The China house churches:An overview

By Tony Lambert, OMF China researcher

What is a Chinese house church? Many of us overseas think we know—but do we? The term "house church" is so broad as almost to be meaningless. It can mean a few elderly ladies meeting once a week quietly for prayer and Bible study or a network of thousands meeting virtually every day with a host of different activities. Now a Chinese colleague with great experience of the church in many parts of China has written at length to describe the house-churches. He shows convincingly that there are at least eight different categories of unregistered house churches. We should also not forget that in both urban and countryside areas there are registered house churches or “meeting points” which to a greater or lesser extent come under the control of the Three Self and the government religious affairs bureaucracy.

1. Traditional house churches
These came into being through much persecution and suffering in both the cities and the countryside over the last 40 years. They have many elderly members. In general, they stress the importance of “spiritual life” (shengming) and of “carrying the cross.” They are conservative in outlook and often unwilling to change their traditions.

2. Ex-Three Self house churches
These are people who came to Christ in Three Self (government-registered) churches but, for various reasons, felt unhappy and left to set up their own house-church fellowships. They are in both city and countryside. However, because of their background they still have a mindset influenced by the Three Self so are in a mid-way position to some extent.

3. Foreign-led house churches
Foreign teachers and other Christian professionals from overseas have set up house-churches. They fall mainly into two very different categories:
(1) House churches for students and intellectuals on and off campus in the cities.
(2) House churches set up in rural areas or small towns in minority tribal areas.
They suffer from the linguistic and cross-cultural limitations of their foreign leadership and also lack continuity and a strong sense of what the church really is.

4. Returnee house churches
Thousands of Chinese students and intellectuals who have gone overseas to work and study over the last two decades have become Christians. Many of these have now returned to China and set up fellowships, mainly in large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. They have the advantage of further education, of wealth and wide-ranging experience. However, they may be taken up with furthering their careers and look down on other less fortunate Christians.

5. Culture Christians house churches
Many high-level university students, graduates and faculty have developed a keen interest in Christianity as they pursue their studies into Western history, culture and philosophy. Those who remain interested at only an intellectual level are usually known as “culture Christians.” However, increasingly, many have gone on to find true faith in Christ and to set up Bible study and discussion groups. They will provide quality intellectual leadership for the church as it relates to a rapidly changing society. However, the danger is that some will remain in an ivory tower mentality divorced from the grassroots church.

6. Radio house churches
For decades, gospel radio stations such as FEBC have had a wide influence across China. Many have come to faith through gospel radio and some have set up house churches as a result, relying on the radio for their spiritual food. Such fellowships are very diverse, both in town and country. Their weakness is they lack a strong sense of church fellowship and may become unhealthily reliant on overseas broadcasts.

7. Denominational house churches
Some denominations and missions in North America, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia etc. in recent years have re-established contact with “their” churches in China—those denominations which existed to some extent before 1949. Now they pour in resources to set up denominational church and mission structures. There is a real danger that unhealthy dependency is again encouraged and that such groups “fall under foreign control.”

8. Mixed house churches
These are increasingly common as returned scholars meet up with intellectuals and students meeting in large cities or attend traditional house churches. Also, those converted by foreign teachers may naturally gravitate to other groups such as traditional house churches. Such groups draw from their members’ wide-ranging experiences but may also lead to people moving from one fellowship to another, lacking any real loyalty to a single church.

We think we have shown that China’s house-church movement is dynamic, complex and ever-changing. Praise God that his people have developed different forms of fellowship to suit every level of society. Peasants in muddy rice fields—young men with brief cases and cell phones in Shanghai—elderly retirees in a small town—high school children—professors returning to Beijing from Harvard… God loves them all and they are worshipping and witnessing across China with increasing effectiveness.

We plan to publish the full article from which the above summary is taken in future issues of OMF’s bimonthly newsletter China Insight. To obtain copies, write to OMF offices in the U.S. or U.K.

LETTERS FROM READERS

From Mr. W in the UK
“I recently received a copy of China Prayer News for March. We are helping a pastor who is visiting and supporting evangelists in several rural areas. He strongly rejected the [monthly] figures you quoted of US$6 for trainees and US$12 for pastoral workers desiring training. He said such ‘support’ was not a living, but a dying wage! He says the rock bottom minimum for an evangelist (single) is $35 per month but he usually gives $60. May I ask you who gave you these figures? They appear to be hopelessly inadequate.”

We tend to agree with Mr. W! However, we were quoting a report from the officially recognized China Christian Council rather than the house churches. The figures quoted appear to be those for living expenses (mainly food) at the colleges and did not include many other things. We should have perhaps pointed out that in many of the CCC seminaries the students’ tuition and living expenses are subsidized to varying degrees—often heavily. Total costs vary significantly from the richer seminaries in such places as Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou to the much poorer outlying provinces such as Yunnan. Total fees may range approximately from 1,000 to 3,000 RMB per annum (US$125-375). This works out to between US$10 and $31 per month.

The point of our article was that even these very modest costs are quite beyond the reach of many keen rural Christians desperate for training. We also stressed the lack of wisdom of those groups overseas who give large sums to rural workers. The average wage in 2001 of a peasant in Henan (where there are many Christians) was only US$250 per annum according to government statistics—about US$20 a month. Mr. W’s friend is giving two to three times that amount to house-church trainees which is no doubt justified to cover traveling and other expenses. However, our concern is where much larger sums are disbursed with no accountability, leading to corruption and division of the local church.

Copyright OMF International 2004