Lessons in China’s house church: Archdeacon writes June

Joseph Smith | 28 May 2007

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I have recently been reading a biography of Samuel Lamb regarded by many as a father figure in the extraordinary growth of the house church movement in China during the past fifty years. Pastor Lamb was imprisoned for more than twenty years from the mid-fifties until 1978. Prior to and during that period his house was often ransacked, his church closed down and his ministry tools confiscated or destroyed yet with a gentle boldness he stood firm for his faith and his church grew to over a thousand members.

In the same period that Samuel lamb was in prison I along with others were singing songs in church in Australia about standing firm. Songs like ‘Dare to be a Daniel Dare to Stand Alone’, ‘O for a Faith That will Not Shrink When Pressed by Many a Foe’, ‘He Who Would Valiant Be’, and ‘Stand Up Stand Up for Jesus’. While we no longer sing these songs, they exhorted us to stand firm and persevere to the end.

Standing firm is a constant theme in the New Testament and a call repeated in most of the New Testament letters. But against what dangers do we have to stand firm in our society?

We don’t have the threat of violent persecution and harsh treatment that was handed out to Pastor Lamb – a persecution which is currently experienced by Christians in many parts of the world. However, there are still things against which we should stand. Such things might be the attempts by many to dilute or distort the gospel to accommodate today’s more ‘enlightened’ society; attempts which have also been present since the first century; attempts which subtly reinterpret key gospel issues such as sin and judgment and the authority of Scripture to make them more acceptable. Faithful careful teaching of the “faith once delivered” is required to stand firm against the erosion of the gospel we preach.

Perhaps an even more subtle area of persecution for Christians in the western world is allowing affluence and apathy to dilute our faith. The New Testament also warns of the need to stand firm against the danger of succumbing to the lure of riches or of falling in love with this present world. These dangers are so subtle we can miss them as we become immersed in a culture of affluence and acquisition and enjoy our visits to the “Vanity Fair” of John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrims Progress’. Such visits very easily weaken our resolve to follow Christ as disciples who have died to self.

Regular (dare I say weekly) church attendance and a life of denying self seem much harder in an age of affluence. Yet we must stand firm against heresy and give our lives to utter dependence upon God. Jesus reminded his apostles when He first sent them out that those who persevere to the end will be saved. During his prison years Pastor Lam spoke of an “unseen presence” which strengthened him. The same unseen presence is available to strengthen us as we make our stand for Jesus.

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