THE DOVE PERIOD I

Striking Out Anew
1934-1935

Leaving the sheltered protection of the Bethel Mission Compound, John Sung understood more fully the meaning of Abraham leaving Ur to go to a strange country "not knowing whither he went" (Heb 11:8). Nevertheless, he found a house through Rev Tang at twenty-five dollars a month where he could live in peace. As he reviewed the three years he had worked under the Bethel Banner, he wrote in his diary, "As I look back, I can trace clearly the leading of His gracious hand. During these three years He has trained me and molded me, and kept me from facing sudden hardships. Now that my feathers are grown He has seen fit to stir up the nest and has He not spread His wings to bear me up and keep me from falling?" (Deut 32:11). When asked about the separation, Andrew Gih commented terse­ly, "Dr Sung supplied energy to the Bethel Band, and the Bethel Band opened a door to Dr Sung."

No sooner had John rested his feet than invitations began to come in as news of his leaving Bethel spread. Logically he answered those that came from nearby, from Shanghai itself. He fulfilled a string of four requests during the Chinese New Year season, for it is a custom to this day for Chinese Churches to time their special meetings to coincide with this lunar festival. The four Churches that invited him were the Foochow-speaking Joy and Peace Church, whose name John perceived was a message of comfort to his own soul. The others were the Abundant Virtue Church, the Woods View Church where over a thousand attended. Finally, there was the Pure Heart Church where two hun­dred children were won to the Lord. "Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mk 10: 15).

When several Churches invited him to be their pastor, he remembered the ministry to which God had called him. So he prayed, "Lord if you want me to be an itinerant evangel­ist show me a sign. Send through your children $800 within a month. If you want me, Lord, to continue as an evangelist, open me doors to reach five provinces." As God answered Gideon by dew (Judges 6:31-40), He sent through the post gifts of money exceeding the stipulated sum. Invitations came from exactly five provinces, viz., Anhwei, Chekiang Hopeh, Kiangsi and Shantung. Being fully persuaded that this was the way he should go, the way of an itinerant evangelist, he knelt before the Lord again to reconsecrate his life.

Therefore he wasted no time to enter the arena again. Carrying a light suitcase he took off to Chingkiang, upriver from Shanghai, and from there to Suchow South. Having run in his stiff Hinghwa Mandarin through three years of interpretation, he plucked up courage to break through into near-standard Mandarin, the "plain language" or "official language" of China. Lo and behold, it worked! While he thanked God for loosening his tongue, he was sure glad for the three years of "tuition" under Frank Ling his versatile companion in interpretation.

From Suchow South he pressed onward to Tsinan on a fourth visit. Tsinan, provincial capital of Shangtung where all the intelligentsia were concentrated, nevertheless, flock­ed to hear him again. From Tsinan he toured through most of the big towns in Shantung, correcting those who had gone on a tangent, for example, the charismatics. He reconciled Chinese Church leaders and missionaries who were at odds. Signs and miracles followed him as did the apostles in olden days. That demons .were cast out and paralytics were en­abled to walk was John Sung's own testimony in sermon after sermon without apology as he demonstrated the power of God. So the Lord gave him two paralytics healed while a demon-possessed man was also delivered in his tour of Shantung.

When John Sung came into Tientsin there was a change of attitude in the Church leaders. When he was refused a hearing by the elders, young men who were his supporters rented an ancestral hall. In the ensuing contention between two parties in the Church, three hundred who were sympathetic to the evangelist seceded which resulted in the erection of a new sanctuary for freedom of worship and for the unrestricted proclamation of the Gospel. This new house of worship raised up by Preaching Bands was the only case of secession in all of John Sung's ministry. This was not to John's liking whose ministry was to the Church and not "out of" the Church.

In this connection the work of Watchman Nee against the established churches, substituting with his own brand of the "Little Flock" was castigated by John Sung, though he did not mention by name. Nor did John Sung agree with Watchman Nee's stress on unleavened bread for the Lord's Supper and his requirement of women to cover their heads in Church. But, John Sung was for separation from those who denied the fundamentals of the Faith. He himself had separated from Union Seminary in New York City, and pointed out the Unbelief of its professors. Thus, when Dr Chia Yu Ming separated from Ginling Women's Theological Seminary in 1935 to form the Spiritual Training Theological Seminary in Nanking, Dr Sung was one who sent the senior minister his felicitations. When this writer was a student under Dr Chia in Nanking 1946, he often heard Dr Chia pray for another John Sung to arise and evangelize all of China.

From Tientsin the doctor made a hurried visit to Peking before returning to Shanghai. In Peking he held a three-day meeting. It happened Wang Ming Tao was gone to Taian when Dr Sung called. To return the courtesy Mrs. Wang telegraphed to her husband to meet Dr Sung when his train passed through Taian. This gave the two servants of God a precious ten minutes of fellowship, when Wang greeted Sung as the train pulled into Taian. It fell on the 4th day of May 1934.

Not stopping over to see his wife John transferred at Shanghai to the first train to Hangchow to keep his appoint­ment. In a ten-day campaign many old-timers who had grown up in the Church, but not in the Lord, were born anew, as much fallow ground was broken up. Fifty Preaching Bands were organized. Just then it was reported that Dr Sherwood Eddy a liberal Churchman was coming to Hangchow. This led Dr Sung to expose his liberal theology, for he said, "If you starve you'll not die. If you take poison you will die."

Returning to Shanghai to his dear wife after a short absence of two months John was refreshed to hold a ten-day "spiritual-nurture" campaign at the 2,000-seat Moore Memorial Church because many who were zealous for Christ were dropouts now. It is a dangerous thing indeed for a Christian to stop attending Church! Hence his stress on this apostolic injunction, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Heb 10:25).

From Shanghai the Spirit led his servant to Huchow where he first "made debut" to the East China Conference of the Christian Home Movement, 1930. At Huchow on this occasion, while John Sung was preaching away, the Holy Spirit "laid hold" of one Rev Wang Chau Hsiang, a profess­ional pastor for fifteen years. After a great struggle with Satan who hindered him from public confession, for it would make him "lose face," he plucked up courage, God helping him, to tell the congregation his deliverance from his old carnal ways. "Praise God, I am a born again pastor now!" he declared. A drastic change came over his pastoral ministry. Instead of movies and socials which he employed before to draw men to his Church, he now stressed on preaching the Gospel and expounding the Word. His Church increased seven times; fifty preaching bands were organized; a dozen young men and women consecrated themselves to serve the Lord full-time. The same Pastor Wang became pastor of a church in Shanghai in 1946, and was introduced to this writer at a special meeting where Dr Chia Yu Ming was speaking. When a pastor is converted he brings forth fruit a hundred­fold!

Angered by the loss of such an able pastor hitherto under his grip, Satan hindered John Sung in the campaigns follow­ing, both at Hangchow and Nanking. When John Sung preached on the need of renouncing self, some school children in Nanking took this to mean a relaxation of study, which invited the anger of their parents against the evangel­ist. Despite these hindrances the power of the Lord rested upon John Sung, as he prepared himself for wider service.