No one enjoys being in a state of tension. Tension brings stress. If tension continues without relief, a person eventually breaks down. Yet the right amount of tension creates the best environment for achievement. A leader must maintain a healthy sense of tension for personal accomplishment—and must also guide the organization he leads so that it does not lose that tension.
In academic competitions or athletic events, we often hear of teams achieving three consecutive championships. When we listen to the players or coaches of such teams, they frequently say that winning a second or third championship is more difficult than winning the first. Why is that?
Achievement removes tension. When tension disappears, complacency enters. There may still be a desire to achieve, but sharpness and urgency fade. A capable coach knows how to use both encouragement and correction appropriately in order to maintain a sense of tension in the players. Through that tension, athletes perform at their highest level.
Since first setting foot in Nepal in October 2015, I have worked to unite all the churches in Kathmandu to launch an unprecedented movement of evangelism and discipleship.
The year 2015 was historic for the Nepali church. From the founding of the nation until 2006, Nepal had been a monarchy. But after the People’s Movement in 2006, the king lost his authority and became a common citizen. Until then, Nepal’s constitution had defined the nation as follows: “Nepal is a Hindu kingdom.”
After the monarchy was abolished, a constitutional assembly studied various directions for the country’s future and in 2015 proclaimed a new constitution. For the first time in Nepal’s history, the new constitution guaranteed freedom of religion.
For the church in Nepal, 2015 became the first year of freedom—free from the fear of persecution and able to believe in the Lord openly. The constitution was promulgated in September 2015, and without knowing this historic change, I arrived in Nepal in October for evangelistic ministry. Surely, there was the delicate hand of the Lord in that timing.
For more than two years, I met diligently with pastors in Kathmandu, urging them to launch an evangelistic movement. Through evangelism and leadership seminars, I taught church leaders both the vision and practical methods for outreach.
Finally, all the churches in Kathmandu agreed to unite and set a date for a citywide evangelistic rally.
But within only four months, the Nepali church faced deep discouragement. The government enacted an anti-conversion law. If someone shares the gospel with a person of another religion (nine out of ten Nepalis are Hindu), he may face three years in prison. If someone is accused of converting another person, the penalty increases to five years in prison and a fine of 50,000 rupees.
The morale of church leaders, which had once been soaring, seemed to collapse. They did not know how to respond.
Tension had returned.
The brief celebration of victory was gone. Now they must live with tension again. Yet tension creates the best condition for victory. Only when we cast aside the complacency that comes with success and embrace tension can we, like Daniel, risk our lives in prayer.
By 1900, Christianity in China had grown significantly, reaching 700,000 believers. However, the Boxer Rebellion arose among patriotic young men who viewed Western missionaries and Christianity as agents of colonial powers. They killed 188 Western missionaries and massacred 20,000 Chinese Christians. They were confident that they had eradicated Christianity from China.
Exactly fifty years later, in 1950, China had 13 Christian universities, 6,000 Christian elementary and secondary schools, 900 Christian hospitals, and seven million Christians.
After the Communist Revolution of 1949, Mao Zedong attempted to uproot Christianity through intense persecution. This is well known. Yet exactly fifty years later, in the year 2000, China had 70 million Christians. By 2018, the Christian population had surpassed 100 million.
Nepal’s anti-conversion law will become a driving force for the growth of the Nepali church.
In the second week of January, we began an eight-week intensive evangelism and discipleship training with 50 church leaders. The number of trainees increases by two each week and will continue until the Kathmandu evangelistic rally. Through this pattern of multiplication, we plan to train 50,000 evangelists and disciplers before the rally.
Because of the anti-conversion law, public proclamation of the gospel may become impossible in Nepal for a time. But there is no law that can prevent personal evangelism—sharing the gospel through meaningful relationships, through life and conversation.
The anti-conversion law has brought tension to the Nepali church.
And tension will make the Nepali church healthy and strong.