The first time for Christianity to come into China was in 635 as a Nestorian Church, but it survived only shortly.

Chinese Christians praying for World Peace

In 1800s, Christianity reentered China from the West, but unfortunately it was linked with colonialism. In order to break away from the old image of “foreign religion”, Chinese Protestant Christians initiated the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in 1950, and set up the National Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of Protestant Churches in China. The Three-Self Patriotic Movement has scored great achievements. Churches in China have realized not only the principles of self-governance, self-support and self-propagation, but also make all the efforts to move toward from Three-selves to Three-Wells, namely, Self-Govern well, Self-Support well and Self-propagate well.

Bible Distribution among
Ethnic Minority Christians in Yunnan

Under the guidance of Three-Self principles, Chinese churches have entered into a post-denominational period and institutional Protestant denominations do not exist any longer. In 1958, union worships were initiated. In the spirit of mutual respect, Christians with different faith and liturgical backgrounds worship God together. During the years from 1966 to 1976, under the influence of ultra-leftist thought during the Culture Revolution, churches were closed. Churches, however, began to re-open in 1979, and in 1980 the China Christian Council (CCC) was established. From then on, as the national church organizations, CCC and TSPM complement each other to build up the body of Christ together.