House-Church Networks: An Overview (Part 1)

Edited by Tony Lambert, OMF China Researcher

Independent house-church networks have sprung up across China since the mid-1970s. They are evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit on a wide scale. In this and future editions of GCM we will look at some of the major networks in some detail.

As there is considerable confusion and exaggeration overseas, it would be good to make some general observations to set the scene.

“House church” may conjure up a picture of a few elderly people meeting in a home for Bible study and prayer. This is certainly true in many places in China. However, the house-church networks we are looking at are organizations of many hundreds of churches across China, with their own leadership and structure. In many cases, especially in rural areas, hundreds of people may attend regular meetings at just one such house church. There are evangelists, elders and “uncles” or supervisors, who are acknowledged leaders of the entire network.

Theologically, house churches are very diverse. They range from the wildly charismatic to the ultra-conservative and all shades in between. All accept the Bible as the word of God and, although overseas categories do not always apply neatly, they may be regarded as “evangelical” and sometimes even “fundamentalist.” All believe that the sovereign God is alive and able to heal and work miracles in answer to prayer—however, this, again, does not mean that all can be neatly labeled “charismatic” in the overseas sense.

The overseas visitor is struck by certain characteristics which stand out in many widely varying situations:

• Hunger for God’s word and delight in in-depth exposition (sermons lasting 1-2 hours are common);
• Intensity in prayer, both private and communal;
• Zeal for personal evangelism;
• Belief in the supernatural which takes the Scriptures at face value;
• Concern for truth and right doctrine (often leading to acrimonious divisions);
• Willingness to suffer for the gospel;
• Centrality of the cross and atonement of Christ.

Now let us look at some of the major networks. Firstly, two which have a long history predating the Communist victory in 1949.

THE JESUS FAMILY (YESU JIATING)
This indigenous Chinese Christian communal movement was started in Shandong in 1921 by a converted Confucian scholar. It advocated a more radical return to New Testament Christianity. Converts were encouraged to give away their possessions to the poor and live in “Christian communes.” These rapidly became a byword for industry, thrift and honesty. By 1951 there were 127 “families” spread across China (half of them in Shandong) with several thousand members. The leaders enthusiastically supported the new Three Self movement in the early 1950s as they naively believed their form of “Christian communism” would be welcomed by the Party. In fact, the movement was suppressed and their original leader denounced and imprisoned.

However, the Jesus Family has had a profound influence on the subsequent development of the house-church movement. Reliance on God in abject poverty, thrift and “tentmaking” evangelism can all be traced back to the Jesus Family.

Over the last 25 years house churches based more or less loosely on Jesus Family principles have mushroomed again across North China, especially in Shandong. Attempts to restart communal living have been suppressed by the authorities. In 1987 Christians in Anhui tried to set up a “Family” but were arrested. In 1992 a bigger effort in Shandong was stopped by police and the leaders arrested and sentenced to 5-12 years in labor camp.

Claims overseas that this group numbers 5 million must be viewed with some skepticism. However, in 1990 about 100 leaders in this tradition held a Spring conference which shows there is an extensive network. Some Jesus Family Christians prefer to work under the official Three Self umbrella; for example, in a rural county of Shandong by 2001 they had set up a clinic with 22 doctors, 4 pharmacists and 8 nurses—all committed Jesus Family believers. They treat 20,000 outpatients every year.

The Jesus Family’s uncompromising, radical version of New Testament Christianity is likely to have great appeal to the masses of poverty-stricken and unemployed peasants.

THE LITTLE FLOCK OR LOCAL CHURCH
Most overseas Christians have heard of Watchman Nee (1903-1972) or even read one of his numerous books such as The Normal Christian Life or Sit-Walk-Stand. Watchman Nee (his Chinese name was Ni Tuosheng) was greatly dissatisfied with Western denominations and mission boards controlling the Chinese church and sought to return to New Testament simplicity. By the 1930s he had set up independent assemblies in Fujian province and Shanghai. Later, the new movement attracted many educated, young people in many cities across China. By 1950 there were about 200 “local churches” across China.

Nee was greatly influenced by the extreme separatist theology of J. N. Darby of the Plymouth Brethren. This meant that each “local church” was THE “true church” in a locality. Other already existing churches were ignored or looked down upon. This led to a certain narrowness and even spiritual pride. Nee was also something of a mystic, and influenced by the writings of Andrew Murray, Jessie Penn-Lewis and the Catholic mystic Madame Guyon. (These works are still read widely by Local Church believers in China today.)

This intense, world-denying, pietistic spirit has widely permeated the Chinese church. At its best it has fostered a deep love of the Scriptures and of sound doctrine. But at its worst it has led to division and a certain negative attitude to “the world” which has led many of the believers to eschew all social involvement as unspiritual.

The new assemblies were sometimes known as the Little Flock or Local Church. By 1948 Nee’s right-hand man, Witness Lee (Li Changshou) who came from Yantai in Shandong, began to establish a more hierarchical system of control over the previously autonomous Local Churches. By 1949 membership had soared to at least 70,000 (about 10 percent of the total number of Christians then in China!)

In 1952 the new government arrested Nee who was accused of various financial and sexual improprieties. He was sentenced to 15 years in labor camp. In 1956 the Little Flock was effectively dissolved under Three Self pressure. Nee died in a labor camp in Anhui in 1972. In the meantime, the movement went underground and, because of its Bible-centered, intensive cell-group organization, was perhaps uniquely placed to emerge and multiply in the late 1970s.

Meanwhile, Witness Lee had moved to Taiwan which became the chief base for his operations. Later, in 1962, he moved to California from where he was free to develop the Local Church as a tightly-knit organization. Due to some of Lee’s views being viewed as more modalistic rather than orthodox, many assemblies (such as the one in Hong Kong) broke away. In 1997 Lee died, and it seems his movement has lost momentum as many assemblies in America, Germany and elsewhere have broken away from his grip and moved back to a more biblical position.

In Mainland China by the early 1980s when China again opened up, most Little Flock believers were blissfully unaware of Lee’s moves towards what some saw as an increasingly authoritarian and sectarian religion. Lee’s supporters flooded Local Church house churches with his booklets and tracts. In 1983 the Chinese government labeled his followers a sect called the “Shouters” because of their practice of shouting Bible verses or slogans. More seriously, it was declared “reactionary”—a serious political accusation which no doubt was partly earned by Lee’s close Taiwan connections. It has been ruthlessly suppressed, and there is little doubt that many genuine believers have been wrongly accused. In general, older Little Flock leaders on the Mainland have kept to the milder ways laid down by Watchman Nee and denounced Lee’s teachings as divisive, even heretical. Some younger followers have enthusiastically followed Lee and risk arrest and even imprisonment.

Some Little Flock Christians have accepted Three Self oversight and meet on Three Self church premises—while still jealously guarding their own traditions such as “breaking of bread” and believers’ baptism. Many others prefer to meet independently in house churches. The movement has been very conservative, enforcing head-coverings for women. Pastors are not accepted, but each assembly has certain elders or “leading brethren.”

The situation is further complicated by the split between those who follow Witness Lee and those who keep to the original Watchman Nee tradition. In some rural areas, there are reliable reports that some believers have developed a cult of Witness Lee, worshipping him as equal with God, calling on him as Lord Changshou (Changshou zhu). This, in fairness, goes far beyond what Witness Lee himself taught.

According to Three Self statistics published in 2005, about 200,000 believers in 20 provinces were led astray by the Shouters’ false teaching in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Shouters have been persecuted and their leaders imprisoned, so their influence may have lessened. However, the Shouters have proved a fertile seed-bed for more extreme cults such as the Established King, The Lord God Cult and Eastern Lightning.

Today the more orthodox Little Flock assemblies flourish throughout China as independent house churches. Xiaoshan in Zhejiang and Fuqing in Fujian each may have about 100,000 Little Flock believers worshipping in their own assemblies.

In Fuzhou there is a flourishing assembly attended by many young people who show great evangelistic zeal and knowledge of the Scriptures.

It is difficult to estimate numbers nationally but it may be that Christians in the Little Flock tradition could number 1-2 million. It is interesting to note that whereas all Western denominations have disappeared without hardly a trace in China, the Little Flock, despite its undoubted weaknesses, has survived and multiplied as an authentic indigenous Chinese church.
(to be continued)

Copyright 2006 OMF International