Underground Seminary
The growth of Christianity in China is unprecedented in world history. It has been widely estimated that every day 10,000 people come to Christ. One of the primary sources of this growth is the underground (or house church) movement.
When the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong came to power in 1949, the newly installed Communist leaders allowed Protestant and Catholic Christianity to continue as long as it was part of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. This meant that churches had to be (1)self-governing, (2)self-supporting, and (3)self-propagating. With these restrictions came certain controls over the churches which pastors/priests had to agree to. Those that complied with this program became part of what is now called the Three Self Church. But many pastors refused to submit to these regulations and control and were imprisoned for their faith. And so began what is now known as the underground or house-church network in China.
Times have changed and today many Three Self Churches are excellent Bible-teaching and God-honoring places of worship. But despite these improvements, the majority of growth in Christianity continues to come from the underground church movement. In many cases the government is fully aware of thriving house churches, and they permit them to continue so long as they are not perceived as a threat to the State or the Party. Indeed many house church pastors would like to have their churches registered and fully legal. It is just that there is no legal mechanism for a pastor to be recognized who did not graduate from a Three Self seminary. As a result, the underground church movement has developed its own seminaries to train pastors and church leaders, many of whom are young believers who have dedicated their lives to promoting the Gospel in China and abroad.
These seminaries usually operate clandestinely. And while they are full of fired-up and dedicated Chinese young people, they are very poor. Harmony Outreach supports one such seminary in Shanxi province. Despite their poverty and extremely spartan conditions (students are given $1.50 per day allowance for food and essentials), when Harmony team members John and Jeff asked them what their greatest needs were they were told “better teaching materials.”
The United States has 95% of all of the resources of Christendom. One of our goals at Harmony Outreach is to match the resources of the Body in the West with the needs of our brothers and sisters in the East. Jesus said: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48)
Harmony Outreach is a small ministry and we try to help our partner seminary as best we can by providing a small monthly stipend, teaching materials, and occasional medical treatment. We would like to do so much more - and pray that God will enable us to do that. As the old Keith Green song says, “What I have seems so small, but I just want to give it all to You [God].”
