Surviving Persecution: How to Understand, Prepare, and Respond
Ebook
Overview
Persecution can kill the church--unless there is an adequate understanding of, preparation for, and response to this potentially fatal threat. Surviving Persecution is a study based on more than forty years of living and working with the Mayans of Chiapas, who inhabit the highlands of the southernmost state of Mexico. This book can serve as a guide for Christians living in a hostile environment to know how to avoid unnecessary persecution and to survive violent persecution when it strikes. This analysis of persecution can also be a valuable resource for students and congregations who desire to better understand the challenges and complexities of persecution. The last chapter gives guidelines for how national and international church organizations can play a vital role in helping the suffering church survive and thrive. From his personal experience of being the target of persecution and then working with the persecuted indigenous church, the author employs an anthropological approach with a biblical perspective to formulate a response to persecution that can promote the growth of the church.
“Since the second century when the Latin theologian wrote that
‘the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,’ many
observers of the Christian faith have assumed that persecution has
served to stimulate the growth of Christianity. In his careful
study of persecution and his own experiences as a long-term
missionary among the Mayans in Chiapas, Mexico, Vern Sterk
concludes that persecution can actually kill the church when
Christians are ill-informed and ill-prepared. This book is an
important read.”
—Dennis N. Voskuil, Senior Research Fellow, Van Raalte Institute,
Theil Research Center
Product Details
- Title : Surviving Persecution: How to Understand, Prepare, and Respond
- Authors:
- Sterk, Vernon J.
- Van Engen, Charles E.
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Publication Date: 2019
- ISBN: 9781532638602
Vernon Sterk is retired from forty-one years of missionary
service to the Mayan people of Chiapas, Mexico. He is a graduate of
Hope College and Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan,
where he served as Professor of Missiology for more than a decade.
His PhD, with an emphasis on persecution, was earned at Fuller
School of Intercultural Studies. He coordinated the translation of
the first interconfessional Bible in the Tztozil Mayan
language.