Christmas is one of the most important festivals in global churches, and it is especially so in China. Compared with Easter, Christmas is obviously more atmospheric and receives more attention in China.
From around 2000 to 2018, most Chinese churches celebrated Christmas in a similarly ritualistic or ceremonial way. The nationwide grand status and style of a church celebration of the festival had been pretty similar to that of the annual Chinese “Spring Festival Gala.” Every believer used to gather in a church building or a rented venue to watch “programs," which contained worship and praise, short plays or acts, singings and dances, and so on. The whole celebration ceremony would last from two to four hours. The event thus designed had generally two purposes. First, it was meant to be a spiritual family reunion or fellowship for all participating believers. Second, it served as an evangelical occasion for many invited seekers, who might be family members, relatives, or friends of the believers.
However, in recent years, due to deep reflections that some churches had on the problems of Christmas celebrations and the trends of dividing churches into small groups caused by the pandemic and venue issues, the “Spring Festival Gala” style has been declining. Yet, more diversified ways to celebrate Christmas have emerged quickly. The trend is particularly obvious in 2023.
Brother Yang is the leader of Church A in a city in South China. The church has a membership of hundreds, most of whom are professionals. He said that in 2023, he took the initiative to propose a new way to do it with the pastoral staff in his church and stopped doing Christmas celebrations. First of all, it is very costly for believers to get together annually because it includes their commitment, time, and donations. “Usually past Christmas preparations started in September.” He revealed that the preparations included program arranging and casting, repeated rehearsals, and all sorts of overall planning. Moreover, the pandemic experience had largely raised people’s awareness that gathering required tremendous measures to ensure the safety of the multitude. A great deal of energy and manpower were needed. In his view, the Christmas party should not overemphasize evangelization, which should be done the whole year round, and not rely on that occasion alone.
Therefore, in his opinion, “the past Christmas celebration was actually a kind of self-satisfaction," which demanded much manpower, material resources, and commitment but also had a low evangelical effect. It should be better to allow believers to have a good Christmas in a new way. Therefore, he proposed to turn this year into an open family celebration; the church called out families who were willing to host and then arranged groups of less than 10 people to do their own favorite programs and parties in these families. For instance, some groups liked to have dinner, then they could have. Some preferred comic talks, so they could rehearse them among themselves. Meanwhile, the church only provided backup help in mainly two aspects: basic funds of 500–1,000 yuan for catering and other necessary items.
All the pastoral staff of the church said that this change was good, and the congregation supported it.
Pastor Li works at Church B in a southern town. In the past few years, his church has chosen to reduce assembly gatherings and adopted the cell groups’ model. As a result, this caused a problem that believers in different groups or areas could rarely meet, especially in the past three years of the pandemic. Furthermore, there may even be cases where some believers have never known each other. “So, we all want to get together to see each other’s faces,” Pastor Li said.
They consequently adopted a model similar to a “wedding banquet," which contained more than a dozen tables in a local hotel. On Christmas Eve, believers in the church ate together and exchanged gifts and blessings. The church also prepared daily necessities as gifts for participants, and many group leaders and fellow workers were also very happy to wrap the gifts together.
The situation in Church C, where Brother Caleb is located, is somewhat similar. In the past few years, there have been very few services. They basically had separate meetings. At Christmas, the three gathering points met, and relatives and friends were invited to attend. In addition, seekers who were about to be baptized were arranged as witnesses.
Located in a first-tier city in East China, Church D has a large number of professionals. Its Christmas celebrations were divided into two sessions: considering the busyness of professionals, the service on Christmas Eve morning was held and all the members came, giving gifts to each other after worship. Church E, which is also in the same city, held two sessions: the morning Sunday service and the afternoon Christmas party. The Christmas party was also mainly held for believers and families, with invited believers from different gathering points.
Some small churches in mid-China just held small celebrations, and congregations had dinner and exchanged presents. In the north, some Christians celebrated Christmas with comic talks, which is a popular art among the local people.
In addition to these methods, many Christians adopted the fellowship mode of “chatting,” dinner, and thanksgiving testimonies.
In addition to these diversified attempts, there were still many churches that chose the familiar “Spring Festival Gala” style. Many churches in the first-tier cities in South China had two Christmas activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and churches in some cities in East China had launched Christmas worship on these two nights and asked participants to book through the official WeChat account in advance to be arranged.
- Translated by Charlie Li
圣诞节，是普世教会最看重的节日之一，中国教会尤其如此。并且和普世教会相比，比起复活节，圣诞节的气氛明显浓郁和更为强调。
2000年-2018年左右，大部分的教会庆祝圣诞节更多是圣诞晚会/庆典类似的模式进行，其地位和风格好似教会内部的“春晚”一般，大家在教堂或租用一个大型场地齐聚一堂，节目包含赞美、短剧、小品、舞蹈等，整个庆典从开始到结束2-4小时不等。其方式和作用一般主要是2点，一是教会内部的信徒欢聚一堂如同一个属灵大家庭的团圆或联谊，一是邀请慕道友包括不少亲朋好友来教会起到福传或布道的作用。
但近年来，一方面因着一些教会反思圣诞晚会的一些问题，一方面加上近年来的疫情以及场地等原因带来的教会小组化的趋势，春晚式的庆典愈来愈淡化，多元化的庆祝圣诞的方式增多，2023年这一趋势凸显。
杨弟兄是华南一城市A教会的带领者，会友友数百人，教会职场人士居多。他介绍说，今年他主动和自己所在教堂的教牧同工们提出换种方式做，不再做圣诞庆典了。首先每年信徒们集聚一堂花费大量的成本，包含精力，时间和物质方面。“要做圣诞庆典的话，每年要从9月份就开始预备了。”他介绍说，这些预备包括节目筹备和清单，一次次的排练，以及各方面的工作的预备。第二，就是疫情的经历让人们强化了认知，知道聚集需要很多措施来保证人群的安全，这都是需要精力和人力投入的。而本来圣诞晚会一个重要的布道的性质，在他看来其实福传重要的是在平时，而非过多的强调圣诞的时候做。
因此，在他看来，“圣诞晚会其实就是一种自嗨，”不仅耗费人力物力精力，而且福传效果一般，还不如换种方式让信徒踏踏实实的过好圣诞。于是，他提出今年变成开放家庭的模式，就是教堂呼召乐意接待的家庭出来，然后安排10多人不到的小组可以在这些家庭教会各自做自己喜欢的模式的节目和聚会，比如有的小组喜欢聚餐那就是可以多采用聚餐的风格，有的小组喜欢小品相声那就可以自己排练类似的节目，而教会只是提供后备帮助，主要是两方面，一个是提供基本的资金，比如500-1000元用于餐饮或者其他物品的购买，二是教会提供破冰游戏指导和日程单编排的服务。
该教会的教牧同工们都表示这样的变革很不错，并且会众都很支持。
李牧师是一间在南方城镇的B教会的牧者。过去几年来，该教会选择了弱化大堂，使用小组化进行牧会的模式，因此这造成一个问题就是不同小组或者堂点的弟兄姐妹很少见面，尤其是过去疫情三年基本很少有一起的实地聚会，甚至出现有可能一些信徒都彼此不认识的情况，“所以，我们都很想团圆，看一看对方的脸，”李牧师介绍说。
于是，他们采取了类似“婚宴吃席”的模式，在当地酒店包了十几桌的酒席，平安夜当晚教会的弟兄姐妹一起吃饭和送礼物送祝福的模式。教会也是购买了不少生活用品作为礼物送给大家，许多小组长和同工们也很开心的一起包礼。
迦勒弟兄所在的南方的一所教会C情况有些类似，近一年来大堂聚会举行的很少，基本是分堂聚会，于是圣诞时三个分点合起来，并且邀请一些亲朋好友来参加，也安排了即将受洗的弟兄姐妹做见证。
D教会是一间在华东一二线的城市教会，职场人士居多，分为上下两堂聚会。考虑到职场人士的忙碌，所以12.24主日这天上午以圣诞主日一堂聚会的方式进行，所有的人前来参加，而礼拜和之后彼此送礼物是最重要的环节。同在该城市的另一所教会E则以上午圣诞主日礼拜和下午的圣诞晚会二个环节举行，圣诞晚会也主要针对教会里的信徒和家庭举行，都邀请不同分点的人都前来。
中原地区的一些小型的教会则直接只是在小组里面举行，大家一起聚餐和送礼物结束。在北方，有基督徒则使用当地人喜闻乐见的相声的方式庆祝圣诞。
在这些方式之外，还有许多基督徒采用开放家庭邀请一些亲朋好友，“唠嗑”+聚餐+各自分享感恩见证的团契模式。
除了这些多元化的尝试之外，仍旧有许多教会选择大家熟悉的“春晚”式的圣诞庆典的方式做。华南一线城市有不少教堂在平安夜和圣诞夜设有2场的圣诞活动，华东也有城市的教堂在这两晚推出圣诞圣乐崇拜并要求参加者们提前透过公众号预约，以方便安排人数。
观察|2023年 中国教会庆祝圣诞方式更趋多元化
Christmas is one of the most important festivals in global churches, and it is especially so in China. Compared with Easter, Christmas is obviously more atmospheric and receives more attention in China.
From around 2000 to 2018, most Chinese churches celebrated Christmas in a similarly ritualistic or ceremonial way. The nationwide grand status and style of a church celebration of the festival had been pretty similar to that of the annual Chinese “Spring Festival Gala.” Every believer used to gather in a church building or a rented venue to watch “programs," which contained worship and praise, short plays or acts, singings and dances, and so on. The whole celebration ceremony would last from two to four hours. The event thus designed had generally two purposes. First, it was meant to be a spiritual family reunion or fellowship for all participating believers. Second, it served as an evangelical occasion for many invited seekers, who might be family members, relatives, or friends of the believers.
However, in recent years, due to deep reflections that some churches had on the problems of Christmas celebrations and the trends of dividing churches into small groups caused by the pandemic and venue issues, the “Spring Festival Gala” style has been declining. Yet, more diversified ways to celebrate Christmas have emerged quickly. The trend is particularly obvious in 2023.
Brother Yang is the leader of Church A in a city in South China. The church has a membership of hundreds, most of whom are professionals. He said that in 2023, he took the initiative to propose a new way to do it with the pastoral staff in his church and stopped doing Christmas celebrations. First of all, it is very costly for believers to get together annually because it includes their commitment, time, and donations. “Usually past Christmas preparations started in September.” He revealed that the preparations included program arranging and casting, repeated rehearsals, and all sorts of overall planning. Moreover, the pandemic experience had largely raised people’s awareness that gathering required tremendous measures to ensure the safety of the multitude. A great deal of energy and manpower were needed. In his view, the Christmas party should not overemphasize evangelization, which should be done the whole year round, and not rely on that occasion alone.
Therefore, in his opinion, “the past Christmas celebration was actually a kind of self-satisfaction," which demanded much manpower, material resources, and commitment but also had a low evangelical effect. It should be better to allow believers to have a good Christmas in a new way. Therefore, he proposed to turn this year into an open family celebration; the church called out families who were willing to host and then arranged groups of less than 10 people to do their own favorite programs and parties in these families. For instance, some groups liked to have dinner, then they could have. Some preferred comic talks, so they could rehearse them among themselves. Meanwhile, the church only provided backup help in mainly two aspects: basic funds of 500–1,000 yuan for catering and other necessary items.
All the pastoral staff of the church said that this change was good, and the congregation supported it.
Pastor Li works at Church B in a southern town. In the past few years, his church has chosen to reduce assembly gatherings and adopted the cell groups’ model. As a result, this caused a problem that believers in different groups or areas could rarely meet, especially in the past three years of the pandemic. Furthermore, there may even be cases where some believers have never known each other. “So, we all want to get together to see each other’s faces,” Pastor Li said.
They consequently adopted a model similar to a “wedding banquet," which contained more than a dozen tables in a local hotel. On Christmas Eve, believers in the church ate together and exchanged gifts and blessings. The church also prepared daily necessities as gifts for participants, and many group leaders and fellow workers were also very happy to wrap the gifts together.
The situation in Church C, where Brother Caleb is located, is somewhat similar. In the past few years, there have been very few services. They basically had separate meetings. At Christmas, the three gathering points met, and relatives and friends were invited to attend. In addition, seekers who were about to be baptized were arranged as witnesses.
Located in a first-tier city in East China, Church D has a large number of professionals. Its Christmas celebrations were divided into two sessions: considering the busyness of professionals, the service on Christmas Eve morning was held and all the members came, giving gifts to each other after worship. Church E, which is also in the same city, held two sessions: the morning Sunday service and the afternoon Christmas party. The Christmas party was also mainly held for believers and families, with invited believers from different gathering points.
Some small churches in mid-China just held small celebrations, and congregations had dinner and exchanged presents. In the north, some Christians celebrated Christmas with comic talks, which is a popular art among the local people.
In addition to these methods, many Christians adopted the fellowship mode of “chatting,” dinner, and thanksgiving testimonies.
In addition to these diversified attempts, there were still many churches that chose the familiar “Spring Festival Gala” style. Many churches in the first-tier cities in South China had two Christmas activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and churches in some cities in East China had launched Christmas worship on these two nights and asked participants to book through the official WeChat account in advance to be arranged.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Observation: Diversified Ways to Celebrate the 2023 Christmas in Chinese Churches
