The "Enlin Sacred Music Society" is a professional team who engage in gospel performances actively in Henan and Hubei. The band's establishment and service path can reveal the development of Christianity in China's rural areas. It was set up in the 1980s when the rural economy started to boom.
Let's start to know its history by knowing the family of Zhao Tianheng, the founder of the band.
Following the rural customs at that time, the grandfather and father of Zhao worshiped idols and even became the nominally adopted sons of false gods in the mountain temples to seek protection of the idols. But folk superstitions and idolatry didn't prove beneficial to the family. A cousin of Zhao, a devout Christian, preached the Gospel to him when he was seriously ill and didn't get better after praying to Buddha for help. The family began to pray to God. Soon, he became better and basically recovered after some months. Delighted at the good news, the whole household followed Jesus Christ. Naturally, the Zhaos received Christians who served God.
As China carried out its reform and opening-up program in the 1980s, rural people were better off gradually. The children in the rural areas started to walk into cities and even go abroad to study and broaden their visions. Of course, they made profits. Zhao's four sons rode the tides in the reform and became steady and capable. When they succeeded in their careers, God called the third and fourth youngest brothers. The two sons decided to give up their business and serve God in their hometown.
In Nanyang, Henan, it was generally practiced that a band was invited to put on a show before a home where a wedding or funeral was held or whose new business was opened. Those specialized teams drove mobile stage trucks through the towns and villages to find work opportunities and it formed a special local cultural phenomenon.
Inspired by this, the two brothers thought of building a Christian team focused on gospel performance to take advantage of the cultural trend. The vision for evangelisation appeared clear-cut little by little. With both having singing talents, the brothers and their wives acted with felicity. It was more encouraging that several believers with the gift of acting and singing enrolled in the band after being told of the vision. The Christian team composed of some families was named "Enlin Sacred Music Society" by the third brother.
Henan, the cradle of the Chinese nation and the birthplace of the Chinese culture, has a solid artistic background for centuries. The national province, with a large population and rich culture, enjoys a high reputation at home and abroad for its dramas. Yu opera and Henan quju (an opera derived from ballad singing) are known to all, including a lot of the middle-aged and aged people.
Thanks to favorable timing, geographical and human conditions, the society made use of the local operas like Yu opera, quju, Yuediao opera and Huangmei opera for other applications. The gospel operas written, directed and performed by the society were popular among many Christian and non-Christian audiences.
The majority of their performance were Christian songs and operas. In addition, excellent short plays, cross talks and allegros were also shown. At the end of each performance, a preaching team of the society led the calling that appealed to non-Christian audiences to make a prayer to accept Jesus. The respondents were also given presents. The number of the converts ranged from two to over a hundred for each calling. Brother led them to do the sinner's prayer sentence by sentence and then entrusted them to the local church.
Their effective preaching has won them many invitations of holding special evangelistic meetings from the Chinese churches.
Translated by Karen Luo
