Praying through the ChinaSource Advent Calendar this month, we are reminded of pastors leading through relentless change, parents struggling to provide children with a biblical foundation for life, pioneering church leaders detained and imprisoned, and missionaries sent from China to the nations.
As the generation that has led the church grows older, churches face questions of succession, a growing elderly population faces uncertain years ahead, and a new generation grapples with what it means to be the church in a culture very different from anything their parents or grandparents experienced. Models of church and ministry are being tested and rethought in light of current realities. Questions about digital technology and the ethics of AI challenge boundaries even as they open up new fields of opportunity for the church.
A Season of Waiting
The Advent season leading up to Christmas is traditionally marked by the lighting of candles, one for each week, symbolizing hope, peace, joy, and love, until finally the Christ candle is lit.
The Advent candles flicker with the promise that what has been lost may yet be found. What has gone missing may yet be recovered.
Our waiting culminates in the celebration of Immanuel, in whom all the longings of Advent are fulfilled.
As Christians in China have learned, in a season of increasing openness it may be easier to feel hopeful. When church activities go relatively undisturbed, there is a sense of peace. Joy flows as believers gather, their fellowship a display of Christian love. For much of China’s recent history, the hope of greater freedom and opportunity for the church has been tied, either explicitly or implicitly, to political developments, the expectation being that a more free and open society would mean greater openness for the Gospel. And in many ways that has been true.
Yet today, as many items on the Advent prayer calendar attest, China and its church are in a different season. Elaborate Christmas celebrations that once took place in hotel ballrooms will more likely consist of small group gatherings in more humble settings. Some pastors who were planning Advent activities a year ago are spending this year’s Christmas in prison.
The Way of Hope
Paul reminds us that hope grows out of suffering, for which we are told to rejoice. It is not a hope that things will become easier for the church. Nor is the joy a result of favorable circumstances. Rather, as Paul says, “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2—5).
China’s Christians find their hope, not in political or social change or the outward trappings of ministry success, but in a long tradition of faithfulness in hardship and in their anticipation of “the city yet to come.” Their hope that God’s glory will be revealed even in the most difficult circumstances enables them to meet these challenges, not with resignation, but with courage and resolve.
Jesus assures his disciples that they will have peace, then immediately tells them they will face tribulation (John 16:33). Chinese believers have learned that their peace is not found in favorable circumstances but in the presence of him who has overcome the world.
Likewise, love is found in the example of him who suffered, laying down his life for us so we could lay down our lives for one another (I John 3:16). In times of crisis, Christians in China demonstrate this love by sacrificially caring for those in need. At the end of 2022, for example, when China’s zero-COVID measures were suddenly lifted and half the members of one congregation became ill, believers responded by sharing scarce medication, trusting that as they helped others, God would provide what was needed for their own families.
“Self-sacrifice means paying a personal price to help others,” wrote one church member. “Mutual love goes further, giving up your own interests to serve the greater good…. The abrupt change in China’s zero-COVID policy allowed our congregation to live out God’s love.”
True Joy
In a letter from prison about a month after his arrest in October 2025, Zion Church pastor Jin Mingri wrote:
Thinking back over the years, many of our young ministers, deacons, and elders have been imprisoned for the gospel, and those senior church leaders I respect have also suffered. When I heard this news, I was so heartbroken that I didn’t know what to do. Now that I’m experiencing these things myself, I feel more at peace. I’m truly joyful to be among these brothers and sisters who have paid the price for the gospel. Isn’t this what the Lord Jesus said? “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
As the experience of China’s church demonstrates, the gifts of Advent seem to come strangely wrapped. The gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love are received through suffering and sacrifice.
Pursuing any one of these gifts for its own sake will lead to disappointment. In the miracle of Christmas, we are reminded that only one gift satisfies. It is in knowing him that all these other gifts are found.
