“It’s been almost three years, and finally I can see my church visiting group at home again!" exclaimed Brother Zhang, who at the end of February recovered from a serious illness after learning that the visiting group was coming.
Visiting groups have restored their vitality as the pandemic had gradually eased at the beginning of 2023.
R City is located in the south of Zhejiang Province. Since the gospel was introduced earlier, the number of believers is high.
An unnamed pastor of the local CC&TSPM (China Christian Council/National Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, translator’s note) said: “In addition to the regular visits, our local churches have a good tradition, that is, at the end of each year, regardless of the size of the church, it will spontaneously carry out a 'blanket' visit from house to house.”
As for the specifics of the “blanket visit," the pastor told the Gospel Times that during the year-end visit, the local churches will not only visit the registered believers in the region door by door but also visit the Christians who have moved from other places and have not yet found a church.
“Our large-scale visits usually go from street to street. When the visitation ministry workers see that a certain household has a couplet at the door with Christian elements on it or Christian calligraphy and painting on it, they will knock on the doors to introduce the hosts to the church, say comforting words and prayers according to their actual needs, and encourage them to come to the church.”
In addition to in-depth visits to each community and street before the pandemic, church visiting groups often went into local hospitals and nursing homes to see individuals and provide care. During the visits, the co-workers would knock on the door of each ward to ask whether the patients were Christians and needed prayers. Once they found a soul in need of help, they would offer prayers for them on the spot and gather their contact details to do follow-ups.
It was through these meticulous “blanket” visits that more and more potential faith seekers and Christians entered the local churches.
“An elderly sister once thanked me for praying for her in a hospital ward 30 years ago. After so many years, I can’t remember when it was, but she does.” The pastor smiled and recalled, “It can be seen how much people cherish God's love and grace when they are suffering from illness.”
In addition to the coverage breadth, the local churches have achieved multi-layer coverage in the depth of their visits.
The pastor explained that for new seekers, the visiting group would be divided into four batches that take turns doing regular visiting. A good job of caring for the whole person includes Bible reading, prayer, basic training in the faith, and daily life care. When the seekers have established the habit of reading, praying, and gathering and have acquired a clear understanding of sin and salvation, the visiting group would continue to serve the next group of seekers in the order of the cycles.
“In our area, the purpose of the churches to lead believers is to raise them when they are born,” concluded the pastor. “And good visits are an important channel for us to raise believers’ lives.”
Compared to the visitation ministry in southern Zhejiang, which is rooted in the gospel and carries on the local spirit, the B church in northern Jiangsu doesn't have as many visits, but it has a more "futuristic" sense.
Before 2010, in an era when Internet technology was hotly debated as to whether it was a double-edged sword, Pastor C seized the trend and decided to lead the church into the construction of a “digital church” and unified the information of registered believers into an information data platform.
“If a believer doesn’t attend in-person services for several weeks, we can find the believer’s address from the database and combine the intelligent visiting system to send visiting groups nearby to visit. The groups will give comforting messages and update the situation of the believer,” Pastor C explained.
Y Church in the north of China relies on a well-established visiting system even though they do not have the “boldness” of knocking on doors or the support of information technology.
More than ten years ago, Y Church, as the central church of the city, started the reform of its visiting system while exploring the pastoral system. The church began to rely on a system of “central church, parish, and gathering point” to gradually establish a progressive and refined visiting model. With years of experience, the church of today has developed a clear set of "three-level visit" mechanisms.
Elder Z, who has served in the church for nearly 30 years, has witnessed the mechanism from its beginning to its gradual improvement. At present, he is also the co-worker responsible for the visiting group for the disabled. He introduced, “The visiting group of the central church has the widest coverage, mainly for believers who have suffered major events, such as sudden changes and severe illness; the visiting groups in the parish and meeting places do routine visits in their own areas.
In addition to the three-level visiting groups mentioned above, the church also has a "visiting group" made up of pastors. This group mostly visits and helps retired pastors, outstanding church members, and older church members. However, if the church or pastors need to be there because of special circumstances, the grass-roots fellowship or meeting point can give the church feedback in the form of layered reports and then do the visit.
“Because of the perfect visiting mechanism, all our visiting groups can care for the believers all year round like a sieve. If the fellowship visiting group can’t take care of it, the visiting group at the meeting point can quickly make up for it without missing any brothers and sisters. For believers with special needs, groups, parishes, churches, and even pastors will come to visit and let them feel the care and love of the church in all aspects,” Elder Z said.
In Elder Z’s view, visiting can not only help the lost souls, who are weak in the faith, return to the Lord’s arms as soon as possible but also help the church effectively resist the infiltration and invasion of heresy. “Especially when heresy is so rampant in our local area, a well-established visit system can also help our church find out the situation of heresy infiltration more effectively and protect and retrieve believers accordingly.”
Different from the visiting system of the churches in the above three places, in the special period when the pandemic was raging, S Church over the Yellow River and Huaihe River Basins took a different approach, starting from the strengths of laymen and encouraging everyone to become a “community” for mutual visits, care, and encouragement.
As a small church of only over 300, most of whom are middle-aged and elderly, the pastoral and visiting mode that S Church had been doing for a long time was somewhat “quite satisfying”. However, due to the pandemic, the church experienced severe trials and saw the direction for future ministry.
Located at the border of other provinces, during the pandemic period, the area where S Church is was often shaken by the pandemic. It had a considerable impact on the gathering order of local churches. “The church’s in-person meetings were intermittent and basically not open,” a young co-worker at the local church said.
It was difficult to have on-the-spot gatherings, and so was visiting. Pastor W, who is in charge of the church, said that during the pandemic, most of the pastors were locked up at home, and it was difficult to travel. ”It was a problem for individuals to travel around, let alone organize groups to visit.”
During the special period, the church began to change various ideas to ensure the development of the visitation ministry. On the one hand, the church announced the contact information of all pastors and visiting colleagues in the group and cared for the believers by phone or online. On the other hand, the church also began to promote “all-staff care” and encouraged every layperson to participate in the visit.
“Some elderly believers don’t join our followers because they don’t have mobile phones or for other reasons, so we encourage every believer to pay more attention to their brothers and sisters who know them and live nearby. By visiting nearby, we can disseminate more of our faith and pray for each other. If there are spiritual problems or needs that are really difficult to answer, we will give feedback to our pastors, and we will help believers solve their problems around the clock,” Pastor W explained.
During the Spring Festival in 2023, nearly 80% of the believers in the church returned to the church smoothly after the on-the-spot gathering was resumed. Even some older Christians who were not as up-to-date on news were brought back to the church by word of mouth.
“However, it is undeniable that at this stage, there are indeed many limitations and shortcomings in the form of an 'all-staff visit,' which can only be regarded as an emergency measure under the pandemic situation and is doomed to last for a long time.”
In his view, although the form of full-time visits has brought into play the initiative of every layman, it has also strengthened the love union between believers during the difficult period of the pandemic. However, due to the limited spiritual level of laymen themselves, it is really difficult to bring about real growth and the creation of life by simply communicating with each other to pray.
Through the efforts of the ministry in this special period, Pastor W and his colleagues in the team realized the necessity and urgency of improving the spiritual quality of laymen. In the new year, the church plans to further strengthen the frequency and quality of weekly gatherings and volunteer training.
- Translated by Charlie Li
“快三年了，终于能在家里再见到教会的探访组了！”2月底的某日，大病初愈的老张弟兄在得知教会牧长探访组要来家里看望的消息之后，说道。
2023年初，随着疫情管控的放开，各地教会的实地探访事工明显再度恢复了以往的活力。
R市位于浙南地区，由于福音传入较早，且归信人数较多。
当地两会的一位牧师说：“除了平时的探访以外，我们当地教会还有一个好传统，就是在每年年底，不论大小堂点都会自发开展一次挨家挨户的‘地毯式’探访。”
对于“地毯式探访”的具体开展方式，牧师告诉福音时报，每逢年终大探访期间，当地教会除了会对区域内的本堂登记信徒进行逐门逐户的探访慰问以外，还额外会对外地搬迁来，尚未走进教会的非本堂所属基督徒开展探访工作。
“我们的大探访一般是从街头走到街尾，但凡是家门口贴了基督教元素的对联或者张贴字画的，探访同工都会敲门进去向他们介绍教堂的情况，结合他们实际需求送上安慰与代祷，并鼓励他们走进教堂。”
除了深入每个小区、街道进行探访，疫情之前，教会探访组甚至还常常走进当地的医院、敬老院开展逐人探访关怀。探访中，同工们会以“扫楼”的形式，挨个敲门进入每个病房，询问是否有基督徒、是否需要帮助代祷等问题，一旦找到有需求的灵魂，会就地为他们献上代祷，并做好信息登记，以便后续跟进牧养。
正是借着教会如此细致的“地毯式”探访，在当地，越来越多潜在的慕道友以及基督徒走进了教堂。
“我之前在教会还遇见过一位老姊妹向我致谢，感谢30年前在病房里为她祷告。可是我探访了那么多年，早就记不清具体是哪一次了，她居然还能记得清楚。”牧师笑着向笔者回忆道。“可见，当人在病痛苦难当中时，对于神的爱和恩典是多么珍惜。”
除了在广度上开展“地毯式”覆盖之外，在探访关怀的深度上，当地教会也做到了犹如多层地毯式的覆盖。
牧师解释称，对于刚加入教会的慕道友，教会探访组会分成四大批次，定期轮流前往家里，从读经操练、祷告操练、基本道栽培以及日常生活照顾方面做好全人的关怀。当这位慕道友建立起读经、祷告、聚会的生命基准，并且对罪、救恩有明确认识后，探访组又会继续按照周期次序继续服侍下一位慕道友。
“在我们当地，教会带领信徒的宗旨就是‘生下来就要养大’，’”牧师总结，“而做好探访，就是我们养育信徒生命的重要渠道。”
相较于根植于福音根基，传承发扬地方精神的浙南教会，位于苏北地区的B教会虽然在探访形式上相对有所收敛，但是其却更多体现出了充满“未来感”的一面。
2010年之前，在互联网技术方兴未艾，社会上对于“互联网是否是双刃剑”的争论尚且喋喋不休的时代，身为教堂负责牧者的C牧师却捕捉到了这一未来的时代潮流，决心带领教堂投身“数字化教会”建设，将注册登记信徒的信息统一纳入了信息化数据平台。
“如果某位信徒连续几周没有参加实地聚会的话，我们可以从后台了解信徒的住址情况，并联合智能探访系统，就近派遣探访组同工开展探望慰问，跟进信徒情况。”C牧师介绍道。
虽没有挨门挨户敲门探访的“闯劲”，也没有信息技术的加持，但是华北的Y教会却依靠着成熟完备的探访制度。
十几年前，作为地市中心堂的Y教堂在开展牧区制探索的同时，一并启动了探访制度的改革。教会开始依托“中心堂—牧区—聚会点”的体系逐步确立层层递进的精细化探访模式。经过多年的总结归纳，现如今，Y教会已经形成了一套体系明确的“三级探访”机制。
已在教会侍奉了近30年的Z长老是“三级探访”机制从落地到逐步完善的亲历者与见证者，目前，他还是教会残障团契探访组的负责同工。他介绍道：中心堂探访组的覆盖范围最广，主要面向整个地市范围内，遭遇了重大事件如突遭变故、罹患重症的信徒开展探访服侍；而牧区、团契及聚会点的探访组则是在本区域内做好日常常规的探访。
除上述的三级探访组以外，教会还有由各位牧长组成的“牧者探访组”，主要是面向教会内退休牧者同工、卓越贡献信徒以及高龄信徒开展不定期的探访服侍。而如遇到特殊情况需要教会或牧者参与探访的情况，基层团契或聚会点可通过逐层上报的形式向教会反馈，进而开展探访活动。
“由于探访机制完善，我们所有的探访组可以一年到头如同‘过筛子’一样去对信徒送上关怀，团契探访组照顾不到的，聚会点探访组则可以迅速补上，不会遗漏下任何一个弟兄姊妹。而对于有特殊探访需要的信徒，小组、牧区、教会甚至牧长都会来探访一遍，让他们感受到教会全方面的关怀与爱。”Z长老说。
在Z长老看来，探访不仅能够帮助信心软弱的迷羊早日回归主怀，更有助于帮助教会高效的抵御异端邪说的渗透入侵。“尤其是我们当地异端邪说如此猖獗的情况下，体系成熟完善的探访也能帮助我们教会更有效的摸清异端渗透的情况，并因情况制宜地做好羊群的保护与寻回。”
与上面三地教会基于探访制度不同，在疫情肆虐的特殊时期中，位于黄淮地区的S教会则另辟蹊径，从平信徒的力量着手，鼓励大家成为彼此探访，相互关怀勉励的“共同体”。
作为一个人数仅三百有余，且中老年居多的小型教会，S教会长期以来推行的牧养及探访模式一直都有些“中规中矩”，但是，因着疫情的到来，教会在经历严峻考验的同时，也看到了未来牧养的方向与出路。
由于地处交界，疫情期间，S教会所在的地区先后经历了数次疫情冲击，也对于当地教会的聚会秩序造成了相当的影响。“教会实地聚会断断续续，基本上没怎么开放。”当地教堂的一位年轻同工说。
实地聚会难以开展，探访工作同样举步维艰。教堂的负责牧者W牧师告知，疫情期间，教会的牧者同工大多都被封控在家，难以出行，“个人出行遛弯都成问题，更别提组织集体探访了。”
在特殊时期，教会开始改换多种思路以保障探访事工开展，一方面，教会将所有牧者和探访同工的联络方式公布在信徒群中，通过电话或网络形式做好信徒关怀，另一方面，教会也开始推动“全员关怀”活动，倡导每一位平信徒参与探访。
“有些老年信徒因为没有手机或其他原因没有加入我们的信徒群，所以我们鼓励每一位信徒多多留心自己所认识的，且住在附近的弟兄姊妹的情况，借着就近探访，多多开展信仰交通，彼此相互代祷，如果有实在难以解答的灵性问题或需要，再向我们牧者来反馈，我们则会全天候帮助信徒们解决他们的难题。”W牧师解释道。
2023年春节期间，在恢复实地聚会之后，教会近八成信徒都顺利回归了教会，即便是一些获取消息相对滞后的老年信徒，也在信徒们的口口相传中返回了教会。
“不过无可否认的是，现阶段，‘全员探访’的形式确实存在许多局限与不足，只能算是疫情之下应急之策，注定长久不了。”
在他看来，尽管全员探访形式发挥了每一位平信徒的主动性，也着实在疫情艰难时期加强了肢体之间爱的联合。但是，由于平信徒本身灵命水平有限，仅靠简单的彼此交通代祷，实在是难以带来生命真正的成长造就。
借着此次特殊时期在探访事工的尝试，W牧师与班子同工共同认识到了提升平信徒灵命素质的必要性与紧迫性。新的一年，教会计划进一步加强周间聚会及义工培训的频率与质量。
【特稿】如何让教会探访工作实处见效？这些教会有妙招
“It’s been almost three years, and finally I can see my church visiting group at home again!" exclaimed Brother Zhang, who at the end of February recovered from a serious illness after learning that the visiting group was coming.
Visiting groups have restored their vitality as the pandemic had gradually eased at the beginning of 2023.
R City is located in the south of Zhejiang Province. Since the gospel was introduced earlier, the number of believers is high.
An unnamed pastor of the local CC&TSPM (China Christian Council/National Committee of Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, translator’s note) said: “In addition to the regular visits, our local churches have a good tradition, that is, at the end of each year, regardless of the size of the church, it will spontaneously carry out a 'blanket' visit from house to house.”
As for the specifics of the “blanket visit," the pastor told the Gospel Times that during the year-end visit, the local churches will not only visit the registered believers in the region door by door but also visit the Christians who have moved from other places and have not yet found a church.
“Our large-scale visits usually go from street to street. When the visitation ministry workers see that a certain household has a couplet at the door with Christian elements on it or Christian calligraphy and painting on it, they will knock on the doors to introduce the hosts to the church, say comforting words and prayers according to their actual needs, and encourage them to come to the church.”
In addition to in-depth visits to each community and street before the pandemic, church visiting groups often went into local hospitals and nursing homes to see individuals and provide care. During the visits, the co-workers would knock on the door of each ward to ask whether the patients were Christians and needed prayers. Once they found a soul in need of help, they would offer prayers for them on the spot and gather their contact details to do follow-ups.
It was through these meticulous “blanket” visits that more and more potential faith seekers and Christians entered the local churches.
“An elderly sister once thanked me for praying for her in a hospital ward 30 years ago. After so many years, I can’t remember when it was, but she does.” The pastor smiled and recalled, “It can be seen how much people cherish God's love and grace when they are suffering from illness.”
In addition to the coverage breadth, the local churches have achieved multi-layer coverage in the depth of their visits.
The pastor explained that for new seekers, the visiting group would be divided into four batches that take turns doing regular visiting. A good job of caring for the whole person includes Bible reading, prayer, basic training in the faith, and daily life care. When the seekers have established the habit of reading, praying, and gathering and have acquired a clear understanding of sin and salvation, the visiting group would continue to serve the next group of seekers in the order of the cycles.
“In our area, the purpose of the churches to lead believers is to raise them when they are born,” concluded the pastor. “And good visits are an important channel for us to raise believers’ lives.”
Compared to the visitation ministry in southern Zhejiang, which is rooted in the gospel and carries on the local spirit, the B church in northern Jiangsu doesn't have as many visits, but it has a more "futuristic" sense.
Before 2010, in an era when Internet technology was hotly debated as to whether it was a double-edged sword, Pastor C seized the trend and decided to lead the church into the construction of a “digital church” and unified the information of registered believers into an information data platform.
“If a believer doesn’t attend in-person services for several weeks, we can find the believer’s address from the database and combine the intelligent visiting system to send visiting groups nearby to visit. The groups will give comforting messages and update the situation of the believer,” Pastor C explained.
Y Church in the north of China relies on a well-established visiting system even though they do not have the “boldness” of knocking on doors or the support of information technology.
More than ten years ago, Y Church, as the central church of the city, started the reform of its visiting system while exploring the pastoral system. The church began to rely on a system of “central church, parish, and gathering point” to gradually establish a progressive and refined visiting model. With years of experience, the church of today has developed a clear set of "three-level visit" mechanisms.
Elder Z, who has served in the church for nearly 30 years, has witnessed the mechanism from its beginning to its gradual improvement. At present, he is also the co-worker responsible for the visiting group for the disabled. He introduced, “The visiting group of the central church has the widest coverage, mainly for believers who have suffered major events, such as sudden changes and severe illness; the visiting groups in the parish and meeting places do routine visits in their own areas.
In addition to the three-level visiting groups mentioned above, the church also has a "visiting group" made up of pastors. This group mostly visits and helps retired pastors, outstanding church members, and older church members. However, if the church or pastors need to be there because of special circumstances, the grass-roots fellowship or meeting point can give the church feedback in the form of layered reports and then do the visit.
“Because of the perfect visiting mechanism, all our visiting groups can care for the believers all year round like a sieve. If the fellowship visiting group can’t take care of it, the visiting group at the meeting point can quickly make up for it without missing any brothers and sisters. For believers with special needs, groups, parishes, churches, and even pastors will come to visit and let them feel the care and love of the church in all aspects,” Elder Z said.
In Elder Z’s view, visiting can not only help the lost souls, who are weak in the faith, return to the Lord’s arms as soon as possible but also help the church effectively resist the infiltration and invasion of heresy. “Especially when heresy is so rampant in our local area, a well-established visit system can also help our church find out the situation of heresy infiltration more effectively and protect and retrieve believers accordingly.”
Different from the visiting system of the churches in the above three places, in the special period when the pandemic was raging, S Church over the Yellow River and Huaihe River Basins took a different approach, starting from the strengths of laymen and encouraging everyone to become a “community” for mutual visits, care, and encouragement.
As a small church of only over 300, most of whom are middle-aged and elderly, the pastoral and visiting mode that S Church had been doing for a long time was somewhat “quite satisfying”. However, due to the pandemic, the church experienced severe trials and saw the direction for future ministry.
Located at the border of other provinces, during the pandemic period, the area where S Church is was often shaken by the pandemic. It had a considerable impact on the gathering order of local churches. “The church’s in-person meetings were intermittent and basically not open,” a young co-worker at the local church said.
It was difficult to have on-the-spot gatherings, and so was visiting. Pastor W, who is in charge of the church, said that during the pandemic, most of the pastors were locked up at home, and it was difficult to travel. ”It was a problem for individuals to travel around, let alone organize groups to visit.”
During the special period, the church began to change various ideas to ensure the development of the visitation ministry. On the one hand, the church announced the contact information of all pastors and visiting colleagues in the group and cared for the believers by phone or online. On the other hand, the church also began to promote “all-staff care” and encouraged every layperson to participate in the visit.
“Some elderly believers don’t join our followers because they don’t have mobile phones or for other reasons, so we encourage every believer to pay more attention to their brothers and sisters who know them and live nearby. By visiting nearby, we can disseminate more of our faith and pray for each other. If there are spiritual problems or needs that are really difficult to answer, we will give feedback to our pastors, and we will help believers solve their problems around the clock,” Pastor W explained.
During the Spring Festival in 2023, nearly 80% of the believers in the church returned to the church smoothly after the on-the-spot gathering was resumed. Even some older Christians who were not as up-to-date on news were brought back to the church by word of mouth.
“However, it is undeniable that at this stage, there are indeed many limitations and shortcomings in the form of an 'all-staff visit,' which can only be regarded as an emergency measure under the pandemic situation and is doomed to last for a long time.”
In his view, although the form of full-time visits has brought into play the initiative of every layman, it has also strengthened the love union between believers during the difficult period of the pandemic. However, due to the limited spiritual level of laymen themselves, it is really difficult to bring about real growth and the creation of life by simply communicating with each other to pray.
Through the efforts of the ministry in this special period, Pastor W and his colleagues in the team realized the necessity and urgency of improving the spiritual quality of laymen. In the new year, the church plans to further strengthen the frequency and quality of weekly gatherings and volunteer training.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Feature: China's Visitation Ministries' New Tries
