God Has Always Been at Work
All this time, you thought I wasn’t active in China in the early years after Jesus died and rose again—but here you see that I was!
Chinese Church History
Latest
China’s First Christians
Join us on March 20, 2025, in the Twin Cities for Dr. Glen Thompson’s lecture on China’s earliest Christians, their history, and lessons for today. Free and open to all!
Reflections on Dr. Daryl Ireland’s Lecture and Its Implications for Chinese Christians Today
Dr. Ireland’s recent lecture has further enriched our understanding, shedding light on the interplay between media, religion, and society—a timely and thought-provoking topic. We delved deeply into Chinese Christian history and explored his unique take on social media.
Summer 2024 Reading Recommendations
Looking for a good end-of-summer book? Check out this roundup of the book reviews we’ve done over the last year, from memoir to biography to in-depth history to analysis of the current situation in China.
The Appeal of the Pentecostal Movement in Hong Kong
Mayfield highlights…the essential continuity that bound the early Pentecostal missionaries together with their evangelical contemporaries; the way in which the “heat and noise” of Pentecostal worship, which often repelled Europeans, actually served to attract the Chinese masses; and the strategic role that women played in the founding of Pentecostal churches.
![Two young Chinese police officers stand in front of a temple. When [Church of the East] missionaries arrived in the Chinese capital of Chang’an in 635, they understood that Christianity in the Middle Kingdom required government approval…The application was successful, and a government edict allowed the new Luminous Teaching, as it called itself, to be spread in all China, including the building of a church in the capital city.](https://media.chinasource.org/uploads/2024/05/BL240531-header-ChinaSource-Chinese-Christianity-Nestorians-Jingjao-Church-of-the-East-Dynasties-Silk-Road-Three-Self-Patriotic-Movement-Chinese-Church-History-300x150.jpg)
The Long History of Government Oversight and China’s Church
When [Church of the East] missionaries arrived in the Chinese capital of Chang’an in 635, they understood that Christianity in the Middle Kingdom required government approval…The application was successful, and a government edict allowed the new Luminous Teaching, as it called itself, to be spread in all China, including the building of a church in the capital city.
![A photo of the top of the Stele in Xi’an, China. It is inscribed with an Assyrian cross and Chinese characters. Readers [of Jingjiao] will not only be equipped with the fascinating history of Jingjiao, which helps overcome the anti-Christian narrative that Christianity was brought into China by European and American colonial imperialists. Christians and missionaries in various global cultural contexts will also benefit from this book by learning from the Church of the East missionaries’ creative strategies of inculturation.](https://media.chinasource.org/uploads/2024/04/BL240419-header-ChinaSource-Jingjiao-Xian-stele-Church-of-the-East-in-China-300x150.jpg)
The Earliest Chinese Christianity Brought Back to Life
Readers [of Jingjiao] will not only be equipped with the fascinating history of Jingjiao, which helps overcome the anti-Christian narrative that Christianity was brought into China by European and American colonial imperialists. Christians and missionaries in various global cultural contexts will also benefit from this book by learning from the Church of the East missionaries’ creative strategies of inculturation.
Christianity Comes to China
Take a walk through the past and learn about different missionary efforts in China, from the Nestorians to Matteo Ricci to missionaries like Robert Morrison and Hudson Taylor.
An Unexpected Treasure
I can’t help thinking about how discouraged they must have been when they had to leave China so soon after working hard to learn the language and start a new ministry… But God wasn’t finished with either them or his people in China.
Chinese Christianity and the Missio Dei
As mission in China goes through changing circumstances, it is important to remember that the growth of the Chinese church is primarily the missio dei (mission of God) rather than our mission.
Thoughts in Response to the End of the “Golden Age”
If Christian workers, foreign or local, were aware of the cyclic historical pattern, they might be less surprised by the recent retightening of religious policy after four decades of reform. It was just a matter of time.
When the “Golden Age” Is Over
If we grasp the opportunity offered by this moment, what might we discover about ourselves and our ministries that could well benefit the Chinese church, as well as the global church, and could even contribute to the birth of a new mission paradigm for the future just as what happened during the second half of the twentieth century?