Vietnam 5/24-26
I fully expected to see in Vietnam something similar, with regard to the development of Christianity, to what I saw in Cambodia. Or perhaps even less so, because of the Communism of Vietnam compared to the freedom in Cambodia. So I was surprised by what I actually did find.
It may have had more to do with the rural nature of the Cambodia experience compared to our urban focus in Vietnam, but in many ways the Vietnamese church (meaning the people; the “body of Christ” ? not church buildings or congregations) seems more advanced. While the Cambodians had a sincere, pure hunger and heart for worship, some of them seemed to have a little difficulty with some of the concepts we presented. In Vietnam, all the church planters “got it,” and according to Tim Bunn (our American trip leader and the one who composed the church-planting manual we are presenting to these people), he has never been to a country where the people have already done the work, discussed it, and are ready to move forward with it like these people.
That’s not to say the Cambodian church isn’t growing also. It is spreading just as rapidly. But I do think they are still deep in recovery from the nationwide genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge.
I don’t think it has anything to do with intelligence. Our conference with leaders just outside of Saigon was composed almost entirely of house church planters, and they evangelize. They are not shy. But they have to know their stuff because they are restricted in what they can do. They are allowed to walk up to people on the street and talk to them, but they cannot distribute printed material or other media. They cannot carry around a Bible openly. But they can meet in church buildings, if the government has approved them. Some churches you see here even have the words “Evangelical Church” on their signs. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, probably the most prevalent Protestant denomination in the country, has more than 500 churches in Vietnam. Christians can worship, sing loudly, and preach as long as they have been recognized. The problems arise when they start speaking against the government. But why do you need to do that if all you are trying to do is persuade them that they need Jesus Christ?
Our indigent trip leader (not Tim), who works with all of Indochina, said when he first started working in the region he heard from established pastors in Vietnam who would complain about all they could not do because of persecution, government limitation, etc. Most of them were grounded in established, Western-style churches, but our trip leader knew better. So instead he started establishing relationships with those who are working from house-to-house, person-to-person, introducing others to Christianity. The growth is obvious to him, and from what we saw meeting with some of them, the enthusiasm to evangelize is great.
According to statistics from The Bible League, Vietnam has 56 million Buddhists, 8 million Catholics, 9 million Confucian and Mother worship, and 2 million Protestants, with the remainder of its 84 million people among other religions. Our Vietnamese guide said, however, that he is baptizing 50 to 60 people every three months through the house churches. The church planters don’t just focus on their own communities. They work to get the Word spread from village to village. In fact, our trip leader said, many of the Protestants in established churches attend house churches instead because they are much more dynamic and excited about the Lord. That doesn’t make the leaders of more traditional churches very happy. “I’ve found much of the persecution is from our own brothers,” our trip leader said, adding that some pastors have reported the house churches, which are not legal, to the government. So our trip leader is now focusing on building up relationships between the house churches and the established churches.
One church planter I met, Tien, was a former Buddhist, but became a Christian when he was 23-years-old. He had moved from Da Nang to Saigon at age 21 and got a job as a dressmaker, where the shop owner was a Christian. He brought his employee to church where he converted, and after doing so dramatically changed his lifestyle, which his family noticed. That was the transformation that led his whole family to Christianity. His story is a common one and explains why Christianity is growing so rapidly: house-to-house, relationship-to-relationship, at the ground level, not from the top down.
Tien, now 34, has planted five churches. He walks villages to evangelize, he says. “You can talk very easily,” he said, and after spending time with him, he sure knows his Bible. It’s the model used in Acts by the Apostle Paul, telling the Gospel and making disciples from city to city, setting up churches and leaders, and moving on. Ought to work, right? Looks like it is here.
