April 4th, 2021, was both Chinese Tomb-Sweeping Day and Easter. On that day, churches in many counties and cities reopened after being closed down for more than two months due to the Spring Festival pandemic strike. Churches in some first and second tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Ningbo, reopened on the earlier Palm Sunday.
The on-site gathering of church services in various places has resumed one after another, making many believers and pastors grateful. At the same time, they find that the problem of loss of believers is increasingly serious especially in small and medium-sized churches.
This is also the follow-up influence on the church after several outbreaks and the rhythm of normalized pandemic prevention since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020.
Wuhan and Hubei: a microcosm of a serious loss of believers after church reopening
Pastor L has lived and worked in Wuhan for more than ten years. Talking about the initial situation when the pandemic broke out in 2020, apart from the difficulty of accessing medicines and living materials, he said that one of the deepest memories at that time was that brothers and sisters from all over the country and around the world prayed for Wuhan's rescue.
He also said that although the pandemic had passed for more than a year, people still attached great importance to pandemic prevention. When elderly believers came to services, their children were worried, so on-site gatherings had not resumed.
Pastor A, who has been serving in Wuhan for more than ten years, still remembers the fear that was caused by the pandemic last year. Speaking of the impact of the pandemic on the church, she mentioned two aspects. One was that the pandemic had enabled many local teachers, pastors and believers in Wuhan to reflect on the relationship between individuals and God, and also understand the value of life and faith through the test of life and death. One should understand the truth that they should always be grateful in their future life. Second, she encountered a great impact on her faith and ministry, which was mainly because her church was closed for a long time. Although online services were held, it was difficult to gather on-site, which brought a lot of blows to the confidence of ordinary believers. Therefore, she found that the loss of believers was relatively serious after the resumption of church.
Pastor W who serves in another city in Hubei Province said that their church was also facing serious loss of believers after the church resumed. According to their understanding, due to the limited number of people allowed to attend gatherings, many believers could not enter the church to attend services. On the other hand, because of the long closure time, many believers became used to online services, and even if their church had resumed, they were reluctant to go for on-site gatherings. In particular, due to health reasons, many local elderly believers chose to attend online services at home on the advice of their families. Under the influence of various reasons, the situation of losing believers is relatively serious.
Hubei churches are a microcosm of the subsequent impact of the pandemic. In fact, churches in Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Anhui and many other places are experiencing a similar situation.
A female pastor from central China: "Although being confused, we need to think deep, reflect and find a way of transformation."
Sister F lives in a fourth-tier city in central China. Before the pandemic, there were about 100 people in her church, and about 50 to 60 people gathered every Sunday. However, after resuming in-person gatherings on April 1, 2021, only 30 people came to services. It was a loss of almost 40%.
She said, "We also have online services on Sundays - partly online. Yet some elderly people can't go online because they don't have mobile phones, so arrangements are made for them to attend on-site services. Sunday services are partly online and partly offline."
With regret, she added, "Many lost believers don't meet and come to church." It is not just the situation of her church. Now many churches around her are facing the problem of losing believers because of the difficulty of on-site gatherings. "Without physical gatherings, believers are very casual. They feel less compelled to attentive during online services. I don't know how the lives of believers are and some people don't admit that they are Christians in their workplaces."
In addition to losing believers, the decrease of donations to her church and the confusion of not knowing how to transform the church make Sister F confused and troubled.
However, all kinds of pressure also make her think about what God's will is. In this process, she found that the most important thing was her new discovery of the meaning of "church".
"I don't know what the road ahead is yet, but I recently found that the organizing form of a church is not important - when two or three people gather in the name of the Lord, the Lord is there with them."
"I didn't find it easy to adapt to it at first... It took a while to adapt to this change and I needed to adapt to the transformation of my church, both from the whole group to the individual. It's a difficult time and I don't know how to get there, but this is the transformation of a church - it takes time. I believe that if you look up to God, your brothers and sisters will not stop here all the time," she claimed.
The pastor explained, "In the past few years, Chinese churches focused much on outer appearance. No matter how big or small their work was, their working mentality was unconcentrated and impetuous, simply paying a great deal of attention to the outer form. I believe that every situation has God's beautiful will in it. In such a new change, people's minds can calm down to think about the problems."
During this time, she and her church workers have been reflecting. She concluded that instead of focusing on the outside environment, she should turn to herself. "I found that there were many problems in the church as well as with pasturing the believers, despite believing in the Lord for so many years. I find this kind of reflection quite good ... I have become more grateful instead."
Pastor X of Beijing: "A new normal has already started, and it takes time to sort it out."
Beijing has always attached great importance to daily pandemic prevention. Since March 16, 2021, Beijing has abolished the need for people from low-risk areas in China to hold negative nucleic acid test certificates showing that the test was carried out within seven days prior to their arrival in Beijing. Then, from late March, churches in various districts of Beijing resumed on-site gatherings.
When Pastor X was contacted at the end of March, their offline gathering had not yet resumed. He talked about the impact of the pandemic on his church and his personal pastoral ministry. He said, "Because my church is now stopped, what (the future church) should do is still under consideration. The pandemic came so suddenly that it was caught off guard that there was no good way to deal with it. We need to continue praying and thinking. This is a complicated issue."
He explained many inconveniences in online services. "It is also a problem that there is no interaction online as offline was." Therefore, at present, he advocates that believers find suitable gatherings and resources to study online and also accompany each other to read scriptures.
He said that even though in some places believers had started to meet each other because they have resumed gathering, a problem encountered was that many brothers and sisters had become accustomed to online gathering. Returning to offline and reality has brought some changes. For example, some people prefer to meet online instead of offline because of the time spent on travelling and the convenience at home. In addition, although there are many online gatherings and resources, it was a mix of advantages and disadvantages. He recalled that he was also locked up at home during the pandemic, so he spent a lot of time learning about different gatherings and resources. "The Internet resources are abundant and there are various new and strange viewpoints, which are really overwhelming". That makes "the church face an unprecedented test".
"Some believers have indeed improved spiritually through the pandemic while others have been seriously affected. When there is a crisis, some people encounter it and some avoid it. The pandemic makes everyone face new tests whether it is in faith, work or life."
He said that the pandemic had a great impact on pasturing believers, but the specific ones could not be generalized because of the great differences and need to be followed up and sorted out, which takes time.
"A new normal has already begun. It takes time to sort it out."
Brother Y of eastern China: "It is more important for believers to establish a personal relationship with God in ministry."
However, the church is not just experiencing losing believers. On the Sunday after Easter, a church in Hubei resumed for the first time and baptism services were done. Among them, more than ten brothers and sisters were baptized. When they were asked how they knew Jesus and decided to be baptized, many mentioned that it was related to the pandemic in 2020. The uncertainty and anxiety in the pandemic made them discover the power of peace given by faith.
The impact of the pandemic on some churches does exist, but it is not great. Brother Y, a young pastor in eastern China, said that the impact of the pandemic on his church was not great, because in the first half of the year before the pandemic the church was promoting group caring to lead believers in depth. Therefore, when offline gathering could not be reliably carried out due to the pandemic, group caring began to play its role, which enabled online caring. It greatly eliminated the impact of the pandemic on believers and strengthened the caring quality for believers.
This experience made him see that all churches and ministries on this earth will pass, only the Word of God will last forever. Brother Y said: "Pastors should pay more attention to the life of believers so that believers can establish a relationship with God instead of the church and pastors, in order to firmly stand in front of God no matter what situations they are facing."
- Translated by Charlie Li
观察|疫情对教会的后续影响有多大？中小型教会信徒流失的挑战正在凸显
2021年4月4日，是中国传统的清明节，也是一年一度的复活节。这一天，不少县市的教堂在度过了因春节疫情关门2个多月左右的时间后重新复堂，北京、上海、杭州、宁波等一些一二线城市的教堂在早前的棕枝主日已经复堂。
各地教会的实地聚会陆续恢复，让不少信徒和牧者同工感恩，而与此同时，他们也发现，信徒流失的问题十分明显，尤其在中小型教会群体上表现地更为突出。
这也是自2020年春天的新冠疫情爆发后至今，经历几波疫情爆发和常态化防疫的节奏后显露出来的对教会的后续影响。
武汉和湖北：复堂后信徒流失严重的一个缩影
L牧师过去十多年来在武汉生活和牧会。谈起2020年疫情爆发时最初的境况，除了药品和生活物资都不容易得到的艰难，他说到当时记忆最深的之一是当时全国和世界各地的弟兄姐妹们为武汉的救援和代祷。
他也介绍说，疫情虽然过去了一年多了，但是老百姓们对于防疫还是很看重的，老人来聚会的话，孩子们都不放心，所以实地聚会也还没有恢复。
同样在武汉牧会十多年的A牧师对去年疫情给人心造成的恐惧仍记忆犹新。说起疫情对于教会的影响，她提到两个方面，一个是疫情让许多武汉当地的教牧同工和信徒们得以好好反思个人与上帝之间的关系，也在这次生死考验中明白了生命与信仰的价值，并懂得了在日后的生活中应当时刻感恩的道理；第二个就是在信仰牧养上遭遇不小的冲击，这主要是因为教堂长期封闭，虽然也开展了线上聚会，但因为很难来实地聚会，所以对于普通信徒的信心带来不少打击，因此她发现复堂之后，信徒流失现象相对严重。
在湖北其他城市牧会的W牧师也分享了他们堂同样面临着复堂后信徒流失严重的情况。根据他们的了解，这一方面是由于聚会人数限制，许多信徒无法进入教堂参加实地礼拜；另一方面，因为疫情教堂的封闭时间比较长，许多信徒习惯了线上聚会，即便复堂也不愿前往教会参加礼拜，尤其是当地不少老年信徒因健康原因考虑，在家人的建议下选择了在家参加线上聚会。在种种原因影响下，信徒流失现象也相对严重。
湖北教会是疫情后续影响的一个缩影。事实上，北京、上海、河南、安徽等不少地方的教会都在经历类似的情形。
中原姊妹传道人：虽然困惑，但需要沉下心来思考、反省和寻找转型之路
F姐妹居住在中原一个三四线城市，她所在的教会在疫情前大约有100人，实地聚会每周主日大约有五六十人，但是2021年4月1日恢复实地后只有30多人来聚会，流失了差不多40%。
“我们主日也有线上聚会，一部分在线上，但有些老年人没有手机，不能线上，所以就安排他们实地。主日一部分线上、一部分实地。”
她不无惋惜地说：“流失的信徒很多人就不聚会了，也不来教会了。”她说到，这也不仅仅是他们一个教会的情况，现在她周围的不少教会因为实地聚会的艰难都面临着信徒流失的问题，“没有实体聚会了，信徒就很随便了，想听就听一点，不知道信徒生命怎么样，有的人在工作场合也不承认自己是基督徒了。”
除了信徒流失之外，教会奉献的减少、不知道如何转型的迷茫让F姊妹觉得困惑而痛苦。
不过，种种压力也使得她在考虑上帝的旨意何为，在这个过程中，她发现最重要的是她对于“教会”一词有了新的发现，“现在还不知道前面的路是怎样的，但是我最近....发现，(教会）的形式不重要，有两三个人聚会，主就同在。”
“刚开始对我也不适应.....适应这个环境是需要一段时间的，需要同工适应所面临的新的教会的转型，从整体到个体，需要去适应。现在这段时间很艰难，不知道要怎么走，但这是教会的转型，需要时间。我相信如果仰望神的话，弟兄姐妹也不会一直都停在这里的。”
“过去几年，中国教会注重外在，无论做怎样大的事工，心是很飘很浮躁的，很注重外在形式。我相信，每一个环境都有神的美好旨意在里面，在这样的环境里，让人的心能够沉下来思考一些问题。”
这段时间她和身边的同工都一直在反思，发现目光不能只是盯在外面的环境下，反而是目光转向自己，“发现教会中也会有很多问题，牧养很多问题，我们信主这么多年也有很多问题。我发现这种反思挺好的.....反而是更加感恩。”
北京X牧师：一个新的常态已经开始了，需要时间来梳理
在日常防疫上，北京一直非常重视。自2021年3月16日起，北京取消了国内低风险地区人员进返京不再需要持抵京前7日内核酸检测阴性证明。 随后，3月下旬开始，北京各区的教堂陆续恢复实地聚会。
3月底联系到X牧师的时候，他们的实地聚会也还没没有恢复。他谈到疫情教会和他个人牧会带来的冲击：“因为现在停止聚会，（未来教会）怎么做还在思考中。疫情来的太突然，措不及防，没有什么好的方式来应对。需要继续的祷告和思考。这是一个复杂的问题。”
他谈到线上聚会也有很多不便之处，“线上没有线下的互动也是问题”，所以目前他提倡的是信徒自己在网上可以寻找合适的聚会和资源学习，也可以相互结伴交通读经等。
他谈到，即使有的地方因为已经开始恢复聚会，信徒之间开始彼此见面，但遇到的一个问题是很多弟兄姐妹已经习惯了网上聚会，重新回到线下和现实之中，这带来一些变化，比如有的人因为路上花费的时间、以及在家比较安逸等原因，宁可选择在网上而非实地聚会，再加上网上聚会和资源虽然不少，但良莠不齐，他回忆自己疫情期间自己也是被关在家中，因此花了大量时间了解了不同的聚会和资源，“网络资源很丰富，各种新的奇特的观点也有，真的是迎接不暇”，这让“教会面临一个前所未有的考验”。
“有的信徒的确透过疫情灵性提升，有的受到了严重的影响。当有危机出现的时候，有的人知难而上，有的知难而退，疫情让大家都面临新的考验，不管是信仰、工作还是生活。”他谈到疫情对于信徒牧养的确有很大影响，但具体到底是哪些因为差异很大并不能一概而论，需要跟进和整理，而这需要时间。
“一个新的常态已经开始了。需要时间来梳理。”
华东Y弟兄：牧养中让信徒和神建立个人关系，变得更重要
不过，教会也并非仅仅在经历信徒流失。复活节后一个主日，湖北一教会第一次复堂并举行了洗礼，其中有10多位弟兄姐妹受洗，在被问及如何认识耶稣和决定受洗时，不少人提到和2020年的疫情有关，疫情中的不确定和焦虑让他们发现信仰赋予的平安力量。
疫情对一些教会的影响的确存在，但并不是很大。华东一位青年牧者Y弟兄介绍说，疫情对他们教会的影响并不是很大，因为疫情之前半年内他们小组在推动以小组牧养的方式来更为深入地牧养信徒，因此当疫情爆发实地聚会不能稳定进行的情况下，小组牧养开始发挥作用，配合线上牧养，不仅很大程度上消除了疫情对教会信徒影响，也更加坚固了信徒的牧养。
这段经历让他看到，这地上所有的教会和事工都将会过去，唯有 神的道是永远长存的。Y弟兄说：“（牧养）更加专注于信徒的生命，让信徒不是和教会、和牧者建立关系，而是和神建立关系，这样无论信徒面对的是怎样的环境，都可以站立在神的面前。”
https://www.christiantimes.cn/news/34864/%E8%A7%82%E5%AF%9F%7C%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85%E5%AF%B9%E6%95%99%E4%BC%9A%E7%9A%84%E5%90%8E%E7%BB%AD%E5%BD%B1%E5%93%8D%E6%9C%89%E5%A4%9A%E5%A4%A7%EF%BC%9F%E4%B8%AD%E5%B0%8F%E5%9E%8B%E6%95%99%E4%BC%9A%E4%BF%A1%E5%BE%92%E6%B5%81%E5%A4%B1%E7%9A%84%E6%8C%91%E6%88%98%E6%AD%A3%E5%9C%A8%E5%87%B8%E6%98%BE
观察|疫情对教会的后续影响有多大？中小型教会信徒流失的挑战正在凸显
April 4th, 2021, was both Chinese Tomb-Sweeping Day and Easter. On that day, churches in many counties and cities reopened after being closed down for more than two months due to the Spring Festival pandemic strike. Churches in some first and second tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Ningbo, reopened on the earlier Palm Sunday.
The on-site gathering of church services in various places has resumed one after another, making many believers and pastors grateful. At the same time, they find that the problem of loss of believers is increasingly serious especially in small and medium-sized churches.
This is also the follow-up influence on the church after several outbreaks and the rhythm of normalized pandemic prevention since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020.
Wuhan and Hubei: a microcosm of a serious loss of believers after church reopening
Pastor L has lived and worked in Wuhan for more than ten years. Talking about the initial situation when the pandemic broke out in 2020, apart from the difficulty of accessing medicines and living materials, he said that one of the deepest memories at that time was that brothers and sisters from all over the country and around the world prayed for Wuhan's rescue.
He also said that although the pandemic had passed for more than a year, people still attached great importance to pandemic prevention. When elderly believers came to services, their children were worried, so on-site gatherings had not resumed.
Pastor A, who has been serving in Wuhan for more than ten years, still remembers the fear that was caused by the pandemic last year. Speaking of the impact of the pandemic on the church, she mentioned two aspects. One was that the pandemic had enabled many local teachers, pastors and believers in Wuhan to reflect on the relationship between individuals and God, and also understand the value of life and faith through the test of life and death. One should understand the truth that they should always be grateful in their future life. Second, she encountered a great impact on her faith and ministry, which was mainly because her church was closed for a long time. Although online services were held, it was difficult to gather on-site, which brought a lot of blows to the confidence of ordinary believers. Therefore, she found that the loss of believers was relatively serious after the resumption of church.
Pastor W who serves in another city in Hubei Province said that their church was also facing serious loss of believers after the church resumed. According to their understanding, due to the limited number of people allowed to attend gatherings, many believers could not enter the church to attend services. On the other hand, because of the long closure time, many believers became used to online services, and even if their church had resumed, they were reluctant to go for on-site gatherings. In particular, due to health reasons, many local elderly believers chose to attend online services at home on the advice of their families. Under the influence of various reasons, the situation of losing believers is relatively serious.
Hubei churches are a microcosm of the subsequent impact of the pandemic. In fact, churches in Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Anhui and many other places are experiencing a similar situation.
A female pastor from central China: "Although being confused, we need to think deep, reflect and find a way of transformation."
Sister F lives in a fourth-tier city in central China. Before the pandemic, there were about 100 people in her church, and about 50 to 60 people gathered every Sunday. However, after resuming in-person gatherings on April 1, 2021, only 30 people came to services. It was a loss of almost 40%.
She said, "We also have online services on Sundays - partly online. Yet some elderly people can't go online because they don't have mobile phones, so arrangements are made for them to attend on-site services. Sunday services are partly online and partly offline."
With regret, she added, "Many lost believers don't meet and come to church." It is not just the situation of her church. Now many churches around her are facing the problem of losing believers because of the difficulty of on-site gatherings. "Without physical gatherings, believers are very casual. They feel less compelled to attentive during online services. I don't know how the lives of believers are and some people don't admit that they are Christians in their workplaces."
In addition to losing believers, the decrease of donations to her church and the confusion of not knowing how to transform the church make Sister F confused and troubled.
However, all kinds of pressure also make her think about what God's will is. In this process, she found that the most important thing was her new discovery of the meaning of "church".
"I don't know what the road ahead is yet, but I recently found that the organizing form of a church is not important - when two or three people gather in the name of the Lord, the Lord is there with them."
"I didn't find it easy to adapt to it at first... It took a while to adapt to this change and I needed to adapt to the transformation of my church, both from the whole group to the individual. It's a difficult time and I don't know how to get there, but this is the transformation of a church - it takes time. I believe that if you look up to God, your brothers and sisters will not stop here all the time," she claimed.
The pastor explained, "In the past few years, Chinese churches focused much on outer appearance. No matter how big or small their work was, their working mentality was unconcentrated and impetuous, simply paying a great deal of attention to the outer form. I believe that every situation has God's beautiful will in it. In such a new change, people's minds can calm down to think about the problems."
During this time, she and her church workers have been reflecting. She concluded that instead of focusing on the outside environment, she should turn to herself. "I found that there were many problems in the church as well as with pasturing the believers, despite believing in the Lord for so many years. I find this kind of reflection quite good ... I have become more grateful instead."
Pastor X of Beijing: "A new normal has already started, and it takes time to sort it out."
Beijing has always attached great importance to daily pandemic prevention. Since March 16, 2021, Beijing has abolished the need for people from low-risk areas in China to hold negative nucleic acid test certificates showing that the test was carried out within seven days prior to their arrival in Beijing. Then, from late March, churches in various districts of Beijing resumed on-site gatherings.
When Pastor X was contacted at the end of March, their offline gathering had not yet resumed. He talked about the impact of the pandemic on his church and his personal pastoral ministry. He said, "Because my church is now stopped, what (the future church) should do is still under consideration. The pandemic came so suddenly that it was caught off guard that there was no good way to deal with it. We need to continue praying and thinking. This is a complicated issue."
He explained many inconveniences in online services. "It is also a problem that there is no interaction online as offline was." Therefore, at present, he advocates that believers find suitable gatherings and resources to study online and also accompany each other to read scriptures.
He said that even though in some places believers had started to meet each other because they have resumed gathering, a problem encountered was that many brothers and sisters had become accustomed to online gathering. Returning to offline and reality has brought some changes. For example, some people prefer to meet online instead of offline because of the time spent on travelling and the convenience at home. In addition, although there are many online gatherings and resources, it was a mix of advantages and disadvantages. He recalled that he was also locked up at home during the pandemic, so he spent a lot of time learning about different gatherings and resources. "The Internet resources are abundant and there are various new and strange viewpoints, which are really overwhelming". That makes "the church face an unprecedented test".
"Some believers have indeed improved spiritually through the pandemic while others have been seriously affected. When there is a crisis, some people encounter it and some avoid it. The pandemic makes everyone face new tests whether it is in faith, work or life."
He said that the pandemic had a great impact on pasturing believers, but the specific ones could not be generalized because of the great differences and need to be followed up and sorted out, which takes time.
"A new normal has already begun. It takes time to sort it out."
Brother Y of eastern China: "It is more important for believers to establish a personal relationship with God in ministry."
However, the church is not just experiencing losing believers. On the Sunday after Easter, a church in Hubei resumed for the first time and baptism services were done. Among them, more than ten brothers and sisters were baptized. When they were asked how they knew Jesus and decided to be baptized, many mentioned that it was related to the pandemic in 2020. The uncertainty and anxiety in the pandemic made them discover the power of peace given by faith.
The impact of the pandemic on some churches does exist, but it is not great. Brother Y, a young pastor in eastern China, said that the impact of the pandemic on his church was not great, because in the first half of the year before the pandemic the church was promoting group caring to lead believers in depth. Therefore, when offline gathering could not be reliably carried out due to the pandemic, group caring began to play its role, which enabled online caring. It greatly eliminated the impact of the pandemic on believers and strengthened the caring quality for believers.
This experience made him see that all churches and ministries on this earth will pass, only the Word of God will last forever. Brother Y said: "Pastors should pay more attention to the life of believers so that believers can establish a relationship with God instead of the church and pastors, in order to firmly stand in front of God no matter what situations they are facing."
- Translated by Charlie Li
Observation: Follow-up on COVID-19 Influence on Chinese Church After Reopening
