More than 12,000 churches are open for worship, about 5,000 of them newly built, according to the China Christian Council. My brother and mother believed in God and I followed them. Now all eight of us in our family believe in Jesus. My younger sister graduated from seminary too. The next day we visited Yin at the church.
Denominationalism is gone and most congregations know little of their missionary beginnings.
But the Guilin church reflects some of its Southern Baptist roots. In Xi'an the Christian church has Lutheran roots through the former Augustana Synod. A simple red cross over an iron gate marks the entrance. But 3,000 members find the church for four services on Sunday morning and one in the evening. In Beijing, we located a former Methodist church about 15 minutes from Tiananmen Square.