“The poorer the church is, the more spiritual it is."
"Pastors should have nothing to do with money."
"It's fine as long as church staff are devout in faith, away from being part of the business which is secular.”
Arguments such as these are widely spread in many grassroots churches in China as if talking about money or business has been labeled as some taboo subject.
A few days ago, Pastor D (pseudonym), who has pastoral experience of more than 40 years, shared his thoughts after experiencing many stages of church development and changes in an interview with the Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper.
During the meeting, D mentioned a point worth attention that the Chinese church shouldn’t shy away from talking about money and business, on the contrary, it needed to concentrate on cultivating the mentality of economic self-reliance and commercial awareness of pastoral staff and believers. He particularly encouraged believers to actively create social value in their respective fields, work hard to make money in commercial activities, and "engage in small businesses."
He believed that if the church had no economic self-reliance, nor did it encourage believers to create value in business, in the long term its growth would be like limping. Under such circumstances, often the church and believers would be relatively enclosed and easily marginalized. Over time, they could naturally become a "freak", which was not beneficial to the church’s healthy development and the testimony of faith.
"In the 1960s, due to historical reasons such as the Cultural Revolution, the environment at that time was very difficult. Being persecuted, many male pastoral leaders couldn’t serve. Therefore, from the 1960s to the 1980s, most of the churches in China were led by female believers.” Based on what he witnessed during those historical moments, D talked about the reasons why currently the Chinese church had weak economic and business sense. “At first, this group of female leaders had one feature in common they could live without making money. Under the environment in that time, their husbands and families could support them, for which they didn’t need to go out to earn a living and were still able to work in the church.”
He emphasized that he was not looking for gender-based reasons. In the final analysis, in his view, the environment during that historical period gradually produced such results. Such a deformed development "had destroyed the ecology of the church. The material poverty of the church, and of pastors and church staff themselves became a stumbling block to the healthy development of the church. Ultimately, many churches took a wrong path that should not have been taken and many regrettable things happened."
He continued: "After the 1980s, with China’s reform and opening-up, the policy of freedom of religious belief was implemented again, and the church opened its doors. However, the outdated approach to leading the church continued its influence for 20 years, for which till the year 2000, rural family churches had almost zero growth."
"I think that the church hasn’t made reasonable efforts in three aspects in the past 20 years. First, it has not paid attention to developing the economic awareness and system. Second, it has not created a complete training program about the truth. Third, it has not generated impact on the social level."
At present, he believes that "some problems have become more prominent, such as few male believers in the church, the difficult survival situation faced by the church itself, and its insignificant influence on the society."
He is convinced that the church needs to face these problems head-on, and work in three aspects to achieve breakthroughs. First, the church needs to have a sense of economic development, which does not mean that it should be involved in market activities as a participant, but to help pastoral staff and believers to develop such a mindset so that they actively engage in business activities and become self-reliant financially, rather than just accept being poor or rely on others’ support. Second, churches and believers should also be equipped with truth and participate in training, negating the tendency to corruption and secularization with financial wellbeing. Third, Christians must live out their lives and serve society.
"Being financially well, the church must be managed on the basis of the truth at the same time, otherwise it will end up in corruption. So, material wealth is prepared for ministries. In today's various fields, Christians occupy a very small proportion without much social influence." He encourages the believers of his church to participate in the market operations that create economic value, with their own expertise and talents, do business and bless the church energetically. Meanwhile, pastors and church staff also do not object to business and self-reliance. D himself serves while doing a secular job. Many staff workers around him also have the same mindset. He insists that although it indeed presents much pressure, in the long run, their economic self-reliance and social awareness will be strengthened, which in turn promote healthy growth of the church.
"Having economic strength, we can give back to the society in charitable activities, help more groups in need, and practice the teaching of being the salt and light of this world," D added.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
越穷越属灵”？
“传道人就不该碰钱”？
“信仰只要虔诚就好了，经商这些都是世俗的事情”?
这些类似的句子在国内不少基层教会传播很广，好似谈钱、谈商业等成了一些约定俗成的禁忌地带一般。
日前，基督时报采访了一位有着40多年牧会经验的D牧者，他分享了在经历过许多教会发展阶段和变迁之后沉淀下来的思考。
在与D牧者交流的过程中，他提到一个值得关注和思考的观点：中国教会不能避讳谈钱谈商业，需要重视培养牧者同工和信徒的经济自立思维与商业意识。他特别鼓励信徒在各自的领域里积极的创造社会价值，努力经商赚钱，“可以做点小生意”。
他之所以有这样的思考，是认为若教会没有经济自立思维和鼓励信徒在商业上发挥价值，长久发展下来就如同一条腿走路，教会和信徒也往往比较封闭，很容易只是处于边缘化的位置，久而之久很容易成为“怪胎”一般，不利于教会的健康发展和信仰见证。
“在上个世纪的60年代，因为文化大革命等历史原因，当时的环境比较艰难，很多男性的牧者领袖被迫很难服事，因此，从1960到80年代，当时的中国教会绝大部分是由姊妹信徒来带领的。”他从历史谈起自己所看到的当前中国教会在经济和商业上的思维较弱的原因，“起初这群姊妹带领者的特点是不需要钱也能生活，那时的环境是他们的丈夫和家庭可以养活他们，因此他们不需要外出赚钱，依然可以服事。”
他强调说，他并非是要从性别的角度上找原因，归根结底在他看来是当时的环境导致的现实情况逐渐产生了这样的结果。而这样一个畸形的发展“破坏了教会的生态，教会本身和牧者同工自身物质上的贫穷成为了教会健康发展的拦路虎。最终导致许多教会走了不该走的弯路和许多遗憾的事情发生。”
他分享自己一个角度的思考：“从1980年后改革开放后宗教信仰自由政策再度落实，教堂开门，曾经那过去的陈旧带领教会的思想又继续影响了教会20年，因此到了2000年，农村家庭教会几乎是零增长。”
“而在过去20年里，我认为教会在三个方面有很大的缺失：第一，没有重视发展经济的意识和体系；第二个没有完备的真理培训；第三，也没有多少在社会上的层面见证。”
当下，他认为“教会男性群体少，教会自身生存困难，教会对社会没有影响力等问题更加凸显了。”
他认为教会需要直面这些问题，而要突破需要做三件事：第一教会需要有发展经济的意识，这个意思并不是说教会要以一个主体的身份投入到经济活动中，而是说要帮助牧者同工和信徒有这样的思维，积极投入到商业活动，经济自立，而不是只是陷入到穷的思维中或者只是倚靠他人；在此基础上，第二要有真理的装备和培训，否认教会和信徒有了钱很容易腐败和世俗化；第三则是要活出生命，服务社会。
“教会有了钱，同时要以真理为根基进行管理，不然会来到腐败。所以物质的富足是为了服事而预备的。而在今天各个领域里，基督徒的比例都非常少，没有什么社会影响力。”他鼓励自己教会的信徒积极参与到创造经济价值的市场运营中去，根据各自擅长的领域与才能，积极营商，积极祝福教会；教会牧者同工也是并不排斥经商和自立，他本人是带职服事，身边一起的同工很多也是这样的思维，他认为这样虽然的确压力不小，但长期下来反而大家的经济自立和走向社会的意识更加强，反过来促进了教会的健康发展。
“当有了经济实力，可以在社会公益方面更多回馈这个社会，帮助更多需要帮助的群体，践行成为这个世界的盐和光的教导。”D牧者补充说。
观点|华东一牧者谈：教会当重视培养牧者同工和信徒的经济自立思维与商业意识
“The poorer the church is, the more spiritual it is."
"Pastors should have nothing to do with money."
"It's fine as long as church staff are devout in faith, away from being part of the business which is secular.”
Arguments such as these are widely spread in many grassroots churches in China as if talking about money or business has been labeled as some taboo subject.
A few days ago, Pastor D (pseudonym), who has pastoral experience of more than 40 years, shared his thoughts after experiencing many stages of church development and changes in an interview with the Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper.
During the meeting, D mentioned a point worth attention that the Chinese church shouldn’t shy away from talking about money and business, on the contrary, it needed to concentrate on cultivating the mentality of economic self-reliance and commercial awareness of pastoral staff and believers. He particularly encouraged believers to actively create social value in their respective fields, work hard to make money in commercial activities, and "engage in small businesses."
He believed that if the church had no economic self-reliance, nor did it encourage believers to create value in business, in the long term its growth would be like limping. Under such circumstances, often the church and believers would be relatively enclosed and easily marginalized. Over time, they could naturally become a "freak", which was not beneficial to the church’s healthy development and the testimony of faith.
"In the 1960s, due to historical reasons such as the Cultural Revolution, the environment at that time was very difficult. Being persecuted, many male pastoral leaders couldn’t serve. Therefore, from the 1960s to the 1980s, most of the churches in China were led by female believers.” Based on what he witnessed during those historical moments, D talked about the reasons why currently the Chinese church had weak economic and business sense. “At first, this group of female leaders had one feature in common they could live without making money. Under the environment in that time, their husbands and families could support them, for which they didn’t need to go out to earn a living and were still able to work in the church.”
He emphasized that he was not looking for gender-based reasons. In the final analysis, in his view, the environment during that historical period gradually produced such results. Such a deformed development "had destroyed the ecology of the church. The material poverty of the church, and of pastors and church staff themselves became a stumbling block to the healthy development of the church. Ultimately, many churches took a wrong path that should not have been taken and many regrettable things happened."
He continued: "After the 1980s, with China’s reform and opening-up, the policy of freedom of religious belief was implemented again, and the church opened its doors. However, the outdated approach to leading the church continued its influence for 20 years, for which till the year 2000, rural family churches had almost zero growth."
"I think that the church hasn’t made reasonable efforts in three aspects in the past 20 years. First, it has not paid attention to developing the economic awareness and system. Second, it has not created a complete training program about the truth. Third, it has not generated impact on the social level."
At present, he believes that "some problems have become more prominent, such as few male believers in the church, the difficult survival situation faced by the church itself, and its insignificant influence on the society."
He is convinced that the church needs to face these problems head-on, and work in three aspects to achieve breakthroughs. First, the church needs to have a sense of economic development, which does not mean that it should be involved in market activities as a participant, but to help pastoral staff and believers to develop such a mindset so that they actively engage in business activities and become self-reliant financially, rather than just accept being poor or rely on others’ support. Second, churches and believers should also be equipped with truth and participate in training, negating the tendency to corruption and secularization with financial wellbeing. Third, Christians must live out their lives and serve society.
"Being financially well, the church must be managed on the basis of the truth at the same time, otherwise it will end up in corruption. So, material wealth is prepared for ministries. In today's various fields, Christians occupy a very small proportion without much social influence." He encourages the believers of his church to participate in the market operations that create economic value, with their own expertise and talents, do business and bless the church energetically. Meanwhile, pastors and church staff also do not object to business and self-reliance. D himself serves while doing a secular job. Many staff workers around him also have the same mindset. He insists that although it indeed presents much pressure, in the long run, their economic self-reliance and social awareness will be strengthened, which in turn promote healthy growth of the church.
"Having economic strength, we can give back to the society in charitable activities, help more groups in need, and practice the teaching of being the salt and light of this world," D added.
- Translated by Shuya Wang
Pastor in East China Says Financial Independence Will Benefit the Church in the Long Run
