article called, "Discreet and Dynamic: Why, with No Apparent Resources, Chinese Churches Thrive."
I will never forget being in Thailand, giving gift bags that included a Bible in Mandarin to Chinese tourists in Pattaya. When Chinese believers realized we were giving away Bibles, they beamed with excitement and asked for as many as we could give them to pack in their suitcases in an attempt to smuggle them into their country, supplying house churches with a complete Bible. You see, the house churches would share portions (sometimes only a single page of Scripture) after they had studied it together, because they could not get entire Bibles. The Bible, to them, was this world's greatest treasure. Their mission was simple: share the gospel of Jesus Christ, treasure and teach God's Word, encourage and support one another. That's it. No buildings, no budgets, no equipment.
Why is the gospel not prevailing in our culture? Could it be that we simply don't share it? Could it be that we are too comfortable (lukewarm)? Could it be that our commitment to Jesus Christ is so shallow that in face of the 'daunting' possibility that someone won't like us, we don't share the ONLY hope of salvation, redemption, and restoration for the world? It is a fact: persecution produces fully committed followers of Jesus Christ. Will it take that in America to shake us from complacency? Would God allow it because the most important thing to Him is that people know and follow His Son?
I believe a revolution could be coming to the American and European church. It won't be comfortable. It will be wonderful. A new/ancient kind of church can emerge. It will not require millions of dollars. It will not be the Sunday Morning Show. It will be simple and empowered by Spirit. It will not be in the form of the mega-church, spiritual health club. It will be a myriad of smaller communities of faith, exuding a love for Jesus Christ, people, and God's Word.
I believe a revolution could be coming to the American and European church. It won't be comfortable. It will be wonderful. A new/ancient kind of church can emerge. It will not require millions of dollars. It will not be the Sunday Morning Show. It will be simple and empowered by Spirit. It will not be in the form of the mega-church, spiritual health club. It will be a myriad of smaller communities of faith, exuding a love for Jesus Christ, people, and God's Word.
Simple. Faithful. Reproducible. Supportive. Gospel focused. Treasuring the "great and precious promises" of God.
