faithrunner

I recently made a trip to a country in southeast Asia where the church is required to register with the government. I went at the invitation of a registered denomination and under the auspices of the government. I had been to two other countries with similar situations in order to serve in those places, so I was comfortable accepting the call and fulfilling what I was asked to do. Here are some things I observed about the church this outing. The Church does not need the support of the government to survive. Whether or not the government sanctions or persecutes the Church, it thrives. This country allows the church to exist under its mandates and management. No free church movement legally exists. When the government was directly hostile to the Church in the country, Christ followers still gathered, served, and risked persecution as they lived out their allegiance to Jesus. But the church is not a governmental agency. It is a viral movement of relationships borne on the Spirit, ...