Author Spotlight: Marie Monsen

Marie Monsen has been called “the mother of the Chinese house churches.” Although she left China in 1932, never to return, her name is held in high honor among Chinese Christians. She was used mightily by God as an instrument of revival. Yet she remains barely known in the West, even in her native country.

Anyone who has read Brother Yun’s book, The Heavenly Man, will perhaps recall the tribute he pays to Miss Monsen in the first chapter. Yun writes: “Miss Monsen was small in stature, yet a giant in God’s kingdom. The Chinese church was not only impacted by her words, but also deeply challenged by her sacrificial lifestyle. She was a fully committed, uncompromising follower of Jesus Christ, who showed us an example of how to suffer and endure for the Lord. God used Marie Monsen in a powerful manner, so that many miracles, signs and wonders followed her ministry.”

Later in that same chapter, Yun continues:

“Marie Monsen was different from most other missionaries. She didn’t seem to be too concerned with making a good impression on the Chinese church leaders. She often told them, ‘You are all hypocrites! You confess Jesus Christ with your lips while your hearts are not fully committed to him! Repent before it is too late to escape God’s judgment.’ She brought fire from the altar of God.’”

Monsen laid great emphasis on the fact that head knowledge of Christian truth was not enough—there must be a radical heart change, involving confession of sin and repentance.

She traveled around the country as an evangelist, holding meetings at various mission stations and churches. As people left at the close of the service she would ask each person, including professing Christians and missionaries, “Have you been born again?” Many were insulted and angered, but that didn’t deter the courageous missionary. She spared no one, including preachers, deacons, and missionaries. As a result, the Holy Spirit probed hearts and people discovered and admitted that they had not been born again.

Brother Yun, in another book, Living Water, contends that it was because Miss Monsen laid such a deep foundation of repentance, surrender to God, and death to self in the Christians of Henan that they were able to better withstand the storms of persecution that buffeted the Chinese church throughout the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s.

I encourage you to read all you can about Miss Monsen and what God did through her in China in the early 1900’s. America needs revival! One of the ways God’s people can prepare for revival is by studying past movements of God and the lives of those whom God used as channels of blessing.

Recommended books:
The Awakening by Marie Monsen
A Preset Help by Marie Monsen

Internet resources:
The Shantung Revival tells the story of the revival in China from the perspective of C. L. Culpepper
Revival: Marie Monsen seems to be an excerpt from a book about the Shantung revival by Mary K. Crawford