In the era of the coronavirus epidemic, the vitality and growth of the church are worrying. On the public gathering level, the policies of "double suspension" which suspends the opening of religious sites and collective religious activities of registered churches, and of "church buildings meeting on off mode temporarily " have defined the real situation faced by the church today. But everything happens with God’s will. Under such circumstances, if pastors can restore pastoring through small groups and improve the insight into the healthy structure of the church, then the revival of small group ministries will surely ease the urgency of finding solutions to the difficult development of the church.
The history of "small groups"
"Small group ministry" is not a term that has been created in modern times. In the New Testament, Jesus was the pioneer that pastored through small groups. This means that small group pastoring has a history of thousands of years.
Historically, small groups as part of the church tradition disappeared due to the rise of the Catholic Pope in the Middle Ages when the more the Pope held his supreme power, the less church staff were willing to work together. Thus, the church was full of pains and struggles internally. If the Christian church today is to restore the influence and glory as the early church used to have, it must find the key to recovering small groups ministry.
A Christian leader, no matter how hard he offers himself, is bound to burn out if he just works hard for the Lord alone. The number "1" is always "1" no matter how many times it is multiplied. However, every time the exponent is increased by one for the number "2" in a multiplication, the power will increase one more time. Similarly, a church will grow exponentially as the number of co-workers increases. This is one of the characteristics of small group pastoring.
Regarding the origin of small groups ministry, L (pseudonym), a Christian scholar said: "According to the Bible, in the Old Testament, the earliest small group would be the family unit. God accomplished His will through families. For example, God showed the people of that generation what a righteous man was through Noah's family of eight members. He also made a covenant with His people through this family group. Later, when the Israelites left Egypt, God shaped Israel with a new form of small groups as the structure. There were groups of 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 people, so that everyone could get better care in their own group. In the New Testament, the twelve disciples led by Jesus formed the most typical group. For more than three years, they were inseparable every day, eating, drinking, living, and traveling together."
The early church grew rapidly and, as a result, small group meetings were quickly established. Because obviously large-scale gatherings alone couldn’t accommodate thousands of people at the same time. Therefore, a pattern in which large gatherings and small gatherings complement each other had been developed. They would meet together in the temple courts and break bread in small groups at home. They maintained unity in large gatherings and had a more intimate fellowship in small groups.
The current attitudes and thoughts of different Chinese pastors towards small groups
Although pastors of many churches often hear about the content of small groups ministry, and many pastors are doing it, they all have different perceptions and attitudes towards the practice and promotion of small groups ministry.
Some pastoral staff believe that it is not easy for the church to transform from large buildinggatherings to small group meetings which are often difficult to develop. Some pastors claim that they have been pastoring through small groups the whole time. However, usually after a year or two, many groups start to lose members, for which they have to merge several groups into one. Yet, the group growth still stagnates. Nevertheless, some pastors are doing the group ministry to such an extent that the number of believers has multiplied.
In the age of digital media, information is no longer diffused in a model that only the pastor knows first and then shares it with other believers, but is shared among the whole congregation at the same time. The days when the senior pastor was accounted for everything were gone. As pastors learn to run the church with a cohesive group structure, the need for small groups ministry will increase.
A pastor from Central South China points out that pastoring through small groups needs to adopt a two-track system, that is, the combination of group gatherings and discipleship. When a church can provide discipleship well enough, the small groups ministry can be done well accordingly. Small groupsis a platform to provide pastoral care to all believers, whilst discipleship is to precipitate growth of those who have the will to serve God, and finally make them the workers of the Lord. He believes that a church lacking discipleship has no quality. As to pastoral care, whether a church can achieve 1:1, that is, one pastoral worker attends one person in an individual way, is an important reference indicator for measuring the development of the church.
Meanwhile, he also mentions that when promoting small groups ministry, pastors should try not to arbitrarily change the teaching materials for group study, nor to pursue growing group members too fast, but rather do a good job in the top-level design of group ministry and the layered nurturing system. Pastors and group leaders need to be promoters and participants of group course practice. Pastors should provide opportunities for on-site teaching and for group leaders to support and help each other. More group leaders and believers can be encouraged to replicate this model later, so that success of the small groups ministry can be attainable.
In the meantime, a pastor in East China believes that the main responsibility of a pastor is to train all the group leaders of the church who are responsible for pastoring in Sunday services, while the pastor will tour all the groups. The significance of this practice is that the pastor dedicates three to five years to train the group leaders while the church keeps pastoring the believers, with the pastor supervising and consulting different groups at the same time. In this way, customized pastoral care can cope with future shocks and threats well.
It’s necessary that customized pastoral care also keeps focus on diversified needs. The church groups can be classified into senior group and youth group according to age, or praise and worship group and kitchen service group according to the types of ministries. The form of gatherings can also be of various types too, such as worship and praise meetings, prayer meetings, meet-and-greet meetings, dinner parties, outings, etc.
The importance of small groups in shaping healthy believers and healthy churches
The church needs to actively provide quality small group pastoring and discipleship, and actively build different group ministries in the meantime. In group pastoring, pastors will definitely spot out members who have become stronger in faith and have various gifts. Then, pastors can divide different group ministries again, e.g., prayer and healing group, teaching group, evangelism group, marriage counseling group, social welfare group, etc. In this way, the church can better serve the needs of different groups of people in this time.
Pastors must encourage group leaders to reach out to unbelievers in a variety of ways, and discuss strategies and methods for saving souls together during discipleship training. Therefore, small groups do not receive the love and comfort from the church unilaterally, but those enthusiastic group leaders can accept the challenge and lead one to two families to start a new group. If the groups can expand their focus from fellowship among the members to covering a burden to the lost souls, the church will be healthier and more flexible with more of such small groups.
The church should not lose its passion for saving souls, otherwise the unification of discipleship and small groups ministry will lose its original purpose. The pastors and group leaders should reach a consensus on the passion and consciousness of saving souls, and well lead the group members to establish compassion and burden for the unbelievers as well.
There is no perfect church, but there must be a will to build a church that is after God's heart. The truth is unchanged, but the pastoral methods can be constantly updated and changed through learning, so that in an era when people's attention is occupied by secular culture, church staff can win more souls for the Lord, and make the church become the hope of the world.
Reference:
The Doctrine of Church of Love, written by Wu Zhengxian, published by Campus Bookstore / ISBN 978-986198530-5
Glorious Body of Christ (Simplified Chinese) written by R. B. Kuiper, published byRTF Publishing Co., Ltd./ISBN 9789579995108
- Translated by Shuya Wang
疫情时代，教会的活力与发展是令人堪忧的，在聚会层面上所遭遇的“双暂停”与“大堂聚会模式的暂别”成为了如今教会面临的真实处境。但凡事的发生都有上帝的美意，如果教会牧者在这样的处境下，能够恢复对小组牧养的执行力并提高对教会健康结构洞察力，那么小组牧养的复兴势必会缓解艰难发展的燃眉之急。（==当summary）
“小组牧养”的历史回溯
“小组牧养”不是近现代才出来的用语，在新约中，耶稣便是小组牧养的先驱。这意味着，教会的小组牧养有几千年的历史。
历史上，小组牧养这个教会传统的消失，源于中世纪天主教教宗的得势。当时教宗越是独揽大权，越是不想有人同工的情况就越严重，当时教会的内部也满是伤痛。如今的基督教会若想恢复初代教会的能力和荣耀，就必须从恢复小组事工中找到解决问题的关键。
一位基督教领袖无论他多么努力地摆上自己，如果他只是一个人在为主努力地工作，那结果注定是精疲力竭。“1”这个数字无论乘上多少次方，都是“1”。而数字“2”每多一次方，数字就会大一级，同样，一个教会里面，如果一起同工的人越多，数量就会像等级数那样发展。小组牧养特点之一也正是如此。
关于小组牧养的缘起，一位基督教学者L弟兄说：“从圣经依据上看，旧约里，最早的小组应该就是家庭单位，上帝通过家庭这种小组形式完成祂的旨意。例如挪亚一家八口，上帝通过这个家庭向那个世代的人显明何为义人。神也透过这个家庭小组，与祂的百姓订立盟约。后来，以色列人出埃及，神以小组为架构建立了以色列新的形态，有十人一组、五十人一组、一百人一组、一千人一组，这样，每个人都可以在自己的小组里得到比较好的关照。到了新约，耶稣带领的十二门徒就是最典型的小组。他们有三年多的时间，天天在一起，吃喝住行，形影不离。”
初期教会，在人数激增的情况下，很快就有了小组聚会形式。因为单靠大型聚会，几千人是明显不能同时满足的。所以就发展出，大聚会和小组聚会相辅相成的模式。他们会在圣殿一起聚会，也会分成小组在家中擘饼。他们即在大聚会中保持合一，也在小组中获得更亲密的团契生活。
当下国内不同牧者对小组牧养的态度和思考
虽然许多教会的牧师们常听到小组牧养的内容，也有很多牧者正在做小组化牧养，但不同牧者对待小组牧养和小组事工的实践和推动又持有不同的观念与态度。
有的牧者认为，教会由大堂聚会转型到小组聚会很不容易，小组牧养往往很难推动下去；有的牧者认为，小组牧养我们一直在做，可是一两年以后，很多小组开始人数萎缩，不得不把几个小组合并后在一起，但小组发展仍旧止步不前；有的牧者则是将小组事工做的势如破竹，人数倍增。
在数字媒体资讯的时代，信息不再是只有牧者一个人先知道，然后分享给大家的模式，而是要与所有人共享。一切都交给主任牧师的时代已经过去了，当教会牧者学会以同心合一的小组结构来运行教会，小组牧养的必要性就会越来越高。
来自中南的一位牧者指出，小组化牧养需采用双轨制化的模式，即小组化聚会与门训的有机结合。当一个教会能够把门徒训练做得足够好，教会的小组事工才能相应做得好。小组牧养是牧养所有人的一个平台，而门徒训练是透过牧养有事奉主心志的人，最后使他们成为主的工人。他认为，一个教会没有门徒训练，这个教会是没有品质的教会。在牧养轨道上，一个教会能够做到1:1，即一个人照顾到一个人的程度，这是很衡量教会发展的重要参考指标。
同时他也提到说，推动落地小组化牧养时，牧者尽量不要随意改动小组学习的教材，也不要追求小组人数上太快的成长，要做好小组事工的顶层设计，分层牧养体系。牧者、组长需要成为小组课程实践的推动者与参与者。牧者需要提供现场教学的机会，给与小组长彼此扶持和互相帮助的机会。然后让更多的小组长和信徒之后来复制这个模式，教会的小组事工就能够获得成功。
与此同时，华东一位牧者认为，牧师主要职责是负责训练教会所有的组长们，而主日礼拜则有小组长负责牧养，牧师会在所有的小组里面巡回。其意义在于，牧者用三至五年的时间，把小组长们都训练出来；而同时教会又没有丢掉对信徒的牧养，牧师依然可以在不同小组里面做巡回和顾问。这样精细化牧养可以很好地应对以后的冲击和威胁。
精细化牧养还需要注重多元化牧养，教会的小组按年龄分为老年小组、青年小组等，按服事类型分赞美敬拜小组、厨房事奉小组等。聚会的形式也可以是多种类型的，比如敬拜赞美会、祷告会、见面会、聚餐、郊游等。
小组对塑造健康信徒和健康教会的重要性
教会需要积极地做有质量的小组牧养和门徒训练，与此同时，教会还需要积极搭建不同的小组事工。在小组牧养中，牧者一定可以发现在那些在小组中信仰越发坚固，又具备各样不同恩赐的组员，教会的牧者可以再次划分出不同的小组事工。比如，祷告医治小组，教导小组，福传小组，婚恋辅导小组，社会公益小组等等。这样可以更好的事奉到这个时代不同人群的需要。
牧者需要鼓励组长们，以多样的方式接触到非信徒，在门徒训练的时候，一起讨论拯救灵魂的策略与方法。让小组不是以单方面接受教会爱与安慰，而是让有热情的小组长接受挑战，组长可以带着1-2个家庭开拓新的小组。若是小组可以不执着于会友之间的交通，而是对失丧的灵魂有负担，这样的小组越多，教会也就越健康，越灵活。”
教会不应失去拯救灵魂的热情，否则门徒训练和小组牧养的结合就会出现问题。教会的牧者和组长们要在拯救灵魂的热情和意识达成共识，并且很好的带领组员同样建立对未信之人怜悯与负担。
没有完美的教会，但要有努力建造合上帝心意教会的心志。真理是不变的，但牧养方法可以不断地通过学习迎来更新与改变，这样才能够在人们的注意力被世俗文化占据的时代，为主赢得更多的灵魂，让教会成为这个世界的盼望。
注：《爱的教会论》/吴正贤/校园书房/ISBN 978-986198530-5
《基督荣耀的身体》/凯波尔/改革宗出版有限公司/9789579995108
观察和思考｜后疫情时代小组化牧养重要性加强 如何更好塑造健康信徒和健康教会？
In the era of the coronavirus epidemic, the vitality and growth of the church are worrying. On the public gathering level, the policies of "double suspension" which suspends the opening of religious sites and collective religious activities of registered churches, and of "church buildings meeting on off mode temporarily " have defined the real situation faced by the church today. But everything happens with God’s will. Under such circumstances, if pastors can restore pastoring through small groups and improve the insight into the healthy structure of the church, then the revival of small group ministries will surely ease the urgency of finding solutions to the difficult development of the church.
The history of "small groups"
"Small group ministry" is not a term that has been created in modern times. In the New Testament, Jesus was the pioneer that pastored through small groups. This means that small group pastoring has a history of thousands of years.
Historically, small groups as part of the church tradition disappeared due to the rise of the Catholic Pope in the Middle Ages when the more the Pope held his supreme power, the less church staff were willing to work together. Thus, the church was full of pains and struggles internally. If the Christian church today is to restore the influence and glory as the early church used to have, it must find the key to recovering small groups ministry.
A Christian leader, no matter how hard he offers himself, is bound to burn out if he just works hard for the Lord alone. The number "1" is always "1" no matter how many times it is multiplied. However, every time the exponent is increased by one for the number "2" in a multiplication, the power will increase one more time. Similarly, a church will grow exponentially as the number of co-workers increases. This is one of the characteristics of small group pastoring.
Regarding the origin of small groups ministry, L (pseudonym), a Christian scholar said: "According to the Bible, in the Old Testament, the earliest small group would be the family unit. God accomplished His will through families. For example, God showed the people of that generation what a righteous man was through Noah's family of eight members. He also made a covenant with His people through this family group. Later, when the Israelites left Egypt, God shaped Israel with a new form of small groups as the structure. There were groups of 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 people, so that everyone could get better care in their own group. In the New Testament, the twelve disciples led by Jesus formed the most typical group. For more than three years, they were inseparable every day, eating, drinking, living, and traveling together."
The early church grew rapidly and, as a result, small group meetings were quickly established. Because obviously large-scale gatherings alone couldn’t accommodate thousands of people at the same time. Therefore, a pattern in which large gatherings and small gatherings complement each other had been developed. They would meet together in the temple courts and break bread in small groups at home. They maintained unity in large gatherings and had a more intimate fellowship in small groups.
The current attitudes and thoughts of different Chinese pastors towards small groups
Although pastors of many churches often hear about the content of small groups ministry, and many pastors are doing it, they all have different perceptions and attitudes towards the practice and promotion of small groups ministry.
Some pastoral staff believe that it is not easy for the church to transform from large buildinggatherings to small group meetings which are often difficult to develop. Some pastors claim that they have been pastoring through small groups the whole time. However, usually after a year or two, many groups start to lose members, for which they have to merge several groups into one. Yet, the group growth still stagnates. Nevertheless, some pastors are doing the group ministry to such an extent that the number of believers has multiplied.
In the age of digital media, information is no longer diffused in a model that only the pastor knows first and then shares it with other believers, but is shared among the whole congregation at the same time. The days when the senior pastor was accounted for everything were gone. As pastors learn to run the church with a cohesive group structure, the need for small groups ministry will increase.
A pastor from Central South China points out that pastoring through small groups needs to adopt a two-track system, that is, the combination of group gatherings and discipleship. When a church can provide discipleship well enough, the small groups ministry can be done well accordingly. Small groupsis a platform to provide pastoral care to all believers, whilst discipleship is to precipitate growth of those who have the will to serve God, and finally make them the workers of the Lord. He believes that a church lacking discipleship has no quality. As to pastoral care, whether a church can achieve 1:1, that is, one pastoral worker attends one person in an individual way, is an important reference indicator for measuring the development of the church.
Meanwhile, he also mentions that when promoting small groups ministry, pastors should try not to arbitrarily change the teaching materials for group study, nor to pursue growing group members too fast, but rather do a good job in the top-level design of group ministry and the layered nurturing system. Pastors and group leaders need to be promoters and participants of group course practice. Pastors should provide opportunities for on-site teaching and for group leaders to support and help each other. More group leaders and believers can be encouraged to replicate this model later, so that success of the small groups ministry can be attainable.
In the meantime, a pastor in East China believes that the main responsibility of a pastor is to train all the group leaders of the church who are responsible for pastoring in Sunday services, while the pastor will tour all the groups. The significance of this practice is that the pastor dedicates three to five years to train the group leaders while the church keeps pastoring the believers, with the pastor supervising and consulting different groups at the same time. In this way, customized pastoral care can cope with future shocks and threats well.
It’s necessary that customized pastoral care also keeps focus on diversified needs. The church groups can be classified into senior group and youth group according to age, or praise and worship group and kitchen service group according to the types of ministries. The form of gatherings can also be of various types too, such as worship and praise meetings, prayer meetings, meet-and-greet meetings, dinner parties, outings, etc.
The importance of small groups in shaping healthy believers and healthy churches
The church needs to actively provide quality small group pastoring and discipleship, and actively build different group ministries in the meantime. In group pastoring, pastors will definitely spot out members who have become stronger in faith and have various gifts. Then, pastors can divide different group ministries again, e.g., prayer and healing group, teaching group, evangelism group, marriage counseling group, social welfare group, etc. In this way, the church can better serve the needs of different groups of people in this time.
Pastors must encourage group leaders to reach out to unbelievers in a variety of ways, and discuss strategies and methods for saving souls together during discipleship training. Therefore, small groups do not receive the love and comfort from the church unilaterally, but those enthusiastic group leaders can accept the challenge and lead one to two families to start a new group. If the groups can expand their focus from fellowship among the members to covering a burden to the lost souls, the church will be healthier and more flexible with more of such small groups.
The church should not lose its passion for saving souls, otherwise the unification of discipleship and small groups ministry will lose its original purpose. The pastors and group leaders should reach a consensus on the passion and consciousness of saving souls, and well lead the group members to establish compassion and burden for the unbelievers as well.
There is no perfect church, but there must be a will to build a church that is after God's heart. The truth is unchanged, but the pastoral methods can be constantly updated and changed through learning, so that in an era when people's attention is occupied by secular culture, church staff can win more souls for the Lord, and make the church become the hope of the world.
Reference:
The Doctrine of Church of Love, written by Wu Zhengxian, published by Campus Bookstore / ISBN 978-986198530-5
Glorious Body of Christ (Simplified Chinese) written by R. B. Kuiper, published byRTF Publishing Co., Ltd./ISBN 9789579995108
- Translated by Shuya Wang
Perspective: Small Groups Ministry Develop Healthy Believers, Churches in Post-Epidemic Era
