This aritcle is an empirical and comparitive research of immigrant churches in the urbanization of contemporary China. Since 1990s, the rapid urbanization of China has been an important factor for Chinese Christianity. Faced with the challenge of urbanization, immigrant churches began to transform in the following aspect: the churches reformed its system, authority structure, organization and even its theological tradition. The researcher adopts case study as the primary method. Based on the depth interviews and participational obervation at Gushi church and Wenzhou church in Beijing, this study explores the relationship between urbanization and churches' inclusion. This study finds that because of different factors, the immigrant churches showed a variety of organizational characteristics. Some of them have successfully made the transition from a traditional faith community to a modern civic community, while some are still struggling to find their way out.

Chinese urbanization Civic community Immigrant church

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