In order to solve the shepherding problem during the period of suspension of onsite gatherings, a church in Zhejiang adopts the method of providing online live stream services and conducting face-to-face gatherings in groups at home to feed its flock.
In the first week after the church in lockdown, Juexi Church, Xiangshan Country, Ningbo City immediately started online and in-person ministry synchronously, and many staff from the multimedia group of the church devoted themselves to serving, according to the website of Juexi Church.
Because a large number of elderly believers in the church do not know how to use smartphones, middle-aged believers are easily distracted by things, and young believers lack awe and tend to be lazy, Juexi Church has started a new way of shepherding. When it’s time for the Sunday service, the group members of the church get together at a believer’s family house nearby, where they can attend the live stream Sunday Service through TV projection.
Adopting this mode, believers expressed their satisfaction saying that it was similar to the face-to-face gatherings, especially watching the live stream Sunday services with a larger size TV.
This kind of shepherding is inseparable from the support of the live-streaming platform. The church obtained the certificate of "Internet Religious Information Service License" on June 27.
The church says it also organizes Christians to join online daily devotionals, and the pastoral staff is thinking about how to carry out online discipleship courses to improve pastoral ministry.
- Translated by Livingstones
