▼（original English）P6/13▼

only have primary school or lower middle school education. A recent report on one of the large house-churches involved in BTJ admits: “None of the top leaders have graduated from high school” and many have no formal Bible training. I do not impugn their godliness or effectiveness in their own social setting. But with their narrow rural outlook which has major problems in adapting to fast-moving CHINESE urban life how can they possibly adapt in a few years to a life uprooted in, say, Cairo or Istanbul?

I submit that it is impossible to train 70-100,000 peasant Christians to be effective missionaries in the Muslim world in the short time-span of the next 5 years.

URBAN MIGRATION

The Chinese government estimates that 50% of the population will be urbanised by 2015. At present, 20 million peasants are leaving the land to pour into the cities annually a conservative figure.

A Hong Kong based Chinese Christian involved for many years in training house-churches has shared his concern about how the urban migration is already decimating many rural house-churches. He writes: “Last year (2002) I realised the seriousness of the situation when I met house-church evangelists from the countryside in several cities. I asked them the percentage of young people in their churches that had gone out to the cities for jobs. The answer was almost 100%. They were the only young guys left in the rural church. All other members were either old people or children.” (China Mission Outlook, May 2003). He sees the cutting-edge of ministry in China today to be the training of Christian migrant workers to remain faithful in an alien urban setting and then themselves to reach out to fellow migrants in effective evangelism. Otherwise, many young people fail to find fellowship in the cities and drift away from the faith. The many temptations and the sheer pressures of working long hours in factories and sleeping in dormitories means many are in danger of losing their zeal.

This migration is increasing. If the rural house-churches fail to find young successors it will mean many may implode over the next decade or two-leaving just the elderly and the grandchildren. A Mainland Chinese Christian leader in January this year publicly painted a grim picture of many rural house-churches where already 70% of the people are elderly. He predicted many churches will die out over the next decade.

This paints a very different and grim picture from the idealistic and triumphalistic picture of the house-churches often given overseas from BTJ platforms. The house-churches are, in fact, quite weak in many respects. There is great zeal, and at the core, love for Christ and His Word and for evangelism. But many people are very uneducated, barely literate. On the fringes there is syncretism and the inroads of heresies and cults (the most vicious being Eastern Lightning). There is poverty and the ever-present threat of persecution.

At a time when the huge rural house-church movements are in danger of losing their momentum and many of their young leadership, we see BTJ drumming up support to send 100,000 rural evangelists to the Middle East! Surely the focus should be on training and equipping rural young people to concentrate on consolidating the very real gains made over the last 3 decades in many rural areas which could now be lost, and also training those heading for the cities to be effective in urban evangelism and

▼(checked ChinseseTranslation) P6/13▼

僅有小學或國中教育背景。最近一份關於參與“歸回耶路撒冷”（BTJ）的大型家庭教會的報告承認：“高層領導們沒有一個高中畢業”，而且許多人沒有接受過正規的聖經培訓。我並非質疑他們在自身社會環境中的敬虔或效力。但他們狹隘的農村視野，已經很難適應快速發展的中國城市生活，又怎麼可能在幾年內適應，例如在開羅或伊斯坦堡等地背井離鄉的生活呢？

我認為，在未來5年短短的時間內，不可能培養7萬到10萬名農民基督徒成為在穆斯林世界有果效的宣教士。

往城市遷移

中國政府估計，到2015年，50%的人口將實現城鎮化。目前，每年有2000萬農民離開農地湧入城市，這還是一個保守的數字。

一位在香港從事家庭教會培訓多年的華裔基督徒，分享了他對城市移民如何摧毀許多農村家庭教會​​的擔憂。他寫道：「去年（2002年），當我在幾個城市遇到來自農村的家庭教會傳道者時，我意識到了問題的嚴重性。我問他們，教會裡有多少年輕人已經到城裡工作了。答案幾乎是100%。他們是農村教會裡僅存的年輕人。（《中國宣教展望》，2003年5月）。他認為，當今中國事工的前沿是培訓基督徒農民工，使他們在陌生的城市環境中保持忠誠，並使他們自己能夠有效地向其他農民工傳福音。否則，許多年輕人無法在城市中找到團契，最終遠離信仰。工廠長時間工作、宿舍的種種誘惑和巨大壓力，讓許多人面臨失去熱情的危險。

這種遷移正在加劇。如果鄉村家庭教會​​找不到年輕的接班人，許多教會可能會在未來一二十年內崩潰，只剩下老人和孫子。今年1月，一位中國大陸基督教領袖公開描繪了許多農村家庭教會​​的嚴峻景象，這些教會中已有70%的人是老年人。他預測，未來十年，許多教會將會消亡。

這與海外「歸回耶路撒冷」（BTJ）平台經常描繪的家庭教會理想和勝利的景象截然不同，也令人擔憂。事實上，家庭教會在許多方面都很薄弱。他們有著極大的熱情，其核心是對基督、祂的話語和福音傳道的熱愛。但許多人受教育程度很低，幾乎不識字。在邊緣地帶，有宗教融合，有異端邪說和邪教的入侵（其中最惡毒的是“東方閃電”）。還有貧窮和持續存在的迫害威脅。

在龐大的農村家庭教會​​運動面臨失去動力和許多年輕領袖的危險之際，我們看到BTJ正在爭取支持，派遣10萬名農村宣教士前往中東！當然，重點應該放在培訓和裝備農村年輕人，讓他們專注於鞏固過去30年在許多農村地區取得的真正成果，而這些成果現在可能會失去，同時也要培訓那些前往城市的人，使他們能夠有效地進行城市傳福音，並且…