Journal of the Study on Religion and History (JSRH)

No. 1 (2025): JSRH
Articles

Racial Integration within the “Local Churches” in the 1960s and 1970s

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  • Jiayin HU
Jiayin HU
Purdue University

Published 2025-06-01

Keywords

  • multiracial churches, racial integration, “local churches,” Witness Lee
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Extensive studies have shown that Christian congregations formed by first-generation immigrants from Asia tend to be ethnically rooted in the United States. Though some Asian Americans often aspire to go beyond their racial boundaries, many of them find it difficult to create a racially diverse religious space within Protestantism. However, the “local churches,” originated in China by Watchman Nee in the 1920s and spread to America in the late 1950s, has been multiracial since then. Drawing from in-depth interviews with early “local church” members who joined before 1980 and available archival data, this paper suggests that the goal of transcending racial boundaries has been part of the core missions of the “local churches” since its beginning in China. Three key sociological factors contribute to its realization of racial integration in America since the late 1950s: (1) embracing diversity while emphasizing core beliefs with the goal of creating a new culture, (2) eliminating clergy-laity division and adopting an egalitarian form of church structure, (3) encouraging collective pursuit of spiritual life and frequent interaction outside of regular church meetings. I argue that these three processes have played a critical role in shaping the “local churches’” congregational culture, which is conducive to promoting interracial interaction and transcending racial and other boundaries.

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