Abstract Based on fieldwork in a Protestant church in Guangzhou, this article discusses the emergence of a new collective in urban China: the church-community. Offering various tangible and intangible forms of support, the church attracts people for various reasons, but especially those who have been left most vulnerable by the socio-economic transformations. Churchgoers form a spiritual and physical community through ritual practice and good deeds that are conceived of as 'free gifts'. This community is importantly defined as a realm outside both 'traditional' notions of reciprocity and China's present-day consumer ideology. It thus provides believers with an alternative source or realm of moral authority as well as a sense of security.