The Indian Church and the Chinese Church - a comparison

I am writing this blog in India. I’ve spent the past 10 days preaching in 6 different churches in 6 different cities/towns. I’d visited India on several occasions in the 80″s.

India has changed significantly since my last visit 15 years ago. (especially in the big “high-tech” cities like Hyderabad) – with new modern airports, hotels, automobiles, apartments. There is a refreshing air of confidence and hope in the young, educated Indian. I’ve no doubt that India is presently an emerging economy and a future super-power.

However, the churches have remained essentially the same. There is an atmosphere of formal traditionalism that seems unchanged from my last trip 15 years ago. No doubt, the trappings of modernity – nicer buildings, air-conditions, modern musical instruments, huge amplifiers,. projectors, etc – have now become part of many churches, but there is a definite culture of formal traditionalism that seems to grip the church. And these modern appliances only more effectively project and emphasize the same formal traditionalism.

The traditional “Hallelujahs” are now amplified by powerful microphones and speakers to deafening volumes, preachers are no longer lavishly greeted with flower garlands but with the most impressive musical accompaniment as they are grandly invited on stage, the formal welcome speeches are now amplified for the whole neighborhood to “appreciate.” The “formalities” of a meeting take up far more time than preaching or Bible-teaching.

All these contrast so dramatically with the Chinese Church (I refer to the real Chinese Church, namely, the unregistered or “underground” churches) – where the emphasis is primarily God-ward. There is little focus on the preacher – his real full name is seldom mentioned and his only title is “God’s servant.” He dresses as the congregation does. He stands on the same floor as the congregation rather than a raised platform. If modern gadgets are used they are for function rather than formalities.

I don’t believe that Chinese are less traditional or formal than Indians. In fact, Confucianism with its emphasis on traditions and forms have made the Chinese very traditional and formal.

So why is there such a huge difference between the Indian Church and the Chinese Church? My opinion is that the missionaries brought with them a formal church system to India. They were not only concerned with evangelizing the Indians but with “culturalizing” the natives. They did not bring the “seed” of the Gospel but they brought the “plant” of the Western church-system with them. This “foreign plant” has over the past 200 years been adorned with more and more “decorations” that it’s now like a overladen Christmas tree with all types of decorations on it – both Western and Indian.

Western missionaries also brought the “plant” of the Western church-system to China but God allowed this “plant’” to be drastically pruned by the communists in 1949 to 1980″s, so that all that was left was the “seed” of the Gospel. And when the conditions were conducive in the 80’s for the seed to sprout, it brought forth the Chinese Church. This local Chinese “plant” is more God-centered and more easy to thrive in China than the foreign “plant” in India.