In May, Church A in East China announced via its WeChat public account that, in accordance with policy requirements, believers must register with their real name on the church's official website to gain permission to listen to audio sermons through WeChat posts.
The notice includes a detailed registration tutorial, using 13 mobile phone screenshots to explain the steps one by one. These cover how to access the website from a posted article, register using a phone number and password (with password requirements), how to view and secure verification codes, how to retrieve a forgotten password, and how to locate audios after successful registration.
"This will definitely affect people's enthusiasm, especially older brothers and sisters," said Pastor R from the church.
The thoroughness of the tutorial shows that the staff consider all possible issues and questions that elderly believers who are unfamiliar with modern technology might face. Operations that younger people can intuitively figure out without guidance are made overly complicated through the many step-by-step images, which create a sense not of clarity but of hassle. "It's a headache."
Since the pandemic, many churches have been forced or have chosen to embrace livestreaming technology, offering live or recorded services for their congregations. However, for older believers, even simple tasks like turning on a phone, entering a chat group, or clicking a link in a public account article can be daunting. A young pastor from a central church in Wuhan said that their church never adopts livestreaming because the technical threshold is too high for its congregation. "You have to understand that many of them still use unsmart phones."
Similarly, Church A also consists mainly of middle-aged and elderly believers. As China enters an aging society, this phenomenon is particularly evident in churches, which have always focused on marginalized groups. From north to south (Liaoning, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanning, and Fuzhou), elderly believers aged over 70 often make up 30% of the congregation in traditional centrally located churches. Those in their 50s and 60s are considered relatively young.
In this digital age where the Internet serves as the main channel for information, older believers can only glimpse the verge of the trend. Apart from passively receiving information, they are almost unable to use the Internet to explore useful content independently. In the past decade, as the management of religious venues has become more standardized, the distance between their homes and churches has grown, making physical attendance more difficult due to age and declining health. Their longing for accessible digital devotionals surpasses that of the other age groups.
According to Church A's public WeChat account, the average Sunday sermon post receives about 300 views, with a peak of nearly 590. Currently, all sermon reviews before the end of March have been deleted. Some remaining posts lack a "Read the Original Text" link. Through the link to the most recent posts, sermons from the past two weeks can still be accessed. However, for elders who have just learned how to click a link, a new challenge is around the corner.
Pastor R explains that the changes are based on Article 20 of the "Administrative Measures for Internet Religious Information Services", which states: "Those who provide Internet religious information dissemination platform services, should sign an agreement with the registered users of the platform and verify their real identity."
The measures were issued on December 3, 2021, aiming to standardize Internet-based religious information services under principles such as "protecting the legal, stopping the illegal, curbing extremism, resisting infiltration, and combating crime." All applications are required for real-name registrations. This requirement, like displaying user IP addresses, has become widely accepted and is considered necessary to combat online abuse, bullying, infiltration, and more. When believers click on a WeChat link to listen to sermons, their initial real-name registration on WeChat forms the basis of their access.
Why, then, must believers register again on the church's official website to gain access? The key lies in the principle of closed information systems. Pastor R explains that previously, sermon audio files were hosted on other platforms, and links were shared via public accounts. Now, all content is hosted directly on the church's own website. User activity also takes place entirely within that site, avoiding any dissemination of information to third-party, non-religious platforms. Since the church website is a new online platform, believers must register there to use it.
"This is an old rule with a new requirement," Pastor R said. The regulation has always existed, but is now being enforced more comprehensively. Thanks to having already obtained a license to publish religious content online two years ago, it was able to launch its website quickly. "It's like we got a business license long ago but never opened a shop, and now the shop is open."
Previously, besides reading articles via the church's public WeChat account, believers could also access resources through a citywide CC&TSPM-developed app. This app includes sermons from Church A and pastoral content from other churches. Since March 1, 2022, when the new regulations took effect, the city, like several others, independently developed compliant apps in partnership with Christian tech professionals. According to the developers, Sunday livestreams can attract tens of thousands of viewers.
Now, the app requires real-name registration using full names and ID numbers. It has also removed content such as event announcements, church updates, and devotional texts, leaving only livestream links to services.
A product manager at an app development company in City A speculates that this content reduction might be due to stricter enforcement of rules about who is allowed to publish religious content. Although the local CC&TSPM is a legal religious organization, it may not have the same publishing rights as temples. Furthermore, online religious information platforms are supposed to operate as closed systems, meaning that content should not be accessible outside the platform. Passwords for sermon livestreams are one way to enforce this; other types of content may not be as easy to restrict.
The need for passwords to access sermon livestreams is also present in other areas of the province. In a neighboring city, believers from other churches casually comment under an article who provides the liverstream link, "What's the password?"—clearly already used to the requirement of an access code.
Technical developers of the CC&TSPM-developed app in City A declined to comment on the above speculation.
Pastor S from Church X in a neighboring county earlier followed City A's example and developed an independent church app, which greatly enhanced their church's pastoral care and management. It gives believers easy access to church events and devotional resources, with thousands tuning in each time.
Pastor S believes it would be a serious loss if only sermon livestream links were left, because 'believers need daily devotionals.'
A single grain of sand from the times can weigh a thousand pounds on an individual. There is nothing wrong with standardized management; real-name registration aligns with national laws and helps churches manage and protect their content. However, the key lies in how the rules are implemented. How can churches remain compliant while also accommodating the needs and capacities of different groups? For elderly believers, the technical barriers cannot be overcome by a single notice. Raising the threshold a bit can "filter out" some who cannot adapt quickly, potentially disrupting their spiritual growth and care.
What if self-developed apps are no longer usable? Then it's back to the basics. Pastor S believes that a well-established small group system can overcome the barriers created by technology. "There's always a way," he said.
Originally published by the Gospel Times
- Translated by Charlie Li
