Editor’s note: This January, we are praying for Chinese Christians who have experienced persecution and imprisonment for their faith. In part 1 of this interview with Lu Rongyu, he tells about the cost of following Jesus, and how persecution helped him to treasure Christ and his word. It’s not easy to walk the road of the cross — but Jesus is there.
The Cost: Isolation, Persecution, and Jail
China Partnership: Tell us about the situation for house churches in your city. What kind of persecution and pressure are you facing right now over your faith?
Lu Rongyu: In my city, house churches are pretty weak. Churches come from different backgrounds, but most are small, and none still hold public worship. Instead, they meet in small groups on Sundays. Some house churches even tell members not to tell anyone who the pastor is.
My city is small, about half a million people. In a small place like this, sometimes police factor in personal relationships. A lot of times, they won’t go all the way. Compared to other places, there can be more “human touch” in how cases are handled.
One issue we face is that, if our church keeps meeting in the same place, community grid workers[1] start tracking us. People become afraid. Now, our church is scattered, meeting in small groups of 20 or fewer – but we still meet in a commercial space, because we want to be public-facing. We don’t want to scatter into homes – we want the gospel to reach more people.
Although my family has believed in Jesus for generations, there were many things I hadn’t worked through…When persecution came, I complained against God. I was hot-blooded and resentful. But, God is truly amazing. He breaks what is inside you — and then he rebuilds.
Our church’s case is already decided. Since the verdict, police haven’t formally summoned me. But neighborhood officers know our church still meets, so they often tell our members not to have contact with me, and that I follow a cult. They threaten brothers and sisters, telling them attending house church gatherings could affect their pensions or their children’s jobs.
CP: How long were you in jail?
Lu Rongyu: The charges they brought at first would have meant 10 years in jail. Later, there was insufficient evidence. In the end, they charged us 100,000 yuan and I was sentenced to three years in jail, suspended, with five years of probation. I was in jail for two years and several months.
Persecution Exposes Fear
CP: How has persecution and pressure impacted you, your family, and your church?
Lu Rongyu: Although my family has believed in Jesus for generations, there were many things I hadn’t worked through. I didn’t understand what true blessing from God is, and I couldn’t grasp the relationship between forgiveness of sins and eternity. When persecution came, I complained against God. I was hot-blooded and resentful.
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But, God is truly amazing. He breaks what is inside you — and then he rebuilds. I hated God, and complained – but in the end, I slowly grew. I came to see that many of my old assumptions were wrong, my old desires for blessing, peace, and family togetherness. A lot of that isn’t the gospel; people who don’t believe in Jesus want those things, too.
God challenged me with this: if you truly trust God, through the gospel, how do you look at a family that can’t be together, or at physical confinement ? When it looked like I might be sentenced to more than 10 years, I was deeply unwilling. But later, when I “ran everything through the gospel” again, I realized that, if something doesn’t fit the gospel, God will correct you. I began to say: “Even if I’m sentenced to 10 years I can accept it. There’s nothing I can’t accept. What God gives may be far better than what I imagine – even though, in my flesh, sometimes I can’t understand.” After re-examining through the gospel, I could look at my life, my family, and my gains and losses differently. In my heart, I felt I had more of God, not less.
Even if I’m sentenced to 10 years I can accept it. There’s nothing I can’t accept. What God gives may be far better than what I imagine – even though, in my flesh, sometimes I can’t understand.
All this brings pressure on my family. They are treated as outsiders, and the neighbors think they are “troublemakers.” But, I’m thankful, too. Through this, they’ve had a chance to reflect. This has been a gospel opportunity, prompting them to see what God wants to accomplish through persecution. Over these last years, our family’s spiritual growth has been renewed. They have grown under pressure.
As for our church, we still live with fear. People are afraid the police will come looking for them. If something happens somewhere else, people are sensitive, and immediately wonder if we’ll be next. Persecution has forced our church to rethink things. Many people put a lot of weight on material security, and undervalue spiritual formation.
For instance, I’ve talked with one brother many times. I say the length of our lives isn’t the issue; what matters is how we respond to God’s call and bear witness for the Lord. But every time, he’s the same. He doesn’t dare come to gatherings. He’ll come once, then stop; come, then stop. He is trying to get additional certifications, so, if police go to his work unit and he’s fired, he can find another job. That’s what he thinks about.
So, sometimes the impact is that persecution exposes how much the church lives in fear. Our hearts haven’t truly been redeemed. In practice, we are still trying to “save ourselves.” People want worldly security – sometimes they’d even rather sell out the faith.
The Cost: God’s Presence through Persecution
CP: How have you seen God’s presence and faithfulness in the hardships you described? Has any Scripture passage or promise been especially precious to you in this time?
Lu Rongyu: If you are hoping for a tangible, physical sense of God’s presence – no matter how you pray, most of the time, miracles won’t happen. It may not be like what my grandfather or other older believers testified to, how God suddenly appeared in some moment. Today, most of the time we can’t experience that. Some people say that the deeper the gospel spreads, the fewer external miracles we see. At first, in hardship, I thought about older believers in my family: when they prayed, it worked. God listened and answered.
When I ran into trouble, I wanted the same. I wanted God to quickly pull me out and bless me. But I prayed for a long time, and none of that happened. How did I know God was present? Why does God today speak to us only through Scripture, instead of visibly? Eventually, I came to trust God’s word and believe Jesus accomplished salvation once for all. I also believe in the Holy Spirit — but he is not present in the way I expected, but in his own way. I began to experience God’s power, not through outward signs, but in a deep, inner way, in the spirit. That’s how I came through.
I realized that I hadn’t truly valued God’s presence with us through his Word. I had read plenty of Scripture and learned some theology, but until I went to prison, those things had never been the most precious things in my life, the things I truly cling to and believe.
I’m not an exceptionally spiritual person – I’m just walking, in a different context, a road that others have walked before. That’s how I experienced God’s presence.
When I was in prison, my family tried to send me a Bible, but they couldn’t. So, I asked them to send other books. They sent Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, and that did get in. Later, I read how Bonhoeffer faced the environment of his time and his spiritual journey. I saw that, in some ways, his thinking was similar to mine. He didn’t focus on “improving” physical circumstances. He focused on how, as believers, we bear witness through the cross laid upon us in hardship.
When I saw Bonhoeffer thought this, I realized I probably hadn’t gone off track. I’m not an exceptionally spiritual person – I’m just walking, in a different context, a road that others have walked before. That’s how I experienced God’s presence. Once I understood it that way, my heart began to feel release and peace.
I copied down and began to memorize the many Scripture verses Bonhoeffer cited in The Cost of Discipleship. The one I loved most was Gal. 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
I also loved 2 Tim. 3:12: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
When I thought about these verses, I felt: “I’m walking the right road. If I walk this road as following Christ, then circumstances aren’t ultimately what matters.”
[1]Grid workers divide areas into small zones and patrol. In Lu’s city, he says grid workers are the people you are most willing to see if you walk down the street.
Lu Rongyu is a pseodonym for a Chinese Christian who recently spent several years in jail due to his faith.
Pray for more Chinese believers to understand the preciousness of knowing and following Christ — even when the cost is high.
