Buji Church situated in Xialilang Village, Shenzhen, is being reconstructed to another place owing to the urban construction planning occuring in the region after the gospel was first preached into Buji Subdistrict since the late-1800s.
Recently Lin Jie, the Minister of United Front Work Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, claimed that the church should consider putting Chinese elements into the new construction design, as a contribution to the sinocization of Christianity.
Theodore Hamberg, a Swedish missionary, is the first man to evangelize in Buji in 1852, claimed the church. In 1853, Buji Church was being built in Lilang Village and completed in 1854.
As the spread of the gospel grew in the region, another new church was founded in Laoxu Village's subdistrict. Therefore, there were two churches in the area which went through relocation and repair.
Buji Church had been occupied as a classroom of a school due to the historical reasons since 1950 and given back in 1970 when the school was moved. However, the church became a public place and left without maintenance.
As for Laoxu Church, it had been used by a hospital, school and factory after 1958 when the service was suspended. It resumed the service in 1987 and renovated the church seven years later. In 2002, it moved to a larger church to meet the need of increasing believers.
The new seven-story church will have a construction area of 8417.82 square meters with an underground garage and equipment rooms. The main chapel can hold 1500 people and the side-chapel can hold 500. It will be marked with two towers at the height of 46.97 meters.
