China's Christian landscape, the state-approved Three-Self churches, and the house churches have been a topic of discussion that has attracted global attention. Nigerian Christians who are under intense persecution sometimes view the Chinese church through simplified narratives. These narratives become "myths" with tidy stories that explain complex realities but obscure important subtleties. Examining these myths will surely help Nigerian Christians understand a different context, avoid false comparisons, and apply practical lessons for mission, resilience, and discipleship.
Many Nigerian Christians see the Chinese Church as a typology of the church in Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-11), otherwise known as the suffering church. Some believe that there is no freedom of worship in China and that every church in China is under persecution. When I told a friend of mine who is a lawyer that I am presently writing for China Christian Daily, he could not believe me. According to him, "Does the Chinese government allow Christian publications?" This is the level of ignorance of many Christians as far as the Chinese church is concerned.
Many Nigerian Christians believe that Christianity is dying and going extinct in China and worry that the gospel is likely to be compromised under governmental control. News of crackdowns, arrests, and detentions of prominent underground church pastors is read in Nigeria as evidence that Christianity is getting suffocated in China. In reality, while there is state controlled policy, Christianity in China has expressed notable resilience and tremendous growth in the past years, with the potential to expand greatly in the future.
There is no doubt that the visibility of worship can be reduced by pressure, but private faith and community often persist. Measuring religious life by public buildings and broadcasts alone gives a false impression. Nigerian Christians should understand that latency should not be equated with death. In Nigeria, we sometimes measure the vitality of a church by the crowd and the visible manifestation of the activity of the church. Faith can be deep and fertile in small, unseen communities, as is the case in many house churches in China.
Many Nigerians believe that what is happening in Nigeria is child's play compared to what is happening in China. They think that the house churches are under heavy persecution and the state churches have compromised to a large extent. But the truth is that despite restrictions and arrests of pastors and members of house churches, Christians in China are not killed. In Nigeria, thousands of Christians are killed because of their faith. Some Three-Self churches in China, not minding the control by the government, are faithfully serving the Chinese communities and have preserved Biblical theologies. Nigerian Christians can learn strategies for advocacy, legal registration, and community service that reduce unnecessary conflict while upholding conscience.
Some believe that Chinese Christianity is identical to Western missions and categorize the two to be the same and fault the Chinese church in the same way that they fault the Western church. In reality, Chinese Christians have indigenized their faith, developing worship patterns, theology, and social practices that reverberate locally with Chinese sociocultural inclination. While early missionaries imported some patterns, today's Chinese Christianity mainly reflects Chinese culture, history, and priorities. These approaches have helped make Christianity a more relatable and contextual faith for Chinese people, moving beyond foreign interpretations.
Some Christians in Nigeria have been viewing the Chinese church as stagnant or retrogressive because of the lack of many mega churches with big capacity auditoriums in China. They seem to believe that mega gatherings of Christians equal spiritual growth. What they do not know is that growth can be numerical without corresponding depth. In China, growth under constraint has produced distinctive discipleship strengths and capacity, which has produced Christ-like maturity in the lives of the Chinese Christians. A large crowd in churches is a very wrong parameter to measure commitment, spiritual growth, and maturity.
Nigerians have heard many stories of how some ministers of the gospel suffered to smuggle Bibles into China. Notable among the stories is the Project Pearl story of how Brother David of Open Door Ministry suffered to get one million Bibles into China in 1981. So many of us believe that, up till today, the Bible is forbidden in China. I was surprised to read that Nanjing Amity Printing Co., Ltd has printed hundreds of millions of Bibles in China.
According to Bible Access Initiatives, "The Democratic Republic of Congo ranked No. 1 on the initiative's Bible shortage list, which spotlights countries where Christians want a Bible but do not have access to one. Other countries in the top five of the Bible shortage list are Nigeria, Ethiopia, India, and China." In this Bible Access Initiative's list, Nigeria ranked No. 2, while China ranked No. 5. How come Nigerians sympathize with China because they do not have access to the Bible? This erroneous impression must be corrected.
I must mention here that there are some Nigerian Christians who believe that the church in China is a faithful, resilient, and uneasy church that needs practical solidarity and intercession regularly. In terms of resilience under pressure, Nigerian Christians, especially the Pentecostals, identify the Chinese house Churches' creativity and their tremendous growth despite restrictions, and want to adopt the Chinese house church model. Many Pentecostal churches in Nigeria operate house churches in people's homes and converge on Sundays for worship in church auditoriums.
Nigerians worry about compromised witnesses. Such news triggers empathy, and many churches call for prayers on behalf of the Chinese church, with emphasis on the underground churches. Christians in Nigeria read hardship as part of discipleship, and this helps them to see the Chinese church as partners in afflictions. They stand in solidarity with the Chinese church. I have attended severally prayer meetings where there were calls to pray for the Chinese Church.
Nigerian pastors in the northern part of Nigeria take cognizance of the Chinese contextual theology and how Chinese Christians adapt liturgy, leadership, and discipleship under surveillance. The context has been useful to churches operating in a constrained environment where persecution and attacks on Christians are pronounced. Nigeria's own experience with interreligious tension and occasional state pressure gives Nigerian Christians in the north the feeling that they have something in common with the Chinese church.
Oscar Amaechina is the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria. His calling is to take the gospel to where no one has either preached or heard about Jesus. He is the author of the book Mystery of the Cross Revealed.
