Brent Fulton

Brent Fulton

Brent Fulton is the founder of ChinaSource.

Dr. Fulton served as the first president of ChinaSource until 2019. Prior to his service with ChinaSource, he served from 1995 to 2000 as the managing director of the Institute for Chinese Studies at Wheaton College. From 1987 to 1995 he served as founding US director of China Ministries International, and from 1985 to 1986 as the English publications editor for the Chinese Church Research Center in Hong Kong.

Dr. Fulton holds MA and PhD degrees in political science from the University of Southern California and a BA in radio-TV-film from Messiah College.

An avid China watcher, Dr. Fulton has written and taught extensively on the church in China and on Chinese social and political phenomena. He is the author of China's Urban Christians: A Light That Cannot Be Hidden and co-authored China's Next Generation: New China, New Church, New World with Luis Bush.

Dr. Fulton and his wife, Jasmine, previously lived in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2017. They currently reside in northern California.

He is currently facilitating a network of member care professionals serving missionaries sent out from China. He also consults with other organizations on the impact of China's religious policy.

Blog Entries

Practical or Political?

Key Challenges Facing China’s Urban Church

What are the biggest challenges the church in China faces today?

Blog Entries

3 Questions: G. Wright Doyle

Church Growth in the Chinese Church

A ChinaSource "3 Questions" interview with Dr. G. Wright Doyle, director of Global China Center, editor of Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity, and co-editor of Studies in Chinese Christianity, published by Wipf and Stock.

Blog Entries

Partnering with Churches in China

Toward a New Paradigm

How can churches outside China that seek to make a meaningful contribution to the church in China continue to serve effectively? Here are some initial suggestions.

Blog Entries

The Changing Face of Political Leadership in China

Since rising to power three years ago, President Xi Jinping has frequently been called the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. Such comments often refer to the way Xi has consolidated power by bringing the various Communist Party organs firmly under his control and to how he has eliminated possible opposition through a wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign and emphasis on rule by law.

Blog Entries

3 Questions: Spiritual Formation in China

In the final segment of the “Walking with Leaders” series on ChinaSource Conversations, our monthly podcast, we looked at the spiritual formation of leaders. One of our guests was John, an expat and trained coach whose14 years of service in Asia have included facilitating retreats and leading people through creative spiritual exercises.

Here John shares his thoughts on spiritual formation among Christian leaders in China.

Blog Entries

This Year in China

Standing at the threshold of a new year, the perennial question comes to mind, “Whither China?” Since prognostications about China’s future more often than not prove to be off the mark—sometimes by a very wide margin—trying to anticipate with certainty what may happen in 2016 is somewhat of a fool’s errand.

Blog Entries

Being a Good and Faithful Steward in China

The latest issue of the ChinaSource Quarterly looks at stewardship in the lives of Christians in China. Compiled as part of ChinaSource’s Faith and Generosity in China Initiative, this issue explores the biblical basis for what it means to be a steward in God’s kingdom, as well as the practical outworking of this steward lifestyle in the particular cultural context of China.

Book Reviews

From Transaction to Transformation

Rediscovering the Biblical Foundations of Fund Raising

A review of The Sower: Redefining the Ministry of Raising Kingdom Resources by R. Scott Rodin and Gary G. Hoag.

For those assigned to raising funds for the ministries they represent, this book, by seasoned fund development professionals, suggests a shift requiring a reorientation of the view of fund raising. Rather than seeing it as a process of reaping financial increase for God’s work, it should be seen as a process of sowing into the lives of God’s stewards. It is a reminder that it is God who gives the increase. 

Blog Entries

3 Questions: Mentoring Chinese Leaders

A ChinaSource "3 Questions" interview based on the "Walking with Leaders" podcast series. 

Books

China’s Urban Christians

A Light That Cannot Be Hidden

China's Urban Christians: A Light That Cannot Be Hidden looks at how massive urbanization is redrawing not only the geographic and social landscape of China, but in the process is transforming China's growing church as well.