All Christians in China Once Underground: During China's decade-long Cultural Revolution, all Christians worshiped underground. Not one church - Protestant or Catholic - was open in the entire land of China!

But China became more open in the late 1970s. In 1980, the China Christian Council was formed and many Protestant Christians began to worship openly (although many others remain "underground" to this day, albeit fairly vocal.) This China Christian Council is an umbrella organization of former mainline denominations in China who are united in open witness to their faith. China's mainline churches are more theologically conservative than are their U. S. counterparts.

Uniting Across Former Divisions: For many years now there have been no denominations in China Christian Council churches. What unites these Christians far outweighs the differences that have divided the church into denominations here in the West. They place high priority on Jesus' prayer: "Father may they [my disciples] be one, even as you and I are one." Or, as expressed in Chinese phraseology, these Christians "seek common ground, reserving their differences." Believers claim that this oneness-in-uniqueness has greatly enriched the Church.

Protestant Churches Now Open Legally: After the Cultural Revolution, the China Christian Council began negotiating with the government for the return of once-confiscated church properties. In late 1979, the church churches were returned by the government and re-opened in Ningbo and Shanghai. This return of church assets continues at a rate of about three church properties returned every two days.

Today - less than 27 years later - there are more than 15,000 legal Protestant churches in China.

That's well more than all of the Presbyterian Churches (PCUSA) in the entire United States and one and a half times the number of all Episcopal churches in the USA.
And China has accomplished this in less than 27 years!

And today in China . . . there are also 35,000 groups of Christians now meeting legally in homes.

Together, these legal Protestant churches and these 35,000 groups of Christians now worshiping legally in homes account for 43 percent of all of China's legal places of religious worship for all religions. This is an enormous advance for Protestant Christians . . . especially when this has happened in less than 27 years.

China continues to build new churches, both large and small. China Connection continues to help with Free Bibles for the Poor, Seminary Scholarships, and Assisting Churches.