Churches across varied regions are providing diverse elderly care services to their local communities… However, they still face challenges such as difficulties in management and operations, insufficient professionalism among service personnel, and overall low service levels.
![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)
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.
What the latest plan for Protestant leadership in the TSPM and CCC tells us is that Xi Jinping continues to attract or compel Christians to align themselves with traditional Chinese culture and, as important, with the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda.
Understanding both the registered and unregistered aspects of the church in China provides a more comprehensive picture of the dynamic interplay within the Christian sphere, shedding light on the various challenges and opportunities that each sector encounters.
Balcombe brings us into the present by telling us about the Pentecostal church at the end of the Cultural Revolution and on through the years to its present situation.
An interesting feature of Chinese social and political discourse is propensity to label institutions or political campaigns using numbers… They are catchy and thus relatively easy to remember. Here are some of my favorites.
Legislation may technically render a host of Christian activities illegal, but these activities do not suddenly cease. While we may hear that “China” is clamping down on unregistered meetings or websites or online gatherings, the reality on the ground may tell a different story.
Wang Yi said, “We have an opportunity to demonstrate to society what the church is; why spiritual authority should not be in the hands of those who wield the sword; why we can…endure external governance but cannot allow our faith, worship, teaching, …and members to come under the state’s review and control.”
Wang Yi wrote, “The goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world.”
Doubtless the vigorous development of theological education since the 1990s is one of the important evidences of the growth of Christianity in China. Besides reflecting the growth of the church, it was itself a factor in the further expansion of the church.
A must read for anyone who wishes to work with the registered church in China or indeed the registered church or house church.
The reality is, there are good and not so good house churches, and there are good and not so good TSPM churches. The important question is the substance of the teaching and ministry of the church rather than how each church navigates the realities of the Chinese government.