History of Shan Churches in Burma 1861-2001 - Khamkoo

Analysis 217
zayat. My house, being in cantonment, could not be used as a place of worship and then a dwelling
home is never suited especially in this country to such a purpose.” 65 Within one month Bixby and
friends were holding meetings in the new chapel. The cost of the building including land, furniture, etc.
was 2,000 rupees that were all provided, except about 300 rupees. 66 The first Shan-Burmese church
building of Toungoo was consecrated at Lau-koke-ta-ya at five o’clock on January 18, 1863. About one
hundred people gathered around and Bixby preached “Jesus and the resurrection.” 67
Bixby arrived Toungoo in March. He was looking for a site to build a chapel three months after
his arrival, even before he got a convert. Is building chapel very important? Why did he make it his first
priority? The Shan are not use to worship god with other people at home. The Shan use to have worship
activity at monastery. They feel more solemn and holy when they worship God in a special place like a
Church or chapel. They assume that the holy god is only at the holy place such as monastery. There
should be a church building whether big or small to have a special place for worship. When Rev. Bixby
did not have enough money to build a chapel, he borrowed the money because having a church building
was so important for the people of Buddhist background. It was reported in 1892 that there were 33
members and a bamboo chapel was built in MuongNai. Missionaries built either chapel or church
building in all mission fields in Shan States.
Present
Shan believers consider building a church building for congregation is very important. They do
not call a fellowship of believers as a “Church” without church building. Some Churches’ leaders put
the building of the church building much more important than any other ministries of the Church. The
church building of Shan Churches varied in size and cost. Some are big and cost millions of Kyat with
concrete wall and zinc roof, some are small with bamboo wall and thatch roof. They are willing to
spend a lot of money for the building but reluctant to spend a little more money on missions and
evangelism. People are also very keen to donate money for the building but not for missions. For the
Buddhist it is the great merit in making donation for building the monastery or pagoda. Even Buddhists
are willing to donate money for Christian church building. Church leaders use to make every special
effort to raise fund for the building. Some Christians and leaders do not understand the meaning of
“Church.” Most of them think that Church is just a “Christian organization.” A senior pastor of Judson
Church said to me, “You cannot call your ‘Shan fellowship’ as ‘Shan Church’ because you don’t have a
church building, you are just having worship program at rented room, your pastor is not ordained, you
don’t have Sunday school class, you don’t have youth fellowship, you don’t have women fellowship.”
In fact there is a full-time un-ordained pastor, a rented memorial hall for regular Sunday worship
service with more than one hundred believers attending and they have other activities such as Bible
Study program, home cells meeting and outreached ministries. But it is not recognized as a Church
according to Baptist Senior pastor. I heard some members of the Church alleged that in 1990 a church
building committee in the North have raised money for church building by getting gambling permit
from authority and sold it to the gambling mogul and collected taxes from the gambling for church
building fund. This allegation is serious. I went to the North to investigate. I could not interview the
chairman of the church building committee because a year ago he suddenly collapsed and died in the
Church while he was collecting the offering and secretary of the committee was seriously ill and I have
to lay hands on him and pray in stead of interview. The report shows that the initial fund collected for
the building in 1989 was only Kyat 6,000. It was far below the required payment to contractor. A
special collection from 50 hard-core members was done and got Kyat 132,800. The laying foundation
was done on April 19, 1989 with the cost of Kyat 573,122. How could they get such big amount of
money in a month? The source of money was not mentioned in the report. I interviewed a lady from
65 Letter From Mr. Bixby, May 8, 1862, Toungoo.
66 Ibid
67 Letter From Mr. Bixby, Jan. 18, 1863, Toungoo.