Survey of the Chinese Church

by Tony Lambert

SHAANXI
Population: 36,050,000
Capital: Xi’an (6,870,000)
Christian situation: Part of China’s ancient heartland, Shaanxi has the Tang dynasty capital of Xi’an as its main city—the start of the old Silk Road. Parts of the province are desperately poor due to erosion and lack of water.

In 1997 TSPM sources gave the total number of Protestants in the province as 350,000 (ANS, April 97)—probably a very conservative figure. However, even this figure shows 12-fold growth since 1949 when there were only 30,000. In 1991 there were over 1,300 registered churches and meeting-points. (Tianfeng May 2001). However, in the entire province there were only 44 full-time pastors. They are helped by 140 elders and 445 preachers.

Tongchuan, a coal-mining area, has seen explosive growth: in 1965 on the eve of the Cultural Revolution there were only 300 believers in the area. By 1986 there were 5,000 Christians in 20 meeting points. By 1995 numbers had risen to 11,000; by 1999 there were 15,000 believers in 30 registered meeting points.

Baoji had 1,200 Protestants in 1950. By 1995 their numbers had grown to 26,000. Yongshou County northwest of Xi’an has seen growth from one church and 1,200 believers in 1992 to over 4,000 baptized believers meeting in 13 churches by 1996.

In 1994 there were about 200,000 Roman Catholics meeting in 254 churches, served by four bishops, 84 priests and 193 nuns. (Keai de Shaanxi [Beloved Shaanxi], 1994]

There are many house-churches functioning in Xi’an and dotted throughout the countryside.

Minorities: Shaanxi has a large Hui (Chinese Muslim) community numbering over 150,000. Xi’an has well over 50,000 and tourists often visit the ancient mosque built in Chinese style. Those seeking detailed information about the Hui are recommended to read:
Islam in China, Marshall Broomhall of the CIM, 1910. (Now rare!)
Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People’s Republic. Dru C. Gladney, Harvard University Press, 1991.

SHANXI
Population: 32,970,000
Capital: Taiyuan (3,090,000)
Christian situation: There was vigorous missionary work by the China Inland Mission since the 19th century. Southern Shanxi was the sphere of operation of the famous Pastor Xi who set up refuges for opium addicts. In 1900 Shanxi saw many martyrs, both Chinese and Western. In the early 1950s there were about 26,000 Protestants in the province. In 1994 TSPM officials estimated 100,000 registered believers in the province and by 1996 about 200,000. In 1996 there were about 99 registered churches. The province is quite tightly controlled so far as religious affairs is concerned. The main TSPM church in Taiyuan has well over 1,000 people attending. In 1998 a flourishing network of 56 registered house-churches in the city were closed by the authorities.

The grim industrial city of Datong has seen explosive growth from 200-300 believers associated with the TSPM church in 1992, to 70,000 Christians in 1998, meeting in house-churches in the city and the surrounding countryside. In September 1991 a registered church was illegally demolished by the police near Datong.

SHANDONG
Population: 90,790,000
Capital: Jinan (5,630,000)
Christian situation: Shandong has a fascinating Christian history. As early as 1885 certain churches broke away from foreign mission and denominational control and set up independent churches (zilihui). By the nineteen-thirties the pentecostal movement also had a strong influence. Shandong was the cradle for various revivals as well as such indigenous churches as the Jesus Family. This communal Christian movement was founded at Mazhuang by Jing Dianying in 1927. By 1948 it had set up 127 “families” across China. The present-day house-church movement owes much to the Jesus Family who stressed itinerant evangelism and simplicity of lifestyle.
According to official statistics published 1998 in a provincial handbook dealing with religious affairs the church has seen rapid growth in Shandong:
# Protestants Places of Worship
1949 70-100,000
1965 70,000 350
1983 200,000 186
1990 307,000 2,464 (incl. meeting points)

However, in 1990 there were only 43 pastors in the entire province—a ratio of 1 pastor to about 7500 Christians! They were aided by 186 elders and 2,974 lay workers.

In 1990 there were 150,000 registered Catholics in Shandong meeting in 197 places of worship and served by 149 priests and nuns.
The statistics given above are extremely conservative—in fact the compilers admit some of the statistics for the 1990 figure of 307,000 actually date back to 1985. In 1993 the official Christian magazine, Tianfeng, gave a figure of 460,000, although local TSPM pastors in the same year told visitors from Hong Kong the true figure was as high as 800,000. In 1996 TSPM sources gave a figure of 900,000 believers meeting in 926 churches and 4,000 registered meeting points.We believe the present figure of TSPM-associated believers must now be well over 1 million. This is corroborated by the rapid growth in the number of registered churches and meeting points from nearly 2,500 in 1990 to 3,000 in 1993 to 4,000 in 1996. In the one year of 1994 alone 50,000 believers were baptized in Shandong TSPM churches. The number of lay-workers had soared to 30,000 by 1996. House-churches are active in many parts of the province, but periodically have suffered repression and often the believers suffer great poverty in the rural areas.

SICHUAN
Population: 83,290,000
Capital: Chengdu (10,140,000)
Christian situation: Sichuan is a huge province in both area and population. The lush rice fields of the Chengdu basin are in stark contrast to the grassy uplands and mountains of the Tibetan, Yi and Qiang areas in the west and south of the province.

Griffith John, of the London Missionary Society, first preached the gospel in Sichuan in 1868. However, the China Inland Mission established the first permanent gospel center in Chengdu in 1881. By 1922 there were about 13,000 baptized Christians in Sichuan of whom about half were Methodists.

Sichuan has proved rather resistant to the gospel and the number of Christians is small compared to the huge population and other provinces. The authorities run a tightly-controlled religious policy. However, in recent years house-church evangelists from Henan, Wenzhou and other places have made significant progress. In Langzhong, the former Anglican cathedral of the CIM Anglican diocese of East Sichuan was reopened in 1995 or 1996 and has an attendance of about 1,000 people. Several thousand house-church people were reported meeting in this country area, but their meetings have sometimes been suppressed.

In 1996, according to Three Self sources, there were 400,000 Protestants in Sichuan of whom 250,000 were associated with the TSPM/China Christian Council and the rest unaffiliated house-church members. There were then only 119 churches open and 100 pastors active. In 2001 TSPM sources gave a figure of 250,000 Protestants (after Chongqing which has large numbers of Christians had become a separate municipality.)

In 1990 a government handbook gave the number of Catholics in Sichuan as 300,000 meeting in 142 churches.

The capital, Chengdu, in 1995 only had 2,500 registered Protestants. According to an informed source there are several hundred house-churches, most of them quite small (under 30 people). Even allowing for more recent growth, Chengdu must rate as one of the least evangelized cities in China with probably no more than 0.2% of its population Protestant Christian.

Minorities: There are well over 1 million Tibetans in western Sichuan. Very few are Christians although a few have heard the gospel in small churches planted by the CIM pre-1949 in such towns as Batang and Litang. The Qiang live to the northwest of Chengdu and number over 200,000. In 1935 all the Qiang pastors were martyred. There may be a few hundred Qiang believers today. They speak 11 different dialects which has hampered outreach. They have no scriptures in their own language and just one brief gospel recording. Many are Lama Buddhists or animists.

The Yi (or Nosu) of Daliangshan in southern Sichuan who number over 2 million are largely unreached. Some house-church evangelists and unfortunately some cults have penetrated their mountain heart-land. They have their own language which has a unique written script, but is divided into many dialects. About 12,000 Yi may have renounced the Mentu (Disciples) cult and turned to Christ (see p.409, Operation China). Some gospel tracts, recordings and the Jesus Film are available in Yi.