The Bethlehem Experience

Bethlehem (Christmas 2025) is not just an album, and it’s not just a film — it’s a two-part cinematic experience. From the beginning, Bethlehem was created to be heard and seen. The music stands on its own as a full-length Christmas album, while the accompanying feature film brings many of those songs together into a single visual narrative.

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This is not a traditional Christmas project — and that’s entirely intentional. This is not Jingle Bells. This is Christmas as only Shunned at a Funeral can present it: original music paired with cinematic storytelling, all centered on why Christmas matters at all.

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At its core, Bethlehem is about God in the flesh stepping into His creation. The album traces the story from the cradle to the cross, keeping the focus on incarnation, redemption, and forgiveness. Christmas is not treated as a sentimental pause in the calendar, but as the opening movement of the gospel itself.

The album features the full Shunned at a Funeral lineup, blending the band’s signature hard-rock-meets-folk sound across a collection of original songs written specifically for this project. Madison Connelly’s unmistakable vocals carry the emotional and theological weight of the record, Kendra Whitaker’s guitar work provides grit, urgency, and restraint where needed, and Cassandra Ryder’s banjo brings texture, movement, and an earthy grounding that runs throughout the album.

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Expanding beyond the album, The Bethlehem Cinematic Experience is a full-length feature film built around sixteen songs, most drawn directly from the Bethlehem album. Each song is paired with its own cinematic sequence, woven together into a single narrative centered on forgiveness, redemption, and the cost of grace. Rather than a collection of disconnected music videos, the film unfolds as one cohesive story meant to be experienced in a single sitting.

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The Bethlehem Cinematic Experience will be shown in several regional theaters across the Pacific Northwest and will also be available on major streaming platforms. It is designed to be immersive, reflective, and unmistakably Christ-centered — a Christmas presentation that refuses to drift away from its purpose.

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Bethlehem blends familiar Shunned at a Funeral elements — hard rock edge, folk instrumentation, and uncompromising theology — into a project that feels both ancient and immediate. This is Christmas told through original music, modern sound, and a clear confession: the God who entered the world in Bethlehem did so to redeem it.

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