An Athens moment
‘It was just like Paul in Athens!’ It wasn’t Athens. It was a crowded, bustling neighbourhood in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Hiển had just been prayer walking with a small team of fellow Vietnamese believers who’d been sent by their churches to start a new, outreach focussed ‘pioneer church’. There, Hiển had lived in that neighbourhood for 10 years, but something was different now.
We had done some training together on how Paul, in Acts 17, walked around the city of Athens with his spiritual eyes open. He entered the community, understood the religious beliefs around him, and cared deeply, distressed by the idolatry he saw. He then preached the gospel in a way that made sense to his hearers. We wanted to do the same.
We immediately went out and put our lesson into practice as we entered a familiar community, but this time with our spiritual eyes open: ‘I didn’t realise how many temples there were around my house, how much worship is going on.’ Like Paul, Hiên saw how ‘religious’ his neighbours were. Hiên and his family have committed to live in that neighbourhood, sow the seed of the gospel, and seek to make and mature new disciples who can be gathered into new churches.
A new vision
All Christians need a fresh vision for being Jesus’ witnesses to those around them. Whatever our context, we need to have ‘Athens moments’ of seeing those around us, or in the next village, town, city, or people group with spiritual eyes. We are to see ourselves as sent witnesses to them in Jesus’ name.
So, our ministry is to cast vision. From the book of Acts onwards, the church’s mission has been to reach people who do not know Jesus, share the good news, help believers grow as disciples, and gather them into communities with strong leadership. In other words, the work of church planting.
Then our ministry is to walk alongside. I think of mentoring sessions over the last year and a half, discussing with my friend how to put this into practice in modern Hà Nội.
The Viet Kinh and the King
Praise God for the church in Vietnam! Through just over a century of Protestant witness the Church has spread, survived numerous occupations and brutal wars, and the dark years of heavy persecution behind the communist ‘bamboo curtain’.
And yet the majority people group, the Viet Kinh, remain largely unreached. Making up 85% of the 100 million national population, only around 1% of the Viet Kinh in the south and 0.05% in the north are evangelical believers.
Persecution at family and community level remains in many places, and laws are stacked against religious freedom. The internet is bringing myriad ideas and influences to a tech-engaged younger generation. Viet Kinh Christians have often told me that a centuries old commitment to ancestor worship and appeasing of the spirits, mixed with Buddhism and framed by a Confucian world view, makes the Viet Kinh ‘hard to the gospel’. Yet, many younger urbanites are loosening their spiritual roots while diving deep into education and entertainment. Furthermore, there’s a discipleship problem, with the Viet Kinh church shrinking in numbers in some areas.
What can the Viet Kinh church do in 21st Century Vietnam? Empowered by the same Spirit of the days of Acts, like Paul in Athens, the Viet Kinh church needs a fresh encounter with their fellow Viet Kinh as ambassadors of The King. What do ambassadors of King Jesus do? They plant the gospel seed which leads to new churches, who plant the gospel seed in new places which leads to new churches, who… you get the idea!
Open hands of partnership
I thank God today for our ministry partners.
They have a God -given burden to continue the church planting that began in Acts. And they have open hands of partnership to outsiders, like our team, who share their heart.
Our role is to return with them to the streets of Athens; to learn from Scripture about why and how to witness. Then, through mentoring, training and modelling, we head out together onto the streets of Hà Nôi, into our neighbour’s homes in Hué, or to community football pitches in Hung Yên. Together we sow, we water, but God makes it grow.
PT
Church Planter in Vietnam
