As Li Keqiang, premier of the China State Council, stated at the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, “We will use the Internet Plus model to promote integrated development of online and offline businesses in more fields and create new forms and models of business, thus providing more convenient and satisfying services for consumers.”
This was an important message that showed that the economic era of the Internet had already come, but many of our Christian thoughts have fallen behind the times.
Nowadays, in addition to e-commerce platforms, some platforms that focused on culture and entertainment have already begun to integrate with people's lives. Establishing an Internet community to attract people through entertainment, they provide some convenient services in life for everyone to get rich benefits from the platform.
Assuming that Christianity also had a platform like Quick Worker (Kuaishou) or Tik Tok (Douyin), would it enrich the lives of Christians? If there was community marketing, could it benefit the development of Christian enterprises? If low-cost and high-quality services were provided, would they attract more Gentiles into the Christian community? Through providing services on these platforms, they could charge a certain fee which would be used to help churches in backward areas, provide pastors with insurance and solve their worries for the future. There would be fewer poor pastors, how great is this!
A concept that had always influenced the development of Christianity, was that the church could engage in commercial services. Because the Lord Jesus used a whip to drive the merchants out of the temple, people believed that God did not allow the church to do business. In fact, the Bible only mentioned expelling such activities from the temple, just like the church today. God did not allow these things to happen in the sanctuary, as they were incompatible with worship. He had not said that Christians could not do these outside of the church. There could be no business in the church, but would it not be good for Christians to congregate outside the church?
If the church, composed of the faithful, was not allowed to do business, was it same for individual Christians? What did they eat and drink? How did they survive?
We should be free to generate income to give out more love. We cannot simply say it is worldly to earn money, as Abraham was also as rich as Croesus.
The overall economic improvement of the church would be more conducive to its development. As the saying goes, a clever woman cannot make bricks without straw. No matter the trade, it is difficult to develop without financial assistance. The same goes for the church, which is also difficult to develop without economic support. So what does God want us to be servants for? If we push everything to God and only used prayers to give orders.
While churches today focus on the ministry of evangelism, we must also solve the financial problems of the church. I think the industry that is most suitable for church development might be to build a community platform for Christians in this era of Internet plus; we could make good use of business opportunities brought by the Internet, so the church can emerge from economic constrains and focus on spreading the gospel.
(The original article is published by Gospel Times)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
从电视上听到了总理在记者会上的一段讲话，总理提到了运用好“互联网+”，推进线上线下更广更深融合，发展新业态新模式，为消费者提供更多便捷舒心的服务和产品。
这是一个重要的信息，说明互联网的经济时代已经开启了，而我们基督徒的思想很多落后了时代的发展。
如今除了电商平台以外，一些主打文化娱乐的平台也早已经开始与人们的生活接轨。他们以建立互联网社区的形式，用娱乐的方式招揽人气，然后为大家提供生活上的一些便捷服务，平台从中得到丰厚的利益。
笔者认为，基督教也应当有类似于快手或抖音这样的互联网社区。可以赞美，可以娱乐，可以提供给人生活所需上的服务。这件事情做好了，不光会解决基督教的一些实际情况，还会有利于福音的传播。
我们假设一下，如果基督教也有一个类似抖音或快手这样的平台，会不会丰富基督徒的生活。如果有社区营销，是不是可以有利于基督徒企业的发展？如果以价廉优质的服务，会不会吸引更多的外邦人进入基督徒的社区？平台提供服务，可以收取一定的费用，这些资金就可以解决教会许多现实的问题。比如，可以对落后地区教会做一些帮扶的事情。让基督徒看到实实在在的爱，可以给传道人上保险，解决他们的后顾之忧。让穷传道的现象彻底能够消失。这有多好呀！
有一种观念，一直影响着基督教的发展，那就是教会不能有商业服务的事情。因为主耶稣曾经用绳子做鞭子，把做买卖的人赶出了圣殿。因此人们认为，神不允许教会有做买卖的事情。其实圣经上说的是赶出了圣殿，就如同今天的教堂。神是不允许在敬拜的场所进行与敬拜格格不入的事情发生，没有说基督徒在教堂以外也不能做事情。在教堂里不可以有做买卖的事情。在教堂外基督徒聚集在一起难道还不行吗？
我们想一想，教会的组成是由个体的基督徒所组成的，如果教会不允许做生意的话，是不是基督徒个体也都不允许做生意了呢？那我们吃什么喝什么？怎么生存呢？
放开手脚去创收，是让爱有更多的行为表现。不要一提到钱，就说属世了，一下子就联想到财主。要去想一想亚伯拉罕，他可是富可敌国的人。
教会整体的经济上改观，会更有利于教会的发展。常言道：巧妇难做无米之炊。无论是什么行业，没有经济做资助都很难发展。教会也是一样。没有经济做支撑，也同样很难发展。有一些人把所有的事情都推给神，那神还要我们做仆人的干什么？就是用祷告发号施令吗？
今天的教会在专注福音大业的同时，也要考虑教会的经济情况。我认为最适合教会发展的行业，就是在互联网+的时代，建立基督徒的社区平台，合理地运用好互联网带来的商机，让教会走出经济的捆绑同时，把福音广传。
https://gospeltimes.cn/article/index/id/55632
教会当拥抱互联网+的时代
As Li Keqiang, premier of the China State Council, stated at the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress, “We will use the Internet Plus model to promote integrated development of online and offline businesses in more fields and create new forms and models of business, thus providing more convenient and satisfying services for consumers.”
This was an important message that showed that the economic era of the Internet had already come, but many of our Christian thoughts have fallen behind the times.
Nowadays, in addition to e-commerce platforms, some platforms that focused on culture and entertainment have already begun to integrate with people's lives. Establishing an Internet community to attract people through entertainment, they provide some convenient services in life for everyone to get rich benefits from the platform.
Assuming that Christianity also had a platform like Quick Worker (Kuaishou) or Tik Tok (Douyin), would it enrich the lives of Christians? If there was community marketing, could it benefit the development of Christian enterprises? If low-cost and high-quality services were provided, would they attract more Gentiles into the Christian community? Through providing services on these platforms, they could charge a certain fee which would be used to help churches in backward areas, provide pastors with insurance and solve their worries for the future. There would be fewer poor pastors, how great is this!
A concept that had always influenced the development of Christianity, was that the church could engage in commercial services. Because the Lord Jesus used a whip to drive the merchants out of the temple, people believed that God did not allow the church to do business. In fact, the Bible only mentioned expelling such activities from the temple, just like the church today. God did not allow these things to happen in the sanctuary, as they were incompatible with worship. He had not said that Christians could not do these outside of the church. There could be no business in the church, but would it not be good for Christians to congregate outside the church?
If the church, composed of the faithful, was not allowed to do business, was it same for individual Christians? What did they eat and drink? How did they survive?
We should be free to generate income to give out more love. We cannot simply say it is worldly to earn money, as Abraham was also as rich as Croesus.
The overall economic improvement of the church would be more conducive to its development. As the saying goes, a clever woman cannot make bricks without straw. No matter the trade, it is difficult to develop without financial assistance. The same goes for the church, which is also difficult to develop without economic support. So what does God want us to be servants for? If we push everything to God and only used prayers to give orders.
While churches today focus on the ministry of evangelism, we must also solve the financial problems of the church. I think the industry that is most suitable for church development might be to build a community platform for Christians in this era of Internet plus; we could make good use of business opportunities brought by the Internet, so the church can emerge from economic constrains and focus on spreading the gospel.
(The original article is published by Gospel Times)
- Translated by Abigail Wu
Churches Should Embrace Era of Internet Plus
