Faced with a new outbreak of COVID-19, some of China’s churches, whether suspended or still meeting, are bracing themselves to continue to provide pastoral leadership to their believers.
Gospel Times, a Beijing-based Chinese Christian news website, recently interviewed three pastors in Beihai (Guangxi Province), Dalian (Liaoning Province), and Qitaihe (Heilongjiang Province), via the Internet to talk about their work in the face of the pandemic.
I. Beihai Church in Guangxi
Beihai Church has repeatedly stressed that all believers should pay attention to their health and safety. The church was holding on-site meetings in accordance with the pandemic prevention procedures, but on January 16, 2021, Beihai Municipal CCC&TSPM notified all churches in the city to suspend their in-person meetings. Before this, the church combined offline and online meetings, ready to suspend on-site meetings at any time.
The church has been preparing for the suspension of meetings since last week when it launched a new WeChat group. In these three groups, every day the chief pastor and all the preachers lead the Bible reading, prayer, praise, and sharing. The church has a plan for the suspension of its meetings. There are also preliminary plans and measures for things like how to receive Holy Communion, how to preach and praise God, online meeting procedures, carrying out pastoral services, and these tasks are specific to each of the pastoral workers. Premarital counseling, for example, must be offered online. The church’s plan is to create custom-made tutorials that teach biblical perspectives on love, the importance of marriage, family relationships and responsibilities, and how to establish a Christian family.
As soon as church staff heard of the new outbreak, they kept an eye on how the pandemic was trending. When they saw the news that churches in Hebei, Beijing, Shanxi, and other places were suspending their meetings, they began to prepare to stop their meetings. Their work then turned to counsel, elimination of fear, and correct pandemic prevention. The chief pastor told “small stories and great truths” in the WeChat group every day to guide the believers.
January 17, 2021 was the first online Sunday service of Beihai Church after the suspension of gatherings. Through video, they added pre-prepared singing by the choir and the sermon was webcast. Four sermons were arranged for that day.
“In short, we are trying our best to make sure that believers have peace during this crisis, remain unshaken in the face of the pandemic, and that everyone can live a normal life of faith in Christ and in the church.”
II. The church in Jinsha New Area of Qitaihe, Heilongjiang Province
Although the church has not met for more than a year, online pastoral activities, including sermons, praise, and testimony services are taking place. It has mainly adopted eight measures and methods.
First, a number of cell groups and prayer groups were established online for training, and most of the believers in the church were organized online in the groups.
Second, sermons continue to be published on two online platforms, led by the senior pastor of the church and associates. Pastors and fellow workers greet and bless believers through the Internet.
Third, the church promotes the program of “the Bible accompanies you every day”, and organizes believers online to read the Bible every day, review and share daily according to the plan. They have been doing this for more than 270 days.
Fourth, church staff continue to run the WeChat public account of “Qitaihe Jinsha Church”, transmit the church’s information, and lead the believers in spiritual practice. The current columns include “Love in Action”, “Patriotism and Loving Christian, Honoring God and Benefiting People”, “Remembering the Original Intention and Remembering the Mission”, “Church Trends”, “Scripture Reading Plan”, “Review Yesterday”, etc.
Fifth, before the second pandemic and before the “ban” issued by the relevant municipal authorities, they began to visit and express sympathy to the elderly, the sick, the disabled and the needy.
Sixth, during Christmas and New Year’s Day, the chief pastor, together with pastoral workers, sent praise for God, prayers, and blessings online from the church in accordance with epidemic prevention procedures.
Seventh, the church has been closed in accordance with the requirements. The chief pastor and the pastoral staff take turns on duty.
Eighth, the leaders of the church’s pastoral staff, groups, and fellowships contact, communicate and study through network meetings, convey the instructions of the leading departments at all levels and keep the information unimpeded.
“All public meetings of the church have been suspended. Online learning, prayer, and preaching are all going on. The church will continue to be obedient to the government and to God. We will continue to love our country, love our religion, and honor God and benefit people.”
III. Lvshun Shuishiying Church, Dalian, Liaoning
Dalian Shuishiying (“Marine Camp”) was given this name because naval troops of the Qing Dynasty were stationed there in 1715. Now it has become the center of political, economic, and cultural activities in Lvshun.
The pandemic in Dalian has now reached a major turning point. No new patients have been confirmed for more than 10 days, and key areas such as Jinpu New District have been initially “unsealed”. Even so, in accordance with the city’s notice, the Shuishiying Church, except for the duty of the fellow workers, continued to suspend in-person meetings. Each believer in the church is required to register including name, telephone number, and ID card, and report to the relevant departments.
But the meetings didn’t stop. They continued online. Dalian has experienced three attacks of COVID-19, and the Shuishiying Church has also been tested and gradually accumulated the experience of online pastoral care. The original two network WeChat groups have been operating normally. Most of the believers in the church receive pastoral care in the group, including Bible reading, prayer, preaching, sharing, and times of praise. There is a sermon group that has a group regulation: no one is allowed to post or forward links in the group except for sermons.
The senior pastor of the church sends out Bible words, blessings, and exhortations to believers online every day. The pastors preach on Sunday. At the same time, the WeChat groups also forward the audio and video messages of the pastors’ testimonies of the Dalian CCC&TSPM.
As for the situation that some elderly brothers and sisters cannot listen to or watch the online gathering information because they cannot access the Internet, the church will mobilize family members to help solve the problem and do a good job of online pastoral coverage as far as possible.
As the Spring Festival is approaching, the church has planned to visit the believers in need of help according to the requirements of pandemic prevention and send support to the brothers and sisters who are sick and disabled.
The church said, “There is a problem: There is a very small number of old brothers and sisters who either don’t have a smartphone or don’t have access to the Internet. They don’t have access to the Internet, and that is something we need to address.”
(The original article is published by Gospel Times.)
- Translated by Karen Luo
