Shh. Come in but close the door behind you. Outside it’s dangerous to be a believer in Jesus Christ.
Don’t believe it?
In some places in Asia, Christians who meet together have to simply lip-synch their songs of worship, singing with their hearts rather than their voices. It’s too dangerous to be heard.
In southern Sudan, one 9-year-old Christian watched as his parents and siblings were slaughtered in front of him for their faith. When he wouldn’t renounce Christ, his attackers bound him, threw him on a fire and left him to die.
He lived to tell his story, but not without scars. And he’s one of 200 million Christians worldwide who don’t have basic human rights and can’t gather publicly as a church. About 70 million of those are in prison.
It’s a foreign concept in the Bible Belt, but one that David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, in Birmingham Baptist Association, is trying to bring closer to home.
And he’s doing so with an underground church all his own — one with a slightly different twist.
About 1,400 attended Brook Hills’ Nov. 10 Secret Church meeting, the first in a series of six-hour services focusing on the plight of persecuted Christians around the globe.
These meetings, held “under cover of night,” are meant to give those who attend a taste of what life is like for the underground church, according to Platt. The long format closely mirrors the less-frequent but lengthier meetings held by Christians in high-risk areas, he said.
During the Nov. 10 service — which focused on Africa — those in attendance prayed for believers in African countries that have barriers to the gospel and where Christians are persecuted.
The prayer time is lengthy and focused, and the Bible study is intense, lasting for several hours with short breaks between 6 and midnight.
For instance, at the recent meeting, Platt surveyed the entire Old Testament and integrated its themes and how they pointed to Christ. The next Secret Church meeting, set for March 2, will similarly unpack the New Testament.
“I want to help Christ-followers develop a deeper understanding and knowledge of God’s Word,” Platt said. “I believe as we dive into God’s Word and gain insight, our eyes will be opened to the greater mission and purpose for which He has called us and created His church.”
Learning about Scripture in this format — a style more seminary-class than Sunday morning service — gives those who attend a foundation from which to disciple others, Platt said.
When he got the opportunity to teach similar studies in a mud hut in Sudan, those who attended never made eye contact with him — they were too busy writing down every word he said.
“They told me, ‘We have a responsibility to take everything you’ve given us and teach it to our tribes,’” Platt said.
Christians in Alabama have a similar responsibility, he explained. “There is a whole lineage of people who have died to pass this (the Bible) on to the next generation, and God help us if it stops here.”
If Brook Hills can help it, then it won’t.
In addition to the Bible-study benefit Secret Church offers, it has an even broader purpose — to provide training for persecuted church leaders like those Sudanese Christians Platt once met.
Video and audio recordings captured the Secret Church study in one-hour segments for distribution through Internet downloads, DVDs and other forms of media.
The goal is to gather 30 to 40 hours of Bible teaching so that real “secret church” leaders can have the opportunity for training in the safety of their own homes.
An offering was even collected at the Secret Church meeting for iPods, memory sticks, flash drives and other small technology that can be easily sent to other countries.
Or delivered there by Brook Hills members.
In the midst of this growing missions mind-set Platt and others at the church are working to cultivate among the congregation, church leaders are having to work hard to accommodate the members’ missions interest.
During one recent Sunday service, about 1,600 Brook Hills members, including all of the staff, committed to go on short-term missions trips in 2007.
“Those 1,600 people will mobilize 100,000 pounds of supplies and put 80,000 man-hours into making disciples of all nations,” said Gene Mason, communications minister at Brook Hills.
“Each team member will have a five-month training process prior to departure. Most of these folks are going internationally for the very first time.”
A short-term trip, worth about 2 percent of a person’s year timewise, helps connect Brook Hills’ local body with the global body of believers, Platt said.
“With all the need, how can I, with one life, impact all that need? It’s a question we need to stop ignoring and start wrestling with,” Platt told the congregation during a recent Sunday service.
Getting involved in missions as a church will encourage “a world-impacting disciple movement that impacts churches all around the world,” he said.
For more information, visit www.secretchurch.org or www.brookhills.org.
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