Since Robert Morrison brought the gospel into China more than two centuries ago, the Chinese Protestant church has gone through several stages of development. The last forty years have seen multiple growths of Chinese Christians and churches. However, the church in China has faced many challenges and chaos.
Pastor H who has gained experiences in various kinds of churches in the past decades shared that many churches were plagued by much chaos. He summarized "three chaos", "three overemphasises", and "three faults" that cause troubles to the church.
"Three chaos":
1. Disordered reception. The Bible proclaims a principled reception that Christians should receive the Lord's servants who give correct and clear-cut teachings. Nonetheless, many grassroots churches often receive pastors from various places, many of whom preach wrong doctrines and heresy teachings.
2. Inappropriate personnel use. Talented people act as a key factor in church development. There are four methods of using people - putting right people in wrong positions, wrong people in the right places, wrong people in wrong positions, and the right people in the right places. Which one of the four is correct? We need to put the right people in the right jobs.
3. Financial management confusion. Many churches are very unclear in financial management and encounter many problems. The three factors are the roots of why a large percentage of churches are troubled by confusions.
"Three overemphasises": Many churches and teams lay too much stress on knowledge, gifts, and talents, failing to focus on characters.
"Three faults":
1. Authority bondage. A number of churches regard leaders as the truth and guide congregations with personal authority rather than life, characters, and truth.
2. Financial monopoly. If a pastor or co-worker doesn't obey his or her church leader, the head imposes "financial sanctions" on him or her.
3. Guidance by the flesh. Some church leaders substitute the way of God with the method of man and the will of God with the will of man.
- Translated by Karen Luo
