From Asia editor Angela Fulton: Hundreds of thousands of people have left Hong Kong since Beijing’s clampdown in 2020. That type of mass exodus touches all aspects of society, and I’ve wondered how it specifically affects churches—but it’s been hard to get an answer to that question.

CT freelancer Joyce Wu found that many pastors were unwilling to speak to a reporter about this. But she was able to visit a church where the pastor explained that the congregation has halved, many of their young people have left, and they struggle to find people to play on the worship team and teach Sunday school. Still they continue to gather each Sunday and create a new normal.

It’s encouraging to me that as wars rage and countries topple, the body of Christ is rooted in something deeper. Believers continue to gather, whether in the churches they grew up in or hundreds of miles from home or online. As the psalmist says in Psalm 62:2, “Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”