Lynn Green

Category: China

  • What should we be learning from this Pandemic?

    What should we be learning from this Pandemic?

    Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    I write this as we are in the second day of lock-down in the UK; this is very hard on many people.  For Marti and me, though we are praying for many and empathise with their suffering, we welcome some aspects of it.

    REASONS WHY WE ARE GRATEFUL:

    This lock-down has coincided with the first sunny, spring days.  Though it is still rather cold, with highs of no more than 10C (50F), our large back garden is a sun trap, one that needs attention, so mowing, weeding, planting has taken up a lot of our time.  I was concerned that our garden and house were not getting the care and repairs needed, but now we are getting on with those jobs and enjoying it a lot!

    We live in this wonderful, God-provided community property, so we have room to get outside for walks to enjoy the birds and their songs, watch the development of the first spring flowers and enjoy the fresh air.  My heart goes out to those who are locked down in urban settings, especially in flats (apartments) with no outside space to go to in safety. We are deeply grateful.

    With a less pressurised schedule, we have more time to think and reflect, read the scriptures and pray, talk to one another, pray together, read books and articles and more time to sleep!  Although we are both awakening at about the usual early hour, it just feels different when we know we are not on a compressed schedule to get to the first meetings of the day.

    REST

    Which brings me to one of the subjects I think God is saying to us during this time.  (Perhaps you are like me and have received numerous messages from other Christians with their thoughts or “prophetic words” about this pandemic.  Out of the many, here there are two that especially resonate with me.)  When Israel went into captivity, it was because of their many sins, but one of them was the factor that determined how long they would be in exile.  They had ignored God’s commands about the sabbath, so God said He would give the land the rest that they had not given it and they remained in exile for 70 years. 

    I can readily recall the time when shops were not open on Sunday, so very few people had to work on that day.  It was a day of rest and worship and fellowship with others.  In my family, even sports and recreation were not allowed at first.  By the time I was a teenager, we were allowed to go to the park and kick a ball around or play catch.  That seems so unrealistic today!   But our addiction to 24/7 shopping, thus requiring more and more people to work on Sunday has grown to such an extent that very few people have a sabbath of any sort.  Now most of us are exiled from our work and from our social activities.  We are forced to rest –and for many, time to spend with family!   Some of us just don’t know how to do that, but it’s time we learned.

    So, “rest” is one word that makes sense of this imposed set of restrictions.  The other one is “reset”.

    RESET

    When we get time to rest and reflect, we can think about the patterns of our life and make changes and that is a wonderful opportunity to reset our priorities and patterns.  But there is more to it than that.  We will see some important, painful resets of what it means to be Church.  The Lord commanded Israel to observe a Jubilee every 49/50 years.  It was a rather drastic interruption of business as usual.  I believe it was designed to stop the growing momentum of economic necessity.  Maybe if I use YWAM as an example, that statement will be more easily conveyed.

    Interestingly, our first training courses were begun 50 years ago.  50 years ago, today, I was in the lecture phase of a School of Evangelism with 22 others.  Now we have over 650 training locations with more than 1000 students for every one of my fellow students in 1969/70.  In financial terms, there was no way the income from student fees would cover the costs of our school.  In fact, when Loren and Darlene Cunningham first sent out word that YWAM was starting short-term training (it was a 14-month school then, which was a lot shorter than the usual 7-year path to the mission field) they had no place to convene the school, so they couldn’t anticipate the cost.  They trusted God to make ends meet—and He did.

    After developing mission training for 50 years, it naturally has led to a more predictable financial model. Figuring out budgets, “marketing” our courses, paying our mortgages—all necessities — but dragging us toward running like any good educational business.

    BUT THE CHURCH DOES NOT RUN LIKE A BUSINESS! 

    Hundreds of YWAM bases will have to continue to pay the bills that come with their properties, but without student income. Can we still trust God?  For us here at Harpenden, we had clear commitments that would have led to us being full of students for the remainder of the year and we were expecting hundreds of young people to camp here for summer events.  All that represented the fruit we are meant to bear, but it also meant income.  We commissioned extensive building and improvement projects and the builders are working even today.  How will we pay them now?  God will provide, just like he did back in 1969/70.  We are being forced back to a position of high-risk faith again, and I believe that is a good thing.

    The Church in China also presents us with a picture of the reset. When they were heavily persecuted, they grew at the fastest rate of Christian growth ever known in the 2000 years of Christianity.  When government pressure was relaxed, they began to build church buildings and were quickly transforming into the Western, more business-like model of Church.  But their growth of Chinese people coming to faith declined.

    A MESSAGE FROM THE EPICENTRE

    One of our friends in China is a dynamic woman from Wuhan, where the Covid-19 virus was first identified.  She almost died of it herself but grew strong in faith even as she fought for life.  Now, a couple of months later, she has reported that people from all beliefs are seeking out Christians to find out more about Jesus, and that the number and manner of conversions is more like the high-growth period than they have seen in a long time.  This is happening at a time when they cannot meet as congregations.

    What’s going to become of the many churches that have never known of anything other than the business model?  What will become of the many Christians that don’t know anything other than “going to Church” in a large building?  It’s time to reset.  The Church has often been at its best when it has been persecuted and limited to small gatherings.  Even over recent years, Marti and I have probably valued our home Bible study with a few neighbours more than our various large-group expressions of Church.  Those congregational and celebrational events can also be inspiring and deeply beneficial, of course, but the essence of Church is people sharing their lives together, day in and day out.  It is living like Jesus together and that must be done, by definition, in small numbers.

    Now that I have got started on this subject, there is a lot more that I would like to write, but this is long enough.  Thanks for reading this far.  By the way, according to current government restrictions, we can’t meet outside our household; however, our only scheduled meeting this week is our Bible study with our neighbours, which we are doing by video conference. 

    Let’s pray that the Lord will reset the Church, as surely as He designed Jubilee to reset Israel!

     

    Lynn Green.

  • Should We be doing Business with China?

    Should We be doing Business with China?

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

     

    If you have been reading this blog for a while, you will know how much I love and respect the Chinese people.  The Christians of China are great role models for what it means to be a follower of Jesus and I gladly acknowledge that they have a leadership role in the global Body of Christ.

    The Chinese government is another matter.  It seems to me that the Western, developed countries, in their/our pursuit of economic growth, have tried to pretend that this ruthless, inhuman regime is somehow not so bad and will move in the right direction if we are nice to them.

    A VOICE WE SHOULD HEAR AND SUPPORT

    David Alton, (Lord Alton of Liverpool) is one voice that will not yield to the willful blindness of our governments.  He has consistently unmasked the viciousness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in his speeches to the House of Lords in London and in the many other venues where he has a voice.

    Do pray for him; remember that the CCP does not hesitate to take action against opposition.

    HONG KONG

    He has recently reminded us that the conflict in Hong Kong has not gone away, even though it does not feature as often in our news reports as it did a couple of months ago.  In fact, it has worsened as the weeks have passed and Hong Kong is almost unrecognizable when compared to what it was earlier this year.

    Here is an excellent report of what is happening as the Chinese Government becomes more and more determined to silence those who are giving their all to protect the freedoms they have had until now.

    https://davidalton.net/2019/11/13/hong-kong-universities-turned-into-a-war-zone-can-you-hear-the-people-sing-will-you-come-and-stand-with-me/

     

    21ST CENTURY GENOCIDE

    Lord Alton and another committed Christian Member of Parliament, Fiona Bruce, have also courageously unmasked the inhumane treatment of religious minorities in China.  These include the “Falun Gong sect, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and, possibly, Christian dissidents along with other prisoners of conscience.”

    Over the past few days, I have been in touch with a YWAMer who has provided first-hand documentation to David Alton and Fiona Bruce and he has confirmed that at least 1.5 million people are in “re-education camps” (more accurately known as concentration camps), mostly in Western China.  The list of tortures they use on prisoners is very difficult to comprehend.  An unknown, but large, number of prisoners who are “not cooperative” have been subjected to the removal of all their usable organs for transplants.  Fiona Bruce referred to it as an “almost perfect crime” because “no one survives”.

    Here is the link to that information:

    https://davidalton.net/2019/02/25/questions-on-the-muslim-uighurs-february-25th-ministers-questioned-in-the-house-of-lords-about-tortured-lawyers-demolished-christian-churches-abducted-pastor-organ-harvesting-and-incarceration-of/

    I cannot, with any confidence, suggest a course of action at this point, but I can urge you to pray.  As more of us pray, we might be given a divine action plan.  But we must start with an awareness of these in horrific   acts by the CCP.

  • The Dead are Raised and the Chinese are One

    The Dead are Raised and the Chinese are One

    Photo by Alan Cabello from Pexels

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

     

    Some of our experiences this past month

    I would like to recount one extra story to you and then the remainder of this report can be about our unprecedented meetings in Hong Kong.  Marti and I were at a youth prayer event in East Sussex for a day and met a man I had heard of but never met. Dennis was mentored by my dear friend, Guenther Krallmann, who lived with us at Highfield Oval for many years.  Dennis’s story of recent events was amongst the most encouraging we have heard.

    He was on a trip abroad with a group when he began to feel very unwell and steadily weaker.  He went to a doctor and after tests was told he had a ruptured appendix and would not be able to fly home the next day as scheduled.  Though that was the diagnosis, he felt strongly that he should fly home anyway.

    Three days later he was back in London and feeling weaker, so was taken to A and E.  He is the pastor of a praying church of about a thousand people in North London and the congregation were in prayer for his healing, but he declined and died.  He was certified dead, but the praying church cried out to God that they would not accept his death—that he MUST live!  As they redoubled their prayer, his body roused, he took a deep breath and shouted,

    “I will not die, I will live!”

     

    The shocked hospital staff opened his abdomen, cleaned up the infection as best they could and put him in an induced coma for five days.  When he regained consciousness, he was surprised and a little embarrassed to hear himself preaching.  As the hours passed, he discovered that he had preached a lot during the five days and that hospital staff and patients had been deeply impacted.

    He went on to tell me how so many of the people in his part of London were aware of his illness and now know the whole story.  But, he explained, “The thing I like the most is talking to the poor and marginalized on the streets where I am not known.  That is where God is moving the most!”  I am looking forward to more fellowship with Dennis.

    Hong Kong

    Our week in Hong Kong started in the same vein. We met a humble evangelist (I’ll call him Ahmed) working in some of the most closed countries in the Middle East.  He trained as a priest, but it was just a job to him until he met Jesus and was filled with the Holy Spirit and power.  He had to flee his country on the sub-continent because powerful people were seeking to kill him.  Life was very difficult for an exile in M.E. countries where the Christian faith cannot be freely proclaimed.

    At 2 a.m. one morning his phone rang and a man on the other end demanded, “Who are you!”  Ahmed, confused, asked the same question of his caller.  Eventually, the man explained that he was in a state of desperation and had suddenly seen a telephone number written in lights on the ceiling above his bed, so he called the number.  The caller demanded that Ahmed should come to him immediately, but Ahmed had no car and no way of getting there, so the man sent his driver the next morning.  That was the first of many miracles that opened a door to the most influential families in the region and many members of those families have become followers of Jesus.  They have even given him a large piece of property so he can train more people to be like him.

    Ahmed pastors a church of several hundred now.  One night he received a phone call from a desperate member of his church who was in a morgue.  A friend of his was very ill, had died and was taken to the morgue, but this man had a deep faith that, even though a death certificate had been issued and he was holding a copy of it, his friend was not meant to die.  Ahmed was still waking up and didn’t know what to do, but heard himself saying, “Lay your phone on your friend!”  He began to pray and rebuke the spirit of death.  After a short time, the friend who had died began to shrug her shoulders.  She went on to regain full health and is alive today.  That was one of three people recently resurrected.  (This report would be a lot longer if I told the details of those stories.)

    There is no doubt that “the harvest is ripe” in some parts of the world that we used to think were the hardest to reach.  The work of the Holy Spirit, often in signs and wonders cuts right through all the usual arguments and objections to the Good News.

    Mainly about the Chinese

    After a couple of days of preliminary meetings, we moved to the Asia World-Expo centre near the HK airport and were joined by nearly 10,000 Chinese.  The great majority were from the mainland, but others were from Chinese majority and Chinese minority nations around East Asia. The cultures, political views and values vary a lot between these nations and the tensions between Hong Kong and China was particularly acute.  (We were near or passing through demonstrations at both locations but never felt at risk.)

    Oneness

    The theme was around the prayer of Jesus in John 17, that we may be one as He and the Father are one.  I was so deeply impressed that the political differences could be openly discussed but without any heart division.  The mainland Chinese could explain that political dissent and demonstrations would never enter their minds.  Their approach to the Kingdom of God does not include political action.  After very honest discussions, they simply committed themselves to stand together, though that might mean arrest or even death.  It’s one thing to be prepared to suffer for our own convictions, but something much deeper to be prepared to suffer for convictions we do not share.  They have a deep understanding of the importance of oneness.  Those of us from Western nations were deeply challenged, as we so often are by the Chinese.

    I was WRONG

    That brings me to my confession.  In 2012, an American with the reputation of a prophet conducted a prophetic act at the same Expo centre.  He gave Chinese leaders a very large decorative key and proclaimed that the anointing for leadership was passing from American hands to Chinese hands.  When I watched a recording of that, I was unhappy.  There were a several reasons for my reaction, but my main thought was about nationalism.

    Christian leadership has often been skewed by nationalism.  In fact, we were at the Expo again in 2013 to offer our apology and express remorse for British nationalism which led to the opium wars of the 19th century. The loyalty of some missionaries to the British Empire damaged the purity of the gospel for two centuries. I have seen damage done all over the world when British, or Dutch, or French or American nationalism and superiority were packaged with the Good News.

    To view that ceremony of apology and the emotional responses of Chinese people (video bellow)

    There is no doubt that Chinese nationalism is generally on the rise.  It is very common to hear Chinese people say that they used to be ashamed of being Chinese, but now they are proud of their growing power and achievements.  But for the past six years we have been in close fellowship with many senior leaders of Chinese church networks—some of which number in the millions.  We love and admire and joyfully submit to their extraordinary love, gentleness and power in the Holy Spirit.

    Yes, I believe an anointing for global leadership in the Body of Christ is on the Chinese.  But it is not the kind of leadership that some Western nations have exercised.  These are humble servant leaders who are easy to underestimate.  They often don’t lead from the front, they lead in prayer and spiritual authority.  They do not push themselves forward, but they eagerly serve when needed.

    Oneness Equals Authority

    There were no guest speakers to draw the crowds to this event and there were few plans for the sessions.  We met for three and four-hour sessions to worship and see what God would do.  We expected that He would bring about deeper unity in the global Chinese family and that’s exactly what happened.  It occurred through brokenness, worship, celebration, weeping, joy and bold proclamations.

    From the Scriptures, especially John 17 and Ephesians 1-3, we know that we are meant to have great authority on the earth, but we also know there are conditions. The foremost condition, and the hardest one, is that we might be one.  Anyone who has lived the Christian life for very long knows that the oneness of John 17 is impossible in human terms.  Now we have witnessed that the Holy Spirit can impart that oneness, doing what is not possible for human beings.

    Help Needed!

    From the beginning of the events in Hong Kong, some of us Brits and other Europeans felt that we wanted to ask the Chinese to come and help us.  By the end of the event, we were desperate for their help.  When I expressed that need to one of the senior leaders whom I know best, she beamed her welcoming smile back to me and said;

    “We have wanted to do that for a long time!”

    Where to from here?

    There were about 20 Brits in the Hong Kong meetings and we are not the kind of leaders who can announce a meeting and get everyone to come.  How do we proceed?  We are asking God to show us.  What we do know is that God is not finished with Britain, the rest of Europe or other Western nations.  He wants to do a redemptive work in our nations too.  Join us in prayer that we will move in unison with the will and purposes of God!

    Lynn Green.

  • “Thy Kingdom Come”

    “Thy Kingdom Come”

    Photo© Slava Bowman

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    AMAZING GROWTH IN WHAT USED TO BE “THE HARD PLACES”

    One of my good friends just came back from China after a trip to join with Chinese officials to launch the first officially approved study Bible in Mandarin, the main language of China.  He also met some pastors in the official Church and attended a service in a large church building that was constructed by the government.  The minister of this church said his biggest problem was finding a way to disciple the large numbers coming to faith in Jesus and attending his church.  He was baptizing another 100 new converts the next Sunday.

    My personal connections have been with the leaders of the unofficial Church in China.  A few years ago, when I was just getting to know some of these extraordinary people, the majority of them women, I was talking to one lady who has a great heart for the Chinese missions movement known as Back To Jerusalem.  Another person who knew her took me aside later the same day and asked if I knew much about her.  He then explained that she has been an extraordinarily fruitful person for decades.  “She knows what it is to lead 10,000 people to Christ in a day!”

    Do the Chinese people believe their prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done…” is being answered?  Surely they do!

     

    My recent article about the Middle East provides another context for that question.  Anyone can see that there is unprecedented growth in the numbers of people following Jesus.  The figures are not yet statistically impressive, but with hundreds of millions of people in that part of the world, only tens of millions would be statistically significant.  But the numbers are huge when compared to any time in the last 13 centuries.  Do the faithful there believe that the Kingdom is coming?  They certainly do!  There was such buoyant faith in the meetings I attended in the Gulf and in Egypt.

    THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT

    Our context always shapes our perspective.  Most people who live around where I live, in Europe (or islands off the coast of Europe, depending on your politics), would not think that the Kingdom of God is on the move.  Marti and I have lived in Europe for nearly 50 years now.  When we first came, it was during the exciting days of the charismatic movement.  We attended meetings of thousands of people from many different churches and denominations and excitement was in the air.  Soon after we moved here in 1971, over 25,000 people gathered in central London to proclaim the name of Jesus in the Nationwide Festival of Light.

    About 15 years later I helped convene 55,000 people for a prayer meeting that grew to global proportions and became known as March For Jesus. I think it was 1992 when I stood on a stage in Hyde Park, London and looked over a crowd of 100,000 worshiping people.  It certainly felt like the Kingdom was coming!

    DISTORTED CONTEXT

    On the other hand, I recently read an article by a British journalist, similar to articles I have read from time to time, in which he quoted the official statistics of church attendance and concluded that Christianity is disappearing in the UK and Western Europe.  He concluded with a well-worn sentence;

    “Will the last person leaving the Church please turn off the lights?” 

    That’s the way it seems from his context.  Context makes a difference. But I have to ask, are the statistics he is referring to reliable pointers to the health of the Christian faith?  The picture I see is quite different.  I see that:

    Much of the vitality of the charismatic movement is now expressed in small groups and congregations that meet in homes, school auditoria, town halls, business facilities, warehouses etc.  No one could accurately track the numbers.

    If we simply poll the traditional denomination HQs and measure the numbers meeting in official church buildings, the results are negative and can be extrapolated to the point when they will be zero.  But that picture is not representative of the Body of Christ.

    Because it is no longer socially important to attend church, those who do, most often do so out of genuine commitment to follow Jesus.

    There are church planting movements that are becoming more dynamic and statistically significant every year, especially in the Church of England.

    Almost every church in our town has grown significantly in the past decade and there is more mutual respect and unity than any time in recorded history! I hear that in town after town in Britain.

    I’M OLD ENOUGH TO DO A LITTLE HISTORY

    When Marti and I first moved to London, we could not find a church with obvious spiritual life. But we did find a curate (if you are not familiar with that term, it is kind of a trainee minister) at a small church with a big building by the name of Holy Trinity Brompton.  Nicholas Rivett-Carnac conducted small healing services and prayed for life in HTB.  Today that church has world-wide impact through the Alpha Course and has packed multiple weekend services to cope with the crowds.  It has also planted congregations that plant congregations that plant congregations… so that no one can count how many churches have been impacted.

    I conclude from all this anecdotal evidence that “social Christianity” has died in the past 7 decades but that genuine faith and discipleship has grown many times over.  I also conclude that the move away from institutional church and towards informal but consistent fellowship between believers is very hard to track and no journalists I know of have even made an attempt.

    THE BLINDNESS OF HUBRIS

    Speaking of journalism, there was a recent discussion about why the BBC should produce more religious broadcasting.  In the course of that discussion the head of religious broadcasting, James Purnell, identified himself as an atheist. He also confirmed that the BBC would be increasing the number of religious programmes.  However, in the light of “the steady decline of Christianity” they would be sure the programming is of a multi-faith nature.

    One third of the world’s population identify themselves as Christians!!  Where has this man been?

    Well, he has been in the context of the “educated liberal elite” many of whom have somehow come to believe they are in the majority, even though they are a very small minority in this world. His response in a recent interview demonstrates the approach of so many of the liberal elite to religion.  A broadcast journalist asked him, ‘Are you a religious man?’, to which Purnell replied: ‘I’m not…I’m an atheist but I think the issues around belief are incredibly important to how we live. But not important to how HE lives?

    These are the people who feed us information about our world, either directly or indirectly.

    But they do so from a sort of echo chamber of like-minded people and their context warps their perception and conclusions.  Almost everything they say about the Christian faith has to be seen through the knowledge that they don’t know nearly as much about the world as they think they do.  Constant immersion in the society of the highly educated elites dulls the senses.

    TWO WAYS TO SEE THE WORLD

    I am grateful that, over the decades, I have travelled to so much of the world on a very small budget.  So I don’t often stay in hotels; I am not hosted by powerful people; I don’t travel on private jets or in first class.  I usually live with local people at their level, eat their food, meet their families etc. On every continent and virtually every nation there is evidence that the Kingdom of God is growing—but that evidence is usually seen at grass-roots level.

    Once a person becomes either rich or powerful they can no longer see the world like that.  Sadly, most of our elite leaders have never lived at a time when they could mingle with normal people in different parts of the world.  They don’t know what it is to see reality without it being “managed” with political or financial motives in mind.  Wealth and power are terribly isolating!

    All that is about context.  You might continue to hear, from journalists and broadcasters in parts of the the developed world that Christianity is dying out.  Sympathize with the predicament of their context, but more importantly, remember, their view is usually blinkered.

    “THY KINGDOM COME” is being answered like never before in the history of mankind!

    Lynn Green.