Their Church Doesn’t Look Like Our Church

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Hebrews 13:3

Mental exercise. Imagine it’s Thanksgiving Day. You’re seated at the table at home with your family. You’re looking at the biggest feast you’ll have all year. It’s nice and warm inside, snappy cold outside. The house smells wonderful and all of your favourite relatives are there. The recent Thanksgiving church service was great. Fantastic music, good sermon.

Got the picture? OK. Time for some cut and paste.

Cut the turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, salads, pie and all of the food on the table. Paste in spicy chicken, rice, dumplings, stir fried vegetables and fresh fruit.

Cut your house and paste in one that’s half the size or smaller. Or a 3 bedroom apartment containing 6 beds. Cut the new dining room suite and paste an old table and a bunch of chairs that don’t match.

Cut your TV(s), VCR(s), DVD(s), computer(s), game system(s), stereo(s), iPod(s), portable(s) and paste one small b&w TV and an AM/FM radio.

Cut the local Christian radio station and paste silence.

Look around the room and cut half of the kids. They died in infancy, so they’re not there. Paste in the woman next door and her 3 children. Paste an empty chair for her husband. He was arrested 6 months ago for telling somebody at the factory about Jesus. She hasn’t been allowed to see him for two weeks, but she keeps trying every day. In the last half a year she’s aged 10.

Cut your church building and paste an empty lot.

Cut the recent church service and paste 8 people in a living room reading the Bible while one keeps peeking out the window.

How many Bibles do you have in your house? Cut them all. While you’re at it, cut every book by Max Lucado, every worship CD, everything recorded by the Gaithers, every poster, card, plaque or T-shirt that has scripture or the name of Jesus on it. Paste one very worn and much mended paperback Bible that has somebody else’s name written inside the cover. It was given to you years ago by a Canadian “tourist” when he was told that you’d given your only Bible to somebody who needed it more. You’ve since heard that it was ripped up into sections to be shared. You’re very happy about that.

Got the picture now?

OK. Bow your head to say grace. “Thank you God for…” What? That none of it’s true? That, try as you might, you can’t even really imagine it?

Sunday November 13 is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. For our brothers and sisters for whom it is true. Take time to find out what you can and do what you can to support these Christ followers.

There is much we can learn from them.

~Ruth Wilkinson

The following groups are actively serving the persecuted Church. We urge you to use the links below to get more information about these groups and to visit their Web sites. They are your key to active involvement with the persecuted Church.

Christian Freedom International Christian Solidarity Worldwide Christians in Crisis Compassion Radio Fishhook International Gospel for Asia Greater Calling International Christian Concern Iranian Christians International

Jubilee Campaign Mission India Open Doors Persecution Project Foundation The Voice of the Martyrs World Bible Translation Center World Evangelical Alliance The Last Harvest

Worship Around the World

There’s a line in the Apostle’s Creed that says, “I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church.”   Most people reading this recognize that this not a reference to The Vatican, but rather a statement of the “universal” or “worldwide” church.

But it’s easy to forget this.

Most of us in North America and even Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Western Europe are saturated with our own brand of Christianity.  We forget that God has a people working and serving and teaching and worshipping around the world.

Consider the following worship song with which most of you are intimately familiar.  Then catch a few bars of the same song in French.  I always find listening to foreign language versions of hymns and choruses — though I might only catch a few words I actually understand — enlarges my perspective on what it means to be part of a Church that is alive and well and sharing the truth of the gospel and the love of Christ around the world.