Free Republic

Hundreds of thousands of Christians are worshiping secretly in a rapidly accelerating house church movement in Iran, as a London-based theological center is aiding the movement by training the next generation of its spiritual leaders. The Iranian government labels Christianity as a threat to the nation's Islamic identity and imprisons over 100 Christians for worshiping Christ. Such crackdowns on faith, however, have not prevented Iranian house churches from blossoming into a movement too big for the Iranian religious police to contain. Some estimates, such as one provided by Open Doors USA, record as many as 450,000 practicing Christians in Iran,...

Saudi authorities have swooped on a house in the eastern province city of Khafji, on the border with Kuwait, and arrested 27 people for using the premises as church last week. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) also confiscated copies of the Bible and various musical instruments from the people during the raid. The swoop was prompted by a tip from a citizen, reported the English-language newspaper Saudi Gazette. Those arrested on September 5 were of various Asian nationalities, including women and children, the newspaper reported.

Over 100 Christians, including children, were arrested during a major house church raid on Sunday in Foshan city in China's Guangdong Province. Close to 200 police officers stormed in during the service, eyewitnesses said, believed to be part of a large-scale crackdown on Christians in the country. "We don't know exactly why they raided our church," a local believer told watchdog group International Christian Concern, which has been keeping track of the rising tide of persecution in China. "The government does not want us to get together and worship as a church." Worshipers said that the church was raided without...

Growth of Christianity in Iran Explosive Faith issues/Open Doors The number of Muslims coming to Christ from Islam – often called Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) or Secret Believers – is growing faster and faster in Iran. In fact, according to Open Doors’ Middle East workers, the growth is “explosive.” They even speak of a revival inside Iran, especially among young people. Forty years ago an estimated 200 Muslim Background Believers were living in Iran. Today the estimation is 370,000 MBBs. According to Open Doors, the house church movement has triggered many secret meetings. The growth is happening in all regions,...

Police Raid Chinese House Church Faith Issues/China Aid A house church in far west China’s region of Xinjiang that has been meeting for nearly two decades has been raided by police, who took more than 70 Christians into custody. The incident happened at around 10 PM March 18th in a house church in Aral Shehri’s 12th Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, in Aksu prefecture. The house church has been meeting for nearly 20 years, and more than 70 Christians were gathered at Pastor He Enjun’s home when suddenly more than 10 policemen and Domestic Security Protection...

Many of China's churches are overflowing, as the number of Christians in the country multiplies. In the past, repression drove people to convert - is the cause now rampant capitalism? It is impossible to say how many Christians there are in China today, but no-one denies the numbers are exploding. The government says 25 million, 18 million Protestants and six million Catholics. Independent estimates all agree this is a vast underestimate. A conservative figure is 60 million. There are already more Chinese at church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe. The new converts can be found from...

Up until even just a decade ago, Christians in China really had to count the cost as they faced arrests, beatings, long imprisonments and even death. Within the past few years, however, the Communist Party has begun to show more toleration towards Christianity, especially as its leaders have come to realize that Christianity is not going away...

With the increase in megachurches, the prominence of “parachurch” leaders and organizations, and the presence of hundreds of thousands of Americans who serve as clergy and church staff, one often overlooked group is the laity – or the unpaid, unheralded people who comprise the Christian community in America.  A new study from the Barna Group explores the profile of Americans who actively participate in faith. The study examined various expressions of “group” faith, such as: church attendance, small groups, adult Sunday school programs, church volunteering, and house churches. (Definitions of each type of activity, including how the researchers distinguished between small...

LINFEN, China — Towering eight stories over wheat fields, the Golden Lamp Church was built to serve nearly 50,000 worshippers in the gritty heart of China's coal country.But that was before hundreds of police and hired thugs descended on the mega-church, smashing doors and windows, seizing Bibles and sending dozens of worshippers to hospitals with serious injuries, members and activists say Today, the church's co-pastors are in jail. The gates to the church complex in the northern province of Shanxi are locked and a police armored personnel vehicle sits outside. The closure of what may be China's first mega-church is...

A Chinese court sentenced the pastor and leaders of a 50,000-member megachurch in northeastern China to prison, rights groups reported Thursday. Pastor Wang Xiaoguang of Linfen Fushan Church in Linfen, northern Shanxi province received three years for “illegal land occupation” and his wife Yang Rongli received a maximum of seven years for “illegal land occupation” and “assembling a crowd to disrupt public order," according to ChinaAid Association. Other church leaders received three- to four-and-a-half-year prison sentences. The sentences are among the most severe for house church leaders in recent years. “To punish an innocent house church leader with seven years...

The Chinese government has reportedly issued a secret directive to crack down on at least several major house churches in Beijing, a U.S.-based group reported Tuesday. ChinaAid Association, a religious freedom group with a focus on house churches in China, was informed by sources inside the country that the public security bureau has ordered the Beijing Huajie Plaza to terminate its rental contract with the Beijing Shouwang house church. The Shouwang house church is one of the largest house churches in the area with more than 1,000 members. For a few years now, it has rented two floors for worship...

Spread of Radical Islam Brings Increased Attacks Against Christians in Ethiopia as Muslim Mob Stones Christians in Eastern Ethiopia By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service ETHIOPIA (ANS) — A mob of Islamic extremists stoned Seid Ahmed and Musa Ibrahim [names changed for security reasons] in Jijiga, a city on border with Somalia. The attack is the latest attack against Christians in Ethiopia where the spread of radical Islam is fueling the persecution of Christians. ICC (International Christian Concern) www.persecution.org says that on July 19, 2008, Ahmed and Ibrahim were going to a church meeting when they were confronted...

By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service SOMALIA (ANS) -- Islamic extremists shot and killed a Muslim convert to Christianity on July 10, 2008 in Afgyoye, a town 18 miles away from Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. The victim's name was Sayid Ali Sheik Luqman Hussein, and he was 28 years old. ICC (International Christian Concern) www.persecution.org says that on Tuesday, July 8, two Muslim men approached Mr. Hussein and asked him if he faces Mecca when he prays (Mohammed instructed his followers to face the city of Mecca when they pray). Hussein told them that as a Christian, he does...

A Conversation with Frank Viola, Part I 3544 words by Brother Maynard on February 11, 2008 “Pagan Week” has been held over in view of the extended conversation I’ve had with Frank Viola, which turned out not to be a brief one-post interview after all. We got into some pretty big questions, which help frame a deeper understanding of his latest book on which he collaborated with George Barna. My review of Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices ran all of last week, during which I voiced a number of concerns with the book and pointed out...

Pastor Hussein Adan Ahmed, 44, passed away in Afgoye, Southern Somalia, on March 20, 2006. He left behind a wife, Fatima Mohammed Nur, and seven children. Pastor Hussein died as a result of severe head injury he had previously received when imprisoned for his Christian witness. Pastor Hussein, a teacher by training, was arrested by Somalia’s KGB style National Security Service in 1986 after Mohammed Adunyo, the Director of the school he was teaching, accused him of propagating Christianity among the students. Pastor Hussein was immediately put behind bars in Afgoye. Pastor Hussein was transferred to the notorious Mogadishu Central...

“First of all, I would not call them ‘underground’ churches, but ‘unregistered.' ‘Underground’ has the connotation that you are hiding, and that is not how it is," he said. “Personally, I would encourage the unregistered churches to register and receive greater freedom and blessings from the government."

Amid an intense crackdown on China's house churches, authorities arrested one of the country's top Christian leaders, the author of a bold manifesto delivered to the communist regime. Zhang Rongliang, 53, was taken into custody Dec. 1 at his apartment in Xuzhai village, Zhengzhou city, Henan province, the Oklahoma-based Voice of the Martyrs reported. Zhang leads the Fangcheng Mother Church in Henan and the China for Christ Church, one of the largest house church networks in the country with an estimated 10 million members. Co-author of the House Churches of China's Confession of Faith and Declaration in 1999, he is...

These are pictures of house church members in Henan province being tortured by People's Armed Police and Public security squad. See link for all pictures Pictures were provided by a Chinese group in New York. They are giving them to the UN's Human Rights committee -- a lot of good that will do them.

Associated Press Worldstream August 23, 2002 Friday HEADLINE: Activists accuse China of a sweeping crackdown on Christians worshipping in underground churches BYLINE: WILLIAM FOREMAN; Associated Press Writer DATELINE: BEIJING About 70 Christians have disappeared or been secretly arrested in China in recent months, a group of Chinese religious activists said Friday. The Christians worshipped in underground or "house" churches that operate outside the communist government's control, said the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. The group said the crackdown came as China prepares for the Communist Party's national congress, a major meeting of China's leaders...