mightychurch.com

These things are kind related, so I’ll stick them both in one post.

First up is a fascinating presentation (with pictures! ;) on the rise of the American megachurch, which has closely tracked white collar, corporate America:

Sunday services are convergences of worshipers who spend their weeknights at prayer groups, Bible studies, ministries, and missionary-training sessions. Successful megachurches are like well-run companies, with intricate corporate structures devised to keep each member personally engaged; their pastors are like chief executives, maximizing the productivity of laborers in the evangelism enterprise. Jumbotron notwithstanding, the architectural and organizational tropes of the megachurch are best compared to those of the modern white-collar workplace.

It’s really interesting, and tracks developments throughout the 20th century right up to the eerie similarity between the Googleplex and Saddleback church - check it out.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the editor in chief of The Economist, John Micklethwait’s new book “God is Back.” He was on Lateline last night discussing the book, and there’s a review from the NYT here. From the Lateline interview:

On the rise of Christianity in China

The reason we wrote the book is because very much from a journalistic perspective, the more we look around the world, the more we saw it challenging the assumption we had been brought up with, which is that the more a modern a country gets, the less religious it gets, the more secular it gets.

And you look around the world - that isn’t true. It’s true of Western Europe and it’s true of Australia, but it’s not true of most of the world. Most of the other areas of the world, religion is doing very well, and very much following the American model.

If you want a brilliant example of that, one of Rudd’s favourite countries, got to China. It’s close to 100 million Christians now, compared to 70 million members of the Communist Party. It’s a big change and it’s symbolic of what’s been happening around the world. [...]

One reason is the Government has cleverly hit on the one formula to make religion grow. It’s something the ancient Romans did to Christianity, and it was a brilliant way inadvertently to cause religion to grow. The Chinese have set a limit on the number of people that can meet in a place, basically 25. Once you reach 25 people meeting in one of these house churches, which take place in somebody’s home, once it’s at that level the church has to split and start again. Automatically it’s almost a formula for amoeba-like growth.

What’s interesting though is as Christianity spreads throughout China, really incredibly quickly. I think China will certainly become the world’s biggest Christian country and probably become the world’s biggest Muslim country. It’s already more Muslims there than there are in Saudi Arabia.

On the rise of Pentecostalism

: The two great, successful religions - I’m sorry to brand it in such market-driven terms - of the 20th century were Islam, which grew pretty astronomically from about 300 million to around about a billion. The other one which is arguably even more successful was Pentecostalism, which went from nobody in 1900 to close to 500 to 600 million by the end of the century.

Plus there’s more on the rise of Islam (and militant Islam) and the continuation of religion in general in both the NYT review and Lateline interview.

Interesting to see Christianity gain popularity in both megachurch (America) and amoeba-like (China) ways.

From putting the articles side-by-side like you’ve done Luke, the ‘technique’ is not the primary driver of Christian numbers.  I would contend it’s simply whether or not gospel recipients in an area have an open heart to receiving Christ.

Same goes for Islam though (I previously thought that it was mainly driven by people having lots of descendants, but in China the Government generally strictly enforces a one-child policy).

Side note ... it makes logical sense that China will have the largest Christian / Muslim population etc, as it’s the country with the highest population in the first place!

More on China and Chinese churches:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11020947

China invests in confident Christians - BBC News, 23 August 2010

Three decades ago, China’s Cultural Revolution saw some of the most dramatic restrictions on the practice of religion ever seen in the modern world.

But today’s communist rulers have radically altered their views about religion and have granted substantial freedom to Christians prepared to worship within state-sanctioned churches.

Within these boundaries, Christianity is growing in China as never before - and doing so supported by millions of dollars of government funding.

The BBC has been given unprecedented access to China’s state-sanctioned Protestant and Catholic churches, to examine why the government seems so keen to invest in religion.
State funding

On the outskirts of Nanjing, a building site illustrates the scale of the communist state’s commitment to supporting the development of Christianity.

Local officials say that the building under construction will become China’s largest state-sanctioned church - with space for 5,000 worshippers.

The land - and 20% of the building costs - are being provided not by local Christians, but by the municipal government.

It represents state financial support worth millions of dollars - just one example of the strategy to encourage the development of religion in China.

The Communist Party’s senior official with responsibility for this policy is the director general of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, Wang Zuo An.

In a rare interview, he told me that there are now at least 20m Protestant Christians in China worshipping in the state-sanctioned church.

“Such growth is unprecedented in the history of Christianity in China. Christianity is enjoying its best period of growth in China,” he said.

And he explained why the Chinese state is investing in religious faith - support which has included funding the construction of national Protestant and Catholic seminaries educating hundreds of future Christian leaders each year.

“Our goal in supporting these religions in developing religious education is that we hope they can train qualified clergy members so that their religions can enjoy better development.”

But there is no small irony in the party’s new-found enthusiasm for supporting the development of religion in China, given Communism’s commitment to atheism.

“On the question of whether there is God, the Chinese Communist Party believes there is no God in the world,” said Mr Wang.

“The Communist Party believes that it should respect and protect religious belief. The members of the party must respect religious followers and not infringe their interests.”

He insists that there is no contradiction between the Communist Party insisting that its own members are non-religious, and the communist government’s commitment to investing in religious development.

“We are making laws and regulations to better guarantee religious belief in China,” he says.

Social role

At the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a professor who specialises in the study of Christianity believes that there are various factors contributing to its growth.

Professor Xhuo Xinping says that there is a spiritual appeal, and a potential association with economic prosperity.

But he says Christianity will finally shake off imperialist associations if churches are prepared to act as a servant to Chinese society.
Fr Zhang and resident at old people’s home, China Father John Zhang interprets the church mission as social work and service

“Many Christians pay special attention to social work and social service. I think this is the correct way for Christianity to develop,” he said.

One Catholic priest who has pioneered such work in China is the Rev John Zhang - whose Jinde charities receive support from Catholics around the world.

I visited the old people’s home he runs in Shijiazhuang City, where he told me why he thinks the government welcomes the church’s contribution.

“Homes for the aged are urgent. We need more and more. The government realised that.”

“Some officials say, you have done for Chinese society what we cannot do. Without any political involvement, the church is doing a good job, and we from government appreciate it,” said Father Zhang.

The enthusiasm of the communist authorities for his church-run initiative is such that even the Communist Youth League used the old people’s home as a base for a charitable project.
Confident Christians

But there is still a question about whether as China’s Christians grow in confidence they will be prepared to continue to accept the limitations on their freedom.

At Beijing’s Haidian Church, the Senior Pastor Wu Weiqing is candid about the problems he faces, but also enthusiastic about the level of religious liberty he enjoys.
Worshippers at Haidian church, Beijing More and more Chinese are beginning to practise the Christian faith

“We do have problems, struggling with some kind of regulations, I have to be true to you. But because we are registered, because we obey the regulations and laws, we enjoy more freedom.

“I’m very happy, I enjoy my service as a pastor. I sometimes encourage people who work for the so-called house churches to come to this kind of church to worship,” said Pastor Wu.

Those house churches - the unregistered, or underground churches, which were the only place to worship during the repression of the Cultural Revolution - remain a significant part of the Chinese Christian landscape.

But both the Catholic and Protestant churches sanctioned by the state are now also seeing levels of growth that few predicted in the 1980s.

Two students I met at an evening service of prayer and praise at Haidian church summed up the optimism felt by growing numbers of young Chinese Christians.

“We truly hope [that in] our country there will be more Christians, and God’s word will spread everywhere in our country”, said Daniel.

His fellow student Jesse added, “I think this nation will change, and I think God is doing great things in China.”

There is no doubting the confidence of these Christians.

But there is also no guarantee about the sort of future the communist government will allow the churches it is currently keen to support.

To hear more about state-sanctioned Christianity in China, tune in to this week’s Heart and Soul on the BBC World Service at 1230 GMT on Wednesday 25 August.

It’s certainly fascinating what’s happening in China.
     
Another example of growing openness is that BSF International (an interdenominational Bible Study organisation) has been able to start classes there.  http://www.bsfinternational.org/Classes/Locate/tabid/81/Default.aspx
They were originally just for non-Nationals, but now I think there are classes for Chinese Nationals also.
       
An interesting piece of trivia - one of the classes was started on the very site that the founder of BSF was interned when all the missionaries were being expelled in 1948.
       
In more crazy moments, I envisage a time when China might be a global *Christian* super-power and the *West* a paganized post-Christian mess.

In more crazy moments, I envisage a time when China might be a global *Christian* super-power and the *West* a paganized post-Christian mess.

Don’t forget Africa! But sadly while the African church is growing, the quality of teaching and kind of growth in some areas seems extremely suspicious. Sometimes I wonder if some of the extremist Pentecostal varieties even have the gospel! (Was it Nigeria that had the ‘exorcising’ of so called ‘witch-children’ by starvation and driving nails into their heads? I wept when I watched that Four Corners special).

But, deep down, I’m excited by the growth of the church in Africa. It could be the only way to eventually overcome the tribalism and nationalism that has divided that poor continent.

Ah yes, Africa.  They are pretty poverty-stricken though, unlike China.
This has moved away from American mega-church, so I’m going to start a new thread.