“In recent years, the influence of heretical cults in our local areas can be said to be minimal, and it will not affect the normal gathering orders of various grass-roots churches,” said Pastor Z, from eastern Fujian, in a recent interview about the heresy situation in the local church.
The pastor’s city is an ancient city with a deep foundation of evangelism. At present, there are more than 100 registered churches and more than 200 gathering places in the city. After face-to-face visits and exchanges, it relied on the sound and complete church management system established by the local CC&TSPM.
In many grass-roots churches, in order to manage scattered gathering points, they often adopt the system of dividing districts for management, while in the local area, the pastoral area management system has been made more detailed and powerful.
“The healthy operation of grass-roots churches should be based on a cohesive system.” Pastor Z, who has served for many years as the head of the Municipal CC&TSPM, always agrees with this view.
At the end of the 1990s, in order to help the fledgling urban and rural churches establish a perfect management system at that time, Pastor Z led the local CC&TSPM to take the lead in starting with the Church Committee and formulated unified rules and regulations throughout the city. “The church committee of each church needs to be composed of 12 members. Except for one senior pastor who lives in the church, the remaining 11 church committees are responsible for the academic affairs group, church affairs group, finance group, and other duties in the church,” Pastor Z introduced.
On the basis of the church committee system, the municipal CC&TSPM has classified hundreds of churches in the city into several pastoral areas according to regions, in which each pastoral area manages seven to eight grass-roots churches, while the head of the pastoral area is the pastor in charge of the main churches in the region, who is mainly responsible for uploading and distributing news and contacting and caring for them.
Every month, every pastoral area in the city will hold regular pastoral transportation meetings. The meeting requires the senior pastor and a church committee of each grass-roots church to attend the meeting on time and exchange their pastoral progress, ministry progress, spiritual warfare, and various other aspects of their work.
“The establishment of the monthly meeting system in pastoral areas has greatly helped our local work of resisting infiltration from cults.” Speaking of this, Pastor Z explained with specific examples from previous churches - before the outbreak of the epidemic, a few heretics would infiltrate into the church to try to poach believers. When the grass-roots church was disturbed, the pastor in charge of the church would inform the whole pastoral area about the heretics in time through the monthly meeting of the pastoral area. Then, the pastor in charge of the pastoral area would directly inform the Municipal CCC & TSPM, which finally would issue a warning to the grass-roots churches in the city.“ Thanks to the timely notification of the monthly meeting in pastoral areas, in recent years, all grass-roots churches in the city have become more of one mind in fighting heresy, and heretics can be said to have 'nothing to hide here',” the pastor said frankly.
Weaving the church’s protective net against heresy with a sound church management system is a beautiful practice of Pastor Z’s city in years of exploration. However, for Pastor A in North China, summing up this experience, which can be called “all roads lead to the same goal” has paid a heavy price.
In an interview in the spring of this year, Pastor A in North China talked about the situation of his church colleagues being infiltrated by a heretical cult network. On the other end of the phone, the pastor’s voice revealed anxiety, helplessness, and exhaustion, which were still painful in retrospect. However, for the pastor from the church in the fifth-tier cities, apart from the loss of valuable colleagues, what makes him feel deeply sorry is that the information between the churches in the grassroots cities is not smooth.
“When I first learned about the existence of this heresy from familiar pastors in neighboring cities, they had secretly infiltrated our church for less than half a year.” Pastor A said, “If it weren't for the personal communication between our pastors, I wouldn’t have been able to know how long the heresy had ‘coexisted’ with us.”
However, what makes him feel even more dismayed is that the provincial church, which is just over 100 kilometers away, started the special prevention work against this cult as early as half a year ago, but it never issued a warning notice to the churches in other surrounding cities except for the warning in its area.
After the situation with this particular cult, Pastor A got a new job after the pastoral meeting. He started to launch his own network of pastors, focusing on following up on the infiltration of this cult in churches in North China and even all over the country. “We can be infiltrated in such a small place here, and I’m afraid the situation of churches in other places is not optimistic. The more churches know, the sooner this cult can be blocked from infiltrating among the grassroots churches,” said the pastor.
In the process of communication with the above two pastors, they mentioned the decisive role of CCC&TSPM in the establishment and implementation of the system. Pastor Z, the old pastor, said: “The local Christian CC&TSPM should become more powerful ‘leaders’ and ‘executors’, take on the functions of supervising, managing and guiding the grass-roots churches with the help of a sound management system. Meanwhile, establish a solid guarantee for the treatment of teachers and pastors. But the most important thing is not to forget the essence of serving the church.”
In this regard, Pastor A of North China also gave a favorable view. At the same time, he added that if grass-roots churches wanted to unite well, there were still many drawbacks and limitations only by the spontaneous contact between churches. “I hope the system can be more established so that each grass-roots church can have closer ties, and don’t let the things in our church happen in other sister churches.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
“近些年异端在我们当地的影响力可以说是微乎其微，不会影响到各个基层教会的正常聚会秩序。”这是最近一次采访中，来自闽东地区的老牧者Z牧师在被问及当地教会异端搅扰状况时的回答。
这位老牧者所在的城市，是座福音根基深厚的古城，目前全市登记在册的教堂约有一百余座，聚会点更是达到了两百余个。究竟是什么缘由能够让这位牧者有如此底气？经过实地的走访交流，笔者发现，在老牧者这份坦然背后，依托的是当地两会建立起的健全完备的堂会管理制度。
在各地不少基层教会，为统筹管理辖内分散各处的众多堂点，往往会采用划分片区的制度进行管理，而在当地，则是将牧区管理制度做到了更加细致与有力的地步。
“基层教会的健康运行应该建立在完善的制度上。”曾在市两会负责人岗位上服侍了多年的Z牧师始终认同这一观点，而当地两会也确实早早就踏出了探索的步伐。
上世纪九十年代末，为帮助当时羽翼未丰的城乡教堂建立完善管理制度，Z牧师带领当地两会率先从教堂堂委会入手，在全市范围内制订了统一的规章制度。“每个教堂的堂委会需要由12人组成，除一位驻会的主任牧师以外，其余11位堂委分别负责教会中教务组、堂务组、财务组等职分。”Z牧师介绍道。
在堂委会制度的基础上，市两会按照区域将全市的上百座教堂归纳成为了多个牧区，其中每个牧区管理七至八个基层堂点，而牧区长则由该区域主要堂点的负责牧者担任，主要负责消息的上传下达以及联络看顾的工作。
每个月中，全市各个牧区都会固定举行一次牧区交通会，会议要求每个基层堂点的主任牧师及一位堂委都必须按时参会，交流各自堂点牧养进展、事工进度、抵异反邪以及各方面的工作情况。
“牧区月会制度的建立对我们当地抵制异端渗透的工作起到了很大的帮助。”说到这里，Z牧师用之前教会中的具体事例向笔者进行了解释——在疫情发生之前，教会实地聚会还能正常开展时，会有少数异端分子混入教堂做渗透拉羊的工作。而当基层堂点受到搅扰后，该堂的负责牧者则会通过牧区月会，及时向整个牧区及时通报异端分子的相关情况，随后牧区的负责牧者又会直接向市两会进行通报，最终由市两会向全市基层教堂发出警示。“多亏了牧区月会的及时通报传达，近年来全市各个基层教会在对抗异端方面越来越齐心了，异端分子在我们这里可以说是‘无所遁形’。”牧师坦言道。
用健全的堂会管理制度织密教会抵异防护网，这是Z牧师所在的城市在多年探索中水到渠成结出的美好实践果实。而对于华北的A牧师而言，总结出这个堪称“殊途同归”的经验，却付出了颇为沉重的代价。
在今年春季的一次采访交流中，华北的A牧师向笔者谈起自己教会同工遭受某网络异端渗透的状况，电话那头，牧者的声音透露着焦虑无助与疲惫，至今回想起来依旧令人痛心。但是，对于这位来自五线城市教会的牧者而言，除了宝贵同工的迷失以外，更令他深感惋惜的，正是基层地市教会之间信息的不通畅。
“当我第一次从邻市的熟悉牧者那里得知该异端存在的时候，他们已经暗地里在我们教会渗透了小半年了。”A牧师向笔者表示。“要不是我们牧者之间私人性的沟通，不知道我们还会跟异端‘共存’多久。”
然而，更令他倍感惊愕的是，就在相隔仅百余公里外的省城教会，那里早在半年前就已经开始了针对该异端的专项防范工作，但是除了其所在片区有所提示外，却始终没有对周边其他地市教会发出警示通知。
经过此次异端事件，A牧师在牧会之余有了一项新工作，他开始发动自己的牧者关系网，着重跟进该异端组织在华北乃至全国各地教会的渗透情况。“我们这里这么小的地方都能被渗透，其他地方教会状况恐怕也不容乐观。越多教会知道，就能越早阻断这个异端在广大基层教会间的渗透。”牧师说道。
在与上述两位牧者交流过程中，大家都不约而同地提到了两会在制度建立与执行方面的决定性作用。老牧者Z牧师表示：“地方基督教两会应当成为更加有力的‘带领者’与‘执行者’，借助完善的管理制度担负起对于基层教会的督促、管理与引导职能，同时也为教牧同工的待遇建立坚实的保障。但最重要的是，不能忘记服侍教会的本质。”
对此，华北的A牧师也给出了赞同的观点，同时他也补充道，基层教会想要做好联合，仅靠教会之间的自发联络还是存在诸多弊端与限制，“希望制度能够更加完善，让每个基层教会之间能有更紧密的联系，不要让我们教会的事情也发生在其他兄弟教会里。”
https://www.gospeltimes.cn/article/index/id/64961
两位牧者谈：用完备健全制度织密教会异端抵制防护网
“In recent years, the influence of heretical cults in our local areas can be said to be minimal, and it will not affect the normal gathering orders of various grass-roots churches,” said Pastor Z, from eastern Fujian, in a recent interview about the heresy situation in the local church.
The pastor’s city is an ancient city with a deep foundation of evangelism. At present, there are more than 100 registered churches and more than 200 gathering places in the city. After face-to-face visits and exchanges, it relied on the sound and complete church management system established by the local CC&TSPM.
In many grass-roots churches, in order to manage scattered gathering points, they often adopt the system of dividing districts for management, while in the local area, the pastoral area management system has been made more detailed and powerful.
“The healthy operation of grass-roots churches should be based on a cohesive system.” Pastor Z, who has served for many years as the head of the Municipal CC&TSPM, always agrees with this view.
At the end of the 1990s, in order to help the fledgling urban and rural churches establish a perfect management system at that time, Pastor Z led the local CC&TSPM to take the lead in starting with the Church Committee and formulated unified rules and regulations throughout the city. “The church committee of each church needs to be composed of 12 members. Except for one senior pastor who lives in the church, the remaining 11 church committees are responsible for the academic affairs group, church affairs group, finance group, and other duties in the church,” Pastor Z introduced.
On the basis of the church committee system, the municipal CC&TSPM has classified hundreds of churches in the city into several pastoral areas according to regions, in which each pastoral area manages seven to eight grass-roots churches, while the head of the pastoral area is the pastor in charge of the main churches in the region, who is mainly responsible for uploading and distributing news and contacting and caring for them.
Every month, every pastoral area in the city will hold regular pastoral transportation meetings. The meeting requires the senior pastor and a church committee of each grass-roots church to attend the meeting on time and exchange their pastoral progress, ministry progress, spiritual warfare, and various other aspects of their work.
“The establishment of the monthly meeting system in pastoral areas has greatly helped our local work of resisting infiltration from cults.” Speaking of this, Pastor Z explained with specific examples from previous churches - before the outbreak of the epidemic, a few heretics would infiltrate into the church to try to poach believers. When the grass-roots church was disturbed, the pastor in charge of the church would inform the whole pastoral area about the heretics in time through the monthly meeting of the pastoral area. Then, the pastor in charge of the pastoral area would directly inform the Municipal CCC & TSPM, which finally would issue a warning to the grass-roots churches in the city.“ Thanks to the timely notification of the monthly meeting in pastoral areas, in recent years, all grass-roots churches in the city have become more of one mind in fighting heresy, and heretics can be said to have 'nothing to hide here',” the pastor said frankly.
Weaving the church’s protective net against heresy with a sound church management system is a beautiful practice of Pastor Z’s city in years of exploration. However, for Pastor A in North China, summing up this experience, which can be called “all roads lead to the same goal” has paid a heavy price.
In an interview in the spring of this year, Pastor A in North China talked about the situation of his church colleagues being infiltrated by a heretical cult network. On the other end of the phone, the pastor’s voice revealed anxiety, helplessness, and exhaustion, which were still painful in retrospect. However, for the pastor from the church in the fifth-tier cities, apart from the loss of valuable colleagues, what makes him feel deeply sorry is that the information between the churches in the grassroots cities is not smooth.
“When I first learned about the existence of this heresy from familiar pastors in neighboring cities, they had secretly infiltrated our church for less than half a year.” Pastor A said, “If it weren't for the personal communication between our pastors, I wouldn’t have been able to know how long the heresy had ‘coexisted’ with us.”
However, what makes him feel even more dismayed is that the provincial church, which is just over 100 kilometers away, started the special prevention work against this cult as early as half a year ago, but it never issued a warning notice to the churches in other surrounding cities except for the warning in its area.
After the situation with this particular cult, Pastor A got a new job after the pastoral meeting. He started to launch his own network of pastors, focusing on following up on the infiltration of this cult in churches in North China and even all over the country. “We can be infiltrated in such a small place here, and I’m afraid the situation of churches in other places is not optimistic. The more churches know, the sooner this cult can be blocked from infiltrating among the grassroots churches,” said the pastor.
In the process of communication with the above two pastors, they mentioned the decisive role of CCC&TSPM in the establishment and implementation of the system. Pastor Z, the old pastor, said: “The local Christian CC&TSPM should become more powerful ‘leaders’ and ‘executors’, take on the functions of supervising, managing and guiding the grass-roots churches with the help of a sound management system. Meanwhile, establish a solid guarantee for the treatment of teachers and pastors. But the most important thing is not to forget the essence of serving the church.”
In this regard, Pastor A of North China also gave a favorable view. At the same time, he added that if grass-roots churches wanted to unite well, there were still many drawbacks and limitations only by the spontaneous contact between churches. “I hope the system can be more established so that each grass-roots church can have closer ties, and don’t let the things in our church happen in other sister churches.”
- Translated by Charlie Li
Two Pastors Talks About Strengthening Church’s Heresy Resistance by Creating Well-established System
