The decade from 2000 to 2010 was when urbanization in many parts of China advanced rapidly. During this period, countless people chose to move to cities from their rural hometowns to make a living. The decade could be said to be the first golden period for the emergence and development of migrant worker churches.
However, currently, migrant worker churches are facing many challenges under the background of urbanization adjustment which has been going on over the past few years. The apparent problem is that churches are losing believers. A few days ago, I visited a second-tier city in East China to interview grassroots pastors of two local migrant worker churches.
Their church is located in an industrial park area on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by many factories. Pastor D, the leader of the church, shared that the church had experienced three waves of relatively large losses of membership in recent years.
Pastor D said, “The first batch left a few years ago because many believers’ children couldn’t go to school smoothly here. Finally, these believers had no choice but to leave. The second batch left was because many small factories here at that time caused serious environmental pollutions and they closed down. Many believers worked in these small factories. The third batch is leaving soon. Many older migrant workers are unwilling to accept it, but formal companies and enterprises don’t want them. They can’t meet their employers’ requirements of skills and education level.”
Another pastor shared that the situation faced by migrant worker churches in first-and second-tier cities might become increasingly severe in the future. The development opportunities of migrant worker churches in these cities are becoming less and less. Under such circumstances, many people either choose to go to the economically underdeveloped third-and fourth-tier cities instead, or choose to go back to the countryside, but what are they going back to do? They might do farming but they would find no fields. The land has been taken back. But what else could they do?
Talking about the impact and changes brought by the pandemic on serving migrant workers, Pastor D said that they could basically maintain the gathering in the form of groups and listen to the sermons online. Even on Sundays, they couldn’t meet on-site due to the pandemic and other reasons. He added that the structure of their church groups had started before the pandemic several years ago, so the impact of the pandemic in the past two years was relatively small. However, as far as he knew, some churches had never operated in groups, and the pandemic and environment had had a great impact on them, resulting in a large-scale loss of believers.
Pastor D concluded that they still found some problems that “there is still a gap between group gatherings and in-person services mainly because the spiritual atmosphere can’t be strong enough, and then because it is a group gathering, other relationships outside group members can’t be established.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
大概2000年到2010年这十年左右的时间，是中国很多地方城市化进程迅速推进的时间，这十年左右的时间当中，无数的人们选择从农村老家来到城市，这十年时间可以说是打工群体教会出现和发展的第一个黄金时期。
但如今，打工群体的教会在最近几年城镇化调整的大环境下面对许多的挑战，尤其是信徒流失的问题最为明显。日前，笔者走访了一华东地区的二线城市，和当地两位打工群体教会的基层牧者交流。
这个教会位于城市郊区的一处工业园区区域，周边坐落着很多厂房。这间教会的带领人D牧师分享说，教会这几年前后经历了三批比较大的信徒流失浪潮。
“第一批是前些年因为很多信徒的孩子在这边无法顺利上学而离开的，最后这些信徒迫不得已只能选择离开；第二批是因为当时这边很多小厂造成的环境污染比较严重，都倒闭了，很多信徒都在这些小厂子里面工作；第三批就是近期，很多年纪比较大的民工工地不愿意收，而正规的公司企业也不要他们，能力、学历等方面他们都达不到人家的要求。”
另外一名同工说到，一二线城市的民工教会所要面临的形式以后可能会变得越来越严峻。这些城市的打工群体教会的生存空间正在变得越来越小。在这样的情况下，很多人要么转而选择去往那些经济不太发达的3,4线城市，要么选择重新到农村，可是回去做什么呢？想种地却发现已经没有地了，已经被收回去了，可是不种地，那又能做什么呢？
谈及疫情对于打工群体牧养带来的冲击和变化，D牧师说疫情，他们基本上只能够以小组的形式来维持聚会，同时配合网络的方式听取讲道就可以了，就算是主日的时候因为疫情和其他原因也不能实地聚会。D牧师说到，他们教会小组的架构在疫情和之前的几年就开始做了，所以这两年疫情以来受到的影响也比较小。但据他所知，有一些教会因为从来没有以小组的方式运作，疫情和环境对他们造成的冲击就非常大，出现了信徒大规模流失的情况。
D牧师补充说，但是他们还是发现了一些问题，那就是“小组聚会和实地聚会还是有一种差距，主要是属灵的气氛达不到，然后因为是小组聚会，所以除了小组成员之外的其他关系也接触不到。”
访谈|当下打工群体教会的挑战：一二线城市的空间越来越小，信徒流失严重
The decade from 2000 to 2010 was when urbanization in many parts of China advanced rapidly. During this period, countless people chose to move to cities from their rural hometowns to make a living. The decade could be said to be the first golden period for the emergence and development of migrant worker churches.
However, currently, migrant worker churches are facing many challenges under the background of urbanization adjustment which has been going on over the past few years. The apparent problem is that churches are losing believers. A few days ago, I visited a second-tier city in East China to interview grassroots pastors of two local migrant worker churches.
Their church is located in an industrial park area on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by many factories. Pastor D, the leader of the church, shared that the church had experienced three waves of relatively large losses of membership in recent years.
Pastor D said, “The first batch left a few years ago because many believers’ children couldn’t go to school smoothly here. Finally, these believers had no choice but to leave. The second batch left was because many small factories here at that time caused serious environmental pollutions and they closed down. Many believers worked in these small factories. The third batch is leaving soon. Many older migrant workers are unwilling to accept it, but formal companies and enterprises don’t want them. They can’t meet their employers’ requirements of skills and education level.”
Another pastor shared that the situation faced by migrant worker churches in first-and second-tier cities might become increasingly severe in the future. The development opportunities of migrant worker churches in these cities are becoming less and less. Under such circumstances, many people either choose to go to the economically underdeveloped third-and fourth-tier cities instead, or choose to go back to the countryside, but what are they going back to do? They might do farming but they would find no fields. The land has been taken back. But what else could they do?
Talking about the impact and changes brought by the pandemic on serving migrant workers, Pastor D said that they could basically maintain the gathering in the form of groups and listen to the sermons online. Even on Sundays, they couldn’t meet on-site due to the pandemic and other reasons. He added that the structure of their church groups had started before the pandemic several years ago, so the impact of the pandemic in the past two years was relatively small. However, as far as he knew, some churches had never operated in groups, and the pandemic and environment had had a great impact on them, resulting in a large-scale loss of believers.
Pastor D concluded that they still found some problems that “there is still a gap between group gatherings and in-person services mainly because the spiritual atmosphere can’t be strong enough, and then because it is a group gathering, other relationships outside group members can’t be established.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
Interview: Migrant Worker Churches Face Increasingly Fewer Opportunities in Big Cities, Declining Membership
