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Today, China's fastest growing churches are in the country's massive cities. Like Tian, the members are often young, educated, and cosmopolitan. Rather than hide from authorities, China's third church—as these unregistered, urban congregations are often called—seeks to work with government officials. And surprisingly, these officials are usually quite accommodating.

While persecution and human rights abuses are by no means absent from China, as the recent uprising in Tibet illustrates, the urban church is seeking to work with the government in a constructive, non-combative way. Many Christians believe that the official government church, overseen by the state, is too compromised. But the "underground" church is too antagonistic. The urban church hopes to cooperate with the government, assuring officials that allowing Christians to freely operate is good for Chinese society. In return, they hope, the government will allow them to be free from political control.

It's a tricky wager, one that requires them to be both worldly wise and politically innocent. But China's urban church doesn't see any contradiction in living faithfully as Christians and patriotically as Chinese citizens. As Tian says, "I love the Party. It saved us from the war, from starvation, from disease. But I love God more because he made all things himself."

Uncle Daniel  spent years as a missionary to China's rural villages. There, he said, it was like the book of Acts, complete with miracles, exorcisms, and mass conversions. From 1982 to 1992, he experienced arrest, persecution, and tremendous success planting churches in Henan province. But, Uncle Daniel says, "I started very, very poor. While I was very poor, I had no home. I had a wife. I had children, but I had no food." At the time, he considered it a spiritual badge of honor. "But a brother came to talk to me and said I was wrong to neglect my family." Instead, the man suggested to Uncle Daniel, "I would like to help you to start a business."

After ten years as a missionary, Uncle Daniel's family called him back home to the southern coastal city of Wenzhou. He now owns and directs a number of factories in the rapidly growing city. Yet, Uncle Daniel still considers himself a missionary. "For me as a businessman," he says, "I put it in this order: Increasing my business productivity to build God's kingdom and send out his servants. That is the three-pointed triangle of my life."

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