The Public Channel of Fujian TV's "Bamin New Look" recently did a special on the accomplishments of Yong'an Gospel Christian Church (Gospel Church) in management, shepherding, social services and other aspects. The news of the church being granted "The Advanced Collective Honor of the 2nd National Harmonious Temple and Church Establishment" by the United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee and the State Bureau of Religious Affairs was also on the news.
There are over 4100 believers in Yong'an City, with 2500 congregants in downtown Gospel Church. There are currently two pastors, one preacher, 55 volunteer preachers, and 12 fellowship places. The City CCC&TSPM is located in Gospel Church. As the chairman of the City Christian Council, Pastor Zhao Bixiong is also the director of Gospel Church.
Emphasis: Standardized Work and Effective Management
Gospel Church has set "Basic Principles for Congregants" and "Basic Principles for Church Life" respectively in order to guide believers to practice faith in their daily lives.
In accordance with "Regulations for the Financial Supervision and Administration of Venues for Religious Activities" (Trial guidelines), the church regularly posts its financial revenues and expenditures to be open and keep the congregants informed. They hold congregant delegation meetings on schedule, and personnel transition work is performed in a democratic way with secret ballots. They organize the believers to make democratic evaluations on the church and pasturing personnel and organize fire safety lectures and drills to ensure the safety of the church personnel and properties.
Fundamental: Focus on Training and Resist Heresy
Gospel Church insists on hosting revivals every year in order to improve the pasturing skills and the spiritual lives of the believers. They invite pastors from other places to give lessons. They have different volunteer worker training, praise and worship, pasturing tutoring, sacred music conducting, and other special trainings. They also organize fellowship activities. For example, on Friday after the first Sunday of every month, the Senior Fellowship would have large gatherings with revival sermons, testimony sharing, prayer meeting, and health knowledge seminars. Every three months they organize brothers and sisters to visit two local Seniors Apartments. They also visit the Seniors Home and perform out of gratitude. Middle Age Fellowship and Youth Fellowship would have sermons every Saturday night. They also host summer retreats, Backbone retreats twice a year, and Bible trivia contests. They hold bonfire nights, outdoor barbecues, climbing mountains and visiting parks, and other outdoor activities, where everyone sings hymns, shares, and socializes.
"The Shouters" cult was very active in Yong'an. In recent years, the "Eastern Lightning" has also been rampant and the church is facing challenges of heresy. The church addresses the heresy. Considering the faith of the believers the church often holds basic faith study classes, anti-heresy study classes, visitation personnel training classes, and other classes. Some classes last one or two days, and others last one week or one month. The church shows anti-heresy films in church and the fellowship places. The volunteer training class has a three-year cycle. Each year, there are three main courses, and it has been more than 20 years since they started the classes. In order to guard the door of "addressing heresy", the church formed a visitation team of 123 people. They carry out the visitation ministry in 12 sections. In order to do the work better, they take class every three months. At the end of the year, they have a visitation panel.
In Depth: Serve the Community, Glorify God, and Benefit Man
Gospel Church actively carries out social welfare ministries and tries its best to offer care activities for the believers. The church would often provide help for the brothers and sisters who are financially challenged or suffer great misfortunes and other vulnerable groups. For example, in 2008, the church donated 60,000 CNY for a young brother who urgently needed a kidney transplant. For another young brother who has severe kidney disease, the believers spontaneously offered a fixed amount of monthly support.
In August this year, Gospel Church actively carried out an activity organized by the Yong'an Women's Federation "Spring Buds Project." The church donated 13,000 CNY so that 10 poor students could attend school on time. They donated 20,000 CNY in answer to the activity "Demonstrate Love and Fulfill the Dream of College" of the City CCC&TSPM. Due to the influence of the tropical storms and severe rainfall of "Meranti", some houses collapsed in Zhongluo Village. Gospel Church donated 23,000 CNY for nine households.
It is worth mentioning that with the guidance of the pastors, Gospel Church organized the Youth Fellowship to volunteer at the Xinyu School (a special school for children with autism) year round, and they contributed money and labor. Every Easter they hold a blood drive with the brothers and sisters in the church. And they also participate in the "Spring Buds Girl Project" of the City's Women's Federation for many years, and other student-aid activities.
It is reported that the church has been actively preparing a nursing home for the past few years. During Pastor Zhao Bixiong's interview with the reporter of the Public Channel of Fujian TV's "Bamin New Look" he said, "We will try everything to do social service ministry. Right now, our biggest vision is to build a nursing facility which is of some scale and class, fully equipped, functional and caters to the needs of the community.
(The author is Deng Lingyong and Liu Xing from Fujian Church.)
