The rural and urban churches encountered two different situations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the anxiety crisis in the urban church, the rural church has demonstrated its unique resilience.
Xiao Chen is a rural preacher and preaches in his own village. This church, according to him, has been around for years. He can't remember when the church started meeting, but believers in their 60s in the village said they started meeting soon after the opening up of the country.
After graduating from junior high school and working at home as a farmer for a few years, Chen joined the church thanks to the influence of his grandmother. Since he had higher educational qualifications, he was recommended by the church to study theology at an underground seminary for two years. After his graduation, he began to serve. He eventually became the main pastor of his church after the head pastor moved to the city to help his daughter with the children.
The congregation only had roughly 30 members, usually middle-aged and elderly women who were mostly at home looking after their grandchildren, tending to their fields, and feeding the livestock. The congregation was fairly stable and although the offerings were small, they were sufficient to cover the church’s daily expenses.
Chen's salary from the church was not fixed because his family also had fields. If there were many offerings during the Spring Festival, he would receive a little more, and if the offerings were small, he would get less. Sometimes, when the church was closed for a month during the busy farming season, there was no income whatever and he would receive no salary. But the salary amount did not affect him much.
With the start of the epidemic in 2020, social interaction restrictions in rural areas also begun to tighten. Gatherings in person were not allowed. On-line gatherings would have been impossible because most believers did not know how to use smartphones. They only used old button phones to receive calls from their children.
Due to the lockdown, everyone was confined to their homes and could only stay indoors. Besides telling everyone to stay home, read the Bible and pray, they sometimes could not hold any meetings for a month or two. When the storm passed and they were able to meet again, everyone returned. When the number of people who came was counted, they were virtually complete except for a grandchild too sick to attend.
The meetings took place at the home of a believer who happened to have a spare room. There was no rent to be paid, and tea was provided as well as an electric vehicle charging station. Brother Chen said that if the rent had to be paid, the church would have dispersed.
Three years into the pandemic, this was almost the norm. Sometimes they gathered, other times they did not. Of course, this also became the norm for their church, taking a holiday during the farming season for a month at a time and not meeting until the farming season was over. After each holiday, the numbers still did not decrease.
Chen's seminary classmate, however, was not so lucky. As soon as he graduated, he moved to a city to lead a campus fellowship. With the church supporting the rent and salary, things were going fine before the pandemic. The couple's church salary would cover the basic living expenses. But after the pandemic started, their meetings stopped completely. The closure of the school prevented the students from going out and the fellowship from holding meetings.
In the beginning, the fellowship's rent and salaries were paid on time, but later in 2021, it was delayed for a long time and during 2020 it became impossible to pay them properly. They had to close the fellowship and surrender their house, so they did not even have a place to live. Because of these difficulties, the lack of skills, or suitable jobs, the couple had to return to their hometown and wait for the situation to improve before returning to serve in the church.
The cost of running urban churches is relatively high, with high rents, salaries, and other running costs, and are therefore more sensitive to the economic climate. Therefore, the status of urban churches is bound to be affected by the economic environment. Rural churches, which are more mobile because of their low running costs, rent, and pastors’ salaries, are less affected by the economic climate. In addition, rural preachers rarely work full-time and are less dependent on the church, so pastoral work there tends to be more stable.
In terms of enthusiasm for the faith, gatherings were stopped during the lockdown period, but when the lockdown ended, believers in the rural areas would immediately return to church gatherings. The pandemic had little effect on them, rather the Christian faith provided them with a conviction to overcome the virus. Chen says that asking God to lead the way to an early eradication of the virus became a daily prayer.
As for cities, once the church stops meeting, the enthusiasm of believers may decline. Once meetings are suspended for a longer period, enthusiasm may disappear leading to a loss of believers. It is a tradition for rural churches to have a farming holiday during the farming season, so even though they stopped meeting during the pandemic, there was no loss of believers.
In between, of course, we should also see that the different circumstances in the city and the countryside create different expectations of how to approach the church. For middle-aged and elderly women who are busy farming and raising children, going to church meetings may be one of the few breaks they get after a busy week in the countryside. During the meetings, they are able to exchange family memories with friends, so they rely on these meetings.
For urban churches, it may be the other way around, as the cities are rich in entertainment and have many more churches. Compared to rural areas, work schedules are relatively stable and they have more leisure time than rural believers. All of this is disruptive to the enthusiasm of the believers to meet, so urban churches have a strong dependence on the believers and they themselves have to put in the necessary effort to retain other members.
As a result, we have seen that rural churches show more resilience and fortitude during the three-year period of the pandemic. Reducing church costs and the financial dependence of pastors on the church may therefore be key factors for increasing a church’s resilience.
- Translated by Nonye Nancy
疫情之下的教会，农村和城市呈现两种不同的局面。相较于城市教会的焦虑危机，农村教会反而表现了她特有的韧性。
小陈是个农村传道人。他就在自己的村子做传道人。这个教会按照他的说法，已经有些年头了。他已经记不得这个教会什么时候开始聚会，反正村里的六十几岁的老信徒也都说在改革开放之后不知道哪一年就开始了聚会。
小陈初中毕业，在家务农几年，后来在奶奶的带领下，加入教会，因为他在教会学历较高，因此便被教会推荐到地下神学院学习两年神学。毕业回来之后，他便开始参与侍奉。后来因为原来的传道人，到城里帮助女儿看小孩，他便成为这个教会的主要传道。
教会信徒不多，大概三十几个人，以中老年妇女居多，他们大多在家照顾孙辈，打理田产，喂养牲畜等。聚会还算稳定，虽然奉献不多，但是足以应付教会日常开支。
小陈因为家里也有田地，因此他从教会拿的工资并不固定。春节时期奉献多的话，就多拿一点，奉献少的话就少拿一点，有时候农忙时期教会放假一个月，可能就没有收入，他也就没有工资。但是工资多少对他影响不大。
2020年疫情开始，农村的社交也开始收紧，聚会是不能了，即使想开展线上聚会也是不能，因为大部分信徒不会用智能手机。他们只会使用老年机，接打儿女的电话。
因此封控在家，只能就这么呆着，除了告诉大家在家坚持读经祷告之外，有时候一两个月也开展不了一次聚会。好不容易风头过去了，能聚会了，大家自然回来。清点人数，除了谁家孙子生病不能来，基本全都来了。
聚会的地点在一个信徒的家里，他家刚好有闲置的房屋。不用房租，还提供茶水以及电车充电。陈弟兄说，如果要交房租的话，这个教会恐怕就散了。
疫情三年，这几乎是常态。有时候聚，有时候不聚。当然这对于他们教会来说，也是常态 ，农忙的时候放假，一放就是一个月，直到农忙结束，才开始聚会。每次假期过后，人数依然不见减少。
而小陈的神学院同学，却没有这么幸运。他同学一毕业就到了一个城市做大学生团契。有教会支持房租和工资，疫情之前还算可以。夫妻两个的教会工资可以供得上基本生活开支。但是疫情开始之后，他们的聚会就完全停止。因为学校的封闭让学生无法出门，团契也无法开展工作。
开始的时候，团契的房租和工资还能按时发放，到了后来2021年，开始拖很长时间才能到位。而到了今年，则无法正常发放了。他们不得关闭了团契，退了房子，这样他们连住的地方也没有。因为生活所迫，打工又没有技术，也没有合适的工作岗位，他们只能回到老家带着。等待情况好转，再到教会侍奉。
城市教会成本相对较高，房租、工资以及其他运行成本支出大，因此对经济大环境较为敏感，因此城市教会的状态也必然受到经济环境的影响。而农村教会则不同，因为运行成本很低，房租、传道人工资以及其它运行成本，比较机动，因此经济大环境对她影响不大。此外，传道人很少全职，对教会依赖小，这样传道人往往比较稳定。
在信仰热情上看，封控期间停止聚会，但是封控结束，农村信徒又会马上回到教会聚会。疫情对他们没什么影响，反而是基督教信仰为他们提供了一种战胜病毒的信念。小陈说求上帝带领让病毒早日消灭，成为祷告的日常内容。
而对于城市来说，一旦教会停止聚会，信徒的聚会热情可能就会低落，这种停止聚会时间一旦拖得久了，热情可能就会消失，这样会造成信徒流失。农村教会在农忙时期有农忙假，中间的停止聚会空档是一种传统，因此疫情期间即使停止聚会，仍然没有信徒流失的现象发生。
当然，在这两者之间我们也应该看到，城市与农村不同的环境，也造就了他们对待教会的不同期待。农村本来娱乐项目就少，对于忙碌着种田养殖带孩子的中老年妇女来说，可能到教会聚会是他们忙碌一个星期以后不多的休息机会。聚会期间他们还能和朋友交流家常，因此他们对于聚会反而是一种依赖。
而对于城市教会，可能相反，城市的娱乐内容丰富，教会也多，相较于农村，工作作息时间相对稳定，他们有多余农村信徒的闲暇时间，这些闲暇可能会有比农村更丰富的安排。这些对于信徒聚会热情都有干扰，因此教会反而对信徒产生一种依赖，他们要付出必要的精力来留住信徒。
因此，我们看到，在疫情三年这段时间内，农村教会表现了更加顽强和坚韧的生命力。因此减少教会成本支出，减少传道人对教会的经济依赖，这可能是增加教会韧性的关键因素。
观察| 韧性——疫情之下农村教会的关键特点
The rural and urban churches encountered two different situations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to the anxiety crisis in the urban church, the rural church has demonstrated its unique resilience.
Xiao Chen is a rural preacher and preaches in his own village. This church, according to him, has been around for years. He can't remember when the church started meeting, but believers in their 60s in the village said they started meeting soon after the opening up of the country.
After graduating from junior high school and working at home as a farmer for a few years, Chen joined the church thanks to the influence of his grandmother. Since he had higher educational qualifications, he was recommended by the church to study theology at an underground seminary for two years. After his graduation, he began to serve. He eventually became the main pastor of his church after the head pastor moved to the city to help his daughter with the children.
The congregation only had roughly 30 members, usually middle-aged and elderly women who were mostly at home looking after their grandchildren, tending to their fields, and feeding the livestock. The congregation was fairly stable and although the offerings were small, they were sufficient to cover the church’s daily expenses.
Chen's salary from the church was not fixed because his family also had fields. If there were many offerings during the Spring Festival, he would receive a little more, and if the offerings were small, he would get less. Sometimes, when the church was closed for a month during the busy farming season, there was no income whatever and he would receive no salary. But the salary amount did not affect him much.
With the start of the epidemic in 2020, social interaction restrictions in rural areas also begun to tighten. Gatherings in person were not allowed. On-line gatherings would have been impossible because most believers did not know how to use smartphones. They only used old button phones to receive calls from their children.
Due to the lockdown, everyone was confined to their homes and could only stay indoors. Besides telling everyone to stay home, read the Bible and pray, they sometimes could not hold any meetings for a month or two. When the storm passed and they were able to meet again, everyone returned. When the number of people who came was counted, they were virtually complete except for a grandchild too sick to attend.
The meetings took place at the home of a believer who happened to have a spare room. There was no rent to be paid, and tea was provided as well as an electric vehicle charging station. Brother Chen said that if the rent had to be paid, the church would have dispersed.
Three years into the pandemic, this was almost the norm. Sometimes they gathered, other times they did not. Of course, this also became the norm for their church, taking a holiday during the farming season for a month at a time and not meeting until the farming season was over. After each holiday, the numbers still did not decrease.
Chen's seminary classmate, however, was not so lucky. As soon as he graduated, he moved to a city to lead a campus fellowship. With the church supporting the rent and salary, things were going fine before the pandemic. The couple's church salary would cover the basic living expenses. But after the pandemic started, their meetings stopped completely. The closure of the school prevented the students from going out and the fellowship from holding meetings.
In the beginning, the fellowship's rent and salaries were paid on time, but later in 2021, it was delayed for a long time and during 2020 it became impossible to pay them properly. They had to close the fellowship and surrender their house, so they did not even have a place to live. Because of these difficulties, the lack of skills, or suitable jobs, the couple had to return to their hometown and wait for the situation to improve before returning to serve in the church.
The cost of running urban churches is relatively high, with high rents, salaries, and other running costs, and are therefore more sensitive to the economic climate. Therefore, the status of urban churches is bound to be affected by the economic environment. Rural churches, which are more mobile because of their low running costs, rent, and pastors’ salaries, are less affected by the economic climate. In addition, rural preachers rarely work full-time and are less dependent on the church, so pastoral work there tends to be more stable.
In terms of enthusiasm for the faith, gatherings were stopped during the lockdown period, but when the lockdown ended, believers in the rural areas would immediately return to church gatherings. The pandemic had little effect on them, rather the Christian faith provided them with a conviction to overcome the virus. Chen says that asking God to lead the way to an early eradication of the virus became a daily prayer.
As for cities, once the church stops meeting, the enthusiasm of believers may decline. Once meetings are suspended for a longer period, enthusiasm may disappear leading to a loss of believers. It is a tradition for rural churches to have a farming holiday during the farming season, so even though they stopped meeting during the pandemic, there was no loss of believers.
In between, of course, we should also see that the different circumstances in the city and the countryside create different expectations of how to approach the church. For middle-aged and elderly women who are busy farming and raising children, going to church meetings may be one of the few breaks they get after a busy week in the countryside. During the meetings, they are able to exchange family memories with friends, so they rely on these meetings.
For urban churches, it may be the other way around, as the cities are rich in entertainment and have many more churches. Compared to rural areas, work schedules are relatively stable and they have more leisure time than rural believers. All of this is disruptive to the enthusiasm of the believers to meet, so urban churches have a strong dependence on the believers and they themselves have to put in the necessary effort to retain other members.
As a result, we have seen that rural churches show more resilience and fortitude during the three-year period of the pandemic. Reducing church costs and the financial dependence of pastors on the church may therefore be key factors for increasing a church’s resilience.
- Translated by Nonye Nancy
Resilience, a Feature of Rural Church During Pandemic
