Suchergebnisse

Problem. Protestant churches in North America face serious declines in church membership and support. Some Christians have become disillusioned with the status quo of present structures. Method. With firsthand convictions coming from involvement in the church in Brazil, I have turned to the Bible to substantiate a theological understanding of the church. Historical, archaeological, and contemporary models are reviewed to question the validity and effectiveness of house churches. Results. The NT period was apparently primarily a house-church society due to political and economical restraints. Many of the contemporary house-church models were mainly support, koinonia, and fellowship groups that did not have much longevity. The Adventist experiments cited did not accomplish their original objectives. Conclusions. House churches divide themselves into three kinds. (1) There are basic independent groups which are fully organized as a church; church membership resides there and all the celebrations of the church are conducted there; they attempt to follow the NT model. These can be found in areas where there are high government restrictions, and the house church becomes the only means of survival. (2) There are groups which call themselves house churches, but they really are not, for they exist primarily for fellowship and continue to maintain a direct relationship to a larger church. (3) Finally, the last group are those which are satellites to a mother church. In this case the house church is used for nurture, fellowship, and outreach, but celebration usually occurs in the context of the larger body. These also do not qualify according to the Biblical model. There are inherent dangers and a certain vulnerability in house-church activities. House churches seem to attract the "off-shoot" mentality. However, they do have certain strengths, i.e., simplicity, openness, and relatively inexpensive operation costs. House churches can in some instances be used to reach certain socio-economic and cross-cultural groups and are a means to reintegrate people who have become dissatisfied with their own spirituality. They also are excellent places to involve the laity. House churches seem to work best for short periods as interim or transitional organizations.

The Chinese government has implemented legislative sanctions to regulate religious activity by requiring all collective religious activities to be conducted at registered venues. This paper studies the "non-registered" Protestant house churches with reference to their historical roots and current sociopolitical context. The case study of a house church in Guangzhou identifies the facilitating and constraining factors in terms of its leadership, organisation, resources, recruitment strategies, negotiation strategies and future prospects. As a non-compromising but non-confronting religious movement, the church has enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and ample room for expansion, though it is under close surveillance by local authorities and without legal status.

In this paper I examine the processes and politics associated with the formation of evangelical house churches in Sri Lanka. In doing so, I show how the sacred space of the house church is constructed through the development of sacred networks, which emerge when a group of Christians assemble for prayer and worship. Sacred networks grant the house church an important degree of mobility, but they also encourage church fission. Whilst the house church enables evangelical groups to grow in hostile environments like that of Sri Lanka, it is often a superficial form of growth that is unsustainable in the long term. To conclude, I suggest that an understanding of sacred networks can help inject a sense of scalar dynamism into the study of contemporary religious movements.

"In this important body of theology, key writings from the Chinese house church movement have been compiled, translated, and made accessible to English speakers. This unique resource will be valuable to practical and political theologians and anyone interested in international relations, political philosophy, history, and intercultural studies"--

Since the early years of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese state has sought to regulate the practice of religion. The institutions it created for that purpose were meant to ensure that religious practice would not happen outside the supervision of the state. Since the 1990s, however, unregistered religious sites have proliferated in China, and those include Protestant house churches. China is said to have more unregistered churches than registered ones. Unregistered churches have, for the most part, deliberately chosen not to register with the State Administration for Religious Affairs, and they have also bypassed a number of other central government regulations on religious activities. Despite the fact that they are illegal, local public security bureaus have tolerated those churches. The text argues that they have done so to contain the influence of Protestantism in Chinese cities.

Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- 1: Introduction -- Religion and State in Post-1949 China -- Strategic Tolerance: 1949-1957 -- Suppression: 1958-1979 -- Relaxation: 1979 Onwards -- New Approaches to the Study of ChineseChristianity -- Urbanization and Religious Movements -- Weber's Thesis on Modernization -- Chapter Overview -- References -- 2: Discovering Linyi -- A Christian Connection -- Variations of Political Circumstance -- The Transnational Network: Linyi to the World -- Subjectivity -- References -- 3: Christianity and the Emergence of House Churches in Linyi

This article investigates the similarities between the organizational innovation of one underground Protestant house church in China and the rise of early communist parties. Much like the spread of communism, the organizational tactics of the church are designed to protect it in a hostile political environment. The different levels are insulated from each other, with limited knowledge of the members above and below. In this way, if anyone is raided by the authorities, the others can continue to function with little interruption. Thus, the highly touted "organizational weapon" developed by the Bolsheviks and recycled, for example, by the Chinese Communist Party in their struggle for power, has resurfaced many years later. However, this time it has been adopted by a religious "vanguard." (China Q/GIGA)

AbstractThis article investigates the similarities between the organizational innovation of one underground Protestant house church in China and the rise of early communist parties. Much like the spread of communism, the organizational tactics of the church are designed to protect it in a hostile political environment. The different levels are insulated from each other, with limited knowledge of the members above and below. In this way, if anyone is raided by the authorities, the others can continue to function with little interruption. Thus, the highly touted "organizational weapon" developed by the Bolsheviks and recycled, for example, by the Chinese Communist Party in their struggle for power, has resurfaced many years later. However, this time it has been adopted by a religious "vanguard."

Since the early years of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese state has sought to regulate the practice of religion. The institutions it created for that purpose were meant to ensure that religious practice would not happen outside the supervision of the state. Since the 1990s, however, unregistered religious sites have proliferated in China, and those include Protestant house churches. China is said to have more unregistered churches than registered ones. Unregistered churches have, for the most part, deliberately chosen not to register with the State Administration for Religious Affairs, and they have also bypassed a number of other central government regulations on religious activities. Despite the fact that they are illegal, local public security bureaus have tolerated those churches. The text argues that they have done so to contain the influence of Protestantism in Chinese cities

Explaining authoritarian containment -- Informal protestantism in China and local government toleration -- Why public security bureaus contain Protestant house churches -- Everyday forms of containment -- Containment and authoritarian regime resilience -- Containment across authoritarian landscapes