At present, social services and charity of most churches are still fixed on aiding the poor and the disabled, visiting and caring, and helping the elderly and filial piety. The forms are basically “donating money”. The church with a little more capabilities can provide free clinics, popularize legal knowledge, offer marriage and family counseling, and care for community streets and even run nursing homes without religious backgrounds. Generally speaking, the current social service is sporadic and short-lived, and the funds rely on the church’s income of donation. At the same time, believers’ initiation and participation in social services is relatively low.
So how can a grassroots church to take steps further from the means of “giving money” in social services? I recently attended the inaugural meeting of a special social service committee of a local CC&TSPM. I observed that the host church is actively using the following three types of Christians.
I. Pastors
Before practice, ideas come first. A pastor’s understanding of social service ministry and teaching level determine the degree of cognition and enthusiasm of most Christians in the church. In the meeting, the leading pastor of the county’s central church first shared a testimony themed on social service.
He elaborated the necessity for his church to set up special social service ministries and encourage believers to participate in charity from four aspects: the Christian view of service, the life of Jesus Christ, the concept and practical needs of social service, and the expression of Christian faith. He mentioned that in addition to preaching and Bible study, a church should also provide a variety of ministry platforms for believers. Let those who are willing to pray, pray and those who are willing to praise, praise. Similarly, let those who are willing to help others help. The life of Jesus Christ is explained to the world as love, going deep into people and caring for the disadvantaged groups; the life of Jesus should be the cause of a church. At the same time, social service is the window for the church to the outside world, and it is the best way to express the Chinanization of Christianity. The highest state of faith is helping others realize their dreams, and serving those in need is a sign of the maturity of Christian faith.
As a tangible institution, the leader of a church, namely the pastor, should not only pay attention to internal teaching and management, but also deal with the relationship with the external environment. From the surrounding communities to the society and the country, good social services are the key to deal with the relationship between the church and its environment. Many churches definitely lack donation and professional capability, but in some areas, the participation of churches in disaster relief and poverty alleviation is still based on the appeal and advocacy of local governments or hard targets. Even some churches would rather deposit their entire surplus in the bank than take the initiative to help those who fall into poverty. All these cannot be said to be the pastor’s dereliction of duty in understanding and teaching social service ministry. Therefore, in order to activate the charity work in a grass-roots church, what must first be improved are the pastor’s cognition, and teaching and leading role.
II. Professional Christians, especially entrepreneurs
At the meeting, the vast majority of the participants were not pastoral workers but entrepreneurs among believers.
Usually, the participants at decision-making and summary meetings of social service ministries in many churches are pastors and co-workers. This is also because the social service in those churches still ceases at the stage described above, and it has not developed to the degree of project incubation and specialization. The main management mode is still the administrative management within the church, and the decision-making level is basically consistent with the management of church affairs, such as centralized management, church committee system, and related peer decision-making supervision system.
In order not to make social services limited to simple and sporadic relief activities and truly discover and develop social service projects that can be standardized for long-term, Christian entrepreneurs need to participate in decision-making meetings. During the meeting I attended, the pastor invited participating entrepreneurs to express their opinions after a sermon. Compared with pastors and colleagues, entrepreneurs have a sharper, more specific and practical perception of social pain points and needs. They all show the first sight and consideration of the needy people and feasible projects related to their industry. The foothold of their voices is not “what the problem is”, but “what we can do about it”.
They also have higher execution and courage than ordinary people. It is very different from holding meetings with church colleagues. Unlike church staffers, entrepreneurs rarely deny others’ proposals with such words as “infeasible”, “reality does not allow it” and “impossible”. They only focus on expressing the projects they want to do, trying, failing, reflecting and trying again until they succeed. Such is their mindset and style – “Let’s do it bit by bit first, and when we do it, everything will slowly surface.” This is obviously beneficial to the development of any ministry.
Social service ministries need financial support. Entrepreneurial Christians have funds, links, resources, approaches, and knowledge of laws and regulations, which will make the discussion at a meeting more likely to move from ideas to practice.
Moreover, the so-called entrepreneurs are not necessarily icons of business. Small-scale, self-employed Christians may have the above qualities for their broad social contacts and profound expertise in their fields.
It is worth mentioning that the participating entrepreneurs were honored and happy to be invited to the inaugural meeting. Some entrepreneurs did not like church meetings, but after learning its theme details, they felt sorry for their lack of love in daily lives and expressed their determination to participate and support.
III. Social service and charity professional or research experts
How can social service ministries go further from “giving money”? The 2024 social service committee of the local CC&TSPM gave key points that it is necessary to “find a small incision and plan a good project”. The Guangdong CC&TSPM also pointed out that it is necessary to create diversity, features and quality, establish brand effect and form a long-term mechanism with the church as a unit. These are inseparable from the analysis and guidance of professionals.
Because churches are interested in developing long-term professional projects, the host church invited its elder, who has served the disabled for many years, to speak. Meanwhile, relevant professionals were invited to illustrate the overall situation and operation concept of charity, and study the Christian social service ministry projects from the perspective of social institutions. Feasible steps of project incubation such as vision, goal and strategy, and holding the group to warm up, exchange and unite were presented. There were also talks on expanding funds and funding channels, and principles that social care should be separated from evangelism.
Disaster relief, poverty alleviation, free clinics are traditional projects of the church’s social and charity work, but it should respond to the new needs put forward by the times. Simultaneously, the way to solve the problem should change from being simple and rough to being meticulous and gentle, from temporary help to long-term support. It should be done in a way that the recipients are most willing to accept and maximizes their long-term interests. All these require the church and Christians not to be lazy with their conscience in this ministry, but to think deeply from the center of the gospel.
The reason why the above-mentioned church can unite pastors, entrepreneurs and professionals is inseparable from the usual level of its daily caring, and the close relationship between pastors and believers. The smooth development of any ministry is based on the real efforts of regular cares. I hope that each church can find out what is missing and fill in the gaps, develop special social service ministries based on local needs, and unite the knowledge and strength of pastors, Christian entrepreneurs and professionals. Let churches’ social services and charity work be done increasingly matching God’s mind and people’s heart.
- Translated by Charlie Li
