Those churches that have declined speak silently to today's Chinese churches with a heavy cost—churches must prioritize succession and consider it a specialized and particularly important task, even if it requires a significant amount of time and effort.
Recently, a retired church leader from North China, Reverend Chen, shared his firsthand experiences, showing the looming pastoral succession crisis, especially in the past. He hoped that today's Chinese churches could learn from the negative examples.
Chen stated that the Church in China has suffered greatly in the aspect of church succession. After sharing an example of a once prosperous church in central China turning into a desolate one, he discussed the case of a northern church he experienced.
According to Pastor Chen, in a northern region, around the year 2000, a large church emerged, with hundreds of affiliated churches. The church leader, named John, was a martyr. When John was around two or three years old, his father was killed while spreading the gospel in South China. His mother, a devout Christian, never remarried and raised several children on her own.
When John was 19 years old, he felt a special calling from the Holy Spirit. At that time, China had not yet reformed and opened up to the world, which started in 1978. In nearby villages, John banged drums and promoted the gospel, often getting arrested.
John had no formal education and lacked cultural knowledge. In the local area, there were many small coal mines, and the economic conditions of church believers were relatively good, resulting in the church being wealthy. However, not far away were vast rural mountainous areas with scarce and poor-quality land, where people faced extremely challenging economic conditions.
To develop the church, John used the method of building houses for believers. As long as someone belonged to their church, the church took responsibility for building their houses, sparing believers from doing it themselves. Wealthier church members contributed money, while those provided labor. This approach caused a significant sensation at the time, as people were amazed that houses were being built for them for free. Just by doing this, John's church experienced rapid growth.
Chen had conducted cooperative training sessions with them in the past. However, this church eventually declined due to poor management and a failure in succession work. He remarked, "John simply didn't understand management, and he lacked education. How could he manage such a large church? It's one thing to haphazardly handle a small church when it's still small, but as the church rapidly expanded and developed, the inability to manage became a fatal problem." When a church expands and develops, previously hidden issues suddenly come to light.
John and his church were Charismatics, and God gave John many visions and dreams that were highly accurate in the beginning. Despite his lack of understanding of church management, the church staff, pastors, and believers all trusted him. However, as time went on, his visions and dreams became inaccurate, leading to unrest and problems within the church. What made matters worse was that John had no concept of a successor and didn’t train any successors, despite having many staff workers. One time, due to his old age and illness, he went to his son in another city for medical treatment. Seizing this opportunity, many church workers forcefully pushed for a change of leadership through elections. Many people had long been dissatisfied with John, and he was eventually removed from his position.
When John heard about the incident, he hurried back. However, in the end, he could only retrieve a few churches.
Reverend Chen shared these stories of churches unintentionally heading towards division and decline with the hope that today's Chinese churches will not repeat the same mistakes. The lessons from these past experiences are heavy, and the cost paid was too great.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
那些走向衰亡的教会用沉重的代价向今天的中国教会无声地说话——教会必须要重视传承，把传承作为一项专门而且特别重要的工作来抓，哪怕为此需要付上许多的时间和精力。
日前，一名北方教会的退休教会领袖陈牧师分享了他自己亲眼看见、亲耳听见的经历，给人们展示了错误的教会传承是怎么样的，他希望今天的中国教会能够在这样的传承的负面典型中吸取教训。
陈牧师分享说，在教会传承这个方面，中国教会吃的亏太多也太大了。在继分享了一华中教会从无比风光变为无比凄凉的例子后，他谈到自己所经历的一华北教会的例子。
陈牧师说在北方一个地方，在2000年前后曾经兴起过一所很大的教会，在这所教会下面能有上百间教会。这个教会领袖的名字是约翰，他的父亲是一个殉道者。在他差不多两三岁的样子，父亲去南方传福音的时候被人给打死了。母亲也是一个虔诚的基督徒，一直没有改嫁，把几个孩子养大成人。
在约翰弟兄19岁这一年的时候，圣灵就特别呼召了他。这个时候中国还没有改革开放（1978年），他就到附近村庄里面敲锣打鼓宣传福音，不知道被抓了多少次。
约翰弟兄没有上过学，没有什么文化。在当地有很多的小煤矿，教会信徒的经济条件比较好，使得教会的经济条件也好。但是旁边不太远就是广大的农村山区，土地又少又贫瘠，人们的经济状况非常差。
约翰通过给信徒盖房子的方法来发展教会。只要是他们教会的信徒，教会就会负责给他们盖房子，不需要信徒自己盖。教会其他信徒有钱的出钱，没有钱的出力。这样的做法在当时带来的震动是非常大的，居然有人免费给他们盖房子。仅仅就因为做好了这一件事情，约翰的教会开始了极速的增长。
陈牧师曾经过去给他们做同工培训做过好多次。后来，这所教会也是因为管理不善和传承工作没有做好而走向了衰亡。陈牧师说：“约翰他根本就不懂管理，也没有什么文化，哪能管理那么大的教会啊？教会小的时候胡乱管管也就算了，反正小，随便怎么折腾。但是当教会开始飞速扩张、发展的时候，不会管理这个就成为了一个致命性的问题了。”因为当教会扩张和发展的时候，之前隐藏的一些问题就会一下子暴露出来。
然后约翰和他的教会走的是灵恩派的路线。刚开始的时候上帝会给约翰弟兄很多的异象、异梦，这些都非常准确。虽然不懂教会管理，教会同工、牧者、信徒都服他。但是到了后来，他的异象、异梦就开始变得不准了，这个时候教会里面就开始人心浮动了。很多问题已经开始暗中酝酿、发酵。更加致命的是约翰弟兄对接班人没有任何概念，虽然手底下有很多同工，但是却没有一名接班人。后来有一次因为年纪大了生病了，就跑到外地他儿子那里去看病。很多教会同工抓住这个时机强行推动换届，进行改选。很多人早就对约翰弟兄看不顺眼了，就这样把他给选下去了。
约翰听说教会出了这事情，就赶紧回来了。但是最后也只是拉回来几间教会。
陈牧师说，他之所以分享这些教会不慎走向分裂和衰亡的事情，是希望现在的中国教会不要再重蹈覆辙。因为当年的这些教训已经足够沉重，付出的代价太大了。
案例：管理不善和传承工作没有做好大教会走向衰亡
Those churches that have declined speak silently to today's Chinese churches with a heavy cost—churches must prioritize succession and consider it a specialized and particularly important task, even if it requires a significant amount of time and effort.
Recently, a retired church leader from North China, Reverend Chen, shared his firsthand experiences, showing the looming pastoral succession crisis, especially in the past. He hoped that today's Chinese churches could learn from the negative examples.
Chen stated that the Church in China has suffered greatly in the aspect of church succession. After sharing an example of a once prosperous church in central China turning into a desolate one, he discussed the case of a northern church he experienced.
According to Pastor Chen, in a northern region, around the year 2000, a large church emerged, with hundreds of affiliated churches. The church leader, named John, was a martyr. When John was around two or three years old, his father was killed while spreading the gospel in South China. His mother, a devout Christian, never remarried and raised several children on her own.
When John was 19 years old, he felt a special calling from the Holy Spirit. At that time, China had not yet reformed and opened up to the world, which started in 1978. In nearby villages, John banged drums and promoted the gospel, often getting arrested.
John had no formal education and lacked cultural knowledge. In the local area, there were many small coal mines, and the economic conditions of church believers were relatively good, resulting in the church being wealthy. However, not far away were vast rural mountainous areas with scarce and poor-quality land, where people faced extremely challenging economic conditions.
To develop the church, John used the method of building houses for believers. As long as someone belonged to their church, the church took responsibility for building their houses, sparing believers from doing it themselves. Wealthier church members contributed money, while those provided labor. This approach caused a significant sensation at the time, as people were amazed that houses were being built for them for free. Just by doing this, John's church experienced rapid growth.
Chen had conducted cooperative training sessions with them in the past. However, this church eventually declined due to poor management and a failure in succession work. He remarked, "John simply didn't understand management, and he lacked education. How could he manage such a large church? It's one thing to haphazardly handle a small church when it's still small, but as the church rapidly expanded and developed, the inability to manage became a fatal problem." When a church expands and develops, previously hidden issues suddenly come to light.
John and his church were Charismatics, and God gave John many visions and dreams that were highly accurate in the beginning. Despite his lack of understanding of church management, the church staff, pastors, and believers all trusted him. However, as time went on, his visions and dreams became inaccurate, leading to unrest and problems within the church. What made matters worse was that John had no concept of a successor and didn’t train any successors, despite having many staff workers. One time, due to his old age and illness, he went to his son in another city for medical treatment. Seizing this opportunity, many church workers forcefully pushed for a change of leadership through elections. Many people had long been dissatisfied with John, and he was eventually removed from his position.
When John heard about the incident, he hurried back. However, in the end, he could only retrieve a few churches.
Reverend Chen shared these stories of churches unintentionally heading towards division and decline with the hope that today's Chinese churches will not repeat the same mistakes. The lessons from these past experiences are heavy, and the cost paid was too great.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
Case Study: Poor Management, Failure in Succession Lead to Decline of Megachurch
