New challenges for Ruoge Church in the next 40 years

【Eastern United States】

Picture/Liao Meihui

The COVID-19 epidemic swept the world in 2020, and the "post-epidemic era" officially entered in the second half of the year. The protracted war has begun, and there is no going back to "BC" (Before Covid-19). How has Ruoge Church, which has entered its 41st anniversary on the east coast of the United States, responded? ?

church without walls

As early as mid-March 2020, when the U.S. government declared a national state of emergency, Ruoge Church in New Jersey (hereinafter referred to as Ruoge) immediately established a "Temporary Response Committee" and changed all services to online. Ruoge, which has been established for 41 years, has Chinese churches, English churches, Cantonese churches, teenagers and children. The church has about 2,000 people, making it the largest Chinese church on the East Coast of the United States. In the past 40 years, the total number of people baptized has exceeded 3,600, and more than 80 full-time preachers have been raised up.

Before the epidemic, at 9:15 every Sunday morning, thousands of congregants entered the church step by step. Regardless of adults or children, everyone could quietly and quickly find their place to worship. Nowadays, due to the impact of the epidemic, physical gatherings have been suspended for more than nine months. The beautiful scene of brothers and sisters hugging each other and greeting each other seems to be far away.

"Perhaps normal gatherings will resume in the fall of 2021!" Huang Xiaoshi, one of the founding elders of Ruoge, said, but this does not mean that "normal gatherings" as before can be restored.

Huang Xiaoshi said that he understands that many brothers and sisters want to return to their previous lives, but they must accept the reality - we have entered the "post-epidemic era", and the church and every Christian must rethink. At this moment, God wants us to do what. Huang Xiaoshi encouraged the congregation that this extraordinary period of inconvenience and uneasiness caused by the epidemic is a time when God bestows special grace.

In 2019, Ruoge celebrated its 40th anniversary. At that time, the pastors and pastors earnestly prayed that God would lead the church into a new era in the next 40 years. Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the world on pause, forcing Ruoge to stop its old model and rethink how to make good use of new technologies in the digital age that is upon us, so as to exert the far-reaching effect of the gospel and spread it to the world. People far away can also use it to change people nearby, building a truly "wallless" church.

In the past nine months, the number of participants in Ruoge’s online worship, Sunday school, gospel classes, baptismal classes, prayer meetings, sisters’ meetings and other gatherings has increased significantly. Even the "Pursuit of Life" gospel camp, which has been co-organized with other churches for more than 25 years, even though it was temporarily held online for the first time, achieved unprecedented participation, with more than a thousand Christians and non-Christians participating.

young force

Coincidentally, at the beginning of 2020, God moved eight or nine young brothers and sisters in Ruoge to devote their lives to serving God. When the COVID-19 epidemic suddenly hit, this group of young people quickly filled their seats and joined the service team, quickly assisting the church in transitioning to online operations: video recording, recording, editing, and uploading to YouTube of Sunday worship and prayer meetings; various Zoom Cloud meetings, cloud choirs, purchasing new equipment, building new teams... Forced by the epidemic, God immediately prepared a second generation of new people to join the service, and Ruoge’s new media ministry took shape.

Young people who have grown up in the digital era are very familiar with cloud technology, and their thinking and creativity seem to be faster and more accurate than the previous generation. Dorothy from Ruoge English Church, 25 years old, is a middle school English teacher. She went to Japan as a missionary in the autumn of 2019. She originally planned to stay for a year, but due to the epidemic in early March 2020, she was forced to return to the United States and return to Ruoge.

"The Olympics can be suspended, but missionary work cannot! We cannot let the epidemic defeat our determination to missionary work in Japan!" Dorothy and the Japanese short-term missionary team of Ruoge immediately thought of continuing classes with Japanese primary school students through Zoom, and the interactive effect was beyond Ask for whatever you want.

Ruoge has been sending short-term mission teams to Japan every year since 2016 to establish good relationships with Japanese churches. Every Wednesday night from 10:00 to 11:00 EST, the Japanese short-term mission team members in the United States go online to pray with the missionaries sent to Japan by Ruo Ge. Even if the epidemic occurs, online videos will allow missionary work in Japan in 2020 to continue.

Wang Yi (Jessica), one of the counselors of the Ruoge Youth Fellowship who also participated in the mission to Japan, is 24 years old. She used to be a public school music teacher and is currently studying at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Due to the epidemic, I was unable to go to Dallas for classes, so I chose to attend classes at home and serve the church at the same time. The epidemic taught her a lesson: humans are limited, but God is infinite.

The Ruoge Youth Fellowship’s camping trip every summer is the most anticipated event for students. Wang Yi discussed with several colleagues that if the class was canceled due to the epidemic, the students would definitely be disappointed. She tried to allow the church's middle school students to maintain a certain degree of connection with the church so that they would not be completely socially isolated during the home quarantine period. So the idea of "Virtual Camping" was proposed, which was well received by students and parents.

Wang Yi said that most middle school students are proficient in using new media, but most of them are private activities. In the past, churches rarely used new media to interact with young people. During the epidemic, students are staying at home, so they can express their concern and continue to communicate with students through new media.

"God has not forgotten you, and our tutoring has not forgotten you either!" This is what Wang Yi wants to convey to the students. "Each student set up a tent in their backyard, lit a campfire, and worshiped, shared, and connected emotionally through the cloud together via Zoom. I saw dozens of students smiling brightly, and I saw students singing happily. At that moment, I believed that they would be able to get through the difficulties of the epidemic by relying on the Almighty and All-loving God!”

▲Elder Huang Xiaoshi hosts "Pastoral Talk" online every Sunday from 7:30 to 8:30 pm.

A mix of physical and virtual

In order to unite the Body of Christ, Ruoge created many new practices during the epidemic, such as the newly opened "Pastoral Talk" session, in which 17 pastors and elders met with members online at different times each week. Instead, brothers and sisters have more opportunities to talk with pastors than before; reading clubs, choirs, summer Bible schools (VBS), symposiums, individual counseling, farewell parties, etc., are held in the cloud; various gatherings are held in the homes of members Baptisms were held in the backyard swimming pool, which was a new experience; online dedications were made so that everyone could continue to be good stewards of God.

Huang Xiaoshi said that these activities are the new normal in the epidemic and the starting point for new ministries. There is still much room for learning and growth. What have churches learned from the experience of online gatherings during the epidemic? How did the congregation respond? Are there challenges revealed that were not noticed in the past? These are issues that require careful assessment.

"If it hadn't been for the advent of the epidemic, the church would not have been so active and eager to use electronic media to expand the fields of various ministries. Special thanks to God for preparing a team of young staff to step into a new era that is not limited by time and space!" Huang Xiaoshi! So said the church weekly.

Regardless of whether there is a vaccine or not, the COVID-19 pandemic will pass and physical gatherings will resume sooner or later. When churches in North America resume physical gatherings, they will inevitably face competition with their own (and other churches') online gatherings, which will also trigger updates and changes to physical gatherings.

What people need is not only information (knowledge), but also intimate relationships.

Huang Xiaoshi emphasized that resuming physical gatherings may not be a top priority, but what is more important is urgently asking God to give a clear vision to help every follower of Jesus prepare themselves to serve Him more effectively in the post-epidemic era.

Physical gatherings and online gatherings go hand in hand, complementing each other and complementing each other. If you give up one of the two, you miss the opportunity God has given you now. Mixing physical and virtual entities may be the new normal for churches in the post-epidemic era, and will also be Ruoge’s new challenge in the next 40 years!

▲Wang Yi, Ruoge Youth Counseling, launched the creative "Virtual Camping".

Liao Meihui, an award-winning journalist, graduated from Chinese Evangelical Theological Seminary of North America (CESNA), and is a special writer for this publication.