Table Of Contents:
- The rural church in China
- The rural church in China – bible study
- The rural church in China – prayer
- The rural church in China – attendees
- The rural church in China – church music
The Bible training for these church leaders went on for about 10 to 12 hours each day. It was winter and the temperature was hovering around 0º C and all hundred of us were huddled in a little farm-house room seated on little plastic stools.
As the Bible teachers taught, the leaders frantically took notes. Later I found out that they would use these lessons as their sermons for the next few weeks in their churches. These leaders lacked the resources (Bible dictionaries, concordances, commentaries) that we take for granted, so these foreign Bible teachers, who came each winter, were their resources.
There was no farm work in the winter (which lasted for 4-5 months in northern China) and it was during this time that Bible training took place. The Bible teachers were usually overseas Chinese Christians from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore or US. The training session at any location usually did not exceed 5 days. If the training sessions lasted more than 5 days, there was risk that the local government authorities would know of the illegal Christian meeting and arrest the participants.
After the training ended in one location, the Bible teachers would then move on to another location and repeat the process with another group of leaders. Usually after 2 or 3 such training sessions, the teachers would return home. It was exhausting teaching for several hours per day for 2 or 3 weeks at a stretch.
As most of the rural leaders had little formal secular schooling and no other biblical training, they really valued these training sessions. They were attentive and appreciative. However, in my opinion, they were too respectful of their teachers and tended to swallow everything that we taught, without asking questions. They did what a good Chinese student does, namely, listen attentively, memorize and regurgitate.
I believe that many of them literally memorized the lessons and then repeated it to their congregations – without adapting it or applying them to the needs of their congregations.
Please pray for them that they would learn to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the model-student, who even at an early age asked questions (Luke 2:46). Pray that they will learn to adapt their messages to the needs of their congregations.
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