With rapid economic development and population migration to urban areas, rural communities have seen a sharp decline in residents, leaving behind a growing elderly population. Rural churches are facing similar challenges, including aging pastors and congregations, as well as high rates of youth disengagement. Retaining young people has become essential to ensure the church's continuity.
Recently, Brother Yao, a preacher born in the 1980s from southern China, shared his experience serving in his hometown's rural church. He reflected on the common challenges facing such churches and proposed what he sees as a breakthrough approach: strengthening relationships within the church while actively planting new congregations, which he believes could draw young people closer to the church.
1. Common Challenges in Rural Churches in Brother Yao's Hometown
According to Brother Yao, his hometown church places great emphasis on service but falls short in fostering relationships. The ties between pastors, staff, and believers are not strong enough. Many believers attend only Sunday worship, while full-time pastors and staff dedicate long hours to ministry, yet often feel uncared for, leading to burnout over time. Using the analogy of a spiritual family, Yao compared this to Christian parents being so busy serving that they neglect their own children.
He also drew on his personal experience to highlight the importance of relationships in faith. Coming from a family of three generations of pastors, Yao grew up in a Christian environment but did not truly know Jesus. At one point, he left the church, feeling a lack of care. His mother, deeply occupied with ministry, was frequently absent from home. Thus, he became rebellious for several years. It was not until he attended a youth camp and experienced both God's love and the care of fellow believers that he was baptized and returned to the church to serve. At that moment, God ceased to be just the God of his parents and became his own.
Moreover, many young people leave for cities to work, purchase houses, and start families. Young Christians, often burdened by the financial pressures of marriage, also migrate to work, resulting in an increasingly aging church community. Even young people in urban areas who have been evangelized by the rural church find it difficult to attend gatherings in the church due to the long distance.
In Brother Yao's hometown, church leadership is largely composed of elderly pastors. While some younger co-workers are present, they seldom enter the elders' council, and even when they do, they hold little influence in decision-making.
2. How to Strengthen Young People's Affinity with the Church
One approach, Brother Yao suggests, is for rural churches to plant congregations in cities. Many young people retain a deep connection to their home churches but move away for education, work, or other reasons. Establishing city-based churches linked to their hometown congregations can help maintain their spiritual attachment and draw them closer to the church community.
In addition, churches should increase care and support for young people. Believers who do not experience strong, healthy relationships within the church are more likely to drift away. Brother Yao noted that many young people in his hometown were raised in Christian families, and he believes their absence from church is often temporary. By addressing both their spiritual and practical needs, churches can encourage them to return.
Furthermore, Christian parents and pastors should consciously nurture family relationships. While older Christians may be deeply devoted to the Lord, many have unintentionally neglected their children and families in the course of ministry. Brother Yao emphasizes that a faithful Christian should first and foremost be a loving parent and spouse.
Although Jesus stated, "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life," Brother Yao interprets "leaving" not as abandoning human responsibilities but as renouncing worldly vanity. In both church and family life, believers should apply their faith to every role and remain grounded in practical reality.
Originally published by the Christian Times
- Edited by Katherine Guo and translated by Poppy Chan
