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ASIA FOCUS May 2011 No.37 Persecution and church growth: NORTH African church father Tertullian (160-220 AD) famously said, The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Indeed, the early church may have never spread victoriously around the world if it hadn’t been for persecution. Today, one reason for the phenomenal growth of the church in China is the fact that it has been persecuted ever since the Communist takeover in 1949. The church in Laos is also persecuted. A leader in the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC) said the other day, We need persecution for the growth of our church. It makes us strong. The LEC, the second-largest body of any kind in the country has experienced incredible growth over the last 20 years—in part because of persecution. Yet a pastor in the Philippines said, If they started to persecute us, I’m afraid there won’t be anyone left going to my church. And what has been the experience of Lutherans in Australia between World War I and II? The mere sniff of persecution because of their German background made large numbers of Lutherans in Queensland abandon their church. They left in droves! Clear evidence suggests that the church in countries like Iraq and Iran is slowly dying because of persecution. The number of Christians in Iran has shrunk by two-thirds since the Islamic revolution in 1979. As to Iraq, it is predicted that there won't be any significant numbers of Christians left within a few decades—a country that many millions of Christians have called their home for centuries! Why this contradiction? The churches that prosper under persecution are generally young churches without much institutional apparatus. They have little: few buildings, few offices and little bureaucracy. They are more movement than establishment. They can melt away into the underground like a guerrilla army. On the other hand, churches that are dependent on buildings, rituals, history, traditions, hallowed liturgies and an esteemed priesthood are much more vulnerable. An example: the Orthodox churches of the Middle East. They usually don’t have a missionary spirit either. The institutionalised church with all its power, influence and money, with expensive properties, schools and choirs, can easily die in the day of trouble unless it is able to radically reinvent itself and become open to change in dramatic fashion. The church that is poor and has nothing but the Gospel and gathers faithfully around Word and Sacrament has power to prosper no matter what! How people react to persecution is a barometer of the spiritual health of the church. How we react to it speaks volumes about the strength of our faith. However, we cast no aspersions on fellow believers who escape persecution by leaving their homeland, particularly certain Muslim countries. We don’t doubt the strength of their faith. We know their despair. We all have to learn to embrace change. As Lutherans, we too may need to be willing to be poor, to give up and to give away in order to become truly rich. The day may come soon when we will be reduced to mere Christianity—being left with only the Gospel! We need so little to follow Jesus. We can probably do without 95% of what we have as a church: our strong institutional base, our properties and salaries. As it is, 70 to 80 per cent (sometimes more) of the giving of our faithful people is eaten up by ourselves, the institution called the Lutheran Church of Australia. LESS can become MORE. Loss can become gain and defeat victory! This is always the way of the Cross, the way of Christ. In the end we may discover once again: When I am weak then I am strong (2 Cor 12, 10). Pastor August Fricke |
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