Editor’s note: Several Shenzhen church leaders share how we can pray for them, their families, and their churches. They are concerned about how to serve children within their church, and uncertain how to train and raise up the next generation of pastors and church leaders. They also mentioned dealing with exhaustion, stress, and burnout. Pray God will sustain and carry these pastors, that they will not labor under heavy burdens but will instead run to Christ, whose yoke is easy and burden is light.
China Partnership: How can we pray for your church and your family?
The Next Generation
Wang Yijian: Please pray for the next generation, for the children of those serving the church. The children are influenced by secular culture, which impacts their views on marriage and values. Many people, including my children, become lukewarm in pursuing the Lord as they grow up. Please pray for me, and also for the church.
All the churches face similar challenges: the pursuit of truth is not as fervent as before, and it’s easy to become secularized and go with the flow. Many people worship and listen to sermons, but true transformation is a long process, and spiritual growth is slow. Pray for more workers and pastors to be raised up.
Intentional Evangelism
Pan Raiqi: We hope to be more intentional in evangelism. Pray our church will have a greater kingdom perspective, and not worry too much if sheep move from one church to another. Instead, may we focus on paying our gospel debt.
My own family faces various disturbances and attacks. There are occasionally troublemakers among the congregation; every pastor probably faces this. Pray God will protect me, and that our family will be open-hearted servants. In faith, may we demonstrate a life of genuine death and resurrection with Christ.
Serving the Church’s Children
Shu Jing: My prayer requests are all related to children. There are many small groups in our church. Some of the groups have a lot of children, of different age groups. Each age group needs teachers. Because the groups are spread, church workers are also spread. Each location needs someone to preach, and several people to teach Sunday school. We are short-handed.
It’s also not good when some locations have only a few kids. It’s better for children to be together, so they can have more interaction and activities. Right now, we are trying to find a dedicated space with qualified teachers to teach Sunday school. Please pray for this!
The other prayer request is for my family. My children have graduated from college, and are working in a large city. They serve in their church, but I hope they will pursue missions and ministry more. Life in the city is fast-paced, and everyone is busy making money. Even going to church is rushed. I don’t want them to get caught up in that. I want them to inherit our family’s spiritual legacy. I hope at least one of them will become a pastor and study theology. They don’t necessarily have to be full-time, but more involvement would be good. Please pray my sons will have a clear calling, and be more willing and motivated to participate in the church. Although they seem devout compared to many families, they still face tests and struggles. Pray for their transformation.
My wife has been a pastor here since the mid-1990s. She said, generally speaking, every five or six years Shenzhen has a wave of gospel revival. In 1995 and 1996 there was a revival, then government persecution. Then, 2005 to 2006 and then 2015 and 2016 were pretty good, at least in our church. Speaking from experience, my wife says that if we follow this pattern there is a revelation of revival every decade or so. I’m looking forward to it!
Never miss a story
Our church’s theme for 2025 is “bearing fruit.” From January to March, we’ve already had 11 people make decisions for Christ through our prayer chain, people like the husbands of sisters or others we have shared with. We are encouraging brothers and sisters to evangelize and bear fruit. We’re almost at the end of March, and we hope to maintain or even accelerate this momentum throughout the year. Please pray for us!
Raising Up Pastors
Elder Wu Yang: Many pastors here have poor health. Their wives are also in bad health. I don’t know why – maybe it’s stress? May the Lord renew us in the gospel, and help us cast our anxieties on God.
Pastor Huang: Pray for pastoral care. This includes building relationships between elders and members, and fostering better connections. We also want to teach the truth better, to build the gospel drive within members.
The other area is discipleship, which we really need right now. We need to train young brothers and sisters to serve, and be more effective in their service. We need to plant churches, and we need pastors. It is so hard to train pastors these days, and every church is short-staffed. Finding a good pastor or raising one up from within is difficult.
For my family, I pray we can better obey the Lord. In traditional Chinese churches, many members look at the pastor’s family. It’s crucial we live a life of obedience and godliness.
Our child is away from homing, studying at a Christian university overseas. We recently realized that some of that university’s viewpoints differ from ours. We hope our child can study well there, but also be rooted in the truth and build a good relationship with God.
Depleted Pastors and Church Staff
Li En: We need prayer for our church not to become a consumer of the gospel, but a church with mission and vision. Pray we won’t be self-centered and consumed by internal struggles, but will know what we should be doing in Shenzhen. Pray we will carry and proclaim the mission of the gospel.
Our church has multiple locations, so workers are very busy – so busy, always busy. I went to the hospital a while ago, and the doctor said, “You have the body of a 60-year-old, not a 40-year-old.” He said my health is terrible. I think we need to pray, not just for pastors’ ministry and relationship with God, but for their personal health and family life. Pray that my wife and I will have physical health, and that we will be spiritually encouraged and renewed.
In the past few years, I’ve personally walked with a number of pastors who were serving the church, but couldn’t continue. They left the ministry, the church, or the field. Each time, the process was painful and sorrowful. I warn myself: how much longer can I serve? I’ve talked with co-workers, saying we should consider what might cause us to one day be unable to serve.
Training workers in Shenzhen is very costly. As far as I know, every church in our district has a shortage. We have also neglected effective internal discipleship. Please pray we will be able to disciple and raise up co-workers.
Wang Yijian, Pan Raiqi, Shu Jing, Wu Yang, Pastor Huang, and Li En are all pseudonyms for house church leaders in Shenzhen.
Pray for pastors and those serving the church in Shenzhen to have physical strength, emotional fortitude, and to find rest in Christ.
