Where the church stands in China
When foreign missionaries were expelled from China around 1950, they left behind roughly one million Protestant believers and the widespread assumption that the Chinese church would not survive. Today credible estimates put the number of Chinese Christians somewhere near 100 million — growth that happened without foreign personnel, without public buildings, and under active suppression.
Since 2018 pressure has increased again: surveillance of registered churches, removal of crosses, restrictions on anyone under eighteen attending, and the closure of prominent house churches. The Chinese church has been here before, and it is quietly preparing its people for it.
Signs of hope
A church that multiplied from about one million to tens of millions with no outside help — and a growing Chinese missionary vision toward Central Asia.
The honest difficulty
Intensifying surveillance and control, pressure on house-church leaders, and legal barriers to teaching children.
What "Unreached" means
There is no indigenous community of believing Christians large enough to evangelise the rest of the nation without outside help. Commonly measured as under 2% evangelical.
In China the majority religious context is Non-religious / folk religion; Christianity ~7%. The largest population still considered without meaningful Gospel access is the Han Chinese sub-groups, Hui Muslims (~11 million).
How to pray for China
Prayer is not a substitute for going; it is how going begins. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.
- Thank God for what He did in China when no one could see it.
- Pray for house-church leaders under surveillance and for pastors who have been detained.
- Ask God to protect the discipleship of children where teaching them is restricted.
- Pray for China's Hui Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists — large peoples still almost entirely unreached.
Questions people ask about China
Is China an unreached nation?
China is classified as unreached. There is no indigenous community of believing Christians large enough to evangelise the rest of the nation without outside help. Commonly measured as under 2% evangelical. Roughly 7% of the population identifies as Christian and about 6% as evangelical, with an estimated 427 of its 545 people groups still considered unreached. Figures are rounded estimates and vary by source and year.
How many Christians are there in China?
About 7% of China's roughly 1.41 billion people identify as Christian — approximately 99 million people. Around 6% are evangelical. The largest group still without meaningful Gospel access is the Han Chinese sub-groups, Hui Muslims (~11 million).
How can I pray for China?
Thank God for what He did in China when no one could see it. Pray for house-church leaders under surveillance and for pastors who have been detained. Pick one of these, pray it for two minutes a day for a week, and ask one other person to pray it with you.