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In late 2003, three remarkable events took place that signal a fundamental shift in how China's house church sees itself.

First, Regnery Publishing released veteran journalist David Aikman's Jesus in Beijing. Then, China Soul for Christ Foundation in Los Angeles issued Yuan Zhiming's dvd series The Cross: Jesus in China.

Both of these journalistic works put names and faces on the house-church movement. Previously, a veil of secrecy covered the movement. Jesus in Beijing introduces Western readers to the key house-church leaders, based on interviews and research in China by the former Beijing bureau chief for Time. The Cross is a powerful collection of interviews and testimonies, taped on location in China, of Christians from all walks of life, collected across three years. Yuan brilliantly combines his talents as a filmmaker, philosopher, and apologist as he weaves the dozens of stories into a coherent montage.

Aikman and Yuan have given us pictures, video testimonies, and careful descriptions of house-church ministries—and the house-church leaders participated, apparently regardless of the risk of imprisonment inside China.

A third event occurred in Chicago at the 2003 Christmas Conference, sponsored by Christian Life Press. At the conference, I was stunned to meet some of these Chinese brothers and sisters featured in the book and the videos. To keep track of the all-star lineup of speakers, I often referred to my now well-worn copy of Jesus in Beijing.

On the last evening, the organizers expressed thanks to Western Christians for 200 years of Protestant missions in China. They rounded up the handful of Westerners in attendance and asked us to sit in the front row. About a dozen of us were asked to stand while 2,000 Chinese Christians thunderously applauded.

One prominent Chinese church leader sitting close to me warmly grasped my hand and humbly offered his heartfelt thanks. Embarrassed, I thought: Who am I to accept thanks for missionary giants such as Robert Morrison, Hudson Taylor, and the Boxer-era martyrs? Although I felt awkward, I realized that I was witnessing a new epoch in the development of China's house churches—a self-confident movement that openly acknowledges its Western past but is in no way beholden to it.

The Chicago conference also signaled to me another new reality of Chinese Christianity: Due to slow but steady emigration of Chinese overseas, China's house-church leaders have now established a strong support system internationally. Westerners (unlike the Chinese themselves) do not always appreciate the huge influence on China itself that nearly 40 million overseas Chinese wield in commerce, politics, and academia—and increasingly in religion. I now believe mainland Chinese Christians, working inside and outside of China's borders, may be reaching a critical mass. There is potential for them to emerge as a new force in global Christianity.

I've come to this assessment after recent research and interaction with pastors of house churches that are not registered with China's government. After years of quietly digging deep roots during decades of persecution, house churches in China today seem ready to achieve new milestones. These churches have a new self-understanding, new self-confidence, and they are now creating new structures and ministries to expand. Significantly, these ministries are not financially dependent on Western groups or other well-established ministries to the Chinese. (Although there are also important developments in the state-registered Three-Self and Catholic churches, I will only focus on Protestant house churches.)

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2