“The three things that the Chinese government is looking for when they attack churches is simple,” the underground house church pastor said yesterday in a private meeting, “does the church have a name, do they have a building, and are they connected to foreigners.”

The underground house church senior pastor of several hundred thousand believers was sharing what the Chinese underground house church has been doing to avoid recent crackdowns in China.

“Our church does not have a name. We follow Jesus Christ,” the pastor said yesterday during the secret meeting. “In the year 2000, our leadership came together and decided that we should not follow the example of other churches and try to label the movement of God that we were seeing in China. We felt that it was not important to give a name for our church and did not find any example in the Bible that emphasized the importance of it and in China if you give yourself a name and label your church, the government can find you easier.”

“Churches that have names above their doors quickly become targets of the Chinese government.”

“Secondly, we do not own a building for the believers in our network to meet in that would be called a proper church. We are a home church. We always have been. Our homes are connected in a network of relationships across China. If the government arrests one house church pastor there are still thousands more that keep going.”

“We cannot find an example in the New Testament where the saints found it important to have a building to meet in. For us it might be nice, but it is not an necessity. In fact, in China it is a liability.”

“Third, if you have connection to foreigners the Chinese government sees this as a foreign threat against the People. Our network does not have any connection to foreign entities outside of China except for the people who serve at Back to Jerusalem. Those that are serving with Back to Jerusalem are old friends of ours that have been working with us for more than 25 years. We serve Jesus Christ together and trust them completely.”

Back to Jerusalem is working together to support evangelists in western China that are in the network of this senior pastor of the underground house church in China and asked him to share the things that help keep his network under the radar.

To support the evangelists that work for this network click here:

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