Lutheran Church of China

The Lutheran Church of China (LCC; Chinese: 中華信義會; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Xìnyì Huì) was a Lutheran church body in China from 1920 to 1951. It was established as a result of the consultations between the various Lutheran missionary bodies in China that was initiated during the China Centenary Missionary Conference held in Shanghai in 1907. The church survived as an organised body after the Chinese Civil War but was gradually absorbed into the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China.

The early Chinese Lutheran churches were the result of the work of western mission societies in the 19th century. Until 1907, no less than 25 European and American Lutheran mission bodies were working in China; most of them independently from each other and some within other organisations like the China Inland Mission.

Karl Gützlaff (also known by his Chinese name, 郭實臘 or Guō Shílà in Pinyin) is generally regarded as the first Lutheran missionary to China. Originally accredited to the Netherlands Missionary Society, Gützlaff first arrived in East Asia in 1823. As China adopted a strict closed-door policy in that period, he was unable to set foot on China until 1831. Arriving in Tianjin, he was able to distribute some religious pamphlets and gospel tracts.

Although Gützlaff's methods and results were controversial, his major contribution included the promotion of the Chinese mission field to European mission societies, particularly Lutheran bodies.

Following Gützlaff's appeal, three German mission societies; the Barmen Mission (later known as the Rhenish Missionary Society or 禮賢會), the Berlin Missionary Society (巴陵信義會) and the Basel Mission (巴色會) sent missionaries to China. On March 19, 1847, Theodore Hamberg (韓山明) and Rudolph Lechler (黎力基); both of the Basel Mission; together with Heinrich Köster (柯士德) and Ferdinand Genähr (葉納清); both of the Barmen Mission; arrived in Hong Kong and under Gützlaff's guidance began working in different areas of Guangdong province. The Basel missionaries concentrated among the Hakka speaking people in the eastern part of the province whereas the Barmen missionaries worked among the Cantonese speakers of the western part of the province. The churches they founded were called the Chongzhen Church (Tsung-Tsin Church or 崇真會) and Lixian Church (Rhenish Church or 禮賢會) respectively.

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