It’s 7:30 p.m. on a Saturday night, and Marian is waiting with her friends for the evening service to begin at Flow Church in Tsim Sha Tsui. She talks animatedly about how she felt after Beijing imposed a strict national security law in 2020 that silenced critics, decimated press freedom, and curtailed civic action in Hong Kong. At the time, Marian was filled with questions about how Christians should respond, “but my former church couldn’t answer my questions,” she said. CT agreed not to use her real name, as criticism of the government is sensitive in Hong Kong.
She started looking for a church that was discussing these issues. Later that year, she heard several sermons by John Chan, the founding pastor of Flow Church, on Romans 12, where Paul urges his readers not to “conform to the pattern of this world.” Chan didn’t shy away from discussing Hong Kong’s political situation but urged Hong Kongers to focus on integrating Christ into their lives without being overly concerned about worldly politics.
“People have questions about how to be a Christian in today’s situation,” Marian says. “Flow had practical answers.”
Marian joined a cell group of a dozen people who quickly became her friends. They meet twice a month and talk about their lives and challenges.
The Cantonese-speaking Flow Church began in 2018, the year before pro-democracy protests rocked Hong Kong, leading the government to clamp down on the former British colony. Chan’s original goal was to establish a church unburdened by traditions or denominational constraints, one that would attract the large contingent of young people, like Marian, who no longer felt a connection with the churches they grew up in.
“I felt God called me to establish a church for these people, one that was relevant to their lives,” Chan said. “They needed something new.” Flow Church has no office, no elders, no permanent home, an ethos summed up in its name. Their worship team sets up each week in a hall owned by another church and packs everything up after the service is over.
This type of flexibility explains how Chan and Flow Church plan to take on the religious persecution that Hong Kong may soon face. So far, the national security law has focused only on politics, not religion. Yet many are preparing for the day when restrictions may be placed on how and where they worship, much like in mainland China.
CT spoke with Flow Church and two international churches about how they are preparing for Hong Kong’s uncertain future and found three different strategies. While Flow Church is taking a malleable approach, the Vine plans to plant smaller churches, and Island Evangelical Community Church (IECC) plans to invest in an expensive new church building.
Many young Hong Kong people who were sympathetic to the goals of the 2019 protest movement joined Flow Church. Although the church did not overtly support the protests, its leaders provided counseling and mental health resources to young people who were impacted by the conflict.
“We’re not critiquing the government,” Chan said about the church’s stance. “We’re focused on the Bible.”
Chan believes that Hong Kong churches are within a 10-year grace period before the government imposes any significant changes. He says Flow is willing to cooperate to a certain degree. For example, he would put a Chinese flag on their stage if the government requires it. (In a June 12th call, Chan clarified that the church would try to seek alternatives or compromises rather than strictly following certain government directives, such as displaying a flag in the building.)
Yet for requirements that go against the Bible, “we will follow Jesus,” Chan said. “We will not compromise our faith. We’re mentally prepared for the future.”
That preparation includes a deliberate decision not to keep a database of members and an expectation that the Flow Church might disappear soon.
“We don’t expect Flow to have a long future,” Chan said. “The church is an event, a happening. We will focus on our lives.”
Flow Church has regular attendance of about 400 people each week, with up to 8,000 more online. Hong Kongers who have resettled overseas have started Flow Church branches. “We’re a megachurch,” he says with a laugh. “But not financially.” While offering collections cover the bills, only about 30 people give regularly, Chan said.
Chan noted that he doesn’t plan to plant more churches in Hong Kong because his focus is on “spiritual space, not physical space.” Instead, he sees his role as building relationships with people and facilitating small groups. That approach differs from how the Vine, an international church based in the busy urban area of Wan Chai, is planning for the future.
Unlike in China, where only foreign-passport holders can attend international churches, Hong Kongers make up a majority of the worshipers at the city’s international congregations. They are drawn not only by the English-language services but also by the more casual and relational style.
The Vine’s multistory building seats hundreds and has multiple meeting spaces. But the church’s senior pastor, Andrew Gardener, says the Vine is intent on planting smaller churches around Hong Kong with fewer than 200 people each.
The first church plant is located near Hong Kong’s border with Shenzhen, China, and has a nonprofit status separate from the main Vine Church. This allows the new church more autonomy and its own identity. Because it’s in an area where English is not widely spoken, the church has both English and Cantonese services.
“I would rather have a group of smaller churches tailor-made for the communities we are trying to reach than one large church in a static location that we expect everyone to come to,” Gardener said. “It’s a great way to serve Hong Kong.”
Gardener agrees with Chan that currently the Hong Kong government is refraining from intruding into religious affairs. Some international pastors believe that the government is systematically working its way through other sectors of society before turning its attention to churches. Gardener said opportunities to share the gospel are still open, and the Vine is able to hold Alpha courses in schools and corporate offices around the city.
“Day to day, nothing of substance has changed,” he noted.
Still, some Cantonese-language churches have come under the Hong Kong government’s scrutiny for being alleged incubators of “soft resistance”—the government’s vague term for actions that subtly oppose the new system imposed in 2020. Several Hong Kong clergy have been arrested in recent years on national security–related offenses, and others have chosen voluntary exile.
International churches face different challenges as the government suspects them of being tied to “foreign forces” and disapproves of their ministries to refugees, according to pastors CT spoke to.
Some of these churches have become the targets of anonymous attacks that use email and other means to accuse them of assisting anti-government forces in Hong Kong, according to international church pastors.
“The Vine is committed to justice work in our city, and at times this has put us on the government’s radar,” Gardener said. “But it’s community service—it’s not political.”
Meanwhile, another international church, IECC, is planning to plant its roots in one central location. While it currently rents several floors of a skyscraper for worship space, the congregation recently purchased a decrepit former theater and adjacent structure, which they plan to renovate into a new 100,000-square-foot church building.
The building costs nearly $100 million and will require an additional $30 million in renovation costs. Senior pastor Brett Hilliard said some church members and Christians outside the church have questioned why IECC would spend so much money on a massive new church building in Hong Kong when uncertainty looms.
“It’s a great investment, considering that we’re already spending a lot on rent,” Hilliard said. But beyond the financial considerations, “this makes a statement to the community that we choose faith over fear,” Hilliard said. “The church isn’t going away.”
Hilliard plans to use the ground floor of the building for “redemptive retail,” such as cafés and shops staffed by people with disabilities or ex-convicts.
Like many churches, IECC had difficult choices to make when protests engulfed Hong Kong in 2019 and the government cracked down.
“We didn’t participate or condemn,” Hilliard said. He acknowledged the challenge of maintaining a focus on the gospel message during that chaotic time when “our worship team included several police officers while some members of the congregation sat with placards that they intended to take to the protest after the service.”
That was six years ago. Today, Hilliard says he feels no overt pressure to avoid any topics. He stays away from predicting what the Hong Kong government will do but believes IECC will be able to gather as they serve the community and focus on the gospel message. He encourages the congregation to put aside political allegiances as they prepare for the future.
Meanwhile, during the Saturday night Flow Church service Marian attended, hundreds of young people sang worship songs like “Jesus Be the Center” and prayed for their city, one another, and their future.
Marian noted that she and her cell group are prepared for the day when the church is shut down. “It’s likely to happen,” she said. “If one day we can’t go to church, then the cell groups will be able to carry on.”
