Tonight we had two friends of ours over for dinner who are living in China. They moved there to be serving on the mission of Jesus - so I can't go into details. But, I have heard so much about China and the growing house church movement there. It was great to be able to ask lots of questions about what it is like there and about churches in China.
Unlike the USA, in China there are such restrictions to religious freedom and what someone can practice with their faith. In China they have government controlled churches, who pretty much can only meet on Sundays and are highly regulated in what they can teach on. There has been a rising movement of house churches whom are not sanctioned ones by the government, so these house churches are illegal - and they are rapidly growing. I read it was estimated to be in the millions of those who are now part of these small organic house churches.
In the USA recently, I have heard several times from some house church advocates how this movement in China where the church meets in homes is what we should be doing here now and is the "new wineskins" for the church. It is said by some that the time period for larger churches and even megachurches is going to end, and they are not producing the fruit and growth like is happening in China with house churches. I always find that interesting, as in my personal experience (which is limited) most people in house-church-only advocates are those who became disillusioned with their church, so they formed a house church. I blogged about this before here.
But, I had an interesting comment tonight from my friends in China about this. They are very familiar with the scene there, since they live there and study and talk to Christians and church leaders in China. But the question that stuck in my mind tonight about the house churches in China that was:
"If Christianity was made legal in China - would the house church movement phase into becoming megachurches if they were able to?"
My friend from China thought most likely, if the house churches had freedom to worship and meet like we are able to in the USA - that most of the house churches would then morph into becoming megachurches. He said there would most likely still retain home meetings, like megachurches have. But he said that because there would be the desire to worship in large group settings, the need also for children's ministry etc. that house churches in China would likely change if they had freedom into larger churches.
So, then my question moves to - can we really equate and try to imitate the house church movement in China here? It is an entirely different context there and if they would most likely adopt to more of a large church models if they legally could - then should we be saying "look how the Spirit is moving there? (which it is) but then say that is what we should be doing here in our cultural context?"
I have been thinking about this since they left our home earlier and then started wondering if religious freedom did occur one day in China, would we then see a ton of megachurches birthed and grow even to proportions and sizes that would be unheard of here in the USA? Kind of like the Yoida Full Gospel Church in South Korea which has 100,000 people each weekend and over 800,000 church members. If Christianity became legal in China, would we see it common for 100,000 people attending weekend services at churches in China?
Interesting to think about - but I guess I am wonder if we should be comparing the hopes for the future church here to what is happening currently in China in house churches? It could be quite a paradox to watch Chinese house churches become megachurches if the church was free from persecution and allowed to meet publicly and then build buildings, and even huge mega-mammoth church buildings like in Korea.
Pondering thoughts at 12:46 AM after dinner and hanging out with two people living in China.
