Abstract: Taking advantage of treaty rights, the North China Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions penetrated into North China in the 1860s. During that time secret societies in Northwest Shandong struggled to survive while being suppressed by local governments under the Qing. The encounters between the North China Mission and the secret societies produced an opportunity for the Mission to develop in Northwest Shandong. Based on traditional rural social networks, missionaries were able to open preaching outposts in several villages. During the Ding-Wu Disaster, missionaries devoted themselves to famine relief work, hoping to win the peoples’ confidence and to prepare the way for propagating Christianity. The Christian organization that sponsored the North China Mission strongly supported the relief work with its institutional power and thus enabled the missionaries to carry on their work in an orderly manner. After the relief work, missionaries were generally accepted by people, and so was Christianity. Then, missionaries exploited the fair network to build and develop church networks and to build a community that was distinguished from the outside world.