Gu Hua is a brother involved in worship ministry. He believes that while some preachers may not have strong educational backgrounds, they can certainly look for ways to make their sermons more compelling and keep the messages they share up-to-date.
Gu Hua, who lives in a city in eastern China, has long served as a musician in the worship ministry. He often serves in different churches and has seen many pastors and pastoral workers. In his opinion, almost all the churches he visited had poor preaching, and the messages preached were not up-to-date.
Gu explains that this is because the preachers employed by many churches are "bivocational ministers" meaning they have their own jobs outside the church and are not paid by the church. They preach in the church only when it is their turn, so many of them prepare their sermons only when they have to preach. In his opinion, such hasty preparation at the last minute is insufficient.
According to Gu's observation, many pastors are not willing to grow or develop themselves. They just preach with what they already know and have been talking about the same things since the 80s and 90s. Therefore, the sermons they preach are not very engaging, and some believers cannot help but fall asleep during the sermon.
Also, many churches fail to retain young believers. This is not because the young generation is rebellious and does not like to go to church, but because the churches are often unable to meet the needs of these young people. Many churches have not prepared for a young generation of believers; from church polity and church life to preaching and worship, none are suitable for young people. As a result, the only group left in these churches are the middle-aged and elderly members.
Gu points out that the pastors of overseas churches often preach eloquent and engaging sermons. He notes that most of these pastors are very well-educated and usually have degrees from excellent universities. In contrast, pastors in China may have a relatively low level of education; many pastors did not attend university, and some did not even attend high school or junior high school. In addition, despite their strong academic background, pastors of overseas churches never stop learning; they still read a lot, attend training, and arrange visits to broaden their knowledge, horizons, and insights. In sharp contrast to this proactive attitude is the lack of interest in self-improvement among some pastors in China.
Still, Gu has had some pleasant surprises in his years of ministry. One church he came across is very large, but it does not have its own praise band. Yet the preacher has done a lot of work preparing the sermons so that his messages are all very practical and realistic; everyone in the congregation listens attentively, and no one is caught falling asleep.
Yet the preacher must have done a lot of work preparing the sermons because his messages are all very practical and realistic; everyone in the congregation listens attentively, and no one is caught falling asleep.
While the Holy Spirit is involved in both preaching and listening, preachers should remember to make their own efforts and continue to learn and grow.
- Translated by Joyce Leung
