House-Church Networks—An Overview (Part 2)

Edited by Tony Lambert, OMF China Researcher

There are some six large house-church networks which now extend across China. They are largely based in rural central China, especially the provinces of Henan and Anhui which have been centers of church growth and even revival for the last 30 years. Although their base is largely in rural villages, this does not mean they have not extended their evangelistic activities into larger towns and cities in many instances. This move into city evangelism has been almost forced to their attention by the large-scale movement of many young people (including many Christians) from the villages to the cities in search of better paid employment.

FANGCHENG CHURCH

The revival began in villages in Fangcheng County in southern Henan in the late 1960s when some people were healed in answer to prayer. After his release in 1970 from labor camp, Pastor Li, a well-known “patriarch” of the house churches, who is still alive in Shanghai, traveled widely in Henan, preaching the gospel. As early as 1974 there were thousands of active Christians in Fangcheng.

One of the early leaders was Zhang Rongliang. He was sentenced to 7 years in labor camp in 1974. In the mid-1970s there was great persecution in Henan. Bibles were extremely rare and there was a great focus in Fangcheng on miracles and visions. In October 1981 Fangcheng leaders held a one-day conference for 400-500 young evangelists, and from then on the church became much more bold. These trained youngsters—some still teenagers—were sent out in pairs all over China. In 1982 they had links with Hong Kong believers who sent them many Bibles.

Later Zhang went overseas to the United States to share the vision of the house churches and raise funds. However, on December 1, 2004 he was arrested in Henan and is still in prison. The leadership appears now to have been taken over by younger leaders.

The Fangcheng church is charismatic in practice and has been regarded as divisive by some other more conservative house churches. The structure is reportedly loose because of persecution, but the original church in Fangcheng County is called “the Mother Church.” This network has sent out evangelists over the past decade to every province of China. Heilongjiang, for example, may have 100,000 Fangcheng-associated Christians. The total number of believers associated with Fangcheng has been estimated as high as 12 million, but Zhang Rongliang is on record as saying the real figure is around 5 million (see p. 78 Jesus in Beijing).

In 2004 the Fangcheng church had about 30 of its own training schools (mainly in the rural areas) giving 1-3 year basic Bible training. Five of these are for “missionary” training for outreach to the national minorities and ultimately to fulfill the Back to Jerusalem vision. This group has about 50 students in training for BTJ. (Some of the other large networks have similar numbers—this shows that claims overseas of 100,000 in training or soon to be sent out are untrue.) On average, each school has about 20-30 students. About 75 percent of their funding for training already comes from overseas sources, particularly the United States and Taiwan. This group, which is also known as China for Christ, seems to have taken a definite decision to seek Western funding. This is unfortunate, as vigorous, indigenous churches are now in danger of becoming controlled by overseas groups—a serious blow to the biblical principals of self-governing and self-supporting indigenous churches.

CHINA GOSPEL FELLOWSHIP

This network started as a village house church in the summer of 1980 in Tanghe County in southern Henan. It is therefore sometimes also called the “Tanghe church.” The key leader is a brother Shen. He was born in 1957 and his family experienced the awful famine of the late fifties and early sixties.

By 1982 numbers of Christians in his locality had increased from a dozen to over 200. In those days Shen had never seen a complete Bible nor a gospel preacher. A woman from a university in Xi’an eventually gave him a Bible. The gospel spread like wildfire from village to village, often accompanied by miracles and healings.

In 1983, especially July that year, there was a massive crackdown on the house churches because of the “Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign.” Shen was falsely accused of being “a die-hard Shouter and follower of Li Changshou” (see the section on the Little Flock in our March edition) although he had never heard of Witness Lee and had come to faith in Christ with no foreign contacts whatsoever. Shen then went on the run as an itinerant evangelist. By the end of 1984 there were over 200 house churches in a loose network and evangelists were sent out to neighboring Hubei and Anhui.

In 1992 Shen and 90 other Christians were arrested, and he was kept in prison for three months, but this in no way hindered the spread of the gospel. In March 1994 they held a big Christian workers’ conference in Tanghe; seventy “gospel evangelists” were commissioned and sent out to more than 20 provinces nationwide, including Inner Mongolia. In just a year there was a mighty harvest.

In Inner Mongolia these house-church Christians now number, reportedly, 100,000 members. By 1997 the Eastern Lightning cult was active in Tanghe and Shen was busy reclaiming believers who had been led astray. In November 1997, just a few days after the birth of his daughter, Shen was again arrested and imprisoned for 40 days. Shen was told bluntly: “You are a house church. Anybody who has not joined the Three Self is a cult. This has been decided by the higher authorities.”

Shen was released and in November 1998, together with other leaders of the key networks, signed a joint “Confession of Faith” which was thoroughly evangelical in content.

The CGF is one of the larger networks. It has been stated as a fact in America that it has 10 million followers. However, Brother Shen is on record as claiming that in 2004 the network had 23 “districts” [pian], each with roughly 100,000 believers; so the real total is about 2.3 million. (Even this figure may not be altogether reliable as it has since emerged that some districts have far less than 100,000 believers; however it appears closer to reality than the higher figures publicized abroad as it comes from the top leader himself.)

In April 2002 the CGF was dealt a staggering blow when 34 of its top leaders were kidnapped by the ruthless cult Lightning from the East. In a cunning, simultaneous operation which took months to plan, the cultists lured the leaders to six different cities pretending to be Bible teachers from Singapore. For many days they were trapped and brainwashed. One leader later wrote: “Every one of the kidnapped co-workers shared his experience in confinement, disclosing the vile and despicable methods of Lightning from the East such as lying, deceit, bribery, sexual enticement, mind-altering drugs, blackmail, spiritual and emotional torments, disruption of families etc.” Two co-workers managed to escape and reported the case to the police. Under pressure from the police, Eastern Lightning was forced to release all the CGF leaders. On June 20, 2002 they held a leaders’ meeting to discuss their experiences and how to combat false Eastern Lighting teaching.

On June 11, 2004 about a hundred leaders of the CGF were arrested in the central Chinese city of Wuhan while holding meetings, and were detained for about three weeks.

In 2004 the CGF had 26 Bible training schools most of which were rural operating one-year courses. However, there are half a dozen urban schools operating 2-3 year courses. In 2003-2004 the CGF had 50 believers in training for BTJ but by early 2006 the number had reportedly decreased to only 22 as there had been some problems.

CHINA HAS OVER HALF A MILLION ORPHANS

China has currently 573,000 orphans, according to Li Liguo, the Vice Minister of Civil Affairs. Sixty-six thousand of them have been adopted by government-sponsored orphanages. At a press conference Li said: “New orphan problems such as the insufficient basic maintenance and the incomplete orphanage salvation system [sic] have frequently emerged.”

Nearly 80 percent of the orphans, aged under 18, are adopted by relatives, mostly grandparents who are in their 70s or 80s and living under the poverty line. Some live with their uncles or aunts. Adoption places a strain on families and often stirs up conflicts within them. Some adopted children roam the streets and may commit juvenile delinquency after making bad friends, according to Mr. Li.

Children under 15 years old who have lost one parent now number as many as 76,000.

Relevant departments are currently improving orphanages, providing orphans with life subsistence expenses, and offering more financial assistance to their education, medical treatment, employment and lodging. (Report from Xinhuanet 5 January 2006)

We would just comment that Christians (both Chinese and foreign) have been in the forefront of fostering and adopting needy children in China. Long may this continue!

Copyright 2005 International