Understanding Modern Christians in China: Becoming Who You Are in Christ
When grand narratives no longer serve as the backdrop for self-definition, the question of how an individual can better become themselves arises.
When grand narratives no longer serve as the backdrop for self-definition, the question of how an individual can better become themselves arises.
The volume’s case studies mirror many of the challenges Chinese cross-cultural workers and churches face today. The book covers not only culture-specific pressures on the field but also how national churches and agencies responded—or did not respond—to missionary stresses.
Diasporic Chinese Christians are reimagining their identity and purpose in God’s mission. Once viewed primarily as recipients of outreach, they are now emerging as active agents in cross-cultural ministry, reaching beyond co-ethnics and engaging in global collaboration.
A new series adapted from Sam Ling’s 2025 HLS lecture asks four guiding questions across four axes—China, the West, the church, and ideas—to help us think and serve faithfully as we look toward the 2040s.
While honestly embracing their own evangelical legacy, with its imperative for gospel witness, the Mennonites also found in their heritage values of “hosting, listening, waiting, learning, inquiring, affirming.”
Though Chinese house churches experience ongoing and intensifying restrictions, they have begun to develop sending structures to support cross-cultural missionaries. Even churches that have been forced to close are still finding ways to support missionaries that they have sent.
Based on a review of over 160 years of modern church history in China, the author takes an optimistic view of the current situation and firmly believes that God is preparing present-day China to embrace another great revival of Christianity—hereafter referred to as "China’s Next Revival."
Chambon’s reflections begin with an important question: How do Chinese Christians navigate their faith within a context shaped by deep ancestral traditions, material symbolism, and political restrictions?
To work effectively in today’s China necessitates letting go of the buffer of foreign privilege... and humbly embracing a still deeper engagement with Chinese society.
Beyond the story of suffering lies the sacred narrative of how the church continues to be the church.
They patiently persevered as "people of the soil," knowing trees take a long time to grow and bear fruit.
The Sinicization of Christianity is not merely a passing campaign, but a long-term issue that will continue to shape the church in China.