An experienced rural church worker claims that the key to pastoring rural Christians is to make the best use of Sunday sermons in everyday language to make them easy to understand.
During a recent interview with The Christian Times, a male believer C (pseudonym) who has gained rich experience in pastoring rural believers after having served in a rural church in Central China for many years shared his takeaways.
Unlike the believers in the emerging churches in the cities that have developed rapidly over the years, the believers in rural churches generally do not have many needs, almost none for marriage courses, psychological counseling, etc.
C concluded, "Objectively speaking, there are no such demands since basically, most rural believers are elderlies, who consider services such as marriage courses and psychological counseling as flashy with no substance, almost useless to them.”
"The key to the pastoral care for rural believers is preaching. In the past, we used to host spiritual gatherings in the slack season for three, five or even seven days in a row. The meetings were only for preaching. Unfortunately, now we can’t do it anymore due to the COVID-19 pandemic," C said.
C believes that the reason why many heresies in China are developed from rural churches is also related to the narrow understanding of the Christian faith among rural congregations. Many rural Christians have very incomplete knowledge and understanding of their beliefs whose foundation is very weak. Many believers are not very committed to their faith, so they are easily affected by external factors. “Family objections, negative views of neighbors and relatives, the religion-related remarks of village committee leaders, the comments of their children's teachers, etc., may all affect their beliefs." Most rural believers are led to faith and become Christians because of personal needs. When they are sick, feel lonely, or have a personal hobby of singing and dancing that they can’t have satisfied in other ways, the church accommodates their needs. Another way of receiving the gospel is through neighbors. Many believers start to seek God because their Christian neighbors take them to the church.”
After having engaged in the pastoring ministry of rural churches for many years, what experiences and challenges does C have?
First, C clarified the prejudice and misunderstanding that some people hold about pastoring rural believers. "If some people think that the pastoring ministry of rural churches does not demand pastoral staff of high-level qualities and serve with such a mentality, then in a few years, even if they were originally outstandingly talented, they will gradually become ordinary or even nobody. Maybe at the beginning, their performance is not bad. But with the wrong mentality, they do not aspire for progress and will continue to be assimilated by the surrounding environment with time " C has witnessed that there is some older staff who have been serving in the preaching ministry for a long time in the church often have lost motivation for studying. On the contrary, many among the young co-workers have realized that they need to improve themselves and therefore actively study and recharge themselves.
C thinks the biggest difficulty in pastoring rural Christians is "how to build a strong foundation and explain the profound things in a simple way to let believers understand the truth of the Bible in everyday language, in addition to making the best use of Sunday sermons". In rural churches, many believers only attend church once a week, that is, Sunday services. Therefore, it is very important to hold on to preaching on Sundays. This is even the only opportunity to pastor the rural believers. It would be very unfortunate and regrettable if the opportunity for Sunday service was missed.
The rural believers are different from the urban believers. Since rural Christians’ literacy level is generally not high, the sermons that are popular with urban believers may not work at all in the rural churches since the believers simply cannot understand.
Therefore, when pastoring rural believers, pastors must use everyday language adapted for rural society, and to explain the truth of the Bible accurately and simply in a way that the believers can understand. However, it is not easy to achieve for it requires not only rich pastoral experience, but also a good understanding of the situation in rural society. This is undoubtedly a huge challenge for preachers, for which they need to continuously accumulate experience, independently study and innovate. There is basically no ready-made pastoring system for rural believers. Pastors need to summarize and establish their own methods.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
C弟兄在中原某地的农村教会服事多年，有着丰富的牧养农村信徒的经验。日前，C弟兄在与基督时报分享了自己多年牧养农村信徒的心得：抓住主日讲道，让它深入浅出。
不同于这些年来高速发展的城市新兴教会的信徒，农村教会信徒们普遍没有很多的需要，婚恋课程、心理辅导……C弟兄说这些他们都没有，“而且客观来说也不太有这个需求，因为基本上农村教会信徒本来就是老人居多，婚恋课程、心理辅导这些对他们来说几乎没有任何作用，对他们来说都属于华而不实、花里胡哨的东西。”
“农村信徒牧养的关键就是讲道，所以以前我们是常常趁着农闲的时候做培灵会，连续3天、5天甚至7天的聚会，聚会内容就是讲道，但是现在因为疫情原因所以也没有了。”C弟兄如此表示。
而C弟兄认为，之所以在中国，很多异端都是从农村教会发展起来的，也和农村信徒对于信仰的认识偏向狭隘有关。”很多农村信徒对信仰的认识和理解本来就很不全面，信仰的根基很不牢固，而且很多信徒对于信仰其实并没有非常强的委身，因此很容易受到外部因素的影响。“ 家人的反对、邻居和亲人的白眼、村委干部的宗教相关言论、孩子老师的言论等，都可能会影响到信徒的信仰。”而且大部分农村信徒是因为个人需求所以接触信仰，成为基督徒的。生病、感到孤独、有着唱歌跳舞的个人爱好，这样的需求无法通过其他方式得到满足，但是教会满足了他们，还有一个就是邻里关系，好多信徒开始信仰是因为被有信仰的邻居拉到教会的。“
C弟兄参与农村教会牧养过年，那么在牧养农村信徒方面，他又有着怎样的心得和挑战呢？
C弟兄首先澄清了有人对农村信徒牧养的偏见和误解——”如果有人认为牧养农村教会不需要多么高的水平，如果带着这样的心态来服事的话，那么这样下去不出几年的时间，这个人也就慢慢的泯然众人甚至消失的无影无踪了。可能开始的时候水平还算不错，但是因着心态的错误，不思进取，会不断的被时间和环境同化。“C弟兄看到，在教会里面有一些年龄较大、讲道时间很长的人，他们往往不会特意去学习，而年轻同工当中意识到自己水平需要提高因此积极学习充电的人还是挺多的。
而牧养农村信徒最大的难点，C弟兄认为是“如何才能够做到高屋建瓴，深入浅出，用很日常化的语言让信徒明白圣经真理，而且还需要紧紧的抓住主日讲道”。在农村教会，很多信徒一周都只参加一次聚会，就是主日礼拜，因此，紧紧的抓住主日讲道就变得十分重要，这甚至是能够牧养农村信徒的唯一机会。如果错过了主日礼拜这个机会的话，那将是非常可惜和令人遗憾的。
农村信徒有别于城市信徒，农村教会的信徒们文化水平普遍不高，受到城市教会信徒欢迎的讲道放到农村教会却很可能完全行不通——信徒们根本听不懂。（==当summary）
因此，牧养农村信徒的时候，必须采用适合农村社会的日常化的语言，以信徒们听得懂的方式深入浅出把圣经真理准确无误的宣讲出来。而想要做到这个程度，其实并不容易，既需要具有丰富的牧养经验，又需要十分了解农村社会的情况。这对讲道人来说，无疑是巨大的挑战，需要不断的积累并且自主学习和创新——农村信徒的牧养，基本没有任何现成的牧养体系，需要讲道人自己总结和建立。
专访|一80后传道人谈农村教会牧养：抓住主日，让信息深入浅出
An experienced rural church worker claims that the key to pastoring rural Christians is to make the best use of Sunday sermons in everyday language to make them easy to understand.
During a recent interview with The Christian Times, a male believer C (pseudonym) who has gained rich experience in pastoring rural believers after having served in a rural church in Central China for many years shared his takeaways.
Unlike the believers in the emerging churches in the cities that have developed rapidly over the years, the believers in rural churches generally do not have many needs, almost none for marriage courses, psychological counseling, etc.
C concluded, "Objectively speaking, there are no such demands since basically, most rural believers are elderlies, who consider services such as marriage courses and psychological counseling as flashy with no substance, almost useless to them.”
"The key to the pastoral care for rural believers is preaching. In the past, we used to host spiritual gatherings in the slack season for three, five or even seven days in a row. The meetings were only for preaching. Unfortunately, now we can’t do it anymore due to the COVID-19 pandemic," C said.
C believes that the reason why many heresies in China are developed from rural churches is also related to the narrow understanding of the Christian faith among rural congregations. Many rural Christians have very incomplete knowledge and understanding of their beliefs whose foundation is very weak. Many believers are not very committed to their faith, so they are easily affected by external factors. “Family objections, negative views of neighbors and relatives, the religion-related remarks of village committee leaders, the comments of their children's teachers, etc., may all affect their beliefs." Most rural believers are led to faith and become Christians because of personal needs. When they are sick, feel lonely, or have a personal hobby of singing and dancing that they can’t have satisfied in other ways, the church accommodates their needs. Another way of receiving the gospel is through neighbors. Many believers start to seek God because their Christian neighbors take them to the church.”
After having engaged in the pastoring ministry of rural churches for many years, what experiences and challenges does C have?
First, C clarified the prejudice and misunderstanding that some people hold about pastoring rural believers. "If some people think that the pastoring ministry of rural churches does not demand pastoral staff of high-level qualities and serve with such a mentality, then in a few years, even if they were originally outstandingly talented, they will gradually become ordinary or even nobody. Maybe at the beginning, their performance is not bad. But with the wrong mentality, they do not aspire for progress and will continue to be assimilated by the surrounding environment with time " C has witnessed that there is some older staff who have been serving in the preaching ministry for a long time in the church often have lost motivation for studying. On the contrary, many among the young co-workers have realized that they need to improve themselves and therefore actively study and recharge themselves.
C thinks the biggest difficulty in pastoring rural Christians is "how to build a strong foundation and explain the profound things in a simple way to let believers understand the truth of the Bible in everyday language, in addition to making the best use of Sunday sermons". In rural churches, many believers only attend church once a week, that is, Sunday services. Therefore, it is very important to hold on to preaching on Sundays. This is even the only opportunity to pastor the rural believers. It would be very unfortunate and regrettable if the opportunity for Sunday service was missed.
The rural believers are different from the urban believers. Since rural Christians’ literacy level is generally not high, the sermons that are popular with urban believers may not work at all in the rural churches since the believers simply cannot understand.
Therefore, when pastoring rural believers, pastors must use everyday language adapted for rural society, and to explain the truth of the Bible accurately and simply in a way that the believers can understand. However, it is not easy to achieve for it requires not only rich pastoral experience, but also a good understanding of the situation in rural society. This is undoubtedly a huge challenge for preachers, for which they need to continuously accumulate experience, independently study and innovate. There is basically no ready-made pastoring system for rural believers. Pastors need to summarize and establish their own methods.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
Millennial Pastor Believes Key to Pastoring Rural Christians Is Preaching Sunday Sermons in Everyday Language
