Christianity was preached in the latter stage of the Qing Dynasty in Linfen (formerly called Pingyang).
The hard beginning
In 1877, two ministers including Joshua John Turner from the British China Inland Mission organization (CIM) started preaching in Linfen under the identity of disaster inspectors. The following year, Joshua John Turner and David Hill settled down in Linfen and began a preaching ministry as relief aiders.
In 1879, Hill bought a court yard for the church and for accommodation. The following year, he bought another courtyard for the church and for a primary school. In the same year, a local scholar named XI Zizhi was able to study the Christian cathecism from an ad for articles posted by the then-Shanxi preachers, Timothy Richard and David Hill. Xi, then familiarized himself with the Bible while he worked as a Chinese teacher for David Hill. Consequently, Xi was converted to Christianity and changed his name to XI Shengmo (literally "devil slayer"), being determined to quit opium addiction, and opened opium treatment centres for promoting the abandonment of opium addiction and preaching of the Gospel.
In 1886, the general director of CIM, Hudson Taylor, ordained Xi Shengmo in a service attended by more than 300 people in Hongdong County, commissioning him to be in charge of the ministry for the south Shanxi region. Two elders were ordained and 16 deacons were assigned to assist the work.
In 1893, Dr. William Millar Wilson and his wife, both with CIM, came to Linfen in the name of the church to buy two courtyards out of their own pocket for establishing Linfen Church Hospital to treat male patients.
By 1900 Christianity had been introduced in various locations and the number of believers had reached into the hundreds. A villager opened an opium treatment centre in his own house, helping others to abandon opium and hear the Gospel.
That same year, the anti-imperialism movement of the Boxer Rebellion started. The Boxers saw all British missionaries as the invasion of British imperialism, and Christianity as the religion from "across the sea" and to be refused. They burned the church's properties and killed believers. The church and its hospital were destroyed in a fire. The Wilsons, including their children, were beheaded on 9th July that same year by Shanxi Inspector YU Xian before the screen wall of the town hall. Other missionaries and 61 Chinese believers were also martyred.
In 1901, after the signing of the Boxer Protocol, Reverend Henry Lyons came to Linfen to check out the church's plans. The head of the Linfen Boxers, DONG Futian, was arrested and executed by the Qing Government. The church was compensated for damages. A relative of Dr. Wilson, who was killed in the movement, used the compensation money to build a church hospital in Linfen.
In 1912, a British doctor Sydney H. Carr was put in charge of rebuilding Linfen Church Hospital in memory of Dr. Wilson, and named it Wilson Memorial Hospital, treating male patients only. The original church hospital treated only female patients.
Two or three years after the Boxer Rebellion, the church began recovering from the destruction. Linfen churches were allowed to expand continuously and four new churches were established. Xiyi Church bought about 0.13 hectare of land for construction and gradually became the main church for local Christianity activities.
The increase
When beginning the 1920s and 1930s, Sunday worship had been the norm. Believers preached the Gospel in the streets and amongst houses. WANG Dasan, who attended Huiying Primary School of Linfen Church, recalled that it was a time of revival in the Linfen churches. During each Sunday service, Holy Communion was served to a large gathering, with the street on which He Er Hutong Church was located encountering heavy traffic jams.
Moreover, Linfen Church established a Bible Reading House (original English name unknown). Every March and July, the church would organise large gatherings where men and women lived separately but ate and worshipped together. There were sermons preached every day with over 500 attending. There were also new believers baptized at each annual conference.
Furthermore, around 1920, Linfen church bought a piece of land near the north-west corner of the male hospital to build a hospital for women. The new hospital had a three-year medical degree programme and had ran the progam five times, educating new staff in medical expertise and pharmacy for the Linfen region.
By 1921, Linfen Church had expanded to a capacity of about one thousand with chapels, meeting rooms, accommodation and offices built and the 11 primary school buildings on the south side merged into the church.
In 1925, the Gospel Chapel, designed by Reverend QIAO Zhiji, was built with a preaching room, a youth room, a library and a room for playing ping pong. Under the directorship of Reverend LAI Yian, two new courtyards were added so that there were three as a seminary and accommodation.
As the church expanded, Reverend Qiao Zhiji and Reverend LI Rang suggested the church become autonomous. So by 1931, they established the Chinese Christian Mission of North China. However, due to their differing views as well as a tight budget, Qiao and Li set about on their own course and left the organisation to the unknown.
The difficulty
In the earlier stage of the anti-Japanese war, a Sunday service would have 400 - 500 believers attending. During the Christmas season, there would be a thousand. Meanwhile, the male and female hospitals had 200 and 100 beds respectively. At that time, Wilson Memorial Hospital had treated up to 10,000 wounded front-line soldiers.
In February 1938, after the Japanese forces occupied Linfen, Reveren PAN Yanggui returned to Linfen from Tianjin and established a refugee camp at Linfen Church receiving nearly a thousand refugees. They maintained their livelihood by doing laundry. The main hall of the Church was used as a cinema by the Japanese. Believers had to hide and secretly hold services. The church and the hospital were both occupied by Japanese forces.
In September 1945, after the victory over the Japanese, apart from the female hospital being used as military warehouse and iron factory under the YAN Xishan administration, all other property was given back to the Church. The UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was located at the Church. Within the Admin there was a clinic for free treatment. One year later, the Admin was recalled and the clinic stopped running.
From the time of the victory over the Japanese until 1949, the number of participants at each of the Church's worship services declined to its regular number of about 200 - 300.
After 1949, the internal conflicts within the Church started to intensify. In 1952, the local Religious Affairs Bureau helped the Church to establish an inspection committee. For the church management, Shanxi Provincial Three-self committee chair YANG Mingbao came to help Linfen Church. He and the local authorities established a board of directors for the Church. However, no one was in charge of pastoral ministry. By the autumn of 1952, Reverend Qiao Zhiji returned to Linfen to host pastoral ministry until 1966 when he passed away.
The Great Cultural Revolution started in the autumn of 1966 and since then all ministries of Linfen Church have been greatly impacted. All worship activities were held in smaller chapels with 50 - 60 attending. The Bibles and files belonging to the Church were burnt. Eventually, the Church was closed down and all religious events ceased.
Rebirth
In 1979, as the rumor was the churches could hold open services again, a sister named CHENG Shuen first started worshipping in a believer's house. The service began with two or three attending and gradually increased to over 20 or 30 people.
In 1980, China's religious freedom policy was gradually restored and Linfen Church's services were also officially restored.
By 1982, over half of the small chapels were returned to the Church. In the following year, the first Linfen Municipal Christian Three-self Patriotic Committee was elected. In March 1987, all properties lost during the Cultural Revolution were returned to the Church.
After that, the number of believers constantly increased. By 1989, with an attendance of 400 to 500, services had to be divided into morning and afternoon to meet the increasing demand.
In 1996, the former Linfen authority granted Christian services to be public and 21 locations were registered, five for temporary locations and five locations deferred. By the end of 1998, there were over 50,000 believers in churches belonging to the Three-self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Apart from this, there were various private locations and many unregistered independent ministers who did not belong to the Three-self. Traditional house churches were located everywhere in the region and it was hard to know the exact number of attendees.
In the new millennium, around the year 2000, a cult named Eastern Lightning appeared in the region. They misinterpreted the Bible and had some influence in some parts.
By 2002, Linfen Church was refurbished, having a brand new five-storey church building with an area of over 2,700 square metres. In addition, a basement was constructed.
The main hall for worship services was extended from the original capacity of 400 to a second and third hall of a capacity of 1,000. Four ordained pastors, 15 elders and over 200 deacons were ordained by 180 officially registered pastors.
- Translated by Charlie Li
基督教早在清朝光绪年间就已传入临汾（旧称平阳）。
艰难起步
1877年，英国“内地会”两位传教士德治安、林惠生（看看能不能找到对应的英文名，找不到的话请在译文中注明，对于以下的名字都可以这样处理）以考察灾情为名来临汾传教。次年，德治安、李修善二人在临汾城内定居，以赈灾的名义开始传教。
1879年，李修善买下了一间院落，用作教堂和住宅。次年，买了一座院作教堂，办小学。同年，今襄汾县秀才席子直，在通过在晋传教士李提摩太与李修善的征文活动中接触到基督教教义，而后又在担任李修善的中文教师期间熟悉并接触了圣经，遂开始信仰基督教，并改名为席胜魔，决心戒断鸦片烟瘾，并开设“天招局”，又名戒烟局，一面劝人戒断鸦片烟瘾，一面传教。
1886年，“内地会”总监戴德生在洪洞300多人的聚会上按立席胜魔为牧师，委派其负责晋南地区的传教工作。此外还设立了两名长老， 16名执事作为辅助。
1893年，“内地会”卫理森医生与夫人来平阳以教会名义，自费在买宅院2座，创办临汾教会医院，诊治男病员。
1900年，基督教会遍及多地，信众多达百户。一村民用自家房开设“天招局”，帮助进行戒烟及传教活动。
也是同年，义和团的反帝运动兴起，义和团成员将英国传教士一律当作帝国主义侵略工具，把基督教作为“洋教”反对，烧毁教产，杀害教徒，教会及其医院财产被付之一炬，卫理森医生夫妇和他们的孩子于同年七月九日被山西巡抚毓贤斩首于巡抚衙门照壁前，同时殉道者还其他传教士和中国信徒61人。
1901年《辛丑条约》签订后，外籍牧师李鸿义来临汾查办教案，临汾义和团首领董福田被清政府逮捕并处决，教会损失财产得到补偿。在义和团运动中惨遭杀害的传教士卫理森的亲属用得到的赔款在临汾城建一所教会医院。
1912年，英国人柯维忠负责建成临汾教会医院以此纪念卫理森，命名为“善胜医院”，专为男病员治病。原教会医院成为接待女病员医院。
义和团运动之后二三年，教会经历恢复阶段。临汾基督教会得以不断扩大，新设4座教堂。其中西宜教会买下了1座约0.13公顷的宅院新建教堂，逐渐成为乡村基督教活动重点教堂。
发展壮大
进入20世纪20年代，信徒们礼拜日到教堂礼拜已成常态，信徒们在集市、街头搭棚传教，也有人在走家串户传教。根据曾在临汾教会汇英小学上过学的王达三回忆，这一期间是临汾教会兴旺时期，每逢礼拜日、圣诞节或大型集会，何二胡同教堂门前车水马龙，街巷都为之堵塞。
此外，临汾教会还设立了圣书学堂，教会每年三月与七月分别举行春、秋两次大集会，男女分开，同吃同住，同做礼拜，每天有牧师传教，人数最多时达五百余人，每届集会都有信徒受洗。
其次，在1920年前后，教会又在男医院西北买地新建女医院。院内附设3年制医学班，先后办五期，为临汾地区培养造就了一批掌握新医疗技术和新药务人员。
1921年，建成能容纳千人的大教堂，还建有小礼拜堂、会议室、教牧人员办公室、住房以及靠南面的两排11间小学校舍，将小学并入教会。
1925年，由牧师乔知几设计，修建了一座福音堂，内有宣道室、青年会、图书室、乒乓球室。还建2座院子，加上原有的共为3座院，作为学道院(现粮食大厦占用)和宿舍，由牧师赖以安负责。
随着教会发展日益壮大，乔知几牧师与洪洞县李让牧师等人倡议教会自主，于是在1931年成立“中华基督教华北教团”；但因人心不齐，经济拮据，成立不久后，乔、李二人分道扬镳，组织最后也不了了之。
风雨磨难
在抗战初期，平日前往大教堂礼拜的信徒达到四、五百人之众，而圣诞节期间到大教堂信徒更是多达千人。同时，临汾教会男医院可容200名病员住院，女医院可容100名病员住院。抗战早期，善胜医院接收从抗日前线退下来的伤病员近万人。
1938年2月，日军侵占临汾后，潘仰贵牧师从天津返回临汾，在临汾教会兴办“难民救济所”，先后收容难民近千人，靠洗衣等服务性劳动维生。教会的大教堂，也被日军侵占作电影院，为躲避日军的严密搜查，信徒活动只得分散隐蔽进行。大部分教会和医院的房屋被日军强占。
1945年9月，抗日战争胜利后，教会房产除女医院被阎锡山政府接收用作军事物资库和铁工厂外，其余全部归回教会。由联合国拨款办的“善后救济署”设在教会。救济署设诊疗所，为群众免费治病。一年后，善后救济署撤销，诊疗所停办。
抗战胜利后到解放前，教会礼拜正常进行，参加礼拜信徒为二、三百人。
建国后，教会矛盾加剧，纷争渐起。1952年，临汾地区人民政府宗教事务处帮助教会设立检查委员会。为整顿教会，省“三自”爱国运动委员会主任杨明葆来临汾指导，会同政府帮助教会设立理事会，教牧圣工工作无人带领。1952年秋天，乔知几牧师回到临汾继续主持教牧圣工作，直至1966年正月去世。
自“文化大革命”开始1966年秋，临汾基督教会各项事工遭受沉重打击，信徒礼拜活动均在小礼拜堂进行，常参加礼拜的有五六十人。教会经书和文件遭焚烧，教堂关闭，一切宗教活动停止。
重获新生
1979年，听说教会可以再次进行活动礼拜，程淑恩姊妹第一个到一教徒家中 礼拜，礼拜聚会也由一开始的两三个人逐渐增加到二、三十人。
1980年，国家宗教信仰自由政策逐渐恢复，临汾基督教会聚会礼拜活动正式公开恢复。
1982年，多半教会小礼拜堂退回给了教会。次年，选出第一届临汾市基督教三自爱国运动委员会。1987年3， “文化大革命”中占用教会全部房地产都已退还。
在这以后，信徒人数不断增加，至1989年仅能容纳四、五百人的礼拜堂不能满足信徒礼拜需求，只能分为上午、下午两批礼拜。
1996年，原县级临汾市政府对基督教活动场所进行正式登记，有21处和临时登记5处，暂缓登记有5处。至1998年底，属三自爱国运动委员会和基督教会领导的教徒共有5万余人。除此以外，基督教还有多处未经登记的不属三自爱国运动委员会领导的私设活动点和多名自由传教人，传统的家庭聚会散布全市乡村，人数难以确计。
进入新世纪，2000年前后，临汾当地出现了“东方闪电”邪教，其曲解《圣经》原意，对临汾教会的部分堂点造成了一定的恶劣影响。
2002年，临汾基督教会翻修新堂，一座面积2700余平米的带地下室五层的教堂拔地而起。
堂内由原来的一堂400余人礼拜，渐渐增长到二堂、三堂礼拜的1000多人。先后按立了牧师4人、长老15人、执事200余人、正式备案传道员180人。
山西百年临汾基督教会简史
Christianity was preached in the latter stage of the Qing Dynasty in Linfen (formerly called Pingyang).
The hard beginning
In 1877, two ministers including Joshua John Turner from the British China Inland Mission organization (CIM) started preaching in Linfen under the identity of disaster inspectors. The following year, Joshua John Turner and David Hill settled down in Linfen and began a preaching ministry as relief aiders.
In 1879, Hill bought a court yard for the church and for accommodation. The following year, he bought another courtyard for the church and for a primary school. In the same year, a local scholar named XI Zizhi was able to study the Christian cathecism from an ad for articles posted by the then-Shanxi preachers, Timothy Richard and David Hill. Xi, then familiarized himself with the Bible while he worked as a Chinese teacher for David Hill. Consequently, Xi was converted to Christianity and changed his name to XI Shengmo (literally "devil slayer"), being determined to quit opium addiction, and opened opium treatment centres for promoting the abandonment of opium addiction and preaching of the Gospel.
In 1886, the general director of CIM, Hudson Taylor, ordained Xi Shengmo in a service attended by more than 300 people in Hongdong County, commissioning him to be in charge of the ministry for the south Shanxi region. Two elders were ordained and 16 deacons were assigned to assist the work.
In 1893, Dr. William Millar Wilson and his wife, both with CIM, came to Linfen in the name of the church to buy two courtyards out of their own pocket for establishing Linfen Church Hospital to treat male patients.
By 1900 Christianity had been introduced in various locations and the number of believers had reached into the hundreds. A villager opened an opium treatment centre in his own house, helping others to abandon opium and hear the Gospel.
That same year, the anti-imperialism movement of the Boxer Rebellion started. The Boxers saw all British missionaries as the invasion of British imperialism, and Christianity as the religion from "across the sea" and to be refused. They burned the church's properties and killed believers. The church and its hospital were destroyed in a fire. The Wilsons, including their children, were beheaded on 9th July that same year by Shanxi Inspector YU Xian before the screen wall of the town hall. Other missionaries and 61 Chinese believers were also martyred.
In 1901, after the signing of the Boxer Protocol, Reverend Henry Lyons came to Linfen to check out the church's plans. The head of the Linfen Boxers, DONG Futian, was arrested and executed by the Qing Government. The church was compensated for damages. A relative of Dr. Wilson, who was killed in the movement, used the compensation money to build a church hospital in Linfen.
In 1912, a British doctor Sydney H. Carr was put in charge of rebuilding Linfen Church Hospital in memory of Dr. Wilson, and named it Wilson Memorial Hospital, treating male patients only. The original church hospital treated only female patients.
Two or three years after the Boxer Rebellion, the church began recovering from the destruction. Linfen churches were allowed to expand continuously and four new churches were established. Xiyi Church bought about 0.13 hectare of land for construction and gradually became the main church for local Christianity activities.
The increase
When beginning the 1920s and 1930s, Sunday worship had been the norm. Believers preached the Gospel in the streets and amongst houses. WANG Dasan, who attended Huiying Primary School of Linfen Church, recalled that it was a time of revival in the Linfen churches. During each Sunday service, Holy Communion was served to a large gathering, with the street on which He Er Hutong Church was located encountering heavy traffic jams.
Moreover, Linfen Church established a Bible Reading House (original English name unknown). Every March and July, the church would organise large gatherings where men and women lived separately but ate and worshipped together. There were sermons preached every day with over 500 attending. There were also new believers baptized at each annual conference.
Furthermore, around 1920, Linfen church bought a piece of land near the north-west corner of the male hospital to build a hospital for women. The new hospital had a three-year medical degree programme and had ran the progam five times, educating new staff in medical expertise and pharmacy for the Linfen region.
By 1921, Linfen Church had expanded to a capacity of about one thousand with chapels, meeting rooms, accommodation and offices built and the 11 primary school buildings on the south side merged into the church.
In 1925, the Gospel Chapel, designed by Reverend QIAO Zhiji, was built with a preaching room, a youth room, a library and a room for playing ping pong. Under the directorship of Reverend LAI Yian, two new courtyards were added so that there were three as a seminary and accommodation.
As the church expanded, Reverend Qiao Zhiji and Reverend LI Rang suggested the church become autonomous. So by 1931, they established the Chinese Christian Mission of North China. However, due to their differing views as well as a tight budget, Qiao and Li set about on their own course and left the organisation to the unknown.
The difficulty
In the earlier stage of the anti-Japanese war, a Sunday service would have 400 - 500 believers attending. During the Christmas season, there would be a thousand. Meanwhile, the male and female hospitals had 200 and 100 beds respectively. At that time, Wilson Memorial Hospital had treated up to 10,000 wounded front-line soldiers.
In February 1938, after the Japanese forces occupied Linfen, Reveren PAN Yanggui returned to Linfen from Tianjin and established a refugee camp at Linfen Church receiving nearly a thousand refugees. They maintained their livelihood by doing laundry. The main hall of the Church was used as a cinema by the Japanese. Believers had to hide and secretly hold services. The church and the hospital were both occupied by Japanese forces.
In September 1945, after the victory over the Japanese, apart from the female hospital being used as military warehouse and iron factory under the YAN Xishan administration, all other property was given back to the Church. The UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was located at the Church. Within the Admin there was a clinic for free treatment. One year later, the Admin was recalled and the clinic stopped running.
From the time of the victory over the Japanese until 1949, the number of participants at each of the Church's worship services declined to its regular number of about 200 - 300.
After 1949, the internal conflicts within the Church started to intensify. In 1952, the local Religious Affairs Bureau helped the Church to establish an inspection committee. For the church management, Shanxi Provincial Three-self committee chair YANG Mingbao came to help Linfen Church. He and the local authorities established a board of directors for the Church. However, no one was in charge of pastoral ministry. By the autumn of 1952, Reverend Qiao Zhiji returned to Linfen to host pastoral ministry until 1966 when he passed away.
The Great Cultural Revolution started in the autumn of 1966 and since then all ministries of Linfen Church have been greatly impacted. All worship activities were held in smaller chapels with 50 - 60 attending. The Bibles and files belonging to the Church were burnt. Eventually, the Church was closed down and all religious events ceased.
Rebirth
In 1979, as the rumor was the churches could hold open services again, a sister named CHENG Shuen first started worshipping in a believer's house. The service began with two or three attending and gradually increased to over 20 or 30 people.
In 1980, China's religious freedom policy was gradually restored and Linfen Church's services were also officially restored.
By 1982, over half of the small chapels were returned to the Church. In the following year, the first Linfen Municipal Christian Three-self Patriotic Committee was elected. In March 1987, all properties lost during the Cultural Revolution were returned to the Church.
After that, the number of believers constantly increased. By 1989, with an attendance of 400 to 500, services had to be divided into morning and afternoon to meet the increasing demand.
In 1996, the former Linfen authority granted Christian services to be public and 21 locations were registered, five for temporary locations and five locations deferred. By the end of 1998, there were over 50,000 believers in churches belonging to the Three-self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Apart from this, there were various private locations and many unregistered independent ministers who did not belong to the Three-self. Traditional house churches were located everywhere in the region and it was hard to know the exact number of attendees.
In the new millennium, around the year 2000, a cult named Eastern Lightning appeared in the region. They misinterpreted the Bible and had some influence in some parts.
By 2002, Linfen Church was refurbished, having a brand new five-storey church building with an area of over 2,700 square metres. In addition, a basement was constructed.
The main hall for worship services was extended from the original capacity of 400 to a second and third hall of a capacity of 1,000. Four ordained pastors, 15 elders and over 200 deacons were ordained by 180 officially registered pastors.
- Translated by Charlie Li
History of Century-old Church at Linfen, Shanxi
