Social Service and Building Harmonious Churches

Xie Bingguo

The State Administration for Religious Affairs of the People's Republic of China (SARA) stated that activities leading to harmony should be initiated in places of worship throughout the country. The national TSPM/CCC responded enthusiastically to this request. At recent meetings held by the national TSPM/CCC of chairpersons and presidents at the provincial and municipal levels, the participants all agreed that building harmonious churches is a fundamental necessity for the church's own development, and not simply a demand from society.

Such activities should meet eight basic standards: love for the church and the country; knowledge of and obedience to the law; unity and stability; good order; proper church style; standard management; safety and cleanliness; and service to society. Churches all promote these eight principles. This author will discuss the development of harmonious churches from the perspective of one of the eight basic standards - ‘service to society'.

I would like to approach my consideration of harmony-building activities in the church from the angle of service to society. Establishing a correct concept of social service and striving to promote a social service ministry is an important way of experiencing harmony and working hard towards building harmonious churches. Some Christians suppose that the main task of the church is to spread the good news of personal salvation, but they care nothing about serving society or a ministry of social concern. On the contrary, social service has played an important role in the history of the development of the church, since it is not only biblical, but is one of the important fundamentals of our faith. If we study the Bible carefully, God's love and care for humankind is clear throughout the whole of Scripture. Such care was ultimately demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ, God incarnate. Jesus taught that the most important commands were to "love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself." To love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds is what we strive for, and it follows that loving others as ourselves is a concrete demonstration of our love for God. Therefore, "loving others as we love ourselves" has become the essence of Christian moral practice. The word "service" is mentioned many times in the Bible. Jesus Christ said, "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." Paul's letters teach us to "Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone" and that "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Social service provides an important entry point through which the church can integrate with society. How can the church deeply root itself in its own society and culture, and how can it gain society's complete acceptance and develop? Looking at the ways the Chinese church has engaged in social service, we can affirm that it is entirely possible for the church to integrate with society and gain social recognition through social service. Churches in different areas have already touched society with their love, enabling people to feel that the church is like one who ‘brings coals on a snowy day' through activities such as supporting the poor, disaster relief, offering scholarships to students and taking people to hospital. Such activities expand the impact the church has on society and establish a fine social image for the church.

Social service is an effective means of building harmonious churches. The word church not only has connotations of giving offerings, help, mission, and evangelism, it also stands for service, caring, healing, reconciliation, removing divisions, of bringing health and wholeness. The church's caring function requires that the church act as the visible hands and feet of the invisible God. Through the church's caring action the great love of God for humankind is made visible and becomes real in service. In this way, it makes the relationships between human beings and God, between people, between humankind and nature, and within the church itself increasingly harmonious.

Bishop Ting has said that a social service ministry is extremely important for the development of the Chinese church; faith in Christ should not only exist in people's minds, but must at the same time be expressed in the real world. Enabling more people to see a demonstration of love and faith through the good deeds and moral conduct of the church means that through its ministry of service the church cannot be separated from people and society. Social service is a great historical tradition of the church. Many churches around the country have established homes for the elderly, nursing homes, and orphanages; they visit orphans, widows, and the elderly; provide aid to the disabled and educational aid, donate to support schools, provide for the poor and bring disaster relief, mend bridges and build roads. Particularly throughout the last ten years of Theological Reconstruction people have gained a deeper recognition of the fact that the service of the church should not take place only in the church, but should extend to every corner of society. In fact, more and more pastoral workers and Christians are gradually moving away from a narrow personal model of faith and are seeing social service as one of the important missions of the church.

Let me give an example from my church in Shanghai, which has recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Over these thirty years, through God's blessing and leading, not only has the number of believers continued to grow, every aspect of its ministry has flourished, and this includes attention to and practice of a ministry of social service. Apart from alleviating difficulty and disaster relief, caring for the weak and vulnerable in society, helping the poor, offering scholarships and assisting those children who have had to leave school, my Shanghai church has also enthusiastically collected donations to build a ‘Project Hope' elementary school, thus supporting rural education. Some churches are deeply engaged in their communities; many churches are concerned for public welfare, organizing medical workers who volunteer to regularly provide free consultations for members of the public. Some churches organize jumble sales in order to raise money for schools for the mentally handicapped as well as providing for those who have no one to care for them. Many churches have established homes for the elderly like that run by the Shanghai TSPM/CCC, the Enguang Home for the Elderly. Some churches regularly volunteer at these homes for the elderly, while others conduct schools to "benefit the people" and train capable people for society. Some of these are well accepted and commended by society. Many of those who have been helped have a good impression of the church, even though they are not Christians. Some express their gratitude by presenting the church with silk banners that say "Helping students with loving hearts; Christ lives forever"; others use Christ's words, "Be salt and light; glorify God and benefit others." This kind of service not only helps those in need, but it also strengthens the church itself, enabling it to better communicate Christ's love by serving the needy. And this is a stimulus to building a harmonious church.

In April this year, the author and seven co-workers from the Shanghai church went to Dehongzhou in Yunnan. In 2006 the Shanghai church gave 700,000 RMB to fund Shanghai counterparts launch a program of aid to assist local development work among the De'ang minority. The work achieved very good results, accelerating the pace of poverty reduction among the De'ang people. A De'ang official spoke with great feeling: "The unselfish help from Shanghai has enabled the De'ang people's development to become reality; thank you, people of Shanghai, for your deep friendship, and thank you, Shanghai Christians, for your love." After last year's earthquake in Wenzhou (Sichuan), the Shanghai TSPM/CCC quickly sent notices to every church, calling on all Christians in the city to give with loving hearts to the work of disaster relief. Churches and believers in the city responded enthusiastically, giving over 700 million RMB. This clearly shows the sense of responsibility and service consciousness of clergy and believers.

The Report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) stated that [we will] "bring into play the positive role of religious personages and believers in promoting economic and social development." What can we in the churches do to contribute to economic and social development? I believe that in our social services and support for social welfare undertakings, we are already playing an important part. The National TSPM/CCC has established a Social Services Department to actively develop activities to serve society, so that local churches can play an active role in supporting the poor, helping the less privileged, doing disaster relief, and helping the disabled and the elderly, supporting education and providing free medical consultations.

The Work Report of the Seventh National Chinese Christian Conference emphasized that the church should "Continue to care for society and serve the masses, bearing excellent witness to Christ…" The TSPM/CCC at every level and local churches are to "serve society well, care for the weak and take part in suitable charitable activities according to local conditions, serving society with all their hearts and minds, to benefit the people." The development of social services has established a better image for the church, led to more harmonious relationships between people, and has become an important expression of faith; it has thus become a significant avenue for building a harmonious church.

Harmony is a central theme threading its way throughout the Bible. I think that building a harmonious church is a vision of the church both in China and indeed in the world, and constitutes our God-given mission as Christians. Building a harmonious church should not simply be a slogan, it must be integrated into a specific ministry of the church. The creation of a harmonious church must be more than a response to a government call--it is necessary to the church's own development.

Translated by Suzanne Rowe from Tian Feng No. 358, October 2009.