A Theology for the 21st Century from Urban China

Faithful, countercultural, and walking the way of the cross. We seek to capture the theology & teaching of the modern Chinese house church so that the global church can learn from its experience.

About Us

It’s time to hear new voices.

In China, the church has always been countercultural, often met with persecution, and always proclaiming the gospel with the full cost of following Jesus in mind.

The rest of the world increasingly faces this situation. It’s time to learn from our Chinese brothers and sisters who are preaching and living out the gospel in the face of marginalization and suffering.

The Center for House Church Theology (CHCT) publishes books and articles by leaders committed to the historic gospel of grace in China’s urban house churches.

What is the House Church?

Latest Article

The Theology and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Technologies
In this interview, originally recorded in Mandarin at Singapore Bible College in 2024, Dr. Ximian (Simeon) Xu of the University of Edinburgh shares about his pietist house church upbringing, scientific background, and how he has uniquely used his careers in engineering and theology to help us understand AI and guide the development of AI ethics, with direct applications for the church.
It is exciting to imagine a future in which thinkers like Xu can not only contribute to Chinese theology, but can help guide and inform the global church in pressing conversations.

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Previous Article

Living in God's Plan in a Foreign Land
Leaving China is a particularly difficult decision for house church leaders, many of whom have faced increasing pressure and sometimes imprisonment at home. This meditation on Jeremiah 29 represents their heartache, as well as their desire to follow God faithfully in their new home.
Along with the article “Where Are You Running To?”, these represent two responses of house church leaders to the current climate in China.

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Register to download hand-illustrated, full-color printable PDFs of all of our articles and study guides.

Resources in Indonesian

Download the article by S.E. Wang, four chapters from the book Faith in the Wilderness, and two papers from the book Faithful Disobedience, in celebration of launching our website in Indonesian.

What People Are Saying

“I am hoping in many ways the Chinese church will be able to teach the whole church what it’s learning.”

—Timothy Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church

"The sermons in Faith in the Wilderness are haunting. Suffused by hope, they escape the zoom rooms where they were originally uttered, and echo around a world reeling from pandemic, war, and recession. I'm including them in my preaching class at Western Seminary because I want our students to study preaching from the Majority World and to learn how to preach missionally-sensitive sermons amid suffering. In the secular city in which I live and minister, these hope-filled homilies are a breath of fresh air that shows us that we can have faith, even in our secular wilderness."

—Stephen Stallard, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry & Master of Divinity Program Director, Western Seminary

“In the English speaking world, a significant amount of key theological writings from the Three-Self churches in China have been translated for quite some time. But this has not been the case with the house church movement in China. As the global church and academic community are increasingly eager to hear the voice of the house church in China, CHCT’s materials represent the first intentional and systematic attempt to make the house church’s voice heard beyond China and the Chinese world.

Overall, CHCT’s timely translation project fills a huge vacuum, corrects a long-standing imbalance, and meets an urgent need in popular and scholarly understanding of the Church in China. The primary sources from the house church movement in China will surely benefit the global church in its ministry as well as the academic community in its research.”

— Jin Chen (pseudonym), Researcher, Chinese Christianity

Meet the Team