CCC General Secretary: Don’t Focus on the Number of Chinese Christians, But Work to Build Healthy Churches

Rev. Kan Baoping (3rd on the right) attended the fourteenth senior forum on the social role and influence of Christianity in modern China, Guiyang, Nov. 13, 2018.
Rev. Kan Baoping (3rd on the right) attended the fourteenth senior forum on the social role and influence of Christianity in modern China, Guiyang, Nov. 13, 2018. (photo: CCC&TSPM)
By Yi YangNovember 16th, 2018

There have always been debates on the exact number of Chinese Christians. The said figure ranges from tens of millions to 150 million. Recently a scholar said that Chinese Christians numbered about around 39.7 million.

In a forum convened in Guiyang on Nov. 13, Rev. Kan Baoping, vice-president and general secretary of the China Christian Council (CCC), responded that the church in mainland China had grown in the past decades, partly representing a rise in the number of Christians, according to CCC & TSPM (Three-Self Patriotic Movement)

However, he claimed that a church with a large membership was not necessarily a healthy church. The focus should be on establishing stable, orderly, and healthy churches. 

At the meeting about the social role and influence of Christianity,  Rev. Kan added that the mission of the church in the mainland was to get rid of foreign affiliations, promote the sinicization of Christianity, and establish ethical Christianity so that the church could serve society. 

Regarding the true numbers of Christians in China, Professor Lu Yunfeng from Peking University speaking at the 2018 Conference on the Study of Christianity held in Beijing last month, mentioned several different figures. 

The conclusion of around 39.7 million Christians was based on a long-term study, the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), and was close to the "38 million Protestants" claimed by the Chinese government in April.

A 2014 report published by the Longway Foundation stated that the number of Chinese Christians and people who had the same religious identity was around 100 to 150 million, whereas David Aikman argued that it should be at least 80 million. In 2010, Asia Harvest, the most influential transnational Christian organization in Asia, concluded that there were 83.5 million Christians in China. The next year, the Pew Research Center said that Chinese Christians totaled approximately 58 million. 

- Translated by Karen Luo

 

 

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