Surviving Persecution: How to Understand, Prepare, and Respond

Persecution can kill the church--unless there is an adequate understanding of, preparation for, and response to this potentially fatal threat. Surviving Persecution is a study based on more than forty years of living and working with the Mayans of Chiapas, who inhabit the highlands of the southernmost state of Mexico. This book can serve as a guide for Christians living in a hostile environment to know how to avoid unnecessary persecution and to survive violent persecution when it strikes. This analysis of persecution can also be a valuable resource for students and congregations who desire to better understand the challenges and complexities of persecution. The last chapter gives guidelines for how national and international church organizations can play a vital role in helping the suffering church survive and thrive. From his personal experience of being the target of persecution and then working with the persecuted indigenous church, the author employs an anthropological approach with a biblical perspective to formulate a response to persecution that can promote the growth of the church.

Vernon Sterk is retired from forty-one years of missionary service to the Mayan people of Chiapas, Mexico. He is a graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, where he served as Professor of Missiology for more than a decade. His PhD, with an emphasis on persecution, was earned at Fuller School of Intercultural Studies. He coordinated the translation of the first interconfessional Bible in the Tztozil Mayan language.


Jude Tiersma lives and works in a Hispanic immigrant neighborhood in central Los Angeles as part of Cambria Community, Innerchange. She coordinates the concentration in urban mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, where she is pursuing her PhD studies.

Charles Van Engen served the National Presbyterian Church in Mexico in theological education, evangelism, youth ministries, and refugee relief from 1973-1985. In 1981 he completed the PhD in missiology from the Free University of Amsterdam. He is presently Associate Professor of mission, church growth, and Latin American studies at Fuller Theological Seminary.