On The Current Situation Of Christian House Churches Of Jilin Province And The Research Of The Government Religious Management

In recent years, especially after the reform and opening up, Christianity in China has ushered in the era of fast development. House churches have witnessed particularly rapid development, whose scale of believers and development speed should not be underestimated. However, identity positioning on house churches is still a pending issue in law. Most of house churches adopt “semi-underground” way of activities, which brings a great challenge to the administrative management of the government.This paper selects several house churches with typical significance in Jilin Province, adopts the method of field research, participatory observation, interview, case study and literature research, and combines with the theory of public administration mastered in learning. It summarizes the current situation of activities of house churches in Jilin Province, deeply analyzes the possible contradictions caused by house churches and puts forward countermeasures and suggestions on the government management of house churches on this basis.This paper is divided into four parts in total. Part One expounds the general situation of development of domestic and provincial house churches, selects three house churches in Jilin Province, including HL, MP and ZE which respectively represent house churches of general rural areas, house churches of China-DPRK border areas and house churches of urban emerging college students, and conducts an analysis on the situation of their activities, staff composition and the government's attitude towards religious management. Part Two analyzes the cause of house churches in Jilin Province from the aspect of historical reasons, administrative management system reasons,theological insight reasons and the number of religious venues and proposes the challenges brought by house churches to the Administrative Department of the government. Part Three points out problems including imperfect management system,inadequate effect of religious associations, insufficient professional talents of religiousmanagement and low level of religious management in the current religious management work of Jilin Province. Part Four offers advice and suggestions for the Religious Management Department of the government from the aspect of making laws,changing the mode of religious management and strengthening the self-management of house churches.