In these years, Chinese churches are generally constantly developing. However, problems arise in the process. One of the problems, which has gradually shown to be more and more critical signs over many years is there being “no successors” for the present generation of church workers.
Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper, conducted an interview with a post-millennial pastor who is from the middle of China.
As a grassroots pastor specializing in pastoral care, Brother M's grass-roots church highly emphasizes seniority and lengths of service which have a great influence. Sometimes, it can even be said that seniority is greater than anything else. The church once wanted to reform, but in fact, it continues with the traditional model in which it is difficult for young workers to carry on. So, over the years, the turnover rate of young workers has been very high.
When faced with such a situation, he claimed that church leaders rarely reflected on the church and themselves, but simply thought, “Let them go if they want. Nowadays, young people have no endurance.” They became even more convinced of their conclusions —“nowadays, young people really have no endurance.”
What he had experienced and seen was that young workers were often simply given some things to do. In fact, these tasks were not at all what they really wanted to do, but were just for the sake of being busy. In the church, the patriarchal model was still very evident.
Church workers held irregular meetings, and almost all were about tasks. No one discussesed how the church’s model and way of doing things should be changed. Neither did they discuss how workers should be treated, what kind of crisis the church was facing, nor how the transformation should happen. Every meeting could be said to be simply a gathering. At the meetings, young workers had ideas but did not speak out because they feeled that even if they did, their ideas would not be adopted. Meanwhile, middle-aged and elderly workers might not be aware of the problems, so naturally it was even much less possible for them to say a thing.
The millenial bluntly stated, "Personally, I rarely get pastoral care or concern from church leaders. Whenever I receive their phone calls, they talk about work tasks or what I have not done well in my work--nothing but only about my tasks. I receive little personal care. In fact, this kind of situation really hurts many young grassroots church workers. They are first and foremost a person, not a machine. As long as you are a human being, you must have emotional needs."
He added that some reasons why they leaved their full-time ministry positions were too low a salary that could not support being married or insufficient training so as not to be able to meet the needs of the ministry. The unworkable and outdated church model caused them to quit.
Below is an interview with Brother M:
Christian Times: What is the current pay for young workers in your church?
Brother M: Regarding the pay of pastors, in fact, the most important issue is seniority and length of service. That is to say, the higher your seniority, the higher your pay.
Christian Times: So is it actually like the normal practices of companies or businesses in which seniority and pay are related?
Brother M: That’s right. The church will treat you according to your seniority not your professional ability, working skills or workload. Among workers, some are single which is better, but some are married and have children. In their cases, more subsidies or allowances should be considered for them.
I personally think that church leaders pay more attention to seniority possibly because they think such workers are more capable and experienced. Yet, to a large extent, they ignore young workers and fail to see their merits. So, naturally, they won’t care or pay attention to all aspects of their needs.
Therefore, what we finally see is that almost all workers who quit are young while the senior ones hardly leave. In the long run, the lack of successors will become increasingly more serious.
Christian Times: Are you married?
Brother M: Yes and I have a two-year-old child.
Christian Times: It’s so hard to raise children now as it costs a lot of money. Do you and your family have any financial difficulties or shortfalls?
Brother M: Well, the church also gives us some corresponding subsidies or allowances. But to be honest, the total of both salary and allowances together is not enough for us. The reason why I am still a church worker is that we depend on my father who works away from home. My parents are both Christians, and they are very supportive of me serving and will give some assistance to my family.
Last year, I was thinking about whether I should change my job. I may participate in some church services while working. However, thank God, I didn’t find a suitable job in the end, so I didn’t leave.
On average, our family will spend more than 1,000 yuan a month. Under normal circumstances, my wife and I will earn about 2,000 yuan together. Usually, if nothing happens, it will be fine, but once something happens, such as when my child or either adult gets sick, or when something unexpected happens in the family, money will become a big problem.
Compared with non-ministry peers in the work world, I work harder and more hours than they do. Yet, my income is far less than theirs. Again, in the church, no matter how hard you perform, the church only values your seniority and length of service.
- Translated by Charlie Li
这些年来，中国教会整体上在不断发展，然而发展的时候，问题也随之产生，比如多年前就已经逐渐产生并不断凸显的教会工人“后继无人”的问题。
下面是一位中原地区90后的青年传道人M弟兄在与本站同工分享
——往往资格、资历大于一切，教会很难改革
我是一名基层的传道人，主要是做牧养方面的工作。
在我现在面对的基层教会中，非常讲究资格、资历，这个影响非常大，有时候甚至可以说资格、资历大于一切。教会也曾经说要改革，但是其实还是一直在延续以前传统教会的模式。在这样的传统模式当中，现在的年轻工人是比较难以走下去的。所以，这些年来，年轻工人的流失一直是非常严重的。
而当面对这样的情况时，教会领袖很少会反思教会和自己，而只是想：“他想走那就让他走吧，现在的年轻人吃不了苦了！”这样的情况不断发生的时候，教会领袖还是不去反思自己的问题，反而越是坚定了自己所下的结论——“现在的年轻人真的吃不了苦！”
——在教会里，家长制的模式还是很严重的
我自己经历的、也是我看到的是：年轻工人常常只是被领袖安排做一些工作，这些工作其实并不都是自己真心有感动想要做的，只是被安排去工作。在教会里，家长制的模式还是很严重的。
教会工人也会不定期的开会，但是几乎所有的会议都是关于工作的，没有人讨论教会的模式和方针应当如何改变、工人应当怎么对待，然后教会面临着怎样的危机，我们应当如何转型等问题，每次开会可以说就是一次聚会而已。在会议上，年轻工人有想法但是不说，因为就算说了也没有用，而年纪比较大的中老年人他们可能是还没有意识到问题所在，所以自然更不可能说这些。
——对年轻工人的关心关怀方面做得确实也不太好
就我个人来说，也是很少能够得到教会领袖们的关心，只要接到他们的电话基本都是关于工作的事情、让去做什么什么事情，或者是工作上哪个方面存在某某问题......都是关于工作的，很少很少有向着个人的关怀。（==此句当summary）
其实这种情况对于很多的年轻的基层事奉人员来说，确实是挺受伤的。年轻工人首先也是一个人，而不是机器；而是人的话，就一定有情感上的需要。
年轻工人之所以离开全职服事的岗位，包括一系列离开的理由，比如待遇比较低甚至因此导致无法结婚；也有的人是因为装备不足，满足不了侍奉的需要，但是也有年轻工人是因为陈旧的教会模式，不能够接受这样的教会模式所以离开的。
与M弟兄的对话：
问：关于教会工人的待遇方面，在你的教会里现在是一种怎样的情况呢？
答：关于传道人待遇问题，其实背后还是资历、资格的问题。也就是说你服事的时间越久，就意味着你的资历资格越老，而你的资历资格越老，就意味着你的待遇也会更高一些。
问：其实就像很多世上普通的公司、企业他们的那种工龄工资是吧？
答：是这样的。教会会按照你的资历、资格，而不是业务能力、工作能力和工作量来给你相应的待遇。在工人当中，有的工人是单身，这样的话就还好一些，但是也有的工人已经结婚有孩子了，这样的情况就需要考虑给这些工人一些补助。。
我个人认为，可能教会领袖们之所以更加看重那些有资历资格的工人，是因为认为他们更有能力、有经验，而很大程度上忽略了年轻工人，没有看到他们的优点。如此，自然也不会去关心和重视他们各个方面的需要。
因此，最后产生的现象就是，流失掉的工人几乎全部都是年轻人，而年长的几乎没有离开的。长此以往，教会工人青黄不接的情况就变得越发严重。
问：请问您结婚了吗？
答：我已经结婚了，有一个二岁左右的孩子。
问：现在养孩子不容易，需要花挺多的钱。那您和您的家庭在经济上有什么难处和缺乏吗？
答：教会也会给我们一些相应的补助。但诚实地说，我们两个人的收入还不太够。我之所以现在还能够在教会工人的位置上，可以说全靠着我父亲在外面打工，我父母都是基督徒，他们非常支持我服事，会给我们家庭一些援助。
去年，我在考虑要不要放弃现在的位置，换一个工作，一边工作一边参与一些教会的服事。但是还好，感谢神，最后没有找到很合适的工作，所以就没有离开。
平均到每一个月来说，我们家庭会有1000多一些的花销，正常情况下我和妻子两个人合起来会有2000左右的收入。平时没有什么事情的话，那就还好，但是一旦有什么事情，比如孩子或者大人生病的时候，或者家庭有什么突发事情的时候，经济就会成为很大的问题。
跟世上同龄人比，自己比他们更苦，但是收入却远远比不上他们；而在教会里面，不论你表现如何，教会只看重你的资格资历。
对话|教会为什么留不住青年同工？—— 一位90后传道人的压力与无奈
In these years, Chinese churches are generally constantly developing. However, problems arise in the process. One of the problems, which has gradually shown to be more and more critical signs over many years is there being “no successors” for the present generation of church workers.
Christian Times, an online Chinese Christian newspaper, conducted an interview with a post-millennial pastor who is from the middle of China.
As a grassroots pastor specializing in pastoral care, Brother M's grass-roots church highly emphasizes seniority and lengths of service which have a great influence. Sometimes, it can even be said that seniority is greater than anything else. The church once wanted to reform, but in fact, it continues with the traditional model in which it is difficult for young workers to carry on. So, over the years, the turnover rate of young workers has been very high.
When faced with such a situation, he claimed that church leaders rarely reflected on the church and themselves, but simply thought, “Let them go if they want. Nowadays, young people have no endurance.” They became even more convinced of their conclusions —“nowadays, young people really have no endurance.”
What he had experienced and seen was that young workers were often simply given some things to do. In fact, these tasks were not at all what they really wanted to do, but were just for the sake of being busy. In the church, the patriarchal model was still very evident.
Church workers held irregular meetings, and almost all were about tasks. No one discussesed how the church’s model and way of doing things should be changed. Neither did they discuss how workers should be treated, what kind of crisis the church was facing, nor how the transformation should happen. Every meeting could be said to be simply a gathering. At the meetings, young workers had ideas but did not speak out because they feeled that even if they did, their ideas would not be adopted. Meanwhile, middle-aged and elderly workers might not be aware of the problems, so naturally it was even much less possible for them to say a thing.
The millenial bluntly stated, "Personally, I rarely get pastoral care or concern from church leaders. Whenever I receive their phone calls, they talk about work tasks or what I have not done well in my work--nothing but only about my tasks. I receive little personal care. In fact, this kind of situation really hurts many young grassroots church workers. They are first and foremost a person, not a machine. As long as you are a human being, you must have emotional needs."
He added that some reasons why they leaved their full-time ministry positions were too low a salary that could not support being married or insufficient training so as not to be able to meet the needs of the ministry. The unworkable and outdated church model caused them to quit.
Below is an interview with Brother M:
Christian Times: What is the current pay for young workers in your church?
Brother M: Regarding the pay of pastors, in fact, the most important issue is seniority and length of service. That is to say, the higher your seniority, the higher your pay.
Christian Times: So is it actually like the normal practices of companies or businesses in which seniority and pay are related?
Brother M: That’s right. The church will treat you according to your seniority not your professional ability, working skills or workload. Among workers, some are single which is better, but some are married and have children. In their cases, more subsidies or allowances should be considered for them.
I personally think that church leaders pay more attention to seniority possibly because they think such workers are more capable and experienced. Yet, to a large extent, they ignore young workers and fail to see their merits. So, naturally, they won’t care or pay attention to all aspects of their needs.
Therefore, what we finally see is that almost all workers who quit are young while the senior ones hardly leave. In the long run, the lack of successors will become increasingly more serious.
Christian Times: Are you married?
Brother M: Yes and I have a two-year-old child.
Christian Times: It’s so hard to raise children now as it costs a lot of money. Do you and your family have any financial difficulties or shortfalls?
Brother M: Well, the church also gives us some corresponding subsidies or allowances. But to be honest, the total of both salary and allowances together is not enough for us. The reason why I am still a church worker is that we depend on my father who works away from home. My parents are both Christians, and they are very supportive of me serving and will give some assistance to my family.
Last year, I was thinking about whether I should change my job. I may participate in some church services while working. However, thank God, I didn’t find a suitable job in the end, so I didn’t leave.
On average, our family will spend more than 1,000 yuan a month. Under normal circumstances, my wife and I will earn about 2,000 yuan together. Usually, if nothing happens, it will be fine, but once something happens, such as when my child or either adult gets sick, or when something unexpected happens in the family, money will become a big problem.
Compared with non-ministry peers in the work world, I work harder and more hours than they do. Yet, my income is far less than theirs. Again, in the church, no matter how hard you perform, the church only values your seniority and length of service.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Why Can’t Church Keep Young Workers? Millennial Pastor Reveals Pressure, Feeling of Helplessness
