The Examiner: Secret Church
Published on The Pride on January 21, 2016
About: When writing the script for the Secret Church edition of the examiner, I had to do a lot of research. I knew that I wanted to base part of the video around underground churches in other countries, and so I researched about churches in China. It took about a week to get all of the information gathered and the script developed because I wanted to make sure I included all of the statistics, and give enough information on a specific person that had been persecuted (Peter Xu Yongze).
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Welcome to the Examiner, I’m Bobby Kerns. In this video, we will be exploring an event known as Secret Church, exploring why underground churches exist in other countries, and how that should affect us. Secret Church was started by David Platt and is essentially a giant annual simulcast meeting of intense Bible study and prayer time. It is a play on “house church” and lasts 6 hours. This year, Hickory Grove Baptist Church has been chosen to host the nationwide event, which is a big opportunity for the church. “Home churches” and “underground churches” are both interchangeable terms used when referencing the assembly of Christians worshipping privately in a house. Some underground churches meet in the early hours of the morning or in very remote locations like farms or even caves to risk being discovered. One of the prominent countries secret churches exist in today is found in China. In 2010, Pew Research Center reported the population of Christianity by region. In the report, it is said that in the Asia Pacific region of the world, there were over 200 million (285,120,000 exactly) Christians located there, giving it 13% of the worldwide Christian population. Based on the growth rate of Christianity in China, some propose that it will become the world’s largest Christian nation. But the problem is, the Chinese government refuses to recognize Christianity as an official religion, those that they have already accepted being Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. According to the government, all Chinese citizens are free to exercise freedom of religion, however humans rights groups and churches in China’s reports conflict. They claim that many Christians are held in labor camps and prisons, many because of their involvement in evangelism, which is a key part of Christianity. This forces many people to have to attend “secret churches” in fear of persecution. Take Peter Xu Yongze for example. Mr. Xu is the founder of the “New Birth Movement” (also known as the “Born Again Movement”) and has been called the “Billy Graham of China.” At the time of his arrest in 1997, Mr. Xu was 56 years old and the NBM had 3-4 million members. His wife and associates were also arrested and he was sentenced to 3 years of labor camp without a defense lawyer or public case. When asked about his experience in jail, he told BBC News that “"They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours." Mr. Xu is not the only one persecuted. In fact during the Boxer Rebellion from the late 1890’s-1901, a rebellion group known as the “Boxers” led an uprising that left several hundred foreigners dead and several thousand Chinese Christians killed. According to Ulrich Delius, an Asia expert at the Society for Threatened Peoples, he claims that since the year 2000, more than 3,000 Christians have been killed in China. So what does all of this mean for Christians in America? This is where David Platt’s ministry comes into play. Secret Church includes prayer time for other Christians across the globe and for those who have yet to come to Christ or heard the Gospel, which I have attempted to show. Platt hopes that members of Secret Church gain understanding of the state of His church and our brothers and sisters around the world who face many difficulties and even persecution as they follow Christ. As for those of us that attend Hickory Grove Christian School, because of the security measures that need to be taken, we will not have school on Friday, April 29, the day of the event. Last year a bomb threat was received just hours before the event was set to begin at David Platt’s church in Birmingham, Alabama. The event continued, but the location had to be moved. We should pray for the safety of everyone attending the event in person and tuning in live. Finally, as Christians blessed enough to be in America, we ought to appreciate truly being able to express our freedom of religion. We get to hold an event named Secret Church as a sort of special event, while for others across the world, this is a reality. We should seek to know God more deeply through His Word and pray for those in need of help.
