Editor’s note: This November we are praying for Huizhou, a city of about 6 million in Guangdong Province. It is near Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, and about 43 miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou is one of nine prefecture-level cities in the Pearl River Delta area of China, and is a manufacturing base within China.
China Partnership: Briefly introduce yourself, your family, and your church.
“It Feels Like a Family”
Huang Jianli: Our church started with about 10 people, and now we have around 50, including children. A lot of people in our church are families with young kids, and most families have three or four kids. My wife and I have two children.
A lot of churches have quite a few older people, but in our church, most are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. My wife serves alongside me in the church.
Our church emphasizes small groups. A few people who used to be in the government church have shared that, since they came to our church, they really feel noticed and cared for and it feels like a family.
One big difficulty we face is that, in the years since we planted, there has been a lot of turnover. Many people come to Huizhou for work, and when the job ends, they leave. Right now the bottleneck in our church’s growth is that our evangelism is pretty week. Brothers and sisters really do share the gospel with others, but this is a huge challenge, and an area where we need breakthrough.
As for my own ministry, I’m the only preacher in our church. For some things, you really need someone to serve alongside you – a partner. That’s a big need in my life right now. Sometimes, in ministry, I feel lonely, or like there are things I need to talk through with someone. You need encouragement in ministry, someone you can pray with when you need it.
After I left the Three-Self church, I served in another house church in another area. It was just me on my own, and I got used to that lone-ranger culture. But going it alone doesn’t work. You run into a lot of things you can’t solve yourself, and it’s not as simple as saying, “Just pray about it.” I believe God established the church to be a community.
Going it alone doesn’t work. You run into a lot of things you can’t solve yourself… God established the church to be a community.
“Like One Hand Trying to Clap”
Brother Qu: After becoming a believer, I joined a church plant, which at the time had only a dozen or so people. That’s where I was discipled and built up. About 10 years ago, I went into full-time ministry. A brother planted a church in an outlying city, and my wife and I moved here to help him. We run our own small school here.
Yang Guang: I came to Huizhou a little more than five years ago. My wife and I got married shortly after, and now we have three children.
Never miss a story
I planted a church a couple of years ago. Most of our congregation are young, in their 20s or 30s, and their lives revolve around work. We also have a group of older folks around 70. We can’t really get together with young people during the week because of their work, so on weekdays we focus on the older folks. On Sundays, we spend more time with young people: inviting them to our home for a meal, hiking together, things like that. With older folks, it’s mainly Bible study.
One of our main leaders in the church is stepping away for a while, and I feel helpless on my own – like one hand trying to clap. [1] The co-worker who is stepping away handled administration, so things are really hard in that area. Pray for me to be able to build up a team of co-laborers.
Pray for young people in our church; they are very focused on work, and don’t often come to gatherings. Another prayer request is for us to find a place to meet. We’ve been hit by crackdowns before, but now the environment is easing, and I’d like to find a permanent place again and create a family atmosphere for the church.
We have very high turnover in our church. We are close to Shenzhen, and people come here to work – but they can leave at any time. Our attendance isn’t stable, and can be anywhere from a dozen to 20 or 30.
Pray for young people in our church; they are very focused on work, and don’t often come to gatherings.
There’s another trend now: a lot of believers want to get married, but don’t want children.
Lacking in Brothers
Sister Yan: I’m single and serve the church as a single woman. I used to serve in a traditional house church, but around 2020 we came into contact with Reformed churches. Our church is not a full-fledged Reformed church yet, but is beginning to move in that direction.
Our church has about 30 people – at the lowest, just a dozen or so. We have a few children in our church, but not many. We have people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and quite a few older people. Most are local.
Our church really lacks brothers. We keep praying about this, hoping God will raise up brothers who can serve in the pulpit. We are still doing evangelism and sharing a lot, but few people respond.
Brother James: After my wife and I got married more than a decade ago, we came back to Huizhou and I started pastoring here. Our church started as a student fellowship, and then we started reaching out to white-collar professionals. These days our church is centered on families, with about 40 or 50 people at weekly meetings. Some aren’t very regular because of work.
My wife and I have two children, who both attend a church school.
“No One Else to Share the Load”
Fan Zhuhui: I’m a Huizhou local, and came to the church I now serve about five or six years ago. After our church went through a crackdown, the other pastor left, and the congregation is now under my care. When that happened, our church broke into small groups. We’ve been through a lot; in the last two or three years, we’ve moved locations twice. But, because we were built up as small groups, our relationships within the church are fairly close.
Our congregation is now fairly stable, with about 20 to 30 people. We are mostly middle-aged and older, but relatively speaking, still a bit on the younger side.
Right now, the biggest challenge facing our congregation is me. I got married a few years ago, and God prepared a very good helper for me. Right now, she’s home with our baby. Her health hasn’t been great recently, and we’re pretty worn out, but we still see God’s steadfast love and faithfulness.
I have to preach every week, and right now there is no one else to share the load.
My biggest challenge now is I feel I can’t focus on any one thing. Too many things pull me in different directions – family, church, the church school. Sometimes I feel I can’t dig deeply into God’s Word, meditate on it, and taste its sweetness and beauty. My grasp of God’s Word is shallow, and I can’t go deeper.
I have to preach every week, and right now there is no one else to share the load. Because we are so busy, a lot of times my wife and I are also pretty tense with each other. I can’t spend enough time with our child or help as much, so the pressure of caring for our child all falls on my wife.
Outreach is a huge challenge. Maybe we ourselves don’t really know how to share the gospel? When newcomers join our church now, they all come through personal connections.
Another challenge is preaching Christ-centered sermons. I’ve realized that for a while my sermons were man-centered, not Christ-centered. I only started learning about that kind of preaching a few months ago, and Ineed to keep learning and practicing.
[1] 孤掌难鸣 is a Chinese idiom meaning literally “a single palm cannot clap.”
Huang Jianli, Brother Qu, Yang Guang, Sister Yan, Brother James, and Fan Zhuhui are pseudonyms for house church leaders in Huizhou.
Pray for Huizhou pastors to find others who can labor and serve alongside them.
