This year there is a growing trend in the underground house church – illegal Christmas parties.
For the last couple of years, Christmas has been under attack in China, but that hasn’t stopped Christians from hosting parties to share the gift of Christmas with others.
Christmas has been a growing holiday in China in the last two decades and it has been a source of fear for the government. On the one hand, Christmas has been a time of year that has brought in a lot of money for the Chinese economy and in the beginning it was widely embraced, but as the Chinese have recognized the true meaning of Christmas, it has been a growing problem for the Communist Party.
A few years ago, China declared all government Christmas parties illegal. The Chinese Communist Party banned its members and government officials from celebrating Christmas, office parties have been forbidden, and public Christmas displays have been torn down.
However, there were non-believing Chinese who enjoyed the spirit of the holidays and are now confused why they cannot celebrate it any more.
This has presented an amazing opportunity for house churches to invite unbelieving friends and co-workers to an illegal Christmas party and share the real reason for the season.
“We had about 100 people attend our Christmas party,” writes one house church member yesterday in a message. “The guards knew what we were doing, but they also wanted to be a part of the party, so we invited them too.”
If you are curious about the songs that they are singing during this time, you can download the BTJ Christmas songs and listen to them now by simply clicking below:
It’s inspiring and sobering to see how repression inadvertently creates a space for these gatherings to share the Christmas message in a deeply meaningful way.