China Continues Crackdown on Churches, Turning Some into Cultural Centers

7/18/2020  China  (ICC)

As China continues to crack down on churches, even some state-approved Three-Self churches (the only kind of church approved by the government) have been converted to cultural centers “voluntarily.” China Aid reports that recently Flowing Stream Church in Jiangsu province has been forcibly occupied by the local government and converted into a cultural service center. The Three-Self church was disbanded in 2019. A villager said that the local authorities are now using the building to promote President Xi Jinping’s core socialist values. Another church in the same vicinity experienced the same treatment. It was converted into a cultural center after the members “voluntarily donated the venue for the village,” according to the government.

Please pray…

• Pray that the Lord will provide the Christians who have been affected by these building confiscations places to meet for fellowship, worship and prayer.
• Pray that they will not lose heart, but will be encouraged and strengthened in the Lord.
• Pray for the church throughout China, as it is experiencing more and more persecution as the communists are increasingly taking away the freedoms of the Chinese people.