The sound of praise with local features was clearer in the air as I got closer to the church’s courtyard through the open gate. A Christian woman next to me handed me the sheet music in her hand as I stepped into the chapel and sat down, and she continued to read it on her phone.
I was at my hometown church's Saturday afternoon praise and prayer meeting. It was the Spring Festival, and everyone was singing hymns about saying goodbye to the past year and welcoming the new year, as well as gratitude and blessings. Each song was sung twice, with some unfamiliar hymns sung several times more while listening to the music.
After two hours of praise, the congregation began to pray for their own spiritual lives, for confessing their weaknesses before God, and for spreading the gospel. At five p.m., when the sun set and the temperature dropped, the church staff turned up the heat to prepare for the following Sunday's service.
This is a rural church founded around 2010 that had previously relocated to various spots, including a few years in the home of a warm-hearted believer and several years renting an unused villager's house. After the village grew, a sports square, basketball courts, supermarkets, and other amenities were constructed. The church also received land approval from the local authorities and started construction.
My last visit was before COVID-19, and many familiar faces from my childhood were not present. I remember there was a period when folks congregated at the elder's house. The house was full of people as everyone was seated on the kang (a traditional heated platform used for daily living and sleeping in northern China's severe winters), with others sitting on stools. Most of the congregants are young and middle-aged Christian women and a few Christian men, many of whom have left the church, some working elsewhere and others leaving to care for their grandchildren. For the first time, I could feel the impact of the migrant labor wave on the church, as there were very few young people left.
In recent years, with the implementation of replacing coal with electricity in rural areas, every family, including the church, has used electricity for heating. Due to elderly believers' cold intolerance, the church bought an air conditioner as supplementary heating. Not long ago, a larger rural church nearby replaced its seats, and the old ones were sent here. Everyone felt more comfortable than they had on the prior iron chairs.
Compared to hardware, church software is advancing. My mother is one of three co-workers at the church, and she has to take turns preaching on Sundays. She believes she does not have the talent for preaching. The positive side is that a church in the county three kilometers away provides them with plenty of spiritual resources and a sermon collection. So she led everyone in reading the sermons together. They also have the Westminster Catechisms, Psalms, several hymns of praise materials, and creed pamphlets. In addition to Sunday services, prayer and praise meetings are held every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, as well as Bible studies on Thursdays.
The gatherings did not always flow as planned. The worship and praise leader finally arrived and quickly taught a few songs. Only half of the Bible reading plan was completed in the morning, with the remainder done in the afternoon. However, congregations place a high priority on certain basic principles. For example, a believer's relative came to the church and wanted to share. After a discussion, the church staff decided that the pulpit should not be handed over easily. The sharer's church and religious situation should be assessed first.
In rural areas, there are very few Christian men, so a large number of Christian women have husbands who do not believe in the Lord. The bright side is that they have no objections to the wives attending church, even if the husbands themselves do not follow Jesus. On the contrary, some disagree with their wives' attendance at church, which leads to some spouses progressively leaving the church. The church elder mentioned that his son, who lives in the city, married a non-believer who opposed him attending gatherings. He encouraged single Christians to marry someone in the Lord.
On this visit, I noticed that several aunts who followed the Lord with my mother are still active members of the church despite their advanced ages. It is encouraging that, in recent years, middle-aged people have joined. My mother said that they are believers in the nearby rural areas, where people from other places have moved in recent years as development has progressed.
I believe that, as a result of urbanization and other societal changes, rural churches are sometimes lush and verdant, but also struggling. However, as long as the Holy Spirit blows like a spring breeze, new life will emerge.
- Translated by Poppy Chan
教会大门开着，靠近院子，带有地方特色的赞美声声入耳。进门坐下，旁边的姐妹把手中的曲谱递给我，她自己拿出手机看电子版。
这是家乡教会周六下午的赞美祷告会，正逢春节，大家唱的也都是辞旧迎新、感恩祝福的诗歌。每首两遍，不熟的就听听音频，多唱几遍。
赞美2个小时后，大家开始祷告。为自己的属灵生命祷告，在神面前告白自己的软弱，求让更多人认识福音。5点，日头平西，气温开始下降，教会同工调好暖气温度，为第二天的主日礼拜做好预备。
这个教会是一所乡村教会，于2010年左右建成。此前，教会辗转多地，有几年在热心的信徒家，有几年租用闲置的村民家。乡村发展起来后开始建设健身广场、篮球场、超市等，教会也得到村委会批地，开始建设。
上次来这里还是疫情前，那个时候就发现小时候很多熟悉的面孔已不在。我还记得曾经有段时间是在现在的长老家里聚会，大家坐在北方的炕头上，有的也坐在凳子上，满满一屋子。大部分是中青年的姐妹，也有几个弟兄在。现在那批人好多都不在教会了，有的前往外地打工，有的去外地带孙子。年轻人也很少了，第一次深刻地感受到打工潮对教会的影响。
这几年，随着乡村煤改电的推行，家家户户换上了电暖，教会也换了电暖。因老年信徒畏寒，教会又斥资买了一台空调，作为补充供暖。前不久，临近一个大些的乡村教堂更换了椅子，淘汰下来的这批就到了这边教会，大家觉得坐着比之前的铁椅子舒服多了。
与硬件相比，教会的软件也在提升。母亲是教会的三个同工之一，主日也需要轮流讲道，她自认为自己没有讲道恩赐。但好的一点是，3公里之外的县城教会给他们提供了很多属灵资源，也有专门的讲道集。所以她就带领大家一起读讲道集。此外他们还有威斯敏特信仰问答，诗篇集，数种赞美诗本，也有一些信经等的小册子。除了主日礼拜，每周六、周日下午是祷告赞美会，每周四也有查经会。
聚会有时候也是即兴的，教唱的姐妹好不容易来了，就赶紧教唱几首。上午读经读了一半，下午就想把剩下的几章也读一下。但对于一些基本原则，大家又很看重。一个信徒的亲戚来教会想要分享，几个同工商议后觉得讲台不能随便交出去。要先了解对方所在的教会及其信仰背景的情况。
在乡村，男信徒是很少的，所以一大部分女信徒的丈夫是不信主的。好一点是不信却也不反对，不好的对妻子去教会非常反感，有些妻子也因此就慢慢不去教会。教会的长老谈到自己城里的儿子娶了不信主的儿媳，反对其去聚会。他语重心长地告诉单身基督徒一定要找主内的人结婚。
这次来，几个和母亲一起信主的阿姨都开始迈入老年，但他们仍是教会的中流砥柱。令人欣喜的是这几年也有中年人加入，听母亲说是附近新农村的信徒。前些年附近设置了新农村，有外地人迁过来。
我想随着社会城镇化以及各种形态变化着，乡村教会有时候郁郁葱葱，有时候也好似苟延残喘。但只等圣灵如春风吹来，就又会迸发出新的生命力。
春节行:家乡教会的变迁发展
The sound of praise with local features was clearer in the air as I got closer to the church’s courtyard through the open gate. A Christian woman next to me handed me the sheet music in her hand as I stepped into the chapel and sat down, and she continued to read it on her phone.
I was at my hometown church's Saturday afternoon praise and prayer meeting. It was the Spring Festival, and everyone was singing hymns about saying goodbye to the past year and welcoming the new year, as well as gratitude and blessings. Each song was sung twice, with some unfamiliar hymns sung several times more while listening to the music.
After two hours of praise, the congregation began to pray for their own spiritual lives, for confessing their weaknesses before God, and for spreading the gospel. At five p.m., when the sun set and the temperature dropped, the church staff turned up the heat to prepare for the following Sunday's service.
This is a rural church founded around 2010 that had previously relocated to various spots, including a few years in the home of a warm-hearted believer and several years renting an unused villager's house. After the village grew, a sports square, basketball courts, supermarkets, and other amenities were constructed. The church also received land approval from the local authorities and started construction.
My last visit was before COVID-19, and many familiar faces from my childhood were not present. I remember there was a period when folks congregated at the elder's house. The house was full of people as everyone was seated on the kang (a traditional heated platform used for daily living and sleeping in northern China's severe winters), with others sitting on stools. Most of the congregants are young and middle-aged Christian women and a few Christian men, many of whom have left the church, some working elsewhere and others leaving to care for their grandchildren. For the first time, I could feel the impact of the migrant labor wave on the church, as there were very few young people left.
In recent years, with the implementation of replacing coal with electricity in rural areas, every family, including the church, has used electricity for heating. Due to elderly believers' cold intolerance, the church bought an air conditioner as supplementary heating. Not long ago, a larger rural church nearby replaced its seats, and the old ones were sent here. Everyone felt more comfortable than they had on the prior iron chairs.
Compared to hardware, church software is advancing. My mother is one of three co-workers at the church, and she has to take turns preaching on Sundays. She believes she does not have the talent for preaching. The positive side is that a church in the county three kilometers away provides them with plenty of spiritual resources and a sermon collection. So she led everyone in reading the sermons together. They also have the Westminster Catechisms, Psalms, several hymns of praise materials, and creed pamphlets. In addition to Sunday services, prayer and praise meetings are held every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, as well as Bible studies on Thursdays.
The gatherings did not always flow as planned. The worship and praise leader finally arrived and quickly taught a few songs. Only half of the Bible reading plan was completed in the morning, with the remainder done in the afternoon. However, congregations place a high priority on certain basic principles. For example, a believer's relative came to the church and wanted to share. After a discussion, the church staff decided that the pulpit should not be handed over easily. The sharer's church and religious situation should be assessed first.
In rural areas, there are very few Christian men, so a large number of Christian women have husbands who do not believe in the Lord. The bright side is that they have no objections to the wives attending church, even if the husbands themselves do not follow Jesus. On the contrary, some disagree with their wives' attendance at church, which leads to some spouses progressively leaving the church. The church elder mentioned that his son, who lives in the city, married a non-believer who opposed him attending gatherings. He encouraged single Christians to marry someone in the Lord.
On this visit, I noticed that several aunts who followed the Lord with my mother are still active members of the church despite their advanced ages. It is encouraging that, in recent years, middle-aged people have joined. My mother said that they are believers in the nearby rural areas, where people from other places have moved in recent years as development has progressed.
I believe that, as a result of urbanization and other societal changes, rural churches are sometimes lush and verdant, but also struggling. However, as long as the Holy Spirit blows like a spring breeze, new life will emerge.
- Translated by Poppy Chan
Spring Festival Homecoming: My Rural Hometown Church's Change
