Free churches edit
There is a new third church movement that is growing rapidly in the urban areas of China today. Traditionally, the churches in communist China were thought to be either “Three-Self churches” (official and government-controlled churches), or “house churches” (churches meeting in homes, not part of the state). But now, there is a third church movement called the “free church” movement in China and it is gaining momentum.
Before discussing the free church movement, there is a need to explain briefly the different church movements in China since the communist takeover in 1949. When the communists systematically persecuted, and eventually outlawed the Chinese Christian church before and during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, the church went underground. As a result, the term “underground church” came into use. But after the death of Mao, the government legalized the Christian church. Then, the Christians in China began to come above ground into the officially sanctioned church, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) or the Three-Self church.
The term “Three-Self” originated with John Nevius, who was an American missionary to China and Korea in the late nineteenth century. He proposed a strategy of self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating local churches in China and Korea. The strategy took hold in Korea in the late nineteenth century, and resulted in explosive church growth in the twentieth century. However, in China, the strategy was hijacked by the communists as a tool to rid the church of “foreign influence.” The Three-Self church was officially recognized by the government in 1979, but instead of having a foreign influence, it was dominated by communism, thereby coming short of being a genuine, independent church.
When the Chinese Christians realized that communist control of the Christian church was detrimental to the spirituality and the health of the church, many of them continued to meet in homes, thus the beginning of the “house church” movement in the early 1980s. For the next three decades, these two church movements dominated the Chinese church scene. Generally, the Three-Self church is served by seminary-educated ordained ministers, whose theology is parallel to the liberal mainline churches in the US and the state churches of Europe. The house churches, however, are basically a church movement led by lay leaders in the countryside. House church members often attend the Three-Self churches on weekends to receive the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in addition to being part of a house church. The house churches have had explosive growth as a mainly rural church movement. Due to lack of training and discipleship, however, these churches have been plagued with the problems of heresy and cultic teachings.
A number of Three-Self pastors also often have house fellowships of their own. These pastor-led churches sometimes come into conflict with other house churches in the area. Unfortunately, many of these conflicts result in either the Three-Self churches turning the house church leaders over to the authorities for their “illegal” church activities, or the house churches categorically shunning the Three-Self churches as “apostate.” There is a real need for reconciliation among the churches in China.
More recently, some of the evangelical Three-Self pastors and the Chinese Christians who have studied at overseas seminaries have begun to plant their own independent churches in the urban areas of China such as Beijing and Shanghai. Unlike the rural house churches, which attract mostly farmers, the urban free churches tend to attract well-educated, affluent people. For example, Zion Church of Beijing is led by a former Three-Self pastor named Jin Mingri.[1][2] In addition to his education at Beijing University and Nanjing Seminary in China, he also earned a doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary in the United States. In the spring of 2007, Jin returned to China and planted the Zion church. In less than three years, it grew to being a multisite church with close to 1,000 worshipers attending the different Sunday services. Many of the church members are scholars, officials, international businessmen, and college-educated merchants. Zion is not a house church that meets underground but an above-ground church that meets in an office building, and that refuses to either disband or register with the authorities. Despite harassment from the police, they have persevered by walking in the light rather than hiding, and by preaching the gospel boldly rather than living in fear.[3] The authorities are beginning to dialog with free churches, which could lead to official recognition.
Even with the Back to Jerusalem Movement (a movement led by house church leaders with the massive goal to send tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Chinese missionaries to the Middle East), the kinds of training they propose (such as practicing jumping from a window in case of police crack-down or preparing for martyrdom) and the lack of international experience (such as being turned back from the border due to lack of passports), often causes house church movements to fall short. On the other hand, the next generation of Chinese church leaders and missionaries will likely come out of the free church movement in China. Their highly educated members and leaders with extensive international exposure are often backed with a vast reserve of wealth in the cities. Throughout China, there is a massive influx of the Chinese into the cities. China will be overwhelmingly urban in the next decades. This makes the urban free churches all the more important as future leaders of evangelical Christianity in China.