Elder Luo, originally from South China, has long served in northern churches. He observes significant differences between churches in South and North China, not only in their ideologies and management but also in the faith practices of their believers. In North China, many individuals convert alone, often with women accepting faith while their husbands seldom do so. In contrast, in the South, it's common for entire families to embrace Christianity together.
For believers who embrace faith individually, compared to those with whole family members as Christians, leading a normal spiritual life at home poses significant challenges. When a wife who believes in Christ wants to attend church services but faces opposition from her husband, conflicts arise.
How can these conflicts be resolved? Luo believed the wife should live out her love. But before living with love, she must first receive love and grace from God and the church. This enables them to extend love and melt the icy and hardened hearts of their husbands. While the husband may oppose his wife's faith, he will not reject her love for him.
Elder Luo remarked that truly loving someone, especially when they are resistant, is a difficult task. However, when a wife unconditionally loves and serves her husband and family, she gains recognition from her husband, earning respect for her faith. Through the process of receiving love and service from his wife, many husbands' hearts gradually change from initial resistance, opposition, and misunderstanding to self-reflection, understanding, and acceptance. Eventually, some husbands become believers in Christ.
Apart from the wife's role, the church must also bear responsibility. Luo suggested that when a wife notices a change in her husband's attitude towards faith, she should promptly inform the pastor, who should get involved at an appropriate time. This requires the investment of time, energy, and money from the church. As the husband perceives and understands why his wife, pastor, and fellow believers love him, the relationship with God gradually restores.
In their practical approach, Elder Luo mentioned their practice of forming "couples' teams," where a believing couple helps and guides a couple where only one spouse believes. Through this approach, their church has assisted several families in embracing Christianity smoothly over the past few years.
The most common activity for these "couples' teams" is shared meals. For instance, a Christian family invites a couple, where the wife believes but the husband doesn't, for a meal at their home, fostering relationships and friendship. Slowly, the husband begins to feel that the love within Jesus Christ is entirely different from the worldly love based on reciprocity or self-interest. Subsequently, he's invited to attend a series of catechism classes and is later baptized as a Christian.
Finally, the elder mentioned that in recent years, they've conducted practical initiatives that have yielded some positive results. They are convinced that this direction is correct and feasible, which prompted them to continue in this direction.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
