The uproar about the “chained woman of eight” incident finally came to an end after the release of the report by the special investigation team of Jiangsu Provincial Government. A total of 17 officials were punished due to the human trafficking issue over a mother found to be chained in a hut of Xuzhou in the winter. All related social groups and government departments made some reflections on this incident. For example, lawmakers wondered whether the penalty for the crime of abducting and trafficking women and children is not heavy enough, which may not be enough to stop kidnappers from doing this.
As a social group, the Church should also reflect on this incident. In the future, “Five Balances” should be kept in our minds in the domestic ministry.
I. The balance between ministry in cities and countryside
The mission of the church, according to the words of God, is to “spread Gospel, train disciples, charity voluntary service, social transformation and conservation of the earth”. Therefore, the church burdens the mission of “social transformation”.
According to the incident of the “chained woman”, we can see that the evil practice of buying a wife still exists in some underdeveloped villages, and it’s still deep in some people’s minds. Obviously, the Church should undertake the task of changing people’s minds about this, but it failed to do so.
The main reason for the failure is that the focus of the ministry of the Church in China is mainly the cities, and the villages are largely ignored. This incident is a strong reminder that both cities and villages should be the focus of our ministry.
II. The balance between building our own church and supporting the churches in rural areas
The Bible tells us, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:4)
With the commercialization and urbanization of China, young and middle-aged believers in rural churches have been gradually transferred to urban churches. Missionaries who stay in rural churches are also facing a growing existential crisis. Thus, some preachers of rural churches either started their own businesses to make a living or were transferred to urban churches to serve. Therefore, urban churches should support and back-feed rural churches.
I propose that the churches in the city should encourage their preachers to serve in the rural churches under administration (with a salary). That is to say, when the church is big enough, aside from the building of itself, it should concern and support the ministry and management of the churches in the rural areas under its administration, so as to promote the ministry in the rural areas.
III. The balance between indoctrination and spiritual cultivation
One possible reason for the failure of social transformation in rural areas is: Though churches were built in some rural areas, the spiritual cultivation of believers is not enough. The faith of believers in rural areas is too weak, and the churches in rural areas are not strong enough to change the tide.
This is a reminder for domestic churches. When emphasizing the indoctrination of God’s words, the spiritual cultivation of believers should not be ignored. Only when believers grow up spiritually can they burden the mission of “social transformation” and speak out against the injustice of society and the unrighteousness of men.
IV. The balance between total service and care for the individual
The chained woman moaned, “The world never cares about me.” Undoubtedly, the charity voluntary service in domestic churches is really excellent and we’ve done a lot of work. However, this chained woman was never cared for by the Church (or she got very little care from the church). Because I believe that if she ever felt the love from Christ, she would never have moaned so desperately.
In terms of charity voluntary service, the total service in some major disasters is not enough. We should also care for disadvantaged individuals. That’s the balance between total service and care for individuals.
V. The balance between “icing on the cake” and “timely assistance”.
The “icing on the cake” is that when some major disasters occur, we Christians provide disaster relief with other social groups under the call of the government, out of love for all the people.
The chained woman is a person ignored by all of us who needs care most. Nevertheless, the church in Fengxian County never cared for this poor woman who lost her own freedom and was abused, and no timely help was offered. This shows that the Church did little in “timely assistance”.
Therefore, the church should emphasize both “icing on the cake” and “timely assistance”.
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
