The Internet has greatly changed people’s daily lives in recent years. We can conveniently shop or communicate from a click away on a mobile phone without leaving home. In the three-year pandemic, the Internet has especially become a “cyber bridge,” connecting numerous isolated souls.
An increasing number of pastors are exploring innovative approaches to their ministry through adopting online platforms. Recently, the Gospel Times interviewed a pastor in North China, who shared how her church relied on the Internet to do their ministry.
Church C is located in the suburban county of a city in North China, serving as the central location of the region. In addition to taking care of the 300 believers, the pastoral staff also needs to look after thousands of believers from more than ten grass-roots gathering points in the surrounding areas.
At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, on-the-spot gatherings were suspended, but Church C initiated a rich and compact online spiritual program from morning until night via its ministry app.
Pastor H introduced that during the lockdown, the church broadcasted morning prayers from 5:30 to 6:00. From 8:00 to 9:00, Bible studies tailored to believers of different fellowship groups were conducted during the week. At 12 pm, all staff joined a reading activity. At 2 p.m., a special live prayer meeting was on air. All participants could type their prayer requests in the chat box, and the pastor would quantitatively extract the requests according to their priorities and pray for them. In the evening, the church would hold two live evening prayers at 8 and 9, respectively.
“Sometimes reading out the requests alone was tiresome for my throat, and it would be more so after saying all the prayers for them. However, we could not stop; we must stick to it,” Pastor H said.
For Church C, which has less than 10 preachers, uninterrupted online leadership during the lockdown was full of unspeakable challenges. Yet all preachers, including Pastor H, never gave up. “This is the only job we could do during the pandemic. There was no other way to gather.”
In order to ensure that there was no shortage of believers, in addition to daily online pastoral leadership, several pastors did the most the rest of the time by calling believers one by one and taking them to online spiritual activities.
“Many believers couldn’t see each other during the lockdown, so there was no motivation to attend the services. If the church didn’t constantly contact them for attending online services, they would really become ‘lost sheep’.”
While providing necessary intercession support for believers, the church also used online spiritual time to teach believers how to establish a true and intimate relationship with God through prayers and find a way to regain strength in struggles.
Pastor H said that in online leadership, pastors would teach believers the structure of prayers based on the Lord’s Prayer. The teaching started with personal daily food and gradually grew to include praying for the things of the family of God and the salvation of more souls. The church would also keep audio or video recordings of their online sessions as a witness to the development of the church and the spiritual growth of believers.
“Through continuous online spiritual study, believers’ prayers have become much more mature, and increasingly, they start to pray boldly.” To the delight of pastors, through the revival of prayers, an increasing number of believers began to give full play to their gifts and take up service positions.
In the middle and ending periods of the pandemic, Church C added praise and sharing sessions online to encourage everyone to respond to the Lord’s love.
Taking online praise as an example, Pastor H introduced that before the every-day morning prayer meeting, the church would coordinate the believers who spontaneously signed up for praise service to open their own cameras and offer preparatory praise.
As for the sharing meeting, in addition to the conventional verbal sharing, the church carried out sharing activities with the characteristics of different fellowship groups. For sororities that paid more attention to parent-child families, the content would be interspersed with the exchange of life skills in addition to the sharing of grace. For the youth fellowship that paid attention to speculation, the sharing meeting was more about discussing hot topics combined with faith.
In the spring of 2023, as restrictions eased, localities gradually resumed normal orders, and Church C has not put down the position of online ministry. The main practice is still traditional on-the-spot gathering, while online ministry is used as an auxiliary means.
“Thanks to online ministry, the number of decreasing believers can be said to be very small due to the pandemic in the past three years. Now nearly 40% of believers have participated in our service groups, and the vitality of the church has improved dramatically,” Pastor H shared with cheer.
What is even more amazing is that with the Internet spanning geographical space, more hungry souls in different places have heard the gospel.
According to church data, during the pandemic control period, the pastors of Church C lead online prayers for believers hundreds of thousands of times, with the total number of participants in online spiritual activities exceeding hundreds of thousands. The average number of people who entered the live broadcast room to participate in online prayers every day basically remained at around 1,000. Among them, at a New Year’s prayer meeting, the number of people in the live broadcast room exceeded 5,000 in just one night. Moreover, believers from other places and even other provinces who participated in online prayers and worship accounted for more than half of the total.
“If there was no Internet, our church might have remained just as a grass-roots church with two or three hundred people, but thanks to the Internet, we can unite thousands of believers in prayer and worship together in the cyber space, which is really beyond our imagination.” Pastor H is increasingly determined to continue the online ministry.
Despite the resumption of in-person gatherings, there are endless rumors in churches around the world that believers are slack in returning to physical worship because they are used to listening to sermons online. However, in Pastor H’s view, the causes of spiritual slacking are complicated, but they can never be attributed to the Internet alone, let alone giving up online ministry completely. On the contrary, the church should reflect on whether it only provides information on the platform, but there is a flaw in the care and guidance for believers, so as to improve it.
In her view, the Holy Spirit has been working without any restrictions or boundaries, and the Internet can also break the boundaries of time and space. “Therefore, the church needs to work hard to explore and make the Internet an auxiliary and extension of ministry, transforming it into a channel for the greater operation of the Holy Spirit, and ensuring that the gospel genuinely reaches the places touched by the Internet.”
Although the capital investment of Church C in webcasting has gradually increased in the past two years, Pastor H views that this investment is “spent wisely” and is willing to pay more attention to it.
- Translated by Charlie Li
近年来，网络极大改变了人们的日常生活方式，诸如购物，通讯，如今只要在手机上轻轻一触，即可足不出户地实现。尤其是疫情三年中，互联网成为了连接起许多生命及心灵孤岛的“赛博桥梁”。
越来越多牧者在寻求高新技术带来的牧养方式革新。近期，华北的一位牧者和中国一网络基督教报纸福音时报分享了 教堂依托网络开展精细化牧养。
C教堂位于华北某地市的近郊县区，是该区域中心堂。除照顾本堂三百出头的信徒以外，教牧同工们还需要牧养关顾到周边区域十余个基层聚会点的上千信徒。
2020年疫情之初，暂停了实地聚会，但C教堂通过在线牧养平台，开设了由早至晚，丰盛紧凑的线上灵修盛宴。
H牧师介绍，居家封控期间，教会每天清晨5点半便开始直播晨祷活动，6点钟开始早祷。随后在上午8点至9点期间，在周间面向不同团契的信徒开展查经课程；中午12点整，是全员参与的读经活动；而下午从14点开始，是专场的直播代祷会，所有信徒都可以将自己的代祷题目输入在聊天框中，牧师则会按照轻重缓急，定量抽取代祷事项，为其进行祷告；而到了晚上，教会又会分别在20点、21点分别举行两场直播晚祷会。
“有时侯光是念信徒的祷告题目就快嗓子冒烟了，挨个为大家祷告完那更是眼冒金星。但是我们不能停，必须坚持下去。”
对于传道同工还不足10位的C教堂而言，封控期间不间断的线上带领充满难以言说的挑战。但是包括H牧师在内，所有传道人从来没有打退堂鼓的念头。“这是疫情期间我们能做的唯一工作，否则根本没有办法聚拢羊群。”
为了保证弟兄姊妹“一个也不能少”，C教堂的几位牧者除了每天的线上牧养带领以外，其余时间做的最多的一件事就挨个向信徒打电话，将他们带到线上灵修活动当中。
“不少信徒在封控期间见不到真人，本就没什么动力参加聚会。如果教会再不联系他们，让他们得到牧养，那就真成‘迷羊’了。”
在为信徒提供必要的代祷支持同时，教会还借助线上灵修的时间，带领信徒学习自己用祷告与神建立真实亲密的关系，在争战中找到重新得力的路径。
H牧师称，线上带领过程中，牧者们会以主祷文为根基，教导信徒祷告的结构。从而帮助大家从起初只是为了个人日用饮食祈求，逐渐成长到能够为了神家的事以及更多灵魂得救去代求。而教会还会把他们线上每一次的祷告的音频或视频录制保留下来，作为教会发展以及信徒灵命成长的见证。
“借着线上不间断的灵修学习，现在弟兄姊妹的祷告变得成熟了不少，越来越多人敢放胆开口祷告了。”更令牧者们欣喜的是，借着祷告的复兴，越来越多信徒开始发挥各自恩赐，走上侍奉岗位。
而疫情中后期，C教堂在线上增设了赞美及分享会环节，鼓励大家回应主爱。
以线上赞美为例，H牧师介绍，在每天晨祷会之前，教会会协调自发报名参与赞美服侍的信徒打开各自镜头，献上预备赞美。
而至于分享会，除了常规的话语亮光分享之外，教会结合不同团契小组的特点开展了分享活动。对于更加关注亲子家庭的姊妹会，内容则会在恩典分享之余，穿插生活小技巧的交流。而对于注重思辨的青年团契，分享会则更多是围绕热点话题结合信仰进行讨论……
进入2023年春，随着疫情防控政策放开，各地陆续恢复正常聚会秩序，C教堂也依旧没有放下网络牧养这块阵地。而是一方面以回归传统线下牧养模式为主导，另一方面，将线上牧养作为辅助牧养手段。
“多亏了网络牧养，这几年我们堂因为疫情流失的信徒可以说微乎其微。而且现在有近4成信徒都参与到了我们的服侍组，教会活力还提升了不少。”H牧师颇感欣慰。
更奇妙的是，藉由互联网跨越了地域空间，更多异地渴慕的灵魂听到了福音。
据教堂统计，疫情封控期间，C教堂牧者在线为信徒代祷共计达到数十万次，而参与线上灵修活动的总人次也突破了数十万。平均每天进入直播间参加线上祷告的人数也基本维持在千人左右。其中，在某次跨年祷告会上，仅一晚上直播间的人数便突破了5000人。其中，慕名前来参加线上祷告敬拜的外地乃至外省的信徒占到了总数的一多半。
“如果没有互联网，我们堂可能终归到底仅仅也就是个两三百人的‘草根’教会。但是因为有了网络，我们能够在云端带领上千群羊一同祷告敬拜，这实在是我们不敢想象的。” H牧师愈发坚定了要将线上牧养继续坚持下去的决心。
尽管实地聚会恢复之后，各地教会关于信徒因习惯于线上听道而对回归实地敬拜产生懈怠的传闻不绝于耳。但在H牧师看来，导致信徒灵命懈怠的成因复杂，但绝不能单单归咎于互联网，更不能就此完全放弃线上牧养。反而，教会则更应该反思，是否只是提供讲台信息，而对于信徒的关怀与带领出现了纰漏，以此改进。
在她看来，圣灵一直是不受任何限制、无边界地工作着，而互联网也能够打破时空间的界限。“所以教会更需要努力探索，让互联网成为牧养的辅助与延伸。成为圣灵更大运行的通道，让福音真正传到互联网所触及之地。”
尽管C教堂近两年来在网络直播上的资金投入逐渐增大，但是H牧师却认为这份投入是“花在了刀刃上”，她愿意为此付出更多精力。
牧者专访：巧借互联网让精细化牧养行至水深之处
The Internet has greatly changed people’s daily lives in recent years. We can conveniently shop or communicate from a click away on a mobile phone without leaving home. In the three-year pandemic, the Internet has especially become a “cyber bridge,” connecting numerous isolated souls.
An increasing number of pastors are exploring innovative approaches to their ministry through adopting online platforms. Recently, the Gospel Times interviewed a pastor in North China, who shared how her church relied on the Internet to do their ministry.
Church C is located in the suburban county of a city in North China, serving as the central location of the region. In addition to taking care of the 300 believers, the pastoral staff also needs to look after thousands of believers from more than ten grass-roots gathering points in the surrounding areas.
At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, on-the-spot gatherings were suspended, but Church C initiated a rich and compact online spiritual program from morning until night via its ministry app.
Pastor H introduced that during the lockdown, the church broadcasted morning prayers from 5:30 to 6:00. From 8:00 to 9:00, Bible studies tailored to believers of different fellowship groups were conducted during the week. At 12 pm, all staff joined a reading activity. At 2 p.m., a special live prayer meeting was on air. All participants could type their prayer requests in the chat box, and the pastor would quantitatively extract the requests according to their priorities and pray for them. In the evening, the church would hold two live evening prayers at 8 and 9, respectively.
“Sometimes reading out the requests alone was tiresome for my throat, and it would be more so after saying all the prayers for them. However, we could not stop; we must stick to it,” Pastor H said.
For Church C, which has less than 10 preachers, uninterrupted online leadership during the lockdown was full of unspeakable challenges. Yet all preachers, including Pastor H, never gave up. “This is the only job we could do during the pandemic. There was no other way to gather.”
In order to ensure that there was no shortage of believers, in addition to daily online pastoral leadership, several pastors did the most the rest of the time by calling believers one by one and taking them to online spiritual activities.
“Many believers couldn’t see each other during the lockdown, so there was no motivation to attend the services. If the church didn’t constantly contact them for attending online services, they would really become ‘lost sheep’.”
While providing necessary intercession support for believers, the church also used online spiritual time to teach believers how to establish a true and intimate relationship with God through prayers and find a way to regain strength in struggles.
Pastor H said that in online leadership, pastors would teach believers the structure of prayers based on the Lord’s Prayer. The teaching started with personal daily food and gradually grew to include praying for the things of the family of God and the salvation of more souls. The church would also keep audio or video recordings of their online sessions as a witness to the development of the church and the spiritual growth of believers.
“Through continuous online spiritual study, believers’ prayers have become much more mature, and increasingly, they start to pray boldly.” To the delight of pastors, through the revival of prayers, an increasing number of believers began to give full play to their gifts and take up service positions.
In the middle and ending periods of the pandemic, Church C added praise and sharing sessions online to encourage everyone to respond to the Lord’s love.
Taking online praise as an example, Pastor H introduced that before the every-day morning prayer meeting, the church would coordinate the believers who spontaneously signed up for praise service to open their own cameras and offer preparatory praise.
As for the sharing meeting, in addition to the conventional verbal sharing, the church carried out sharing activities with the characteristics of different fellowship groups. For sororities that paid more attention to parent-child families, the content would be interspersed with the exchange of life skills in addition to the sharing of grace. For the youth fellowship that paid attention to speculation, the sharing meeting was more about discussing hot topics combined with faith.
In the spring of 2023, as restrictions eased, localities gradually resumed normal orders, and Church C has not put down the position of online ministry. The main practice is still traditional on-the-spot gathering, while online ministry is used as an auxiliary means.
“Thanks to online ministry, the number of decreasing believers can be said to be very small due to the pandemic in the past three years. Now nearly 40% of believers have participated in our service groups, and the vitality of the church has improved dramatically,” Pastor H shared with cheer.
What is even more amazing is that with the Internet spanning geographical space, more hungry souls in different places have heard the gospel.
According to church data, during the pandemic control period, the pastors of Church C lead online prayers for believers hundreds of thousands of times, with the total number of participants in online spiritual activities exceeding hundreds of thousands. The average number of people who entered the live broadcast room to participate in online prayers every day basically remained at around 1,000. Among them, at a New Year’s prayer meeting, the number of people in the live broadcast room exceeded 5,000 in just one night. Moreover, believers from other places and even other provinces who participated in online prayers and worship accounted for more than half of the total.
“If there was no Internet, our church might have remained just as a grass-roots church with two or three hundred people, but thanks to the Internet, we can unite thousands of believers in prayer and worship together in the cyber space, which is really beyond our imagination.” Pastor H is increasingly determined to continue the online ministry.
Despite the resumption of in-person gatherings, there are endless rumors in churches around the world that believers are slack in returning to physical worship because they are used to listening to sermons online. However, in Pastor H’s view, the causes of spiritual slacking are complicated, but they can never be attributed to the Internet alone, let alone giving up online ministry completely. On the contrary, the church should reflect on whether it only provides information on the platform, but there is a flaw in the care and guidance for believers, so as to improve it.
In her view, the Holy Spirit has been working without any restrictions or boundaries, and the Internet can also break the boundaries of time and space. “Therefore, the church needs to work hard to explore and make the Internet an auxiliary and extension of ministry, transforming it into a channel for the greater operation of the Holy Spirit, and ensuring that the gospel genuinely reaches the places touched by the Internet.”
Although the capital investment of Church C in webcasting has gradually increased in the past two years, Pastor H views that this investment is “spent wisely” and is willing to pay more attention to it.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Interview With Pastor: Enhancing Pastoral Ministry on the Web
