Like dandelion seeds, pastors for the mission across regions leave their own hometowns to a new place where they become new residents and sow the seeds of the Gospel which will grow into big trees to let many souls rest.
Transregional mission refers to a Christian family being called to leave their hometown to settle in a new city to serve people there.
The concept of mission across regions in China originated from a missionary of the American Baptist Church. He introduced this idea to the students at the North China Theological Seminary in Teng County, Shandong Province. Around 2000, as many rural workers flocked to first and second-tier coastal cities, some pastoral workers in Central China as well as other provinces where the gospel was flourishing also migrated from their hometowns to other cities to preach the gospel.
Pastor Xiao Yang (pseudonym), nearly 60 years old and from the countryside of Anhui Province, is a pastor of an “immigrant mission” in a second-tier city in East China.
While in his twenties in the late 1980s, together with his Christian uncle, Xiaoyang went to a church at 3 am to attend Sunday service and came back at 5 am.
Less than a year later, he was baptized and had served in the rural church for more than 10 years. With a tide of urbanization occurring around 2005, many neighbors and folks around him went from Anhui to the coastal cities in East China and South China to work. At the age of 36 years, following these migrant workers, he became one of the pioneers of transregional mission work.
Pastor Xiao Yang was dispatched to City A, where has lived for 20 years. "In the early 2000s, the transregional mission emerged. At that time, I went to do odd jobs after planting on the land, as not enough food was produced when the crops were flooded. I went to Shanghai to help build houses, and to Wenzhou to do construction work. Wherever I went, the first thing I did was to find a church. when I felt the calling to be an “immigrant missionary”, I obeyed.”
In the beginning, he thought that he was just going to give some sermons in the city. "I thought that the local churches were mature, and I would just do the work assigned to me. But when I went there, I realized that it was not what I thought it was."
"I didn't know anyone," he recalled. "I started from scratch, looking for a cheap house at first. A pastor I knew took me to the train station of that city and asked the information about cheap houses. Then, we took a bus from the train station to a suburban town, rented a house with 150 yuan, and bought a container of oil and a bag of rice. The pastor said, ‘We will pray to the Lord to open the way for you,’ and then went back home.”
Finding several Christians there, he started the gathering in his rented house. In these years, he rented sheds, abandoned factory buildings, and commercial office buildings for worship, changing from a family gathering to a church, then to small groups.
Not long after he came to City A, his wife and children also went there. He has two sons, both got married, the elder son led a church and the younger one served part-time.
When asked if he had any regrets for these 20 years, he replied, "Looking back on my missionary work, I am a stranger here and do not have real estate and identity recognition. Though suffered a lot, I have no regrets."
Previously, we also reported another female pastor and her husband carrying out transregional mission work.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
在牧者群体中，移民宣教的牧者们就仿佛大自然界这些蒲公英的种子一般。他们和普通人一样，有着自己土生土长的家乡和环境，后为着福音的缘故，远走他乡。并且也会把配偶和孩子一同带到新的地方，面对陌生人重新开始，融入和扎根到当地，成为新居民，并且在当地播下福音的种子，或布道或植堂，或陪伴或培育，静待一颗小小的属灵芥菜种长成灵魂可以栖息的大树。（==当summary）
移民宣教是指一个领受呼召的基督徒家庭甘愿离开自己的故乡，全家去往一个陌生的城市，定居在那里，服事那地的各类人群。
中国本土化的移民宣教的概念发端于早期美国浸信会的一位宣教士，他曾在山东藤县华北神学院，把这个移民宣教的想法播撒到当时神学生的心里。在2000年前后的社会背景下，因中国农村大量外出务工人群涌向沿海一二线城市，一些中原地带、福音历史比较兴旺省份的牧者同工也随之从自己的家乡迁移到沿海等新的城市，服事当地的人群。
位于华东某二线城市的年近60岁的小仰牧师就是这样的一位移民宣教的牧者。他老家位于安徽的农村。
上个世纪80年代末，他当时20多岁，他的舅舅劝他信耶稣，每一个礼拜天，舅舅早晨3点带他去做礼拜。5点就散会回来了。
一年后不到的时间，他就受洗，并开始参与老家农村教会的服事。在2005年前后的城市化大潮中，他身边不少的邻里乡亲从安徽到华东华南的沿海城市打工，成为务工人群中的一员。
而服事了10多年的他当时也已经36岁，他开始成为移民宣教牧者群中的先驱之一。
小仰牧师也被差派到现在他已经居住了20年的A市。他还记得这之前的自己除了日常的服事，面对的就是各种农务和粮食的事情，逐渐出门打零工的趋势也开始出现。“2000年代初，逐渐开始推动移民宣教，那个时候我的老家粮食都不够吃，一下雨，庄稼受淹，都是种完地就去打零工。我去上海做建筑，然后又去温州做工地，无论去哪里，我都是第一个先找教会，然后找工作。所以像我一样出去打工的年轻人很多。最后，感受到移民宣教的呼召和差派，我就顺服。”
刚开始的时候，他其实只是以为过去A市讲讲道而已。“我以为就是当地的教会都成型了，到哪边你分派我工作我就去做就可以了。但是去了才发现，其实不是我想象的那个概念。”
他回忆说：“当时一个人都不认识，一切都是从零开始，开始找便宜的房子。有位熟悉的牧师把我首先带到A市的火车站，就开始问哪个房子便宜，就从火车站坐了一路公交车到一个郊区的镇上，150块钱租了一个房子，买了一桶油，一袋的米。然后这位牧师说：‘我们为你祷告，求主给你开路，随后，牧师就回去了。’”
小仰牧师接着开始在这里扎根，寻找到几位和他有同样信仰的弟兄姐妹，开始从小小的团契开始。他还记得最开始是出租房里的4个人的聚会，之后还曾经租用大棚作场地。不管是废弃的厂房还是商用写字楼，从家庭到堂会再到今天的小组，他们都经历过。
与此同时，他当年刚来A市不久，就把妻子和孩子一同接过来，在A市一边服事一边养育孩子。小羊牧师的二个儿子均已成家，其中大儿子已经在带领教会，二儿子是带职服事。
当问及这20年人生路是否有后悔时，他回答说：“回看过去20年的移民宣教的岁月，我作为一个异乡人在这里，我们没有自己的房产，没有太多身份上的认同，也吃了很多苦，但我依然是没有后悔的。”
对于移民宣教，之前也报道过华南的阿秀师母和她的丈夫的故事。（加超链接）
特写｜那些甘愿成为蒲公英种子一样的人——移民宣教的牧者们
Like dandelion seeds, pastors for the mission across regions leave their own hometowns to a new place where they become new residents and sow the seeds of the Gospel which will grow into big trees to let many souls rest.
Transregional mission refers to a Christian family being called to leave their hometown to settle in a new city to serve people there.
The concept of mission across regions in China originated from a missionary of the American Baptist Church. He introduced this idea to the students at the North China Theological Seminary in Teng County, Shandong Province. Around 2000, as many rural workers flocked to first and second-tier coastal cities, some pastoral workers in Central China as well as other provinces where the gospel was flourishing also migrated from their hometowns to other cities to preach the gospel.
Pastor Xiao Yang (pseudonym), nearly 60 years old and from the countryside of Anhui Province, is a pastor of an “immigrant mission” in a second-tier city in East China.
While in his twenties in the late 1980s, together with his Christian uncle, Xiaoyang went to a church at 3 am to attend Sunday service and came back at 5 am.
Less than a year later, he was baptized and had served in the rural church for more than 10 years. With a tide of urbanization occurring around 2005, many neighbors and folks around him went from Anhui to the coastal cities in East China and South China to work. At the age of 36 years, following these migrant workers, he became one of the pioneers of transregional mission work.
Pastor Xiao Yang was dispatched to City A, where has lived for 20 years. "In the early 2000s, the transregional mission emerged. At that time, I went to do odd jobs after planting on the land, as not enough food was produced when the crops were flooded. I went to Shanghai to help build houses, and to Wenzhou to do construction work. Wherever I went, the first thing I did was to find a church. when I felt the calling to be an “immigrant missionary”, I obeyed.”
In the beginning, he thought that he was just going to give some sermons in the city. "I thought that the local churches were mature, and I would just do the work assigned to me. But when I went there, I realized that it was not what I thought it was."
"I didn't know anyone," he recalled. "I started from scratch, looking for a cheap house at first. A pastor I knew took me to the train station of that city and asked the information about cheap houses. Then, we took a bus from the train station to a suburban town, rented a house with 150 yuan, and bought a container of oil and a bag of rice. The pastor said, ‘We will pray to the Lord to open the way for you,’ and then went back home.”
Finding several Christians there, he started the gathering in his rented house. In these years, he rented sheds, abandoned factory buildings, and commercial office buildings for worship, changing from a family gathering to a church, then to small groups.
Not long after he came to City A, his wife and children also went there. He has two sons, both got married, the elder son led a church and the younger one served part-time.
When asked if he had any regrets for these 20 years, he replied, "Looking back on my missionary work, I am a stranger here and do not have real estate and identity recognition. Though suffered a lot, I have no regrets."
Previously, we also reported another female pastor and her husband carrying out transregional mission work.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
The Story of A Pastor Carrying out Mission Work Across Regions
