Editor’s note: Although Wenzhou has more per-capita Christians than any other Chinese city, that does not mean ministry in this eastern Chinese city is easy. Today, a local pastor talks about the difficulties he faces sharing with non-Christians, encouraging believers, and trying to equip his people to persevere through a challenging era. He says, to survive this season, Christians need to go deeper in their understanding of the gospel, and learn to apply it practically.
China Partnership: What are some common challenges, fears, and struggles that you and your church encounter as you minister to people in your city? How can we pray about this?
How to Deepen Faith?
Hu Mujing: First, evangelism – how to bring someone from unbelief to belief? How to break through, from zero to one? How can those who don’t come to acknowledge God (under the work of the Holy Spirit)? This is very difficult. It/s not just knowledge, values and worldview. More importantly, this is a struggle with Satan for a person’s soul.
The second challenge is for those who already believed in the Lord: changing and renewing their faith is very difficult. It’s hard to change someone’s thinking, see them be a little more renewed, come to love God a little more. It’s easier for young people, but harder for older people, who already formed their framework for understanding faith.
The reason the Bible records this story is not so we can imitate it, but so we can see God was in control. We can ask, “If we also experience an environment like that, how can we cultivate greater reliance on God?””
For example, say someone reads a passage of Scripture and the main point they see is how God protected that person in the Bible from danger. They directly apply this by saying, “God, we are also in this environment, so deliver us from danger.”
But we could go a level deeper. We could say the reason the Bible records this story is not so we can imitate it, but so we can see God was in control. We can ask, “If we also experience an environment like that, how can we cultivate greater reliance on God?”
Here’s another example: if you read Daniel 3, you could say, “God, I believe you will save us from Nebuchadnezzar.” Then, “I believe you can save me and give me peace.” But – what if God does not? Many times we cannot make that turn, because that is what we are afraid of. We are afraid that disasters will happen, that unfortunate, worrisome things will happen. We want peace and smoothness.
Believers are also like this – they can’t accept setbacks. This is a very difficult turning point in someone’s understanding of faith.
How to Apply the Gospel?
Another challenge is commitment to a church. Our view of church is pretty weak – even if someone committed and signed a covenant. When someone enters the church, they don’t think much about signing a covenant and committing. If they want to leave, they don’t tell you – they just disappear. You don’t even know they are gone. Commitment to coexist with a church and experience hardships together is very lacking.
When a church is experiencing revival and everything is good, people fly over like a bee. When a church shows weakness or bad things happen, everyone starts to slip away. It’s like the feel the church has no future, and they start to leave. This utilitarian attitude – this heart that pursues one’s own interests – it becomes a challenge for us in difficulty.
Never miss a story
How can we pray? Constantly return to the source, the essence of faith: why do I believe in God? For my own benefit – or do I really surrender to him?
Although our fathers’ generation were not as knowledgeable in theology as ours, that generation was willing to suffer for the Lord. If they went to prison, they went to prison. If they lost their jobs, they lost their jobs.
In the past five years, there has been a lot of persecution and many threats. Because of this, most churches – including our own – usually pray about having peaceful gatherings, finding new places to meet that won’t be discovered by officials, being safe and secure. We need security.
Now, the government has asked us to get preacher’s licenses, to install cameras in our meeting place, and so on. We cannot do these things. Over the past three days, as we prayed we had a revelation: we need to pray for strength and courage, not just safety. Praying for safety without bravery is counterproductive.
Our entire city needs a deeper understanding of the gospel and the renewal of the gospel. We don’t need just knowledge; we also need practical application.
I have learned a lot from my wife. When she and other sisters do ministry, they are more down-to-earth than we brothers, and their application of the gospel is very skillful. We need to learn from these sisters how to use all the small and big tools of counseling ministry.
How to Hold Onto the Church’s Inheritance?
I have worked with a local seminary for years. There are only a few [full-time] students who are very young. This is a big crisis. But the part-time students are still good, and there are quite a lot of part-timers.
There is a problem with the inheritance we are passing down. Although our fathers’ generation were not as knowledgeable in theology as ours, that generation was willing to suffer for the Lord. If they went to prison, they went to prison. If they lost their jobs, they lost their jobs.
But with our generation, everyone starts by trying to first save and protect themselves– and then they consider the church. This is a problem with the inheritance of the cross, which is the church’s first inheritance.
For most people, faith is just about getting saved, then waiting to go to heaven. We forget that faith is actually a reshaping of our worldview.
The church’s inheritance and renewal of the faith is also a challenge. In the past, churches were fundamentalist. We were basically disconnected from society. Now, we say the gospel should have a public life, should participate in culture. How to do this? That needs to be developed.
We need to pray. Our worldview, especially regarding faith, needs to be reshaped. For most people, our understanding of faith is just about getting saved, then waiting to go to heaven. We forget that faith is actually a reshaping of our worldview. We need to pray for faith and worldview to be connected and remade.
Hu Mujing is a pseudonym for a house church pastor in Wenzhou.
Pray for Wenzhou churches to understand and apply the gospel in a way that equips their people for times of difficulty.
