Source: Back to Jerusalem, June 20, 2024
Since Vietnam became a Communist country, the Christians have lived under some of the most extreme persecution, but today, that is all changing. In the last couple of years, Vietnamese Christians have seen more religious freedom than at any time in recent history.
In March of this year, BTJ hosted a Business as Mission Conference in Vietnam where more than 250 Christian businessmen and women from around the country squeezed into a meeting room at a hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh [City] to learn how to use their businesses to grow the kingdom.
“The church is growing,” said Pastor David, a local Vietnamese pastor who oversees a network of about 10,000 believers. “We are seeing God move in Vietnam like never before.”
After the BTJ business conference, Pastor David invited Chinese underground pastors to speak at several house churches throughout the city. “We have a lot in common with our brothers and sisters in Vietnam,” said one Chinese pastor. “We have been through periods of similar persecution.”
However, the Chinese believers were surprised at the freedom the Vietnamese enjoy today. Pastor David, who [was] on the run from the government only 15 years ago, is now openly preaching, planting churches, baptizing new believers, and even launching registered Bible schools to train pastors for ministry in remote minority areas.
Read the full story.
Editor’s note: BTJ’s headline asserted “massive church growth,” so we had to check it out. By some estimates, the number of Protestant believers in Vietnam has increased by 600 percent over the past ten years, primarily (perhaps almost entirely?) among ethnic minorities. Overall, 8% of the nation identifies as Christian, primarily Catholic.
Yet some populations have very few believers, and the struggle for religious liberty is not over. See reports about recent challenges (Morning Star News).