Abstract:
China’s House Churches have gone through intensive persecution in recent
years: church buildings closed by government forces, leaders imprisoned, biblical
materials seized, and members under constant threats of imprisonment. Socially, China
continues to become more secular in culture. Economically, the country is in a financial
downturn with a massive youth unemployment. Politically, a war conflict with Taiwan
is looming. For house church Christians in China, the call to live out their faith in public
spheres and practice public theology seems impossible and impractical. Yet, examples
of Christians in the early church provide encouragement and hope for today’s Christians
under authoritarian rule. The similarities between the early churches and today’s house
churches in China are striking – cultural rejection, religious intolerance, political
oppression, and lack of material resources. Yet, Christians from the early churches
strived in number and influence. The mode of evangelism and living out their faith
despite oppression provides much insight to today’s Christians. Small gatherings, home
evangelism, personal testimony, and lifestyle evangelism are all methods used by early
church Christians, which can be of reference to today’s Christians in China. House
church Christians in China are already changing their practice from mega-churches in
the 1990s to small gatherings of fewer than ten people.
This paper analyzes the examples of evangelism through practicing public
theology and living out one’s faith in daily living. The lessons from the early church’s
history encourage today’s house church Christians and believers under persecution to
persevere and remain hopeful. These lessons also provide a paradigm for doing public
theology in a state of authoritarian rule. Christians outside of repressive regimes can
also learn how to help with the needs of the oppressed brothers and sisters.
