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

China by the Lists

Grab your calculator – China’s leaders are at it again!

To usher in the Year of the Sheep, President Xi Jinping has placed his indelible stamp on Chinese history by unveiling the Four Comprehensives.

Blog Entries

The Chinese Church’s Shifting Battleground

Christians throughout history have seen themselves engaged in a battle that is ultimately spiritual in nature. Forces arrayed against them, political or otherwise, are physical manifestations of this unseen battle, which will ultimately conclude with the return of Christ.

Blog Entries

Marriage and the Church in Urban China

For first-generation urban Christians in China, social expectations regarding marriage present difficult dilemmas as they seek to remain faithful to biblical teaching regarding the family.

Blog Entries

Essentials for Effective Leadership Development

With a plethora of Christian leader development programs on offer in China, it is difficult to know which are appropriate, not to mention which will ultimately prove effective. 

Blog Entries

Beyond the Crosses

Wealth, Stewardship and the Wenzhou Church

The forced removal of crosses from literally hundreds of churches in the Wenzhou area during the past year has called attention not only to the local government’s heavy-handed approach toward the church, but also to the phenomenon of the church buildings themselves.

Blog Entries

Church Leader Development in China

The Trend toward Accreditation

The development of leadership training within China’s unregistered church has followed a trajectory that roughly parallels that of the larger society as it has experienced major advances in education, a rising standard of living, and massive urbanization.

Editorials

A Window into Catholicism in Today’s China

An introduction to the 2014 winter issue by the editor of the ChinaSource Quarterly.

Ebooks

China’s Next Generation

New China, New Church, New World

What a difference a decade makes! Over the last ten years the nation of China and the Chinese church have changed significantly; so has the world. It’s a new China. It’s a new church. It’s a new world. China’s Cultural Revolution that ended in the late 1970s was followed by a 20-year-long spiritual harvest spanning […]

Blog Entries

Who Speaks for the Church in China?

Given the relatively opaque nature of China's church, international organizations have often found it difficult to know where to connect. Chinese representation at several high-profile international conferences in recent years has, in some ways, been a welcome breakthrough. These events have ostensibly helped to bring together a wide spectrum of leaders from within China with those from abroad who are seeking to partner with them.

Blog Entries

Resistance, not Revolution:

How China’s Christians Respond to Persecution

In Mobilized Merchants - Patriotic Martyrs, Dr. Timothy Conkling sheds much-needed light on the relationship between China's unregistered church and the Chinese Party-State. The dissertation research that forms the basis for the book set out to answer the question of why Chinese Christians are persecuted and how they respond to this persecution.