Once upon a time, the Chinese church was in a golden period of development, with many people joining the church and hardly anyone leaving. However, nowadays, the loss of believers has become a problem facing many Chinese churches.
Reverend Liu, who has long served in a city church in South China, believed that the fundamental reason for the loss of believers lay with pastors and the church and that it was necessary to solve this problem.
He declared that pastors must return to the calling God has given us. "If pastors and ministers cannot live a praying life or diligently study the Bible, preaching will have no power. If the sermon is ineffective, believers will leave."
Nowadays, many Christians are hopping from one church to another to have a look, and in the end, they may choose one church. Looking at many churches, some decide not to go to any church, as the latter may have many problems. So they just listen to sermons online, a bit here and there
According to Liu’s knowledge, the vast majority of Christians still want to establish genuine connections with other believers in onsite churches which may even have problems.
Pastor Liu reminds those believers worshipping online that they couldn’t pray with others in fellowship or serve others in virtual sermons which could also benefit them. Merely hearing a sermon from a pastor could not be sufficient.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
曾几何时，中国教会处于黄金发展期，那个时候的很多教会几乎都是“只进不出”的情况——只有进到教会的信徒，几乎没有人会离开教会。然而现在信徒流失成为了很多中国教会都需要面对的问题。
在南方一所城市教会长期服事的刘牧师认为，信徒之所以流失，根本原因在于牧者和教会，需要从他们开始着手解决这个问题。
刘认为作为牧者和传道人，一定要重新回到上帝给我们的呼召里面。“如果牧者和传道人不能够带头祷告，不带头认真研读圣经，那讲道就不可能有力量。一所教会的讲道没有力量的话，那信徒肯定要跑。”
现在就出现了很多基督徒这所教会跑一跑、那所教会看一看，最后可能挑了一所教会。也有看了很多教会以后，发现这些教会都有很多问题，最后干脆决定哪所教会都不去了；就在网络上听道，这里听一点，那里看一点。
就刘牧师所知道的，绝大多数基督徒还是很想跟信徒建立真实的连接，也想要去实地的教会的，即使实地的教会可能确实存在问题。
刘牧师说要提醒那些云信徒：虽然在网络上听一些牧者讲道，可能得到了造就，但是你没有跟别人一起祷告、过团契生活，另外也没有机会去服事别人。而只不过是在网络上听牧者讲了一篇道而已。
Once upon a time, the Chinese church was in a golden period of development, with many people joining the church and hardly anyone leaving. However, nowadays, the loss of believers has become a problem facing many Chinese churches.
Reverend Liu, who has long served in a city church in South China, believed that the fundamental reason for the loss of believers lay with pastors and the church and that it was necessary to solve this problem.
He declared that pastors must return to the calling God has given us. "If pastors and ministers cannot live a praying life or diligently study the Bible, preaching will have no power. If the sermon is ineffective, believers will leave."
Nowadays, many Christians are hopping from one church to another to have a look, and in the end, they may choose one church. Looking at many churches, some decide not to go to any church, as the latter may have many problems. So they just listen to sermons online, a bit here and there
According to Liu’s knowledge, the vast majority of Christians still want to establish genuine connections with other believers in onsite churches which may even have problems.
Pastor Liu reminds those believers worshipping online that they couldn’t pray with others in fellowship or serve others in virtual sermons which could also benefit them. Merely hearing a sermon from a pastor could not be sufficient.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
