Paths to a New Life in the Urban Transition

Abstract

This chapter concerns how house churches become established in Linyi city and promise members spiritual renewal without expecting them to renounce material well-being. Particularly marked is the tension between a locally fashioned ethic of Christian asceticism and modern aspirations for material goods and success. It is here that one finds a distinction between traditional rural Christianity and its more recent urban practice. Church leaders and members migrate from the countryside to towns and adjust their rural beliefs to the urban conditions, which are not compatible with the rural-based Christian ethic that material aspirations on the part of its church leaders result in a loss of their spirituality. Urban Christianity sees financial security and material betterment as helping the organization and the spread of Christianity, with Christian businessmen, for example, contributing to church buildings and helping pastors with the financial means to carry out their work effectively. Urban church leaders look to biblical texts to teach the virtues of hard work and just rewards in this life.