The Cost of Christianity
Tim Curtis: today a dad, an Anglican minister, and university chaplain; in times past, a teenager refusing to be associated with Christianity.
As we sit in the Charles Pearson Lecture Theatre at Melbourne University, Tim talks to me about his experience becoming a Christian.
He describes how at the age of fifteen, when he was at boarding school, he refused to be confirmed, unwilling to make a public statement being associated with the Christian faith.
Fast forward to his second year of university. Tim recalls shouting at God, asking him for help after getting into a sticky situation. Later, he had a “religious experience” that marked a turning point for his mental health improving.
He was twenty years old.
Twenty-five years later, he preaches from the Bible regularly and runs a Bible study for Unichurch-goers.
Tim is also a strong believer that science and faith are not mutually exclusive.
“I think it is a bit of a myth that those two things cannot be reconciled.”
He tells me how as a chaplain at the University of Melbourne, he’s observed how the Christians today are very much a “thinking community.”
It is full of bright, young people who find no contradiction between Biblical faith and the scientific understanding of the world they are taught at university. They find, in Tim’s words, “that the two fit together wonderfully.”
They have learned how to listen to both the answers science gives and the wisdom of Jesus Christ.
Another thing Tim has noticed is how different communities often become Christians together en masse.
The Great Awakenings of the 18th century saw a spike of Western Americans becoming Christian. Something similar has happened in the recent decades among two main people groups: Chinese and Iranians.
Despite government efforts to prevent Christianity from spreading in China, huge numbers of Chinese people have been coming to faith.
Yusi Lui, a Christian from Beijing, told me about Christian exchange students she’s met in Australia who say they’ve returned to China and attended Bible studies there. Tim estimates that the church has grown from nothing to nearly 100 million people in China in the past decade.
The other people group, Iranians, come to church at a cost, Tim says.
“They’re coming from a culture where, to convert from Islam to Christianity well, if they went home, they could potentially be put in prison, or worse.
Iranian asylum-seekers who come to Australia and become Christian risk their safety and the chance to see their families again.
Stories like these are not uncommon these days. As Christianity is being more exposed, more people of different tongues and nations are coming to faith.
A former architect, Tim has been the minister of the St. Jude’s Unichurch congregation since he moved to Australia in 2012.
The Unichurch congregation has been at Melbourne University since the St. Jude’s chapel was damaged in a fire three years ago.
From Futilism to Faith
There is no recorded history of Yusi’s family having any religion. Her parents don’t believe in anything, and she tells me her grandparents grew up in a society which embraced futilism and superstition more than faith.
Yusi was born and raised in Beijing, and though she was exposed to Buddhist temples attracting tourists and the Catholic church next to her primary school, she had no real faith of her own.
“For many Chinese people, faith has never been an institutional part of their life,” she says.
So how is it that she’s now sitting in a foyer full of churchgoers, telling me her story of becoming a Christian herself?
She says she found “true faith” when she came to Australia. As St. Jude’s Unichurch minister Tim Curtis mentions, “Christians are thinking people”, and Yusi went on a journey to investigate what the Gospel says and what it means.
After three years of being exposed to Christianity and reading “Mere Christianity” by C.S Lewis, she finally chose to embrace the faith for herself.
“What faith and religion brings (especially Christianity) is this hope that’s beyond the frustration of this life.”
Unlike other Chinese children with similar testimonies, Yusi’s parents received the news positively as they saw the change for good in their daughter’s life.
Ever since she has found hope through her faith, Yusi has had an eagerness to see her family have the same hope.
She recalls talking to her mum on the phone until her phone died when she became a Christian, hungry for her family to hear the Gospel.
“The good thing in my case would be that I didn’t face any objections. I don’t think Christianity was evilised in my parents’ mind.”
Yusi’s story is not uncommon today. As Tim Curtis mentions, the church in China has grown considerably in the past decade.
Nevertheless, Yusi has observed how today, people have life goals of being happy or successful without being certain of whether they can achieve them by their own efforts.
In Yusi’s eyes, however, the lack of faith or religion right now means “a huge possibility in the future.”
The Gospel has moved thousands of Chinese people both inside and outside of China to become Christian.
Yusi Liu* is a student at the University of Melbourne studying a Bachelor of Science. She is currently 22 years old and has been in Australia for four and a half years.
*For purposes of privacy, Yusi’s surname has been changed.
