The Berlin Missionary Society sent its first missionary to China in 1851 and initially confined its work to the Hakka speaking people in Guangdong province. It eventually extended its work to the Mandarin speaking people in Jiangxi province and Shandong province. The church they founded was eventually called the Yuegan Church (). Between 1890 and 1907, a number of American and Scandinavian Lutheran mission societies established a presence in China. The notable ones include:           The China Centenary Missionary Conference was held from April 25 to May 8 of 1907 in Shanghai in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China. According to the Index of Missions released during the conference, 25 mission bodies with a Lutheran background were working in China. The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 and other experiences acted as an impetus to encourage the various Lutheran bodies to unite into a single organisation to effectively work in China. The entrance of new Lutheran missions into China after 1907 like the Evangelical Lutheran Mission for China or 福音道路德教 (1913), the Lutheran Free Church Mission or 信義公理會 (1917) and the Church of Sweden Mission or 湘北瑞華信義會 (1918) added an extra sense of urgency to the need for a nationwide Lutheran union. In May 1907, a Lutheran missionary consultation was held with representatives from 10 Lutheran mission bodies. While there was a general agreement that Lutheran unity be achieved, practical concerns such as the linguistic differences of the mission fields, the diverse national backgrounds of the missionaries and a poor nationwide transportation system were voiced. It was however agreed that union should be sought first by adopting the name Xinyi (), meaning Faith and Righteousness, to emphasise on Luther's doctrine of justification by faith, union be first achieved in the field of literature and education and that the five mission bodies working in the central Chinese provinces would spearhead the creation of a united Lutheran body. The result of this consultation was the creation of a Union Lutheran Conference (ULC) which was mandated to follow up and implement the proposals of unity that had been discussed. On August 28–30, 1908, the first ULC meeting was held in Jigongshan or Cockerel Mountain (Wade-Giles: Kikungshan; Traditional Chinese﹕), Henan and during this and subsequent conferences, a number of plans were drafted to publish books, compiling a hymnal, designing worship liturgies, establishing schools and establishing a national Lutheran Church.