Radical Obedience of the Rural Underground Chinese Church — E.A. Johnston

Underground Worship Under Persecution

On the other hand, the rural church has to go underground to hide from the government, to avoid arrest and imprisonment with their New Testament message of the cross of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The underground church service has an average time of around 8 to 10 hours, if you can believe that.

Hunger for the Word of God

The Chinese love to sit and listen to the word of God. I know that's hard for us to comprehend here in the West. We can barely make it an hour without our stomachs grumbling and our minds going to our favorite restaurant.

Listening to the Word Rather Than Seeking Comfort

But the Chinese, all they want is the word and the God of the word. This is a distinction of the Chinese underground church. They really love the word of God and love to hear it preached. They will sit for hours upon hours listening to the word.

Even if they've heard it before, they'll take copiously notes and they'll weep over it and really soak into them like a sponge. They hunger for the word of God more than real food. I know this is hard for us to appreciate or understand here in the West, where we have a dozen Bibles in our homes and hardly ever read them.

Childlike Faith and Memorization of Scripture

The Chinese have a simple childlike faith. All they have is their Bible. They are walking Bibles because they have memorized much of it. It is not uncommon for a Chinese believer to have memorized the four Gospels in their entirety.

They've memorized the book of Proverbs. Many of them have memorized all the epistles. So they are not only literate of their Bible, but they take their Bible literally as well. They believe the whale swallowed Jonah.

They believe in the virgin birth of Christ. They believe in the miracles of the Bible. They believe the God of the Bible and that he can do big things and he does big things because of their strong belief and faith.

The underground church in China, it's basically a New Testament church. There are no titles among them. No one is called doctor. No one is called pastor. They call each other brother and sister. They don't use titles.

They feel titles divide. What they do is defined by function or gifts, not title. Some may be gifted as a teacher, so they'll teach. Some may be gifted in hospitality, so their gifts are used that way.

Gifts, Family, and the Body of Christ

Their gift makes room for them to serve in that capacity. To them, the church is a filial entity. Every member is essential. They see the church as a family, a true body of Christ. They are on-fire Christians with a real vital walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Unity Beyond Denominational Labels

There are no denominations in the underground church. You won't find any Baptists. You won't find any Methodists. You won't find any Presbyterians. You won't find any denomination. They just prefer to be called followers of Christ.

That's what they call each other, followers of Christ.