Bridging the East-West Reality Gap Vol. Many small evangelical fellowships cannot receive official state registration due to their small numerical size. As a result, they form clubs instead, which provides them the opportunity to still officially meet as a group.
Official registration alters the relationship of a religious group with the government.
These groups frequently will create associations in order to gain some type of organization, short of that required to receive official registration. With official registration, though, a group can officially meet as a church. By this I mean the perception of reality as it exists in the East. Western missionaries come to the East with a distinctly Western idea of reality. If one wants to place a phone call in the West, one simply picks up the phone and places the call.