Dilemma of Rural Church: How to Help Aging Pastors Feed the Congregation?

“老李，这周又不去聚会了？”

“不去了，讲道人讲的越来越听不明白，家里还要照顾孩子。”

以上两句简短的对话，正是现下多数农村教会的真实现状。

一位在中原地区服事多年的中老年前牧者Y牧师透露，20多年前农村教会一个堂点多的时候能有几百人参加主日礼拜，但近几年人数越来越少，有时一场礼拜下来仅有几十人，且多以老人为主。加之《宗教事务条例》强调禁止未成年孩童进入教会，老人不能将孩子单独留在家，只能主日时在家中照顾孩子。(==当summary）

一位来自中原地区某家庭教会的W牧师就表示，他现在所带领的教会正面临着如下三个困境：

1，教会老龄化。2，中青年流失严重。3，牧养上工人有限。

W牧师说，由于中青年都选择去城市打工，目前他所在的农村教会信徒基本以中老年人为主，这带来的最大难题则是对牧养上的限制。

“牧养上工人有限，主要也是体现在两个方面，”W牧师说：“一是时间上的有限，二是文化程度上的有限。”

老人在家看似清闲，但大部分除了要照顾家里、田地外还要看孩子，这就在一定程度上约束住了老人的时间。并且由于教会缺少年轻人，因此讲道人仍多以中老年人为主。过去老一辈的中老年人受过的教育不高，很多讲道人都没有经过正统的神学培训，只是因为当时的需要，所以拿起圣经就开始讲了。但随着年龄的增长、记忆力逐渐下降、听力大不如从前，中老年人的理解力也赶不上青年人活跃，加之农村教会资源上有限、不能帮助讲道人在讲道上精进，这就直接导致讲道人在牧养上越发干涸，无法更好地喂养和帮助到信徒的生命成长。

“怎样才能帮助到农村教会里的中老年讲道人，”W牧师感叹：“这是现下我们教会一直在思考的问题。”

W牧师说，为了寻求出路，也曾试过让青年人来带领教会，但这里面也有诸多弊端，“年轻的人（因为薪资问题）他不能全职做教会，所以一般都会选择一边做生意一边服侍教会。如果他不做生意只做教会，他就无法持家；如果做生意，教会这边就顾不上。”久而久之，就只能顾一头了。

https://christiantimes.cn/news/29026/%E7%89%B9%E5%86%99%7C%20%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%AD%E5%8E%9F%E8%80%81%E5%B9%B4%E7%89%A7%E8%80%85%E7%9A%84%E7%9C%9F%E5%AE%9E%E5%9B%B0%E5%A2%83%EF%BC%9A%E7%BC%BA%E4%B9%8F%E5%B9%B4%E8%BD%BB%E4%BC%A0%E9%81%93%E4%BA%BA%E7%9A%84%E5%86%9C%E6%9D%91%E6%95%99%E4%BC%9A%EF%BC%8C%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E6%9B%B4%E5%A5%BD%E7%89%A7%E5%85%BB%E4%BF%A1%E5%BE%92%EF%BC%9F

"Li, are you not going to worship God this weekend again?"

"No. I need to take care of the children at home and it gets more and more difficult to understand the sermons for me.”

The above short conversation reflects the real situation of most rural churches today.

With hundreds of people attending Sunday service more than 20 years ago, a rural church has only a few dozen worshippers in a week, mainly elderly people, who sometimes should tend to children left at home, as they are forbidden to attend Sunday school according to the revised Regulations on Religious Affairs, said Y, a former pastor serving middle-aged believers for many years.

Pastor W (pseudonym) from Central China said that his church is stuck in a dilemma, as the aging church suffers the loss of young and middle-aged believers, with fewer young pastors.

Pastor W revealed that young and middle-aged Christians choose to work in cities, leaving middle-aged and elderly members in his church, which have difficulty in pastoral ministry.

"In addition, the village church workers have limited time and a low level of literacy," Pastor W continued.

Seeming idle at home, the elderly have to farm, do housework, and take care of their grandchildren, W added. Lacking young workers, the church is mainly served by middle-aged and elderly people who are not well educated or have not received any theological education but were engaged in preaching at the altar due to the needs of the ministry. With limited resources in the rural church for pastoral care, rural pastors could not disciple believers well or help them grow spiritually, as they tend to be more forgetful and have poorer understanding compared to young pastors, with increasing ages and hearing loss.

"How can we help middle-aged and elderly pastors in rural churches?" Pastor W sighed. "This is a question that we are thinking about all the time."

W said they tried to let young people lead the church, but they also had some difficulties, "For young pastors, they choose to work in the church while doing business, as they can’t serve full-time due to low salaries. If they just nurture believers in the church, they can't support their families. But if they spend time doing business, they can’t serve in the church well." As time passed, they chose to conduct one.

- Translated by Abigail Wu