Preach eternal truth in the way of the times
Challenges, Strategies and Methods of Mission in Colleges and Universities in China Today
Today's college students in China are already young people born after 1995. They are the generation that was raised by their grandparents and parents, and they are also surrounded by electronic products such as television, the Internet, tablets, and smartphones. The generation that grew up in. How to preach the gospel to such a group of campus students?
1. Challenges of Campus Mission
Post-1995 generation
For students born after 1995, QQ (an instant computer messaging software popular in Mainland China after 2000) and WeChat (WeChat, a smartphone APP popular in Mainland China after 2010) have naturally become the preferred communication methods of this generation. This is completely different from traditional communication methods - face-to-face, voice calls, and letters. It does not require meeting or speaking, and text information can be transmitted in real time. Students in this era are self-centered. Although they have many friends on mobile phones, they do not know how to communicate with people face to face.
A family lacking in character
Since the 1980s, China has enforced the one-child policy across the country, creating a unique group: one-child families. In 2009, a paper1 in the "Journal of Nanjing Population Management Cadre College" stated:
"The proportion of one-child families has gradually increased, and a large family planning family group has gradually formed in urban and rural areas, including many one-child families. These families have contributed to the decline in China's population growth rate and contributed to the stable development of the population and eugenics and eugenics. However, family planning families, especially single-child families, have great risks... There is only one child in the family, and the child lacks the experience of getting along with peers as a child, and the cost of raising and educating is high and the effect is poor; With the long-term one-child policy, children are more likely to be overly pampered and doted on, and they lack the education of hardships and setbacks they deserve from an early age, which is not conducive to their growth and socialization.”
This one-child group born after 1995 was born nearly fifteen years after China’s reform and opening up. At this time, the family economic environment was relatively wealthy. By the time they went to college (around 2013-2016), the national environment could be said to be Things are different now. China has become the second largest economy in the world, but the moral level of its people is not proportional to it.
An article on a website not long ago2 reflected the problems of only children growing up in China’s education environment. In order to take care of her daughter, son-in-law and grandson who were studying and working in the United States, a mother who doted on her daughter was willing to quit a job that she liked and paid well after retirement and went to the United States to take care of her children. Instead, she was ignored by her children. She reflects on her own education of her children:
"I really don't understand how my daughter could become like this: ruthless, unreasonable, and unreasonably cold! Did my family education fail? If it's because I'm not well-educated and don't know how to educate my children, then my daughter's father-in-law and mother-in-law One is a government official and the other is a professor at Tongji University. Why are their sons like this? On National Day, my in-laws said on the phone: Thank you for your hard work. We are all suffering from our only child. We asked them to hire a nanny. Come back. Live your own life and ignore them..."
As a result, regardless of whether they are single mothers with no academic qualifications or parents with highly educated intellectuals, although their children have first-class academic performance, they do not have a life quality that satisfies them.
A family with no choice
These children grew up under China's exam-oriented education and worked hard for exam results. They lack true family love. In order to satisfy their parents' demands for their children to succeed, they give up or kill their dreams. Everything must be obeyed by their parents. From what school to go to, what major to study, to what job to find after graduation, it is all decided by the parents. The parents' basis is: after graduating from college, whether you can find a suitable job in this subject or major, it is best to be a civil servant and get an iron rice bowl.
For example, a freshman boy we care about likes liberal arts psychology, but his parents helped him choose a science major in robotics, thinking that robots will develop in China in the future and he can find a job. This is really contrary to his own interests.
The indulgent and confused clan
For many children, studying is for their parents, and going to college is also for their parents. So after I got to college, I left the shackles of my parents and started a life of unsupervised, goalless, indulgent and confused life.
On November 21, 2011, a survey by Shanghai's "The Paper" was titled "College 'Offline Study Room': Some people can't stand without their mobile phones for more than ten minutes", which talks about how long students can go without using them. cell phone:
"On the morning of the 20th, in the "Offline Study Room" on the fourth floor of the Central Library of Southwest University, many students were quietly concentrating on reading. There were numbered bags on the table in front of the door, and a mobile phone was placed in each bag. . The so-called "offline self-study" means reading and studying without a mobile phone.
The "Offline Study Room" activity has been going on for nearly a week, and nearly 200 students have come to experience it. What is the effect? Based on the time it takes for students to hand in their mobile phones before entering the "offline study room" and to retrieve their mobile phones when leaving, the staff specially compiles the list and schedule of students who can persist without mobile phones for the longest time every day, among which the single self-study time is the longest. It lasted 530 minutes, and some students only lasted for more than ten minutes before getting their phones back. "
A people who are indulgent and confused are actually a people who have no freedom at all. They are unable to resist temptation and are bound by the desires of their own bodies and eyes, by their own lack of control. How can the pain in their hearts be helped in fellowship?
A people without dreams
In fellowship and on campus, I have the opportunity to communicate with these post-1995 students. Whenever I ask them what their future goals are, most of them will answer: "I don't know!"
Under the mainland's examination-oriented education system, many students' childhood dreams, such as wanting to be musicians, painters, writers, scientists, etc., have been replaced by their parents' decisions. If you study a major that will allow you to make a lot of money in the future and have a stable job throughout your life, your parents will approve it. Other people, because their parents can support their lives, are not worried about their future or future jobs. Anyway, they become "cheating old people" if they can't find a job.
2. Missionary Strategy
Such post-1995 group has no hope and pursuit of love, dreams, beliefs and future. They are unable to choose their own direction, lose their goals and motivation in life, and are trapped in a self-centered and egoistic life. How to bring God’s love, God-given hope, and life-changing power to this group?
We live in an area with nearly fifty thousand students on campus spread across five schools. Among the students we can contact now, there are only about 50 to 60 people who continue to come to the gatherings. That is, for every 1,000 students, only one comes to the fellowship. From another perspective, after completing their studies, the students of 99.9% failed to come into contact with the gospel or did not know Jesus!
After careful observation and thinking, and seeking in prayer with co-workers, the words given by God allow us to see the Lord Jesus’ parables about new wineskins and new wine. When John’s disciples came to Jesus, they asked specifically why His disciples did not fast? The Lord Jesus answered, "How can those who are with him mourn while the bridegroom is with him? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will leave them, and then they will fast. No one will patch up the old cloth with a new cloth. for the patching of the garment ruins the garment, and the greater the damage is. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; and if this happens, the skins will burst and the wine will leak out, along with the wineskins. but the new wine is put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:14-17)
We think, pray, and seek: What is the new wine of this age? What are the new wineskins that can be sewn for new wine?
Comparing children born from the 1980s to before 1995, during the period of schooling (2006-2011), the material and spiritual life were relatively monotonous, no matter what activities the church fellowship had: training, lectures, gatherings, outings, etc. Wait, everyone is willing to participate; if meals are provided, even more people will come.
After 2013, smartphones have become widely popular. Mobile Internet access and WIFI networks have spread to dormitories and campuses. APPs for online shopping, restaurant takeaways, and entertainment chats can be downloaded and used for free. Things that used to need to be done outside can now be done on mobile phones. You can do it right out of the house. At the same time, the income of parents’ families has increased, and the financial capabilities of students have also improved. If they want to eat or use, they can use Baidu Takeaway, Meituan Takeout and other apps on their mobile phones to order takeaways; if they want to go shopping, they can use Taobao, Shopping on Tmall.com, Yihaodian, and JD.com, and express delivery directly to the dormitory; if you want to watch entertainment programs, you can watch movies and variety shows on iQiyi and Tudou on your mobile phone; chat in the WeChat group..., it seems All your needs can be met without leaving home!
In addition, students are also making money selling things, using the functions of the APP to open micro stores to sell things. There are also many part-time students. Some are part-time teachers in tutoring classes for primary and secondary school students, and some work in nearby restaurants.
At the same time, there has been an increasing trend in school clubs in recent years, with some schools claiming to be the "Battle of One Hundred Regiments." Some clubs require participation, and some may award some credits. For students, especially freshmen, the club is new to them, and they want to get to know more people in the club and practice their skills at the same time.
The above are the new characteristics of this era. Using old vision, old thinking, and traditional teaching models to force them to come to church gatherings can no longer attract them. What is the attraction of fellowship to them? How to help them leave temptation, pursue faith voluntarily and gain Jesus? How to win the campus of this era for the Lord?
Organizational structure update
The previous structure was that full-time church staff led each group of counselors (non-students) to manage the fellowship, and then the counselors led the whole group in Bible study meetings. The result of this is that students do not need to participate in the group because they have older brothers and sisters serving them. Most of them are relatively passive and cannot influence their classmates who do not believe in the Lord. As a result, after graduation and leaving, life is still suffering. At the stage of milk, we cannot transform into disciples of the Lord.
After an outing to study and actually observe local campus ministry, our team of co-workers saw that their fellowship is entirely led by students, and the leader is elected by students through annual elections. Therefore, as graduated full-time counselors, our main job is not to lead group worship, Bible study and discussion, but to coach and care for the life growth of the group leaders.
After returning, we prayed together, asking God to guide us in finding a new direction for our fellowship: a fellowship that is student-led, committed to the church, loving the Lord and others, being disciples of the Lord, and enthusiastic about evangelism and missions.
Specific implementation methods
1. The goal of fellowship: the four bases of life building. First base: know Christ and commit to the church. Second base: Fall in love with Christ and commit yourself to discipleship. Third Base: Serve Christ, commit yourself to service. Fourth base: Preach Christ and commit to mission. This concept of four bases refers to the method mentioned in the book "Straight to the Mark" written by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in the United States.
2. Strengthen prayer meetings: Today’s fellowship emphasizes prayer! In particular, it is emphasized that the holy work will not be carried out without prayer, and the requirements for counselors and group leaders to participate in prayer meetings are strengthened. Attendance at the Wednesday prayer meeting has gone from two or three people before to nearly twenty people now. In addition, we also added a Sunday morning prayer meeting. The main service staff arrived at the church forty minutes in advance to pray. The entire congregation arrived ten minutes before the meeting. The prayer service staff led everyone to pray together.
3. New structure of the fellowship: This time, a junior classmate is elected as the leader of the campus fellowship, responsible for promoting all the fellowship's ministries; the group leader is responsible for caring for the group members; full-time staff and counselors are all auxiliary staff.
4. Lively worship: Establish a worship team to lead worship, use various musical instruments, such as guitars, electronic keyboards, and electronic drums, to lead the congregation to worship God. The mission of the worship team comes from Psalm 96:1: “Let us sing a new song to the Lord; let us sing to the Lord, all the earth!”
5. Preach the Bible systematically with a theme: The content of the sermon is prepared based on the four stages of life mentioned above.
6. Monthly topic time: We arrange the last Friday of each month as a topic time to discuss topics that students care about, such as the balance between study and entertainment, homosexuality, marriage and friendship, job interviews, etc.
7. Discussion on truth application: Based on the scriptures and content of the Sunday sermon, discussion questions on life reflection and truth application are added. The lecturer prepares preliminary information and explains the scriptures in more detail to bring out the concepts of life reflection and truth application. discuss.
8. Scripture preview: After the Wednesday prayer meeting, a pre-review will be conducted with the group leaders. Afterwards, each group leader will lead a Bible study in the Friday fellowship meeting to synchronize with the Sunday information for more in-depth study.
9. Snack time: After the Sunday gathering, snack time is added. Each group tries to retain students and discuss the content of the Sunday information based on life reflection and truth application issues. It also increases interaction, understanding, and sharing among group members. Lord love.
10. Wearing of name tags: In order to help everyone get to know each other, a name tag is specially designed for each student to increase the chance of getting to know each other and the sense of participation.
11. New guest card: Create a file for each new guest to facilitate subsequent care and follow-up. New guests should be recognized by a nearby group immediately after the Sunday service, join and participate in group activities immediately, and receive timely care from group members.
12. Preach the gospel to new guests: We especially look forward to and encourage students to invite their classmates and roommates to the gathering. Every time there are new guests, we arrange for someone to preach the gospel after the meeting. Several have already accepted the Lord Jesus as their Lord on the spot. Savior.
Preach eternal truth in the way of the times
Serving this generation of campus students requires a mission and vision from God. At the same time, we need to grasp the trends of the times, dare to challenge ourselves, constantly innovate and change, adapt to the needs of the campus, and use the unchanging gospel in a way suitable for modern students. , the Word became flesh and manifested in campus fellowship.
This adjustment of the fellowship began in September, the fall semester. The number of fellowship attendees remained between 50 and 60 people, although compared with the previous 70 to 80 people (because there were nearly 20 graduates) Leaving after graduation), slightly less. Due to the transformation of the fellowship, a few students did not agree with the direction of the fellowship and left, but the vast majority chose to stay in the fellowship and grow together. Students also continue to bring their classmates in, and we also take the initiative to spread the gospel.
I believe that as long as we have the will to obey the Lord’s Great Commission, timely grasp the pulse of the changing times, not stick to the habits and culture of the traditional house church system, and rely on the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit to boldly adjust the direction of the fellowship, we can Win this generation’s campus for the Lord and be a good and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Note 1: Huang Runlong "Only Children in China: Number, Structure and Risks"
Note 2: Reading and Writing Micro Course Haijiao Academy, "We love our children so deeply, do they love us?" >source:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/