A couple of days ago, CCD published an article "Touching Testimony: Grassroots Preacher Continues to Serve Despite Sickness" telling that Brother Ru Zongren, a grassroots preacher Anhui can't afford a treatment, serving in a rural church for over a decade. Ru's situation is not uncommon in China. A portion of seminary graduates who used to serve in grassroots churches choose to work outside the church.
Instead of leaving the serving posts and going out to work, some preachers choose to serve in economically active places such as Guangzhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and others which keep up with the times. Preacher Li, who is serving in a church in northern Jiangsu, is one of them.
Li was called to Anhui Theological Seminary (ATS) for training. Two years later, he joined an existing class in Nanjing Union Theological Seminary (NUTS). Since graduation, he had visited many churches in Guangzhou, Jiangsu, and now serves in northern Jiangsu. To his knowledge, there are many theological students and preachers in Anhui churches, and the majority of students at NUTS are from Anhui churches. ATS graduates usually return to local churches to serve, while those who study in NUTS frequently go to more active places to serve.
There were several fellow workers who went to ATS with Li, and the church cannot afford for all of them to return to serve. His wife's home church is a rural church in northern Anhui with 60-70 believers. However, several members of that church have graduated from ATS and two from NUTS. "If they all return, the church cannot support them."
Li knew a preacher who, after graduation from NUTS, was considering whether to return to his home church, a rural church in Changfeng County, Hefei. Some tried to talk him out of going back because it would be a waste of his talents.
What stopped these preachers from returning to their home churches are mostly concerns on how to support themselves. "The preachers left in Anhui mostly come from rural areas. They can't go back even if the want to, and only those experiencing the problem know what it's like. Even in our dreams we think about the little things in our home town." Because of this outflow of preachers, believers in Anhui lack good pastors, especially in rural areas.
How to solve the issue of support
"Preachers in rural areas live poorly compared to those in urban areas." According to pastor Huang, who served in Anhui for many years, few fellow workers or preachers have wages beyond a small stipend, and it is a common problem in all of Fuyang region. Situations like this exist everywhere in Anhui.
How can this problem be solved? In his opinion, there are a few ways. One, CCC&TSPM can make overall arrangements to support preachers. Churches with insufficient financial abilities will be planned by CCC&TSPM, so that preachers can receive proper wages. Two, preachers should communicate directly with the leadership of the churches. Churches with sufficient finances shouldn't withhold wages from their preachers. If neither of thee two solutions are feasible, preachers should live with faith that their needs will be met by believers. Preachers can provide means so that believers who feel touched may support them through donations.
Another solution would be to establish a foundation for pastoral workers. CCC&TSPM or church institutions can take the lead to support some grassroots preachers directly. This may also be done directly by groups of believers. Huang gave an example of several believers establishing a foundation in 2012 called the "Nazareth foundation." It has helped nearly 100 grassroots preachers so far. The selection standards, aside from financial need, include commitment to working in the house of God.
The foundation currently only focuses on grassroots preachers in Anhui province, but there are plans to support preachers who start and nourish churches in Gansu and Xinjiang in the future. They hope to be able to participate in the service through providing a little help, so that preachers can feel the love and care of believers in the church.
Of course, the fundamental need is to change the basic ideas in supporting pastors. Fuyang region provides an example. The reason that this problem cannot be resolved is that the local fellow workers in charge of the churches fiscal ideas. "They volunteer for many years thinking that God provides their livelihood even without them taking money from the church."
"These are terrible ideas because full-time and volunteer workers are not the same. Volunteers have family properties, and land, which the full-time workers have not."
Except the workers in charge, believers also need to improve their fiscal thoughts. Believers are not currently aware of the need to support preachers. Most believers are still self-centered, and do not care the preachers, thinking that someone else will care for them. "Believers should be enlightened and guided. They are the ones who suffer from the outflow of preachers, or when preachers cannot serve unworried by finances.
According to Preacher Li, who is currently serving a church North of Jiangsu, rural and urban churches in Anhui must unite their financial and manpower resources to meet the needs and solve the problems facing them. "However, there are few leaders who are so bold and few churches capable would want to share their recourses. Hence is the polarization."
Translated by: Grace Hubl
